Hello all.  As always lately, I start my posts with "it's been a while"
and end with "I miss you all".  So, I'm not going to do that.  :-)  (did
I just do that?)  What I do want to do is say thanks to all of you.  
And, special thanks to Jo for the card she sent me.  Snail mail, no
less.  I was flattered.  And, thank you Deebee.  Denise sent me an email
from out of the blue.  Again, Thanks.  And, thank you all.  You make me
whole.  So, let's end the gushing.  <g>

I've been having a very hot summer.  In fact, as much as I look forward
to summer, and as much as I hate being cold, this summer has been very
tough.  It has been hot here in Long Island, NY, and I have never, not
ever in my life been so adversely affected by the heat.  Suffice it to
say, I've been miserable.  I have two AC units, but they aren't in any
windows.  I've really never needed them before.  Now, I'm trying to
draft someone to help me install them.  I'm miserable. Yesterday, I
didn't even want to get dressed because the thought of putting on a bra
was depressing.  But, I'm a wuss, and there was no way I was going out
without a bra.  At least, not without some major breast reduction
surgery.  And, I ain't goin' there.

I finally got dressed, took my doggie, Zuki, to the bay and we rollicked
in the very bay-like water (seaweed, dead crabs, shells, more seaweed),
until she stunk almost as bad as I did.  We then went to Wendy's for a
large Frostie, and off to another park to sit in the shade and we shared
the Frostie.  I like Frosties.  They are cold, wet, chocolatey, and
cheap.

I have been sleeping alot, mostly.  I've been really tired, as in deeply
fatigued, and making it through a full day of work has been tough.  I
think that the combination of arthritis and heat have been taking their
toll on me.  I love my job.  I really do.  I have a great job as a
landscape architect/park planner with the National Park Service.  I have
a great boss again, and life is good.  But, as much as I love my job,
I'm really sick of doing it for 40 hours/week.  It's kicking my a.s.  If
I could afford to work three days a week, that would be ideal.  I sleep
alot.  I spend alot of time in bed.  This has been kind of a tough
summer, except of course my trip to the Grand Canyon.  Can't really
complain about that.

Well, I woke up this morning rather early for me on a sunday morning,
and sat at my computer to surf the web.  I like surfing blog sites.  I
am a distinctly left wing radical non-conservative, anti-dubya kind of
person.  So, I mostly surf the lefty blog sites.  But, I came across one
of particular interest this morning, and which may be of particular
interest to many of you here.  http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/  It's
a blog about disabilities.  It's really good, and I encourage you all to
check it out.  I've only started roaming around it it, but it has some
great stuff, mostly political, I might add, but the politics are
strictly disability related.  Very eye opening.

So much for now.  This is getting way too long.  Ya see, I'm kind of a
binge-er.  I do things in binges.  I eat in binges.  I am going through
a sleep binge, and I post in binges.  I'm a gimp binge-er.  A wimpy gimp
binge-er saying so long for now.  Keep up the good spirits.  If the
spirits aren't soaring high, just go with the flow.  They'll get an
updraft soon enough.  At least, that's what I keep telling
myself........