MAGINE THAT... MONDAY AND MOVING after the CARWASH!~

Me and Laura

Dressed Up and Out On Top

Of Tampa

Armani's

(we did NOT look like this on CarWash Sunday)

Here we go again... Monday morning! Best of all mornings to all ~ My way of thinking... out of bed, coffee poured, sitting upright...

IT'S A GREAT DAY!!!  I felt the thoughts of all who sent them for a great day yesterday and to all of you "wado"!


Wishing all who enter here a most remarkable day.

Yesterday was the car wash at Tiffany's in Palm Harbor... and oh what a day it was!
Let's see: we had Laura and Mitch in their matching MS t-shirts that you could see for at least a couple of miles on a cloudy day. It was a good 90+ degrees with sun blaring and barely a breeze...  BUT... ELLEN DEGENERES DID NOT SHOW UP :(  wonder what happened to her? Maybe she couldn't rent a plane, or buy a plane, or get a hold of John Travolta to come and get her... But, bet she would have come to support Laura if she could have right? Cos' after all I did challenge her to a "dance off" with Laura! Now wouldn't that be something... a dance off with Laura for MS on the Ellen show! I like it... great fun-raiser I'm thinking and heaven knows it wouldn't be as back breaking as a car wash...
HINT: put your money on Laura!!!

OK, so ... I think that folks who go out to eat after church don't like to give money too much... After all, they just did the tithe thing, they just paid to eat and stuff... It was a bit hard to get them to "pony up the dough" if you know what I mean!!! But for others, it was just no problem at all, they seemed to "get it"...

     Imagine this: one man in a nice big car, just finished his big meal with his wife: brought his car out back for the car wash: 5 sprung into action and gave it the best car wash ever! AFTER he gave us a $10 dollar bill... and HE WANTED CHANGE???? My Laura sweating like a bull... and he wanted change! Mitch announced, hey anyone got some change for this man... Laura looked around, and then finally someone found him a five dollar bill....

We were situated in the back of Tiffany's rather hard to see from the road... hmmm, better re- think that for future as we did not have the cheerleaders from the Tampa Bay Bucs there to sway traffic, and the cutie babes were not out from "Wings" the ever popular restaurant next door... Therefore limiting our "curb appeal" if you get my drift! Something about us just didn't fit that particular bill I'm thinkin'... cute as we are, we just don't have that "special daisy duke short cute" ~ Maybe we could get the Bucs cheerleaders next time? Or the USF bulls? hmmm, I be thinking about that, I did tweet USF about the event!
We did have Keegan... Laura's ever so handsome, ever so tall son though! He did manage to catch the eye of Pinellas County Sheriff for standing and dancing in the middle of median on US 19 in his "cop shades" and was told to "get off the median strip"! Silly boy... he had a great opportunity to ask the nice policeman to drive him safely to the car wash and GET HIS CRUISER WASHED.. but ohhhh no, he just got off the median before he got arrested! I did ask him if he showed the officer his official shades... perhaps he could have caught a break... He smiled and replied and said, "Nah, I'd go to jail for my Mamma, but I was dancing and I did show some cleavage before I almost got arrested"!

We also had one of our early morning regular readers and wounded warrior Irene there in her splendor with her badly needing replaced knee! She sat with an "umbrella hat" two umbrellas for shade... a sign and her "mouth"... telling all to come around back and get their car washed, DONATE YOU DOUGH FOR FINDING A CURE FOR MS... She did quite well with getting folks to cough up some greenbacks and hats off to her for her support and her hard work.... Irene didn't have her car washed, but she had collected money from neighbors and added it to her own to hand over to Laura! And Laura loved the umbrella hat Irene was wearing too!

It's all about a "community of caring" and we do have a caring community!

Then we had another of our regular readers there... We had Breast Cancer SURVIVOR CHRIS V. THERE... minus her boobs! She didn't need em anyway... After all, like Chris says, "the girls were born in NY and I left them in NY, I'm home and I'm Cancer FREE." Chris is back at work, learning to live life with a "Cancer Survivor attitude", now, admitting that life is much different once you've been faced with your own mortality, once you've been charged with taking control of your own destiny and once you've STOMPED...
SHE IS A WARRIOR... A SURVIVOR... and will be the first to tell you: CANCER/MS SUCKS.
It was great to see her, to be with her, to see her rally around Laura...
AND, she pitched right in and busted suds like a crazy woman she did!
Thank you Chris, for all you are and the inspiration you are to so many here and everywhere... and Laura thanks you for everything including the dough, the love, getting the word out to your colleagues and the care... STOMP!

HOW ARE YOU TODAY? I wish you all that you dare to dream...

Dorothy enlisted a couple of young women who work for her, Erika and Stephanie. Stephanie, aka Tweak brought her significant other (someday  spouse) named Chris. He is a wonderful young man... the more I see him, the more he feels like someone I want to call family and know for a long time.
Stephanie has been our baby sitter when out of town with Magic, Jeepers, Gypsy and Patches! Gotta love her for that, she had a healthy respect for our Magic, knowing he was "James Dean". She is a lovely young woman with a heart of gold and a dedicated and hard worker....
These three brought the things essential to our day being successful:
Great humor, passion, dedication, excitement, fun, and boy could they bust some suds! All three also stood on the side of US 19 holding and waving signs for the car wash; dancing like mad.
Chris said he was looking crazy... We thought he was dancing but come to find out he found himself standing in a "red ant" colony and they were biting him to pieces and they sure do sting!  So his crazy dance moves and antics were actually a man being eaten by red ants!!!
Poor guy, but it was great for the attention to our carwash.

Mitch... awww Mitch, what a man! Mitch had the place fixed up awesome, buckets lined up with space between for the cars to pull in. Two hoses, sponges, ladders for the roof of the cars. Towels draped across his pickup, fans plugged in to try and give Laura some respite from the heat!
Did I mention that we love us some Mitch! A great man, an honest man, a wonderful man... Mitch had worked 13 hours on Saturday, almost 19 on Thursday... But on Saturday after he got home, Laura had tasks for him to do in preparation for the carwash prior to his shower and then off to dinner out with her uncle as he was leaving for IL.... no rest and then up at 0-dark thirty this AM...
Mitch is currently looking for full time work in Palm Harbor/Tarpon/Clearwater area and is great at everything he touches... He's done it all from concrete work/lawn services to I don't know what all... He is now working for company in Tampa and has been sent to MS, GA, TN and places for two weeks at a time... Crazy I tell ya, just crazy ~ Anybody out there know of a stable company needing a good and honest man, let me know and I'll get ya in touch with him.
He was dead on his feet today, and still working and sweating like a mad man; all the while being sure everyone was all right ~
That's our Mitch though; Always calm as a cucumber; he lives pretty much in the no pressure zone as far as anyone can see, but is a deep man, and a man so in love with his Laura.

Of course Dorothy and I brought coolers and coolers filled with gator aid, water, soda pop... LOL, when is the last time you heard that? POP!~
Last night we made a run for ice and filled the coolers with 60 pounds of ice! We had our own ice box~
Then this morning drained the water and hit the ice store again to top it off... Dorothy ran circles around some of the kids (she always does) cleaning cars, drying cars, organizing, tending to the needs of those around, standing on the side of US 19, flagging in customers... oh boy was she a happy camper when she hit the pool last night... even thought she might just sleep in the pool her body was so tired and hurtful ~ The thoughts of a nocturnal visitor aka snake of recent days changed her thinking and her focus about that though! LOL
DRATZ... we are not as young as we used to be!

Granny one time said, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of my body"... I am of her blood and that sentiment is beginning to sound most familiar...

And then... here comes Laura's family... with little kids too. Now Chris is great with kids, let the water works begin: hosing each other, throwing sponges at each other, oh my what fun that was... and the first car? Laura's Mom Judy, Step-Dad, friends . . . suds suds suds///

Yep... the first car was washed by Mitch and Keegan.. and a crisp $100.00 bill was handed to Laura...
The third car... a hug and a check for $100.00 handed to Laura...
More cars; checks, cash... sweat, heat, hoses, water..... stomping in the puddles....
LAUGHER, music
STOMP

Did I mention the heat? Now the sun is hot hot hot, burning/reflecting on the asphalt; no air, just heat. Florida heat!
Boy oh boy.. at one point I reached in that ice chest and got me the coldest coke I can ever remember... it was GREAT~ Best ever I tell ya..

The music loud, the kids running, Chris he just had a ball with those kids too, entertaining, Laura sweating, pacing, busting suds and we put a bag of ice under her ball cap and we hosed her down too ~ encouraging her to sit down for awhile... BUT OH NOOOOO, she wouldn't have any part of that (knowing that once she sat it would be all over!)

Did you know..
In a lifetime the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood...
Just thought you might want to know that little bit of information for the next cocktail party or car wash you go to...

OK, almost forgot... at the carwash, in drives Grandma (Laura's) 91 years old! Laura's son, brother (who works at Home Depot where they are matching all monies raised yesterday through this month) and the kids washed Grandma's car!  We all kissed and made over Grandma who at first wasn't going to come cos' she "didn't want to be in the way".  I laughed and said, "Be in the way??? Are you kidding? Give her a sponge or a hose, she won't ever be in the way!  She was tickled to have the attention and the car was washed by her family, what a great thing... the generations all together... all trying to CURE MS for their own... OUR OWN... Laura's 91 year old Grandma Edith is a love, a special lady who not only still drives, but lives on her own alone, and is a volunteer at the same hospice works for (now Laura there 16 years)! Remember friends, attitude is 3/4 of most everything...

We are all in this together... As I have been writing about MS all week, sharing with folks on email, Facebook, in the streets... it is remarkable even on Lily the North American Black Bears' Facebook fan page, (now over 100,000 fans) how many folks have family members, friends, know someone who knows someone with this disease... Given that fact, we must all recognize, that collectively we CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE CAN BE A PART OF THE RESEARCH FUNDING TO FIND A CURE, AND A CURE IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER FOR LAURA AND THOSE YOU KNOW AND LOVE...
lauraroorda@yahoo.com
if ya wanna send her a shout!
MS150 Laura's daughter Shawna rides it in TX!

Laura would text bike riding Shawna each time we hit a new total... it began with 1st car washed $100.00 STOMP...


People don't know what they don't know... And we have to help with that. Will you help?
Will you let people know that they can do something to help with awareness of MS, of Breast Cancer of whatever it is that YOU feel passionate about?
For some it is the research being done at http://www.bear.org/ they have fallen head over heels in love with the North American Black bears, with Lily and with HOPE... they donate, they do things to raise funds, awareness... they are captured, captivated... Me too, I was captured by Lily before she gave us HOPE, still am!
But, I have to STOMP for others too.
With others they are living with diseases that leave you weak in the knees, too tired to cut a steak for dinner (*we were so tired that I could barely stand up straight and too tired to think about eating) and it was in that moment that I realized once again,
"OH MY GOD, this is what Laura is living with and it comes over her out of the blue, just in a blink of the eye... just like that". At least I knew why I was feeling the way I was feeling; a combination of extreme heat, being on my feet, acting like a teenager for too many hours washing and drying cars... I knew that with a fall in the pool and plenty of water and rest I would be okie dokie... And I knew by looking at my friend that she was exhausted beyond words or comprehension to many... And I knew that we have to tell people to cough up some dough, any dough, we must find and cure this wretched disease...

People don't know what they don't know:

After all:
only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star, and that is a fact!

So if you want a glimpse of MS... go to FL. Disney in July; start at about 0900, wear a backpack with stuff in it. Stay out in the heat all day; run around like a crazy person, ride to ride to ride to exhibit all day, eat and drink very very little, and don't stop til the fireworks at 10pm. Find a seat and watch the fireworks, then try to get up, find your way to your car and drive to your hotel...  REMEMBER... NO BREAKS IN THE HEAT now, just keep on trucking, and when that extremis of exhaustion and confusion of what have I seen, where have I been and what am I doing come over you... that is your brain getting all jumbled up with the neurons and nerves hitting and sparking on each other when they shouldn't ... That is MS flaring... but for you, it is temporary cos' of your crazed day!

Feeling me here???

SO NOW... back to the car wash ~
Paul Hittos, new proud papa of son #3 drove in and had his car washed and ran in to run his restaurant, telling all to make sure they finished their meals by "go around back and get your car washed"!  Good news about that car was, I got to drive his car and threatened to keep the keys!

Aristotle said once, "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous"

Yesterday was hard work, but it was marvelous; nature was good, the sky was beautiful, tropical storm Alex left us alone, the thunder beings did not come out to play until the afternoon... late afternoon at that...

WE MADE .... (drum roll)  over $600.00!!!

MORE THAN $600.00 SIX HUNDRED BUCKS!!!

I am ever so grateful to all who came, all who sent their energies, their love and their thoughts for this event to be a success!

I am ever so grateful to have Laura and Mitch in my life... and will be ever so grateful for the cure of MS...

AND... this morning I am just so blessed to have and to know such awesome folks here and to feel sure that when someone in our community needs them, they will STAND UP, STOMP and ANSWER THE CALL... What an amazing thought that is... Warriors ... who believe in the power of each other, in the great ability to stand together united as one in our desire to affect change... and watch as it happens for each other, for ourselves and for the greater good...

As for me?  Today I am so very blessed to know that the best chiropractor in all of Florida is MINE and his name is
Dr Kevin Gallagher in Palm Harbor...

and that He is going to put all my places right back together just like humpty dumpty who fell off the wall but Dr Gallagher will do a far superior job! And I will be walking in the clouds when he is done ~

Laura will be working today and I sure am hoping she is walking on clouds as a result of our successful carwash, send her an email, congratulate her for a successful Sunday and a CURE FOR MS...
Mitch will be out in the hot sun working today... and the world will be a better place because a community STOMPED for one of their own yesterday!

What about you today?
                     What are you doing?
Do it well, do it with all that you are...
Do it with a grateful heart and a generous spirit...
Do it because you choose to be the best that you are...

The fire is burning and I am sending thoughts of healing ways and hope on gentle breezes to all who enter here and all whose names you often see here... We are with you in all that you are and all that you are going through always.

Walk In Beauty,
DRSES