Helping Someone Who Needs It

Firefighter/EMT & Veteran of the Coast Guard Needs Your Assistance Anne Davis is a 15 year veteran of the Coast Guard and a well respected former firefighter/EMT with the Martin County Fire Rescue, who desperately needs your help. For over 25 years, she has devoted herself to selflessly helping others, and then she broke her neck/spine riding her beloved horse a little over 10 years ago. This has resulted in numerous surgeries, and just recently some very severe health complications.

Following her fall from the horse, she had multiple surgeries and was able to walk again. She worked as a dispatcher, because she could no longer work as a firefighter/EMT. Eventually, the hardware put into her body caused the deterioration of her esophagus, leaving her unable to properly swallow. She had four surgeries to repair the esophagus, but it still did not work. She was left with two pockets in that area that collect food and medication, causing her to often choke on anything she eats. She still requires more surgery to fully repair it.

Every six months over the next several years she had spinal surgeries to keep her mobile and able to work in her dispatcher position. Then she was t-boned in a bad car accident, which caused new injuries to her Thoracic spine and required her to endure further surgeries.

Then Anne’s lumbar spine collapsed. Anne’s most recent surgery on January 21st, 2016 to repair this, was only suppose to leave her with a one month recovery time. However, it actually resulted in her developing a giant blood clot behind her left knee; low hemoglobin; severe edema in her lower extremities; “unimaginable” pain, and several months of recovery time. Anne has suffered numerous health set backs this year. Additionally, she has lost her income, home, her beloved animals and the active life she once enjoyed. Her belongings were packed up into a storage unit, which she will soon be unable to afford. She lives with her elderly, retired mother, who is on a fixed income and is finding it increasingly difficult to financially care for her.

Anne has been generously kept employed, on leave without pay, by the Martin County Fire Rescue, to continue her excellent medical insurance coverage, of which she is responsible for paying a portion. However, soon they may need to dismiss her from her position there, which will result in her needing to go to the Veteran’s Administration for her medical care. This is an agency with a poor reputation for the care they provide. Therefore, in order for her to continue with her current medical treatment, she will need to pay for her medical bills in full. Anne expects to return to her work, at least part time, as a dispatcher within the next several weeks, so she applied for temporary disability, but was denied. Apparently the disability administration denies everyone the first time around, so she has applied again and is waiting for approval. Anne is in desperate need of funds for food, her portion of medical insurance, medications, and living expenses, until she can get back to work or until she gets approved for disability benefits.

Please consider making a donation to Anne so she can keep her belongings in storage and assist her mother with her living expenses. No amount is too small. She is someone who has been 100% healthy her entire life until now, and has gone above and beyond to help those in need in the community. She is the one who needs our help now.

To donate, please Click Here

Thank you in advance for your support.

Florida Turnpike Renovations

The duties of my position as a district manager of south Florida require me to travel every couple of weeks, or as needed, to offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami. The turnpike is the only way to drive to these offices because I-95 is almost always a mess, especially the closer I get to Miami. My favorite place along the turnpike to get gas, take a bathroom break, buy water and gum is at the Pompano Beach rest stop. This is because it's almost half way to my Miami destination, and If I don't stop at Pompano Beach then it never fails… I get stuck in traffic on the Homestead extension, making my bladder miserable for the rest of my trip. For the longest time, this particular rest stop had been under construction because the place was old and disgusting. The bathrooms were falling apart and the floor had puddles of unknown origin everywhere. The mini mart was actually a micro mart with so many people stuffed into it, I always got claustrophobic when I was in there.

Several weeks ago the Turnpike opened up the newly renovated rest stop in Pompano, and it's like Disney World. When you walk into the place, it feels like you've walked into a dream. One of the sidewalks to the entrance is tiled so that it looks like sea glass, and the main entrance has a fancy pebble style sidewalk.

The main lobby has blue and white tile throughout, a large beautiful fountain in the middle, incredibly high ceilings, flat screen TVs, a food court, large CLEAN bathrooms (at least for now) and a mini mart that is actually the size of a small grocery store with all kinds of goodies in it.

The custodians who maintain the bathrooms even put fresh flowers in a vase near each sink.

The best part is there is no waiting in line for gas as there are many pumps.

I drove away today wondering to myself if one day people will drive on the turnpike just to go to this place because it's so nice. Each time I've visited, people seem to be enjoying hanging out, drinking their coffee, watching the news on one of the four 50 inch flat screens and pretty much enjoying life.

The PIO for the Turnpike was just on the news the other night, and he said that our tolls were used for these renovations, and each rest stop will have a theme. The theme for Pompano Beach is water. The West Palm Beach rest stop, which is not finished yet, will be a land theme.

You may think I am odd for writing about a rest stop on the Turnpike, but they deserve some kudos for using our tolls to build something so grand. So far, I've been in there 4 times and each time it appears to have more visitors. I encourage anyone driving through the area on the Florida Turnpike to visit and enjoy the rest stops of the future.

Book Review on Fifty Shades

I bought this book for my Nook because everyone was raving about how great it was. To be fair to the author who took the time to write this book, it was mildly entertaining (that's me being nice), but mostly silly. When I was in my late teens, early twenties, I would read Harlequin romances, and this book is like one of those, but on steroids. The characters "murmured" and "mumbled" throughout the book as if the author had never heard of a thesaurus. I actually found a generous handful of grammatical errors too. The S&M was a bit over the top, but that does it for some people, so whatever floats their boats; no judgement here. There was absolutely no plot, and that is my main criticism. I know there are two more books, and although I liked the characters (kind of) I don't care enough about them to read any further about their very personal, messed up sex lives. If I could pick one word to describe this book,it would be: rubbish.