COLOSTOMY. For those of you who do not know,colostomies divert the flowof faeces from my normal bumto an opening on my tum. A stoma is the exit holewhere faeces come under controlby catching it in a ‘device’ which is a ‘bag&r...

Just got a call from a telemarketer! Me: Hello, this is Leon! Telemarketer: Hello, I am looking for Sheila! Me: Have your looked in the next office? Telemarketer: Sir, I am looking for Sheila! Me: Check the hallway, maybe she stepped out! Me: Or maybe she went to the restroom! Telemarketer: Can I speak to Sheila? Me: Sure, if you ever find her! Me: Do you want me to fly down to the Philippines and help you find her? Telemarketer: CLICK!

Country music rarely appeals to me, but Toby Keith wrote a song for Clint Eastwood’s film “The Mule” that I found very appealing. The name of it is “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” Being an old man myself, I took the song personally (plus, it was perfect for the movie). I’m about to turn 78 years old but, most days, I don’t feel my age. I begin each day with an hour walk from 6 AM to 7 AM. I’m no speed walker, but I’m not ambling either. Anyway, there’s a line in Keith’s so...

Ok Gang..........in the spirit of Corona......it's time we posted our Cool New Masks (CNM's)!  As usual, I'll go first.  A friend of mine sent me two of these masks this morning........we got our horses at the same time from the same gal (ie, our horses are brothers).   Now let's see what you're wearing these days!   ;0) bob  

From the fourth grade on, I worked. Job upon job, plus school which, as we know, if done right, is work too. I didn’t stop until I was seventy-five and, even then, it was with mixed emotions. Of course, as the great Lily Tomlin once said, the problem with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat. So I came to regard retirement as time to hang it up, box it up, and give it up: hang up my suits, box up the accoutrements of my trade (don’t ask), and give up trying to impress anybody with my hard-earned profe...

   Many people ponder the viability of a long distance relationship and with good reason . I can tell you without hesitation that it works . My long distance is between SIlicon Valley in California and a small town called Ballina in t...

Being alone has never been a problem for me. I don’t mean in the sense that I live by myself. My wife and I have been married since 1968, four years after my ostomy surgery. [Two days before we wed, Bobby Kennedy died of his wounds. The day we were married, they captured James Earl Ray, who killed MLK, Jr. It was turbulent times.] No, I mean that I agree with Gabriel Garcia Márquez: “The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.” As long as I have access to a good variety of classical musi...

So, I just returned from visiting my brother in “redneck” rural Alberta. Texas-north, as we are often referred to, has been embedded in the oil and gas industry for 50 plus years – until 5 years ago. Unfortunately, Alberta put all their eggs in one basket and when the industry tanked – never to become its giant self again, many hardworking people lost their high-paying jobs. The average household income in 2012 was just shy of $100,000.00. A high school dropout could make $65,000 a year delivering machinery parts to...

On a shelf just above my head sits a brand-new copy of THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS by Sigmund Freud. It has rested there for months and I’ve yet to muster the courage necessary to pull it down and start to read it. Of course, some night dreams are fairly obvious. If you’re having dreams of committing acts of deviate sex, or violence against others, then I highly recommend that you see a mental health professional as soon as possible. My dreams are too mundane to warrant any kind of expert analysis. I’m wandering around a...

Just found out my ex Narc significant other is trolling on the same Ostomy sites ....AWKWARD! I really thought he was my Ostomate for life.. Honest people are hard to come by and the World is seeming like a MUCH smaller place. I have been on the...

Hello everyone!!! It has been almost a year since joining this site. I just wanted to share. I know a lot of people get concern about meeting someone on here. I’m not a lifer membership and I had someone initiate to take me out . I’ve been divorced since 2009.  He lives in Chicago. I ignored the first time thinking he was joking. I live in Milwaukee. So a month later he sent me message through this site saying he wanted to meet me. That was in April this year. I must say it was the best thing that could happen to me. We t...

Ok.......where is everybody?  With everyone stuck inside and bored out of their minds I thought this place would be a rockin'.........but it's just crickets chirping. Oh well........guess I'll go back to painting the bathroom.  See ya.   regards, bob

I like to think of mine as Stella.  Or more accurately STELLA.   anyone else name theres?

Here is a word from which I shrink like a frightened puppy: doppelgänger. It is a double of a living person, someone who looks just like someone else. The whole idea scares the hell out of me. Just imagine yourself, walking down the street, and you are suddenly confronted with a stranger who looks just like you! I would most certainly go schizo. As odd experiences go, that would be a ten on a one to ten scale. But why would I react so dramatically? Simply put: I don’t want there to be another me. We’re all individuals and ...

Howdy folks,   Ok, so this virus crap isn't going away anytime soon, so it looks like masks will continue to be required fashion thru the hottest part of summer.  Has anyone found a really good mask?  I don't mean good enough......they're all that.....I mean one that you actually don't mind wearing.  I've tried a number of types and still haven't found any one to standout.  So I'm hoping one of you guys has stumbled onto, or made, something that does the job and isn't a total nuisance to wear.  If you have......

This is such a terribly sad time for the World. Today I have cried for everyone for all of us . Chris Cuomo Prime Time tested positive  for the virus  I watch his show every night ..he is such a genuine,  wholesome  Lovely reporter .. he always says  "TOGETHER FOREVER AS ONE" I'm warching him now as he reports from his home  and he is sick. God bless him and help him feel better soon. I know this is a depressing post but that is what life is right now Depressing for all the  front line workers&nb...

 Just a brief note to our friends north of the USA.  Happy Canada Day !!!   I join in the celebration of your country and invite you to join with the USA in the celebration of our country this coming Juy 4.  Despite being a different kind of celebration considering the pandemic, considering excessive heat warnings and fire dangers, considering hometown fireworks bans and beach closures, and considering social distancing and face masks, we must remember to appreciate everything we DO have, and we will still celebrat...

A sense of humor is a wonderful thing, more precious than strength, or smarts, or even great hair.  For some of us, it is what got us through our illnesses, helped us to handle our pain, and come to grips with the challengles of an ostomy.  "He was born with a gift of laughter," wrote Sabatini in Scaramouche, "and a sense that the world was mad."  It is a little bit crazy, when you think about it, the whole cockamamie concept of our re-plumbed bodily functions.  We came out of surgery like models metamorphosed into a Pi...

The only time in my life that I’d been on a subway had been in 2003 in Moscow, Russia. But when my eldest daughter lived in Brooklyn and I visited her, my desire to explore necessitated us taking the NYC subway. Knowing her father, she gave me strict instructions on how to behave. “Don’t talk, don’t stare, keep your gaze down,” she ordered. In her mature adulthood, we had switched roles. Once on the subway, everything went okay until a girl boarded with purple hair and multiple facial piercings. She was, to me...

It is such a relief to be able To go to this website and not have to deal with the political stuff/junk. And the other side of seeing people just willing to help people!   THANKS

It may be ignorantly un-Southern of me to say this, but I dislike magnolia trees. As a tree lover generally, it pains me to admit this awful prejudice, but I have come to it honestly, that is to say, after having experienced a number of magnolia trees on my very own property. The trees produce magnificent blossoms, huge fragrant things that we used to pick and float in bowls of water on the dining room table. They emit a wonderfully sweet scent, redolent of Tennessee Williams and reminiscent of women who say Yes in three syllables. But the...