Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Good morning. According to my phone it is 64 degrees. Hope all you are staying safe and warm in all these snow and ice storms.
IllinoisLady, I loved the inner strength quote. I am passing it along to a friend who is going through a trying time.
Cindy, is there other avocado trees around?
MC, the jaw splinter sounds extremely painful. I hope you get some relief,
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Hello from snow covered South central Texas! Our water pipes are frozen since they run through the attic and are not insulated for this weather(the dripping faucet exercise did not work for us and some of our neighbors). Also, we cook and heat with propane and our tank is due for a refill today--don't know if the truck will make it. Additionally, we are dealing with rolling power outages. First one last evening lasted seven and a half hours with a shorter repeat in the middle of the night. No power, no heat, part of the reason pipes are frozen.
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I find nature so nourishing. I love to hike, especially in the mountains. When I'm walking in nature, I feel in awe of the wonder of creation. Nature is full of surprises, always changing, and we must change with it. In nature, the soul is renewed and called to open and grow. In the wilderness, you're up against whatever nature brings you-- the dangers as well as the beauty. -Linda Leonard
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Petite -- glad you found a good use for one of my quotes. I think I'll never tire of them.
Well, winter is most definitely here. Another non-work day. With my somewhat disabled car and Dh's truck needing a new battery we are definitely house-bound out here in the woods. It snowed last night -- all night. The snow was small enough that we likely didn't get more than two inches. While eating breakfast I looked up and it began to snow again. I thought it would come later in the day but here now. I think we could get up to 7 or so inches. It is also quite cold out of doors. Not good weather for anyone. No one should be spending to much time outdoors either.
So, definitely stuck here for the next few days. I can be happy as a clam NOT going anywhere. Cabin fever isn't something I have very often at all -- so I will be just fine. Worried about my feral cats -- but the other people come out three times a week and they have to have a car that can get thru because the wife get dialysis treatments at our center which is less than half a block from our turn to come back here to the woods. So, the kitties will be fine -- but I carry a shovel and dig out spots to feed them as well as digging out in front of the hole in the fence where they come through onto pavement. Done that for yrs. So, maybe the other people will have a shovel or broom with them. Hope so.
Stay warm, safe and very careful if you must go out. I will say out in the woods the snows always look pretty for some time. Not much traffic to disturb the 'natural' beauty.
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Beaverntx, So sorry to hear about your frozen pipes. Not having any heat in the house evidently did the trick. I hope your propane truck can get there. I know the oil trucks here are pretty heavy duty, so odds are pretty good. People here wrap their pipes with foam. It's a little like pool noodles with a cut on one side, so you wrap and tape it shut. Might be worth it there, although I know how infrequent these storms are. It snowed twice while we lived in Houston. Even banks had snowmen.
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Beaver - sorry that you are dealing with no heat etc. TX got hammered with this storm. Hope your propane tank can get filled today and your electricity is restored before too long.
We got down to -14 or so last night. At almost 11:30 we have a heat wave, its +19F. Yesterday was only +1 for the high!!!
Everyone stay safe and stay warm.
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We're melting and there's a lot of slush. We got the newspaper for Sat & today, but not Sunday. No garbage pickup until tomorrow.
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Power went off again right after I posted before. House is at 57 degrees and after checking, we believe no water is getting to the house but don't know whether it blocked before or after the meter. Before is the water company's issue, after is ours! Also, found out there will not be a propane delivery today. Neighbors with 4wheel drive made it out to a CVS for their vaccinations and brought us some bottled water so just now we have coffee and tea.
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Beaverntx: I can barely imagine what it must be like. I'm so glad your neighbors got you some water. Hot drinks to take the edge off a bit would help for the wait to try and get back as much service as possible.
We still have snow coming down on top of the two inches already here. We are likely at roughly 6 inches right now I think. We have had a lot more -- but just never when we didn't have vehicles ( 4 wheel drive ) that would get us out of the woods.
Thinking of you.
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Historic winter storm sweeps across the country
A massive winter storm is bringing a blast of snow and ice across much of the U.S., and the coldest air in generations to the South.
Over 130 million people across 26 states are under winter weather advisories today, stretching 2000 miles from Texas to Maine.
At least 2 million people are without power in Texas, as record-breaking demand forces utility companies to conduct rolling blackouts.
Dallas had a wind chill of -16 degrees this morning. Houston, over the weekend, issued its first wind chill warning on record.
Houston and Austin have shut down Covid testing and vaccination sites due to the extreme weather.
The massive storm is also wreaking havoc on air travel, with more than 3,000 flight cancelations so far today.
Tonight, the storm will bring heavy snow into the Midwest and Great Lakes including Chicago, most of Ohio and Indiana, Detroit and Buffalo.
By tomorrow, freezing rain and icy conditions will move into upstate New York and across New England. Heavy snow will fall from Cleveland to Maine.
Right on its heels, another winter storm is on the way Wednesday, and it's expected to follow nearly the same track.
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The storm sounds awful. Be safe!
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I hope your frozen pipe part isn't on your part to pay for! Step son in TX said 4-6" and it was crazy. His in-laws lost power for 2 hours but I haven't heard any more.
Sunday morning I was online to NYS site to sign up for the covid vaccine. I am booked in Utica, about 1.5 hours away, on 2/28 for 1st shot. Second one will be assigned when I'm there, but guessing 21-28 days from then.
With that on the books, I booked airfare to FL 4/18-5/23, so we'll get to see our home for a short time. Total time 5 weeks, vs 5-6 months. We'll both be vaccinated by then and I'll feel safer being on a plane. I know the heat of mid to late May will melt me but we need to get down there. Hurricane shutters were installed before we left last year and the permit expires 4/26, electrical inspection needs to happen.
Mary - I hope you get that bone splinter taken care of. It sounds horribly painful.
Question: in my cleaning out that front bedroom I have a foot locker, in it was a lot of curtains. These were my moms, who passed going on 19 years ago. None of my family seems to need or want them. Ideas on donating, to where? I'd just hate to see them go to waste. I washed & dried them all, along with some I had. My mother changed curtains with the seasons, vs once mine were up, they were up.
Stay warm, stay safe.
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Still snowing slightly here. I read several times today that there was such a need for power in the worst parts of the storm in the state of Texas that they were conducting rolling power outages so as to try to distribute the power load needed better. I may have this worded badly but it did sound to me that the power was being shut down on a systematic basis so that it would stay on but in a way that no one lost power completely and totally for too long a time.
Our snow is due to let up -- some time thru the night ( drastically slowed earlier ) and then we will have the same thing occur on Wednesday it is said. Sigh. It is going to be a long week I guess.
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Cindy, Goodwill would probably take them. Someone might buy them just for the material. We sold drapes that came with the house at our garage sale and they were purchased by a woman who makes theatrical costumes. I'm with you on curtains. Put them up and leave them up.
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Cindy, another idea for your curtains would be a theater group or scbool drama group. Thinking stage sets, costumrs, etc.
Yes, we are having rolling blackouts in Texas to relieve pressure on the grid. However we also are having power outages from storm damage. Our first outage was 7.5 hours and was due to equipment damage, we believe. The others (3 more so far) have lasted about 3 hours each. Our bigger problem is that the extended first outage led to frozen water pipes, we are not getting any water to the house let alone from our faucets! Really looking forward to being able to take a shower, do some laundry, etc., perhaps by the end of the week?
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Cindy, I can't erase the mental picture of Carol Burnett parodying Scarlett O'Hara wearing a pair of drapes, curtain rod & all, as a dress--fielding Rhett Butler's compliment with "This? I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist..."
We've had over a foot of snow since yesterday. (By late afternoon the lake effect snow band merged with the regular "system" storm moving eastward). The wind died down, but it's still snowing. We'll get another 6" overnight, and likely 20"+ by the time this is over tomorrow...just in time for the next system coming in Thurs. (after it hits the SW on Wed.). It got so bad our snow guy & his crew cried "uncle" after his first pass this aft. got obliterated. Bob is spending tonight & tomorrow night down in Oak Lawn, and we won't see our housekeeper till at least Wed. (assuming she can dig her car out, get through her alley, and the V.A. van can take her DH to dialysis). She hasn't been here since last Thurs., because Fri. her DH had medical appts. all day.
Don't have to worry about going to Evanston tomorrow to pick up the paczki--Bennison's delivered some today. Of course, I have nobody to share them with (maybe the snow guy tomorrow) before they get too stale.
Bob has decided to close the practice July 1. His partner got a county health "side hustle" job, and he has Union Health twice a week. He will also work for the interventionalist with whom he trades call. We will be taking a lot of 4-day weekends (wondering how we will handle cat care if we go away overnight--maybe it'll be safe for Gordy or our friends to come over to feed them their wet food). We will at least do a lot of cultural stuff (entertainment, museums, sporting events) when the city reopens. I don't think he'd ever be happy fully-retiring.
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Sandy - so Bob is closing the practice but still will be working but less. Maybe that is the best way to slide into retirement. My DH has a cousin who is a caridothoracic surgeon and to him cutting back is 80 hour week! He is 73 or 74!!! Glad you'll get to have more time together.
We've had the bitter snow, but luckily the mountains got the snow - we only got a couple inches - just to mess with roads but a little more is expected tonight.
SIL is having gallbladder surgery in less than half hour. Needless to say, both he and DD are scared and nervous. I'm glad today is a non-student contact day and that except for one zoom meeting at 2-3 today, I"m doing 2 different asynchronous training. Can't be with DD and SIL due to Tredueau's quarantine rules.
Stay warm and stay safe.
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Beaverntx, prayers to you and all the others that are suffering from the winter storms.
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Beaverntx, I am praying that there will soon be a resolution for you. Don't know if it works, but I suppose finding another place to stay with all the amenities would be an answer. You can't stay there much longer. I ought to check in on my nephew in Austin.
I got my shot yesterday. Scheduled for next one, too. Neg 16 last night. Now the weather will be warming, predicted to hit 36 on Monday. I have an appointment in the city tomorrow for that bone splinter.
Enough for now.
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Thank you for the prayers. We are coping so far, using bottled water, melting snow to flush toilets, bundling up in some very cozy plush and fleece blankets. Have a call into the water company for a meter check. When we were in Ohio we had a water meter freeze so know that is a possibility. Haven't been able to connect with the propane gas company to find out if the can deliver today since they could not yesterday.
MC, thought about going elsewhere but hard to find a place that would take us and the three dogs( our two doxies and our son's min-pin who is with us temporarily.) Weather forecast says we will warm back by early next week.
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Our attitude tells the world what we expect in return. If it's a cheerful, expectant attitude, it says to everyone with whom we come in contact that we expect the best in our dealings with the world. You see, we tend to live up to our expectations. And others give to us, as far as their attitudes are concerned, what we expect. Our attitude is something we can control. We can establish our attitude each morning when we start our day--in fact, we do just that, whether or not we realize it. And the people in our family--all the people in our world--will reflect back to us the attitude we present to them. It is, then, our attitude toward life that determines life's attitude toward us. Cause and effect. Everything we say or do will cause a corresponding effect. If we're cheerful, glad to be experiencing this miracle of life, others will reflect that good cheer back to us. We are the kind of people others enjoy being around.
Earl Nightingale0 -
Thinking of you beaverntx. Identifying just a tiny bit. We are up to we think approx. 10 to 11 ins. with much deeper drifts here and there. Also lost our power about 7 a.m. this morning but it is noon and it just came back on. Neither of our vehicles are useable right now and no one has come to plow the lane anyway, but it was dicey while the power was out -- no phones even cell was gone along with the heat. Dh did a lot of work shoveling out to the truck, cleaned it off, warmed it up only to find the 4-wheel drive would not kick in so no way to even try to leave the woods. Later toward the week-end we are due for better temps, and hopefully some melting -- but we really need the slow plow to come around.
I think so many places are somewhat depleted from the covid that services are far from consistent and hard to count on as we once did. Thankfully, with our heat back and the ability to cook again we will be fine.
I'm thinking about all of you in the storms and hoping that we are soon in much better circumstances.
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Slippery, Slippery crossing the street to the South building at 7am to use the treadmill. We have a tunnel connecting the two buildings, but, of course, as things go, these days, it was broken and parts have to be ordered from FINLAND. I’m wearing a silver bracelet now that has engraved across it, “Let It Go,” because, worrier that I am, there’s always something. Today, it has entered my thoughts that maybe the snow will keep Walgreens from coming here to give us the second shot tomorrow . But, even I think this is somewhat unlikely.
On a different note, Gil has flunked retirement. After teaching for 45 years and publishing over a 100 research articles on 450 year old fossils, he is working on a new manuscript and rummaging through 100’s of reprints in his Northwestern office. He insists he’ll be happy in a year or so when he’s finished and has time to listen to his 5000 LPs and to read, but I doubt he’ll ever let himself finish. Still, I think we’ll manage a week or so Key West trip in April. And, hopefully, San Francisco at Thanksgiving. Think our overseas trips are over forever
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Finally got an appointment for my first vaccine on Monday although it felt like I was using some "white privledge" to get it. But I took it. It's close and the 3 hour round trip for Ken was really hard on both of us.
We too are wondering if our overseas travel is over. Our "bubble buddies" are still hot to travel even though he is older than we are but I don't know with Covid and its mutations and Ken's bad back whether it's realistic. If we can get to Maine this summer, I will be happy.
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Beav, hope you can get warm & showered soon! Prayers for comfort & safety to all you Southwesterners thrown for a loop.
We got 18" since yesterday morning, with 21" since the weekend. Drifts are 3-4ft. high. Good times...
Judy, I'm pretty sure Walgreen's will be able to make it even if they have to walk the vaccines over from the Davis St. garage--I saw that Evanson has plowed its major arterials and is working on the side streets. Careful crossing the street!
Our snow guy came this afternoon and dug us and the garage out. Alley is still impassable due to the center "hump," though--when I went out to start my car to keep the battery from dying, found our neighbor's Prius stuck behind our garage, spinning its wheels and digging itself deeper into the ruts. Between my traction mats and another neighbor shoveling and "coaching," it managed to back out of the alley to seek street parking (no way it'd be able to get into & out of Bob's space in our garage). Bob is staying in Oak Lawn at least through tomorrow night--no way his Fusion Hybrid with its low ground clearance (as low as that Prius) can get down our alley. His hotel was lending guests (mostly doctors) shovels because the parking lot couldn't get plowed. (He's gonna need to stop at Target or Walgreen's for more socks & underpants--he doesn't want to wash the only spare pair he has in the sink). Housekeeper's stuck in Austin--her alley's a mess too. Her DH will have to take an Uber to & from his dialysis tomorrow at Hines V.A. (I'll reimburse).
This is the first time in days I can sit in the front room without wearing layers!
Cats are coping, though getting picky about their canned food. Never know from meal to meal what they'd like.
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Got my second covid shot this afternoon. Hoping for minimal side effects, hahaha. I've heard stories both ways. Soreness is working its way down my arm like the first shot. Will take some Tylenol a little later. Oh well, it's wait and see what the next day or two brings.
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Jath, congrats and may you have just enough reaction to be certain it is working!
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Hope everyone affected by the cold weather is comfortable soon. Here in south Louisiana where some have lost electricity we have not needed our backup house generator so far. The past two nights we ran a dribble of water. We have well water and an electric pump so there's no risk of low water pressure.
It has been two weeks since the 2nd Pfizer shot and I am looking forward to going back to the gym. However, it may not be today since the advice is to stay off the streets.
Best wishes to all.
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I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door--or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present. -Rabindranath Tagore
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Carole, good to hear from you. Sounds like you have some pretty good security going with that second shot. Just in time maybe to stay home because the weather is so bad. I hope in the next little while it gets better for everyone although I feel concern for those in Texas as much of their issues is poor planning it sounds like with not supplying good infrastructure for hard times.
We are still somewhat snowed in although the snow plow came through last night after dark. I guess it has been harrowing everywhere. The sun wants to come out here but I don't hold out lots of hope -- it is almost 2:30 so even if it comes out it won't affect the temperature much. Later on it is due to get much better here in that warmer day time temps will creep back. Even rain on the week-end which will help turn us to slush. Then again -- we have ten inches at least to turn to slush so that is going to take awhile. In the meantime -- getting tips on my car and maybe it will pan out. That would be nice.
Had my bil ( he has a real jeep ) stop by the store and pick up some dog food ( the only thing we were truly short of ) for me and bring it out. Hated asking him but Bill needs non-grain and fish based diet so as to not make his allergy flare up. Gave bil a nice tip for being willing.
Hope all of you stay well, enjoy your immunity and for those with second shots I too hope any reaction is just enough so that you know it is doing what it was meant to do.
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