Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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ChiSandy, I had to laugh about your comment about "You should see the other guy" - it's actually true, the other car has a lot more damage, and will also have to have their air bags replaced.
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Happy Birthday Chevy!
Hope your day is as wonderful as you are. Thanks for all the days I was feeling sorry for myself and a post from you or you and Camillegal was the only thing that made me smile - or even giggle. Still enjoy every one of your posts
Anne
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We can develop gratitude for all conditions, good or bad. Each has its necessary place in our development as healthy, happy people. We need the sorrows along with the joys if we are to gain new insights. Our failures keep us humble; they remind us of our need for the care and guidance of others. And for every hope dashed, we can remember, one will be realized. -unattributed
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Oh WTH???? The Cams was in the Hospital??? You see how I don't keep track! I'll have to go drink to find her I guess..... Pain???? Damnit!
Thanks guys for the Birthday wishes! xoxo
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Chevy, Adding my wishes for a wonderful Birthday!
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Sorry to hear about Cami.....anyone who finds out anything keep usinformed....
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Happy birthday, Chevy!
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Happy Birthday Chevy!! At your age, you get all week to celebrate.
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With each new day I put away the past and discover the new beginnings I have been given. -Angela L. Wozniak
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What a fantastic morning here -- very blue sky and nice early morning temps. Next few days show some chance for rain, but not an increase in temperatures -- maybe a nice decrease. Do hope we don't trade and go into humidity though which can cancel the good effects of the lower temps.
Thinking about Ms. Cammi and hoping that she can find good pain control with an assist of the hospital Dr. and staff. She is such a fun-loving cheerful person that it is hard to think of her having to put up with a lot of pain. Wishing you great success Cammi.
August the 1st. It seemed so far away at the beginning of summer and now here we are. Everything is still looking fine outside, but this is the time it seems that starts the march to cooler temps. and all the shrubbery and trees starting to look tired and in need of rest. Just thinking that I need to be appreciative for they are not going to last as long as I'd like.
Yard is pretty well free now of all the debris of our past storm. Sure took a while this time --- but with dh working so much I did at least 3/4ths. or more of it myself. That was not all bad as it was good for my waistline.
Hope you at all going to have a fantastic day.
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Hi all, I wrote two posts and both disappeared. We all know how that feels!
Thanks for the kind words and welcome after my being away from here for a few months.
I have a lot of reading to do still!
I had other things to say, but for now, just want to wish Happiest of Birthdays to Chevy who makes us smile, laugh out loud, and who shows us how it's done...to live long and do it well!
Here's to many more, Chevy!!
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It's supposed to be 100 by Thursday. It doesn't sound like much to people who live in hotter climes, but the paper said only 15% of housing in Seattle has central air conditioning. Given that most houses are 2 story, there aren't a lot of window units upstairs either. Not supposed to cool down at night much either. I guess I'm one of those "elderly people" at risk in hot temps. I volunteer this afternoon at the senior center which only has one air conditioned room and my desk isn't in it.
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Weather extremes are always harder to take in areas where they're unexpected. Coldest day I ever felt was standing in line at Disneyland one March: 40F, wind & rain and wearing thin unlined Isotoner gloves and a raincoat whose zip-in-lining I'd left back home in Chicago because hey, I was going to L.A. in the springtime, right? And heat waves are especially cruel in places like Seattle where most people don't have air conditioners—central or otherwise.
Nice day today—thunder & towering clouds but no rain. It will storm tomorrow. Why? Because I have a mani-pedi appt. in the morning and I have to wear thong sandals. There will be puddles. Always rains or snows on pedi day. I have been playing keep-away with the squirrels & my tomato plants. Leaves are beginning to yellow on one of them, but I just picked three that were a nice shade of orange—despite their not being as big as I'd have liked them, much less red—because I saw a squirrel in the adjacent magnolia tree & grapevines casing the joint. Last year, every time I'd look at a ripening 'mater and thought, “just one more day," the next morning I'd find it on the ground with a chunk bitten out of it. Meanwhile, the four that fell off during a downburst last week that knocked the whole plant over—18” pot and all--are still hard and green on the windowsill. If they don't begin to ripen w/in a couple of weeks, time to make fried green tomatoes. I have about 30 or so still on the vine. Ate two thus far and have three in various stages of ripeness in the basket on the kitchen table. Forty tomatoes from six plants isn't exactly a bumper crop, but it's the best we've done to date. Of course, even though I reuse the pots, cages & stakes, at three bucks per seedling, and who knows how much for 40 qts. of soil, I might just break even by the time we've eaten the last one.
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Sandy , your tomatoes sound like my Hydrangias and the deer. Every year for the last 5 I've thought "good they didn't eat them", then the next day all the new leaves were gone and never got any flowers. This year for some reason, is the first year they left them alone and we got 5 beautiful flowers! The squirrels are happy and fat on our black walnuts. They never cease to amaze me, how they are able to crack that shell. They do leave stains on our walk way and wall though.
Cool this morning, 62, but anothr hot and humid day here. We enjoyed the few days of relief we had. Went to lunch and a musical yesterday in Jersey with seniors. We all had a good time. Today have rehearsals for our senior players group. we put on skits for local senior groups and nursing homes. We have a lot of fun. No memorization required or we wudn't have any members! Just have fun.
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Contemplating how we came to be here is like trying to find the ends of space. We find no answers, only wonder and awe and gratitude for being invited. Counting our blessings leads to a desire to give something back. Thus begins the path of service, the fruit of our journey, the gateway to joy. -Dan Millman
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Bonnets, your group sounds like lots of fun. Not sure if anyone much ( our age and some cancer txs. thrown in ) could do a very good job of memorizing lines. Ad-libbing sounds like it could produce the most fun for the least effort. I know -- it is the doing for someone else and making their day that really matters. Good for you and your senior players.
Going to be about 90 here today -- eh, so-so. I have enough work inside that I won't notice much I don't think. Evenings have gotten pretty nice but part was some wind coming up. Maybe it will return tonight.
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Bonnets, I feel for you with black walnut stains. They are the hardest to get rid of.
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Bonnets, is yours an improv troupe? That’s my son’s wheelhouse.
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Sandy, we do light skits, Golden girls, Lucy and such. Some are taken from old TV shows, some written by our leader or others in the troop. We have scripts, though sometimes the adlibs get more laughs. As I say, we are light and don't need to memorize, but read! Working on our fall production. Have quite a few dates already. They must like us as they ask us back!
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It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them,
more strength to relate to people than to dominate them,
more "manhood" to abide by thought-out principles rather
than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit,
not in muscles and an immature mind.
Alex Karras0 -
Great morning outside. Warmer than I care for this early, but a chance for rain so we will see. The next few days are going to be cooler. So -- maybe a bit more work outside while other chores continue. I have ( from a cousin who does the kind of work I need done ) a recipe for a solution to put on our siding to clean it and discourage the moldy green that seems to attach far easier than we like. Of course, that involves bleach because that is what discourages that awful green from showing up. We have lots of mossy areas here since we have so much shade --- so eventually -- everything gets a dose of 'mossy' green.
It is haircut day for me today too. Been thinking about cutting out the perms -- maybe I will try for awhile to see how things develop. Having thin and fine hair is not the best recipe so maybe I'll try and play around on the Internet as well as my beautician to see if there is something that might have the power to satisfy me.
Hope you are all going to have a good day with decent temps.
Jackie
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Hi all,
I have spent the last two days at orientation at the University of Ga. My grandson will be moving into his dorm room on Mon. Problem is his room is on the 4th floor of an old dorm with no elevator. My sciatica is better with the 2 sets of shots, but my back aches when I am on my feet for any length of time. In fact, I rented a wheelchair for orientation, because I wasn't sure how much walking would be involved. We didn't move around campus, but we moved from floor to floor in a total of 4 bldgs. I was totally embarrassed, but would never have been able to walk it all. The campus is amazing, and the dining way beyond our expectations. There are, I think, 6 dining halls, featuring any type of food imaginable. They are each opened for any student with a meal plan and offer both a nutritionist and cooking classes at no extra cost. The whole experience overwhelmed us all. I have pretty much paid for everything for his dorm and we still need to get toiletries, and basics like laundry soap, paper towels, etc. My daughter and I are going to dinner with his roommates Mom tonight. For his birthday last March, I told him I would get him a new laptop for schoolHe nd his Dad have picked one out- I expected to spend about $300-350. The one he picked out is $650. Plus, my DD's car isn't working again.it costs $700 to pull the engine before they can even get an estimate on what's wrong. I told them I can no longer cover their bills, as well as my own. I have to leave now to go pick her up. More later,
Anne
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Anne, would it be possible for DGS to go on to the manufacturer’s website to look for refurbished models of the computer he wants? Apple does that—and some of the items are models 6 mos-1yr on the market—at savings of several hundred dollars, with identical warranties to new machines (and a better extended warranty to purchase than was available when those items first came on the market). Alternatively, you could contribute what you’d have spent on the computer and have him or his parents make up the difference between that and the machine he wants. (Someone needs to play him the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which ends with the line, “But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need”).
Stormed like crazy here—began raining as we left for my EGD, heard thunder and saw downpours through the hospital window when I was recovering. En route home the skies began to clear; and when we got home, we found the same tomato plant—container and all—knocked over again, with one of its fruits lying on the deck. And the plant next to it looked like it was about to snap. We had to use up a bunch of twist-ties to secure it (and actually anchored the first plant with a full unopened bag of soil atop the surface). Two more had begun to ripen and soften enough to tempt critters, so we rescued them and put them on the sill. The ones I picked Tuesday are fully ripe now. Between those, a large yellow heirloom I bought, my bumper crop of basil and a container of buffalo mozzarella I will have an impressive insalata Caprese to bring to our block party brunch on Sat. (which is supposed to be sunny & mild). Got up to 87 here today; tomorrow will be windy and struggle to make 70, which is good news for our electric bill (and my letrozole sweats).
Speaking of that EGD, no news is…bad news. All it found was a “medium-sized” hiatal hernia (tell me something I didn’t know, though back in 2013 it was “slight”)—everything else from my esophagus down through the duodenum is utterly normal, without even the irritated lesions “of probable chemical origin” (overuse of NSAIDs) I had in 2011 & 2013. So we'll have to go "in the back door" to see what else may be oozing. (Hope it’s just my hemorrhoids). First appt. I could get is Aug. 31. Ticked off that I could have done both it and the EGD as a twofer today, like back in 2011; but my PCP hadn’t wanted to put me through the hassle of a prep and the bigger risk yet, because he’d expected a repeat of 2013’s EGD results. The GI doc, of course, couldn’t do it today because I’d have needed to prep. Bob, my PCP and the GI doc are all pretty sure the fault is in my guts and not my bone marrow, as my hgb is in the 11s and my ferritin levels are very low. So I go on iron tonight. 300 mg. of ferrous gluconate to start; if I can tolerate it, increase gradually to 3x/day. I asked why go straight to the colonoscopy (my last one was in 2011 & I wasn’t due for a repeat till 2021) and the GI doc explained that a capsule endoscopy is not just very expensive but time-consuming—someone would have had to sit by a video monitor for hours while the micro-cam in its mini-gondola made its way down the alimentary canal, and I’d have had to remain w/in signal range till I finally pooped the thing out. And most insurers won’t approve it unless EGD and colonoscopy had already revealed nothing.
Wanted to have a nice glass of wine tonight, but because the propofol (milk of amnesia) stays in the system up to 24 hrs., no alcohol till tomorrow. And no driving either—they even said “no important decisions.” They didn’t say “no knives or fire,” so I will make myself a steak and some green beans, for their iron (that’s my story) in a couple of hours. Bob’s bringing home the iron pills—I’m not even supposed to cross a busy street to walk to Walgreen’s the rest of today. There is some good news though: as long as I don’t take them every day, I can use NSAIDs for muscle aches again. I’d definitely been abusing them back in late 2012, because after weaning off Norco, Neurontin & Tramadol I took after my first knee replacement, I was taking what was known as the “Bonesmart Cocktail” (devised by the UK orthopedic surgical nurse who runs bonesmart.org, a forum brithael & I both frequented before breast cancer): two each Advil and extra-strength Tylenol 3-4x/day. My 2013 LTKR recovery was more challenging, because NSAIDs were a no-no. Took me two weeks longer to ditch the opioids & nerve pain pills.
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We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance manifest for all.
Dorothy Day
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Nice day out with some clouds making it feel even cooler. I came in from morning chores and the house felt like a furnace had been on. Most times stepping inside makes you extra cool, but it was far cooler out of doors this morning. It makes it great if you want to sit out on the deck with morning coffee. Dh has a day off today. Things have been so changeable at his job I don't even ask which day he will have off or what time he will get off. So --- I'll have to work around for the things I've put on my calendar for the day. It's okay. I'm getting used to that.
It is ( along with lots of other things ) about time for a good car cleaning and washing. Done worlds of good keeping up with my daily dust-off of my car. Up close you can see it needs washed, but I do have ( now and then ) people asking me how many times a week I wash my car. I think right now it has been nearly a month.
Anne, I don't know how you keep up so well with life and all the people in yours. I think I would have to carry around a large calendar in a satchel to figure out if I am where I am supposed to be and doing those things that are appropriate. Well, as they say, while we are hear we may as well dance and you keep up the dance really well save for that sciatic thing which I hope stays in good control for you.
Sandy -- good tips and suggestions about the computer issues. You too are a great wealth of info. I think I was quite fortunate when buying the computer I have now because my need coincided with the yearly phasing out of floor models. As it was a pc that was never actually hooked up to a computer I got mine for a mere fraction of the original price. I don't mind last yr.'s models and even more if they have not been used and only sat on a shelf.
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Anne, Check to see if the college has discounts for students. UW does and it's a big discount.
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Apple gives a student discount too.
That one tomato plant got blown over two more times—I now have a 16-qt. bag of soil as a bulwark and a brick in the pot. Another tomato got knocked off this morning, so it’s on the sill waiting to ripen. The solidly green ones on the sill aren’t ripening, but the ones with a hint of blush I rescued from imminent squirrel attack fully ripened and I will make a Caprese with them for tomorrow’s block party BBQ. The wind finally died down. It’s so cool here by the lake (down in the 50s last night, only 62 now) that I’ll be wearing closed shoes (other than my sneakers en route to the gym) and a jacket for the first time since early June. Tomorrow they’re forecasting 76 and gorgeous. A little cooler with showers Sunday.
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With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.Wayne Dyer
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Beauty of a morning here. So cool Dh complained, but nicely. We have been surprised before, but the surprise now comes from the fact that usually ( if anything can be usual these days ) if we had triple digit temps. they tended to stay a lot longer. We have needed at times, light sweaters or jackets for first night of the Balloon Fest in some of the Augusts past. Wondering now about this one!! Being sort of ( I'm not sure I'll own completely up to it ever ) old fogeys, we don't usually leave the house once nightfall is in full swing. Maybe it is cooler at night than I know --- which makes sense with our cool mornings. Anyway we will just enjoy.
Our days have been really nice as well. I will likely think on doing my car again in this nice weather. It is something of a chore, but only to the degree that I have a small one-step step stool that I have to use for the top of the car and for the windshield. I could pretty much do my old Blazer without a stool though it was a stretch. Didn't seem there was that much difference between it and the Equinox, but w/o my stool there is a v-shaped portion at the top of the windshield I just can't contort myself enough to get. Never dreamed washing windows would be a problem.
Been going through my cookbooks still ( the first were easy enough to let go of, but second culling much more difficult ) to figure out which will go to Maryann's Book Nook. One of the ones I'm keeping -- " Not Just Pies Cook Book " has a recipe I keep looking at and I already knew I wanted to share it before I started this entry. It just sounds like the kind I'd made once and then would keep making for life. Haven't tried it, but after all the "mental" feasting it is VERY high on my list.
Cheesy Strawberry Pie
1 (10 oz. ) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed.
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 env. unflavored gelatin
2- 2&1/2 cups whipped topping ( I'd use Cool Whip )
9 in. baked pastry or graham cracker crust
Drain strawberries, reserving juice. Soften gelatin in 1/2 cup juice for 3 minutes, then microwave on high 30 seconds; stir and set aside. With rotary mixer, beat sugar into cream cheese then mix in gelatin. Beat remainder of juice into mixture, and fold in whipped topping. Stir strawberries into mixture by hand. Pour into pastry and refrigerate.
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Love that Wayne Dyer quote - it reminds me of my fairly new philosophy of life. When my DH's career path was diverted from New Jersey to California, I had to make a decision: Was I going to leave the East Coast? Leave the little bit of family I have? Leave my job and friends? My church? Not only was my answer yes, but I decided to make this an adventure. I chose to make the move willingly, rather than begrudgingly. I thought that acting like an adventurer, rather than a heinous b***h, would be a lot more fun for me - and for everyone around me!
I had to remind myself of this when I lost my job last November. It was devastating but I soon began to look at a whole host of other possibilities. I haven't quite found the rainbow in this BC diagnosis yet - but then again maybe I have - it's all of the wonderful people I've met here. This is certainly not a place any of us would choose, but we're all grateful it's here!
And that's why I call this my unasked-for adventure. It's only one small part of the big picture!
MJ
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