Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best.
- William Arthur Ward

we ended the year with a plumbing problem, but started the new year with glorious sunshine. Happy New Year to all.

I'm staying in my jammies today. It's chilly outside, raining and gray. Perfect day for tomato soup, naps, and football. (I do love my football - even though I don't understand the fine points.) Yesterday and in between games today, I'm watching the SciFi network's marathon showing of The Twilight Zone. What fun! I didn't remember all of the episodes I've watched but most had some plot point I remembered. It premiered in October 1959. I was 11, in sixth grade, waiting impatiently for my birthday. (Like being 12 was somehow more grown up.) There was a girl named Cheryl in my class that wore cardigan sweaters buttoned in the back and a pony tail. She and some of the other girls wore training bras and I was so jealous. One day I took my mother's garter belt, put it on upside down, and went to school. The boys would taunt the girls by snapping the back of their bras and I was thrilled to be one of the gang. Mother found out and I never wore it again. I liked a boy named Rex and he liked me. I know it because he would punch me in the arm at recess.

Where were you in October 1959?

Oct. 1959? I was eight, in the fourth grade. Thank you for making me feel young! That doesn’t happen very often these days.

Bob (DH--I resolved to start using real names) came home from work saying he’d had an early dinner in the hospital doctors’ lounge. So no black-eyed peas and greens tonight. Gordy (DS) came downstairs a while ago--he got home very late from his comedy collective’s fundraiser, went to sleep, and spent the past four hours writing for the topical revue he produces four times a year. He hasn’t decided what he wants. There’s a little matzo ball soup left. Might put together a salad and some herring, whitefish caviar & charcuterie to go with the leftover champagne (in retrospect, it seemed a tad flat to me last night--we might crack a different, less expensive bottle we had in the fridge as a backup, or maybe Bob wants to open the Veuve Cliquot he bought yesterday).

Happy New Year. Spent yesterday by watching the Rose Parade and going thru th 2015 bills/files , weeding out and shredding. Dh has the yucky cold too. He figured it was the usual allergies but I knew! Don't know where he picked it up, haven't been out much , except to grocery shop! He can't take much but Coricedin as he has high BP. Waiting to catch it from him!

Another exciting day, pay bills, run errands. It finally got cold here. Was 25 this morning. Got to start filling our bird feeders. Trouble is the crows any more. They scare the other birds off. Didn't use to have so many, now they will fill a tree and descend on the feeders.

Only cooked turkey thighs for Christmas , so not many leftovers for the 2 of us. Went out to dinner with a group from church for New Years. Have a good day everyone.

Yum, left-overs which normally is one of my favorite meals. As kids growing up we had lots and lots of left-overs. Nothing ever wasted at our house. Some of our family --- even worse than ours, seldom got the meal of today, but forced to eat yesterday's -- so big was the family. So, my Uncle would absolutely not allow left-overs on their table. I didn't understand at first, but did later on. One of those things I imagine he promised himself when he had a family of his own -- that he would provide enough that no one HAD to eat left-overs, ever. Sandy, yours and GG's too sound highly desirable.

Sandra, hmmmm, In 1959 I was a lowly Freshman in high school. I definitely do remember cardigans buttoned up the back, and the fact that we had to have our grades up and only then could we wear Levi's on Friday to school. A lot of the girls didn't bother with it -- one day seemed chintzy and sometimes more trouble, but at least we had the opportunity and took it on occasion. I disliked a lot of high school --- too away from time for me to read library books, but I managed to be 9th. in my class while rarely taking books home. Of course I look back irritated, even after so many yrs. and wonder what I might have done had I really applied myself. I think maybe a regret now and then helps you try harder to not have too many.

Puffin -- though we don't see them as much as we did at first ( I think we are often too tired to look ) we heard and saw many owls. Not sure any were long-eared. I be glad to see a picture of one. They sound interesting to say the least. I love listening to them at night around here. It sounds like they are having a con-fab about something since one will talk --- then another from many trees away --- and then another elsewhere in yet another tree. I find myself ALWAYS wondering what they are doing/discussing. I have watched ( happened a time or two quite close to us while walking ) owls swooping down to something ( maybe a field mouse ) on the ground. They are oh so quiet, and seem to lift out one wing and then cover and trap something underneath. Haven't watched any further than that as we were walking and I didn't want to interrupt. I also didn't want to HEAR anything as it would have bothered me.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. Back later.

Blessings,

Jackie

Sandra, In Oct 1959, I had just turned 19, was attending the University of Oklahoma and was engaged to be married. We celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary on New Year's Eve. It was a pretty golden time. I loved OU and him and it was one of the happiest times in my life.

I'm speechless......what a gorgeous bird. Looks to be a pretty fair size as well. Many thanks Puffin for putting the picture in ---- even if you didn't take it. Still know this was the exact bird you saw. He/she/it is beautiful.

Jackie

My late f-i-l was germophobic in the extreme, but also simultaneously parsimonious and hypermoral. Originally Anglican, he converted to Catholicism to marry my m-i-l, then left the Church and became a Zen Buddhist and yogi, and in his last five years became devoutly Catholic. He was thin as a rail and never touched mammalian meat or shellfish of any kind (later in life, he grudgingly accepted poultry when his doctor pleaded with him to eat more protein). We used to call him the “Kosher Catholic.” But he would pile his plate high and finish everything it--“a member of the clean-plate-club," as he put it. When we would go out to dinner, we had to sit there until he had finished every last grain of rice on the plate. He would complain more about portions that were too big (“wasteful and immoral, people are starving in the Third World") than those too small. I asked why he didn't just have his leftovers packed to go. “UNSANITARY!" he bellowed. “But Dad," I said, "we'll be home in ten minutes and we can pop them right into the fridge!" Only then did I realize that before he came to live with us in Chicago, the only way he and my m-i-l got around in their eastern Queens neighborhood (less than a mile from the NYC-Nassau County line) was by bus and subway (they never owned a car or even learned to drive, and deemed taxis “above our station"). So by the time they'd have gotten their leftovers home, they might well have spoiled, especially in summer.

Sandy, I so enjoyed hearing about your FIL. His conversions and life style so interesting. Well, it certainly is proof positive I guess that we can have some fairly large changes of heart about many things --- along with the common sense of food spoilage the way one has lived their whole life. I do recall times in life when families, mine and others in the small town where I grew up, had to use everything and nothing went out save for accidental spoilage so I recognize that part about your FIL quite easily. I have to say then that I do find some overall agreement with some of his thoughts. Some restaurants here serve lg. portions, especially the Chinese ones. We only go on occasion so it is ok with me. We are definitely close enough to bring home 'another' meal for later that night or the next day with us.

Though some places do give you too much, on the other hand, I also dislike the sensation of still feeling just a tiny bit hungry when I leave some of those places who don't. Ah, our life story in a way --- too much, or not quite enough. On the latter, actually, if I find interesting things to do afterwards before I know it I'm caught up in no longer noticing that part of myself. It all evens out.

Likely many here will recall the number of times I've mentioned growing your soul. So, what a neat thing to go through my in-box quotes from this morning and find the above one. How long have I FELT that way -- can't say I recall, but it feels like almost always which is a fairly good description. Growing a soul I think can have a whole lot of meanings, but for me it means trying to do a lot more right ( living by the ten commandments pretty much ) than wrong. Also for me is the CARING about what I'm doing. I gave up a long time ago on making much of a SPLASH in the world. For a very long time I thought no one would notice if it wasn't BIG --- then I realized that the person I needed to be MOST concerned with was myself. I needed to notice what I did, big or small, follow my conscience, be as just and fair as I could and live daily to the best of my ability and then let it go.

So, with great joy, I share today's quote.

Blessings,

Jackie

Hi all

My DH, too, was raised with cleaning the plate at every meal, which I had no problem with. His real problem was that he never reached a place of feeling "full". He would eat a very generous dinner, then turn around and eat a full bag of chips, followed by several pieces of fruit, then half a jar of peanuts, all right after getting up from the table. The only reason he only hate half the peanuts was because we bought them with the shell on and his hands got tired of shelling. Then, every time one of the kids would pass thru the room, he would say "what do we have to eat?" And would have some cookies or yogurt. When younger, he was active enough to generally maintain his weight, but as he got older, and the diabetes became more severe, his eating wreaked havoc with his sugar levels. He never really understood how eating and sugar levels and insulin were supposed to work, so he "regulated" his sugar levels by adjusting his insulin by himself, which, I believe, accelerated the decline and eventual failure of his kidneys. I think he could have lived longer if he had only learned how to eat correctly. I don't know if any of you are familiar with the diabetic eating plan, but it is but it is not a severely restricted plan. It is more of a balancing plan, making sure you get enough protein, balanced with sugars and carbs to keep your sugar levels steady. He knew, for example, that chicken wings raised his sugar levels a lot, yet whenever we were at a restaurant that had wings, which are most of the places we could afford, that's what he would order, every single time, and every single time, on the way home, or the next day at most, he would say, "Boy, those wings really raise my sugar levels, I can't eat them anymore". Which he would stick to, until the next time we went out to eat,and we ate out quite a bit in those days. Don't get me wrong, I am not implying he he should have avoided chicken wings for the rest of his life,but I also don't think he had to have them every time they were available. I love dessert, cheesecake, for example, but I don't get some every time the restaurant I'm at offers it. And with Bob, it wasn't just wings, if he knew something was going to run his levels up, he had to have it, always thinking maybe this time will be different. I'm sorry, if your response to that food hadn't changed, no matter how often he tried it in the last 15 years,chances are, this wasn't going to be different. So I felt, and still feel, that for the last 20 years of our marriage, I watched him slowly commit suicide, one meal at a time.

Anne, it's funny, but the right kind of chicken wings (no breading, flour or cornstarch, just trad. Buffalo sauce recipe) were a mainstay during my successful 55-lb. weight loss low-carb diet run! Guess your Bob's restaurant breaded or dredged them before frying, and maybe had sugar in the sauce. I restarted low-carb Jan.1. and am already down 2 lbs. (lost the weight I gained on the cruise). This morning, before work my Bob went to brunch and had planned to bring me back their fantastic quiche (ethereal and souffle-like, from which I reluctantly leave over the equally yummy crust) and salad. Well, the restaurant (where we'd hosted our NYE dinner party) was still reeling from that night--half the early-seating tables refused to leave before midnight--and didn't make quiche. He brought back instead something called the “Fitness Trainer:" egg whites scrambled with chevre, basil, & sun-dried tomatoes, with sugar-free cucumber salad on the side. I normally don't like egg whites, but these were delicious. Took all the discipline I could muster to put half of it in the fridge for later (or for Gordy, when he wakes up--he came in late after playing 2 shows last night).

Though he could be exasperating at times (besides his idiosyncrasies, he accused me of “living in the material world" and “living to eat instead of eating to live;" but could inhale an entire batch of popovers or cornbread as fast as I could bake them--not to mention having antediluvian attitudes about race relations), I still miss my f-i-l, who passed away of a stroke in 2010 at nearly 91. He had studied classical piano but when he could not get into conservatory, switched his grad school M.A. studies to English instead. He was a bank VP, but like his hero Wallace Stevens was an accomplished poet. He was also a chess Grand Master. When my mom was alive, they would constantly spar about politics (m-i-l was apolitical), and Mom--bless her--was as liberal as I and gave as good as she got. Nobody ever won a debate with her! She died of COPD and CHF in 2006 at 85-1/2, two decades after quitting smoking cold-turkey after 50 yrs of 3 packs/day. Had she never smoked, I have no doubt she'd still be with us.

I pride myself on being able to stretch restaurant leftovers to a ridiculous degree. At steakhouses, I'd order the large Cowboy Ribeye, eat about 2-3 oz., and get 3 more meals out of the leftovers. With lobster, I'd eat either the claws or the tail and have enough left over the next day to make a huge lobster salad. (I'm really good at surgically extracting as much meat as possible out of the legs & swimmerets). Before I went low-carb, we liked to go to a local Persian restaurant for steak or chicken kebabs, which came with a huge portion of dill rice studded with lima beans. I could make that leftover rice last for two more meals! And our local Italian restaurant always includes tomato foccaccia, a large portion of pasta and a house salad with every entree. So I just eat half the protein, salad and veggies and put away the rest for another night (or for Gordy, who has the metabolism of a blast furnace and loves pasta).

I sorta blew it this weekend--I had thought one of our friends was having an open house today, because she mentioned football & BBQ. Unfortunately, when I e-mailed her to confirm the address, I found out the party was yesterday, 1/2. D'OH! Oh, well, was too sick yesterday to go anyway. Actually was able to sleep through the night w/o the “calliope in my chest" waking me up. Will try someone here's suggestion of putting sterile saline in my neb in order to break up the remaining crud to make it easier to cough up. I had to cancel my third voice lesson in a row because of first laryngitis and now twitchy lungs. Ugh.

ChiSandy, could you give the basics of your low carb eating plan? Notice that I avoided the word "diet"?

We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy, and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all.

Dorothy Day