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

Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet know,for none of us have been taught in early youth, what fairy palaceswe may build of beautiful thoughts, as proof against all adversity.We may build bright, beautiful memories, noble histories,faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts,which care cannot disturb, pain make gloomy, or poverty take awayfrom us.  They are houses built without hands, for our souls to live in.

John Ruskin

Would that there was an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough.  Good enough.  Successful enough.  Thin enough.  Rich enough.  Socially responsible enough.  When you have self-respect, you have enough.

Gail Sheehy

Oops Cindy — well, happy anything else so happy isn't wasted. Love your cactus pot. I'm sure I talked about my cactus garden in California. There was a long area (driveway) next to my mobile home in the park where we lived.. We were on a corner and there was a four ft. brick wall separating my driveway from the road. There was at least a 3ft. space between the actual concrete driveway and the brick wall. Rather than flowers or ground covers which many people had I put in cactus. Some so small they came in those tiny pots from nurseries or Walmart. When we moved yrs. later a couple of those were over my head. It was a large garden and always a delight. I had a couple of night bloomers in there too. They opened at night and closed during the day. Cactus can be sort of amazing — like Jumping Cholla. You have to be so careful with Cholla's — they are called jumpin' because you barely get near them and end up with loads of thin stickers covering the area that barely touched the plant.

I'd stick out the power washing too. It is a real chore.

Snowed again today — for several hrs. but dryer flakes that were small and only a faint light covering for all the hours of snow. Hard to believe we will be up to 51 on Wednesday (if the forecast comes true) but even if not, it will likely be warm enough to melt a bunch of our snow. The cold will return though. Okay with me as long as it is only cold.

I haven't driven my car yet since the new front tires but son-in-law felt like the car 'felt' like it was hugging the road a bit better. He likely is right. Even though, I'm easy on my brakes, others who use my car at times I think probably are not. I don't make panic stops or hard stops ever if I can help it. I do admit it is easier here where we live to choose how you drive since there is way less traffic ALL the time. Still my front tires were really bad while the back are still pretty good.

Hope you all had a good day.

It was so nice to wake up at home and take the familiar route to the coffee pot where the coffee was already made. Like Jackie, I set a timer on the pot.

I stepped on the scale this morning and, no surprise, my lost pounds found their way back to my body. So I start over again today. It makes me feel better that the number on the scale would have higher if I hadn't lost those lbs. before the trip.

My laptop says it's 44 degrees outside and the sun is shining.

Happy Tuesday to everyone.

It is 22 degrees here this morning after a slight dusting of snow during the early evening and night hours. Not to worry though. Tomorrow, 51 degrees and maybe some mud here and there from some snow melt. Seems like we could be in for a longer winter though this yr. Temps are due to go right back the other way after tomorrow —yikes.

Carole, good for you getting right back into the WW swing of things. It was good to have made room for the possibility of some re-gain from trip time.

Son-in-law will take me to the store later. This is good since I will have help immediately with the heavy stuff. Dh can do it, but he does struggle now and it is not really safe for him. He has a bad foot (seems to affect some of the strength of that leg) and he falls rather easily. One of the reasons I'm glad we have the disabled sticker now. I have as yet not minded any 'extra' walking around the parking lot, but don't like Dh to do too much at one time. So we are saved from it.

Going to have to get Red a 'regular' collar for now. We have been getting him the harness type and somehow, he is able to find a way to chew on them until they are ruined. Grrrr. Hoping this getting neutered later on this month will help get him 'cool' a bit and we can start a little more intense training. I do hope later we can go back to harness type collar. I just like them better.

Hope you all have a really good day — not too extreme of any weather.

Good morning. It has been in the 30's in the morning with highs in the 60's. We had frost yesterday.

They broke concrete for a new drain in the patio, after taking a week off. Glad they are back doing something. I will be glad when this is finished.

Hope all are well.

Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another's uniqueness.

Ola Joseph

Carole - I think the place is called "Top Golf." We have one not too far from here too. I've never been there but it's a favorite place for my young friend, Ella. In fact, I think she had last year's birthday party there.

Our Thanksgiving host has covid so we have been testing. Negative so far, but I am feeling really achy tonight. Have cancelled all indoor activities for the week although I will go see the shoulder orthopedic surgeon wearing a mask if I test negative tomorrow. It's taken forever to get an appointment and I hate to start over.

Anyone heart from Chris or Sandy?

Betrayal - holding you close.

I'm concerned about Betrayal, too, and miss her posts.

Yes, Taco, that's the name Top Golf. DH and I would never go there with just the two of us but it was a fun outing with nephew and family. It's not cheap. Two hours and food was over $200. I got a glimpse of the bill. The place was packed. Nephew said the business is a big money maker.

Cindy, good for you walking 2 1/2 miles. I used to walk 3 miles regularly but now it's more like 2 miles. I aim for at least 30 minutes and as much as 45 minutes at a brisk pace. The treadmill is easier on my body and I like keeping tabs on heartbeat.

We're in for freezing weather. I'll bring in my collection of succulent plantings for a couple of days.

We just received some Covid home tests. So far I have not had Covid but it seems to be very much a present threat. At least people don't seem to become as ill as when the virus first began to circulate. I'm seeing a few people wearing masks. There were two yesterday at the supermarket.

Nothing planned for today other than house chores except, possibly, chair yoga at the gym at 1 pm. The exercise class yesterday was quite a bit of exertion. My hip joints and knees complained a bit afterwards.

Happy Thursday to everyone.

My faucet is in! Oh how nice it is. In a week it will be just a faucet. lol It replaces one that had a sensor in it. Thought I’d love it, and did for a while. But I’m glad it’s gone.

I haven’t put up much Christmas decorations yet. I had some of those jelly window sticky decorations I found when I was taking Christmas cards out. So I decided to put them up - one is “Let it Snow” with different color snowflakes. Well, not sure if from heat (house is set to 80 when we’re in NY), but some of them were just disgusting goop! No other way to describe them. Some went in the garbage, and some ok ones went on the front door. But I think after this season they’ll be trash too. I don’t think they were put up last year. My little helper used to have me wait until she got here to decorate; then we did it in a flurry of action, 5 days before Christmas. Last year I waited, she got here and ran to be with the neighbors kids. Haha! I’m sure by next year she won’t miss them all being thrown away. Nor will I!

Tonight was an easy dinner. Left over ham steak cut up and heated in a big fry pan, where I added scrambled eggs.

I’m ready for a hot shower and jammies. Yes, it’s early, but I’m done. Sun sets later here than at the NY house, but once it’s pitch black I feel I’m ok to shower. 🤷‍♀️

Football game is tonight too. Enjoy your night.

I too miss hearing from Betrayal.

Good morning. We are having light rain, but I did try and walk. Afterwards I was damp and cold. My parka didn't help.

They finished the pavers around the pool. I will be glad when this is finished.

Midnight Louie is a "looker," Petite. Beautiful cat. Glad you're having progress on the patio.

I have succeeded in dropping 4 of the 5.5 lbs I gained over Thanksgiving holiday period. The first 3 or 4 lbs of "lost" weight is usually fluid and is easily regained. I'm very determined to continue the effort to reach a healthier weight with the expectation of ups and downs in success.

We had a freeze alert last night but I don't know whether it got down to 32 degrees. We slept with a window open a few inches and the heat off. It was 62 in the hallway when I turned on the heat this morning. We like sleeping in a cold room. I did bring in my succulent plants but will put them back out in the sunshine for today.

Hope everyone is faring well during this pre-Christmas season.

Good morning, everyone. I'm glad to see the sun out this morning. It's 21 degrees right now so it seems a tad warmer. Despite the breeze yesterday it wasn't as bad as I thought. Today there is hopefully even less wind.

Petite, I'm with Carole — Midnight Louis is quite handsome — and I love the "look" that doesn't miss anything at all.

Good for you too Carole getting rid of those lbs. again. It is true we can end up with a lot of water weight before we 'get' to the real lbs. so to speak. Still, it all counts as long as it comes off. I guess it is maintaining that can be a challenge. I never did well on that part at all. My trouble seemed to have been giving myself permission to have bigger portions on the holidays - which then seemed to melt into going ahead and finishing all the leftovers and by that time somehow, I fell out of my whole program.

For now, I seem to be at the 170 mark which seems to be something of a set (not by me) body wt. It's not really bad, mind you, but I would have likely chosen 10 or 12 lbs. less.

I haven't heard anything about Sandy and Chris, but do recall that Betrayal has a hard time during the X-mas holiday since that was her original dx. date time. She didn't post last yr. during this period and needed more testing this yr. as a reminder of times one would like to put behind them if they could. I'm sure she will come again later on to be with us.

Reader, I think the older generations had more home remedies and so got used to not soliciting Dr.'s nearly on the same level that our generation has. I recall my own Mom using a lot of home remedies although she took my sister and me to the Dr. for a whole lot of things. I recall my sister having a thing when she was younger of grabbing a chuck of hamburger when my mom was separating it in sizing for family use before going to the freezer. My Mom chastised her endlessly, but she kept snatching it. Well, it finally happened — she got tape worms — the old-fashioned remedy - a tsp. of coal oil. We had a cook stove that ran off coal oil at the time so the remedy was readily available at our house. I can still recall all these yrs. later how I cringed watching my sister have to swallow that coal oil. It worked though. Back in that day Vicks VapoRub really worked and as kids we often had it on our chests while we slept. Also, Mercurocome (not sure of spelling) and it was a funny orangey color in the little sort of sq. bottle with the glass tube dropper. Hotter than the gates of hell when you are a kid. Absorbine Jr. really worked then and doesn't now. At least as much as it did back then.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday.

Jackie you brought back memories of “save the baby” being rubbed on my chest, after warming it on the stove! The other, mercurochrome I believe was a Mercury based product; but that and merthiolate were always in our home.

I was able to get my walk in this morning. While I walk I’m listening to John Grishams book, Camino Island. Woopie Goldberg is the narrator, I’m enjoying it. Makes the time go by fast.

We ran some errands this afternoon, nothing special. Grabbed PDQ for dinner, which made my day even better. No cooking does that for me.

Tomorrow late afternoon we’re going to go down to the casino. We have tickets to see The Outlaws in concert. But I want to get there before the sun sets. So we can eat dinner and maybe I can get rich on the slot machines. HA! I’ll keep you posted.

Although many of us probably didn't get a thorough education in the value of a positive attitude, we can teach ourselves.  Simply by making a decision to look for the good, happy, and beautiful in all things and all people, you will have completed the first and most important step in learning to accentuate the positive

.Sue Patton Thoele