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

Happy New Year. I had a wonderful mini-vacation. Our first stop was the Florida Caverns in Mariana. Then our motel in Geneva. We had a late Christmas dinner with my niece's SO family. The next day we went to Gulf Shores, AL. I was disappointed. It is not a cute little beach town. I was very over cast and windy. The last day was very bad weather. It is nice to get away and so nice to get home. I did survive the 2nd anniversary of DH death without a meltdown. There is a guy from my widow and widowers social group that wants to go out. I have been putting him off, as I an not sure I am ready for a relationship. I could use a friend, but nothing more. I am beginning to get tired of being the 3rd wheel.

I have labs next week and PCP the following week.

Betrayal, fingers crossed this turns out to be nothing. You’ve had MORE than your share.

Petite, let your gentleman interest know you’re interested in friendship only at this time. It may be ok with him too. Can’t hurt.

Carole we had read about the tragedy in NOLA. Heart goes out to them.

Jackie, I’m glad the girl only damaged the mailbox. Could have been much worse.

My niece ran the 5k in 38:32, and had a blast. Our neighborhood celebration was fun, but different. We were home soon after midnight, showered & in bed by 1 AM.

My niece and grandniece leave today for home. We will miss them dearly. It’s my nieces bday today, we hope to celebrate with a fast meal and a cake before heading to the airport.

Ladies I wish us all a healthy New Year!

Chris, I didn't know hummus can contain chickpea flour. I have a bag sitting on my island. I want to try making socca again. I tried making it with another brand of chickpea flour and it was crumbly. One of our What's For Dinner? posters makes pizza using socca as the bottom crust.

Petite, I like Cindy's idea of being honest with the man who wants to take you out on a date.

Chris - your cooking and baking sound yummy. Enjoy!

Petite - I’m proud of you for taking a vacation. I’m sure the anniversary of DH’s passing is a very difficult time for you. I concur with what the others have said - to let the guy know you are interested only in friendship at this time and see what happens. Good luck.

It’s a cold, gray day here. We bundled up and went for a 2 mile walk through the neighborhood. It’s a bit windy but the fresh air felt good. I was at the gym yesterday and am mostly back to my usual pre-cancer workout although a bit slower. My gym is replacing most of the cardio and strength equipment on Thursday and Friday so I won’t be heading back over there until Saturday. I’m looking forward to the new equipment.

Happy New Year!

I agree. Set out the parameters for the relationship for any kind of evening out.

Bob's Red Mill does all kinds of alternative flours. I read the recipe for socca and it sounds too complicated—to many rarely used ingredients. I do hummus and falafel only. Hummus:

1/2 cup garbanzo flour

1 1/2 cup water

juice of one lemon

1 clove garlic

1/2 t cumin

2-4 T tahini

1T olive oil.

Mix garbanzo flour with one cup water. Heat over medium heat, stirring until it begins to thicken. Add the rest of the water until it begins to thicken again.

Remove from heat and add rest of ingredients. Mix with food processor. Blend until smooth. I add a few drops of Tabasco and some chopped olives. Much smoother than that made with canned beans. I think the outer skin makes the difference.

Interesting recipe for hummus. I've always used chickpeas/garbanzo beans. My socca recipes are simple. A variety of cooking methods, stovetop, oven, broiler.

Looks like winter will be arriving next week. I'll have to bring my little collection of succulents inside since I don't know if they will survive a hard freeze. I thought about Puffin/Connie this morning when Fargo was mentioned in the weather news.

Back to the gym this afternoon. I want to go to Chair Yoga at 1 pm. Some cardio before the class.

Coffee is tasting good this morning.

At midnight New Year’s Eve with neighbors, who had their family visiting for the first time in years from Mexico - the one young girl (15) ran up and down the street with an empty wheeled suitcase. We had no idea why. But we discovered it’s to draw in adventure and traveling to new places in the upcoming year.

My niece & her daughter got off to the airport fine. Flight to Baltimore was uneventful, next flight had a lot of turbulence. Then they arrived to find out the airport had lost electricity to the jetway. After an hour sitting they had to put their luggage back in the overhead bins as they had to move the plane to the other side of the airport! They landed at 10, and didn’t get luggage to leave until midnight.

I got a walk in this morning. It was 59 when I left and 63 when I returned. I remade the guest bed, got the duvet cover in the wash, and scrubbed the guest bathroom from top to bottom. Set the bathroom up for myself, before a walk that’s where I floss & brush teeth, wash face and go. I’m tired now, and look a wreck. I’d like to run to the store but I’m not sure I’ve got it in me.

Gosh, Petite, your temperature is lower than ours. It's in the low 50's here this morning and sunny. But next week is forecast to be cold every day.

Happy Friday to everyone.

Whew, Cindy. You are way too busy for a Saturday morning — but once you get rested how nice to STILL not have those things to do. Just hard to appreciate the up side when you are exhausted. Great story about the 'empty' suitcase.

Petite, you are only very slightly warmer than we are here in mid-Illinois at 30 degrees. Brrr. We are awaiting what we have been told is coming. Sounds like freezing rain and sleet all the way up to five or six inches of snow stopping Monday morning. Usually in our little pocket here we miss the worst and get something in-between so who knows what will really be. Rare, but now and then we get the whole enchilada.

Nothing too special for today. I'm in a half productive-half lazy few days and hopefully will get back to a little more productive.

Hope you all have a great day.

Jackie - hope you stay safe if you get hit with the storm. Oddly enough the storm seems to be going right through your area while ‘up north’ in the Chicago suburbs we are not expecting any precipitation. Temps are in the low 20’s now and the high forecast for mid next week is in the teens.

Happy Saturday. Not going to complain since Chris is so near zero temps. We are 25 right now. I looked out a bit ago and our flag wasn't moving at all — so it won't seem so bad if we don't have much for air movement. Tomorrow sometime is S-day. Sunday and snow day together. It goes into Monday morning which is what would give us our accumulation — but of what — some is going to be snow they say while the rest, sleet and ice. We will see. Hope I can remember to pull up my windshield wipers tonight since I likely won't go out tomorrow at all if I can help it.

Then again, maybe I'll just go to Harley's house because her weather sounds better and she is only 4 hrs. away. I could leave late and still get there before dark.

I hope you all have a good Saturday and if possible do not have to welcome too much winter weather either.

It’s 18 degrees here but sunny. I’m heading to the gym for a quick workout before we head to a friend’s tonight.

Jackie and Chris - stay warm and safe.

Loved those pictures — especially with the lack of snow in them. The moon and planet picture were fantastic in my book but have to admit this is being said by someone who doesn't even have a phone. As always, the water pics deeply appreciated.

Woke up this a.m. not knowing what to expect. Looked like a light dusting — not sure (I wasn't going out to see) if there was any 'ice' in it. Already the snow is coming down quickly and the dusting as turned into a couple of inches. Weather indicates it will snow all day and into tomorrow morning. I don't think we will get the sleet and ice that was indicated earlier — or maybe some places got some. The snowflakes do not seem very large so there isn't too much moisture in the air. It is going to be dense.

A good time to stay indoors and vegetate. Which I'm sure we will do.

Hope you all have a really good day and tolerable weather.

Update from Illinois. It is still snowing a bit, but light enough I can't see it. There are little birds close to the house — I presume either looking for something to eat or staying out of whatever snow may be falling. Had I known they would gather in that spot I would have taken out some bread crumbs for them.

Not sure how much snow we have right now. There is a lot of un-even ground out here and we have had a wind so there are some drifts as well.

The snow is falling pretty steadily now and it seems to be very fine in size. Supposed to cutoff later this afternoon but we will see since weather people aren't always accurate even with all their crazy models.

The birds have been consuming the suet like crazy and it is nice that I can just open the window to refill the holder. I crank it out, remove the holder from the shepherd's cook and refill. No point in putting out seed since they can't find it on ground and deer raid feeder. I buy the suet cakes from Walmart and buy them by the box so they are relatively inexpensive. They really like this one brand so I will reorder it. It doesn't melt and looks like sugar cookie dough.

My children's former babysitter's son called last night to tell us his wife had died. We don't keep in touch as much as we used to but he had reached out about 8 weeks ago to ask for advice for his oldest daughter's continued college schooling. His wife had been ill for awhile so it was expected and she really decided how she wanted to go. It's just a shame it was on 12/27. When his mother, my sitter, died my son was about 8 and he was very angry with her. When I asked why, he said, "because she didn't say good-bye". They had been very close, so that broke my heart and I had to explain that she hadn't said good-bye to anyone. I can still remember his face. Her death was not expected. What started as a child care relationship blossomed into a family one over the years.

As I have told you, I do not like mammograms in November, or anything breast related in December since this was when my BC experience began over 9 years ago. After my Dad died right before Christmas in 2009, I was able to pull myself together and celebrate Christmas which was once my favorite holiday until 2015, which was the last time I celebrated it. Christmas that year became related to all the bad news I was to receive about my BC and then my BS dragged revealing my bx results until 1/7. That was the first of his insults and then he added to it, which is why we parted ways after my second lumpectomy, which he also managed to screw up. That was the beginning of the all the lies my supposed devoted BC team told over the next 2 years. The only one that truly cared, didn't lie and was caring is my MO who I still see.

It's a tough time of year for me and the problem mammogram this year just triggered a whole slew of painful memories. The need for another bx and now in limbo until I get MRI results, delayed until this hematoma (another haunting memory) resolves is not relieving my stress level. I am trying to find distractions so I have cleaned out all my kitchen cabinets, the kitchen storage closet which holds some appliances and other cooking/entertaining items, and there was a pile of donate, toss and store elsewhere items. I had previously organized the pantry so I just have the bottom of the last cabinet to organize and will get to it today.

I did spend time with my children and grandchildren over the holidays and that was pleasant. They like their gifts and we had a meal with DD and DSIL and then DS and his family had leftovers in the form of prime rib sliders, cheese and crackers, etc. I did not bake one cookie this year which is about the only tradition I had held on to. Just couldn't do it but hope I can resurrect it next year.

My niece who married on 11/30 had a guest that both her husband and she knew from a former job when he was a client. They became friends and he really enjoyed the wedding. About 3 weeks later, he had a seizure and died within 24 hours. He had high functioning autism, and was an only child of a single mother. At the wedding he interjected himself into some of the formal photographs and they finally had to tell him they were for the wedding party only. He wasn't the least bit upset and apologized. The groom's father had died last spring after a lengthy illness and then he loses a friend. My SIL just notified me that his aunt had died right around Christmas so they have suffered 3 losses in less than a year. So sad for them.

The deer are in the backyard looking for something to eat. They made short work of the pumpkins this year and seemed not to like the striped cream ones as much as the ordinary orange ones. No seed in the feeder so they can't raid it.

Hope everyone has a good day.