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

Interesting discussion on Costco. You ladies must have read my mind as we plan to head over to Costco this week and get a membership. It’s less than 3 miles from our house and we are looking to save money on paper products, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, vitamins etc. We’ll try it for a year and see how it goes.

DH took a dozen boxes of fine china and such to the thrift shop on Monday. I also cleaned out some dresser drawers this week so I feel like we are making good progress. This will be an ongoing process for as long as we remain in this house as I am determined not to leave our son a huge mess to sort through. Honestly, we are pretty good about purging and are pretty organized (thanks to DH). Compared to some of our family members, we are minimalists 😀.

We are also in process of changing our internet and TV provider. We’ve had Comcast for years but they have raised prices significantly over the past 2-3 years. We signed up with another internet provider starting this Friday and will go without TV for awhile. We rarely watch TV except for NFL football from September - January so we are going to do some research on streaming services. We have Amazon Prime so we watch some of the games there. We’ve been paying quite a bit for a service we do not really use.

Weather here has been cool and rainy the past few days. Should clear up tomorrow and be in the 60’s till early next week when the temps start to go up again. The pool is ready to go but we haven’t turned the heater on yet and will need to do so before I dip my dainty toes in the water.

Wishing everyone a good week and thinking of those dealing with health issues (Cindy - good news on your scan!)

DH's second knee replacement, right knee, caused him more pain than the first surgery, left knee. The surgeon's staff told him that can often be the case. It's like pregnancy and childbirth. They aren't always the same experience.

It's 65 degrees out this morning. DH said it's delightful. He made this discovery when he trekked out to the outside refrigerator for his half & half for his coffee. The refrigerator repair is scheduled for tomorrow. I had opted to play golf but cancelled and will let dh play instead. I will do some yard work.

We have solar panels and haven't had to pay an electricity charge since we got them. It's probably getting close to ten years. DH keeps track of them with a phone app. We've had some repairs but they have definitely been a huge savings. They're installed on the south side of our roof and we get a lot of full sunshine. So far we've been able to sell extra electricity back to the power company. With politicians in charge, you never know how long a policy that benefits consumers will remain in place. I'm a big fan of renewable energy, sun and wind.

One downside is that the panels have to be removed and reinstalled when a new roof goes on a home. If the roof is covered by insurance, the company pays the charge. We're close to needing a new roof.

Today is my hair appointment in the town of Ponchatoula, a 40 minute drive with the route I choose. I'm still not committed to staying gray but will not be doing color today. I guess I'm not reconciled to looking my age. I'm on the lookout for a compromise. Open to suggestions.

Happy Thursday.

Good morning. Should be (if weather is correct) sunny but on the cooler side all day. in the 60's. I'll do okay with it. Our friend Tim says he pays something to the electric company but I certainly assume it is not anything near like we (no solar panels here) pay. He has two large grids of panels in the far end of his back yard. Some Bradford pear trees in a row a little ways away. Perhaps that is why there seem to be a lot of panels for one house — though it is the house with upstairs and basement as well. I'll have to ask him again how his "electric bill" works.

I think we simply have too many trees around us to be able to do anything — provided of course, we could even afford it. I too am a fan of renewables — and in the long run it sounds so much safer and cleaner than what we have from the past — like coal. For yrs. at home growing up we had an old coal stove. Not only did it now do a good job of warming the house, but it was somewhat smelly and then you had to get a feel for when to take out the "clinkers" which were big chunks of hot waste from the coal that banded together somewhat inside the stove belly. Also, you had to know when to add more to try and keep up what warmth you had in the house since heat had to constantly disperse from the stove itself. The worse part of all was having to carry the buckets of coal from the shed on the back of our property into the house every late afternoon. Top-heavy and very cumbersome for someone of my size — underwt. most of my life. It was always a long way and something of a stumbled reeling for me. All good training though in doing things that were difficult and un-desirable. Perhaps something that still continues to help me with whatever stamina I might now have.

I am wondering about out roof. It is metal and was here (don't know how long for sure) when we moved into the house 22 yrs. ago. It hasn't shown a sign as yet of not being okay. I am sort of amazed. I think I need to keep my fingers crossed. We did our screen room which only had thick plastic panels (fine for a screen room) for a long time but we changed them out after a limb went through at one point. So we are all metal now. I do wonder if the 'metal' of today is as sturdy and our 22 yr. old roof seems.

Hope all slept well and that anyone recovering from colds, flu or other such ailments is doing ok. All coming back home and dealing with clothes and other such things — wish I could come help you. This I guess needs to go double for Sandy who needs to get back into her house. I hope that is what you are up to, Sandy. Saying hi to all who post less frequently these days.

It’s about 11:30 and we’ve just hit 50. Gloomy gray outside. The weatherman last night said NorEaster with possible snow in the mountains. It’s not raining at the moment but appears it will rain all day & night. Enough already!

Hair color, I agree with Betrayal, whatever you’re comfortable with. My natural was a medium brown, but it got harder to hide my Snow White roots. I’m now dark blonde, which allows me an extra 2 weeks without touch ups. But in all honesty, I liked having brown hair, and near every time I see myself in a mirror I expect to see brown.

Metal roofs, like you Jackie we have metal but only on the garage with a longer shed built onto it. Snow doesn’t stick, it holds up well - big branches have hit it from the blasted pine trees (before last seasons trimming). But I’m unsure I’d want holes put in it to attach solar panels. Like your neighbor, if you had space on your property to set them up, I’d opt for that.

Harley, all the trouble I’ve had with Spectrum - removing us from seasonal hold 4+ months early, losing the plan we had, and on & on, I’d like to switch too. I think our “triple play” of phone, internet, and cable with DVR cost about $270 per month. And like most of us, we pretty much stick to maybe a dozen channels. I have a lot of streaming but like Jackie said, I don’t think we utilize an iota of any of them. Good luck with your switch.

As for Costco, we have one being built near our FL home, and one being built near NY home. I’d guess our population and demographics finally fit. I’d definitely try it. We use BJ’s which is very close to both FL & NY. It is super handy for getting gas - using their credit card and getting an additional 10 cents off per gallon, along the way to/from FL & NY. We’ve had Sam’s which is further away from both homes, but we let it expire.

Betrayal, our heat has been on for days now, set at 68. I hear it running now. I just looked at outdoor temp and it’s back down to 49. Rain thru Sunday with a high of 56. I know I complained of FL 90 degree temps, but geeze I’d like mid 70’s.

I ran around to cemeteries yesterday to check on flags for the graves of family. Only my dad’s grave had one. The cemetery he is in had put them all out, but the cemetery where most of my mothers brothers are had none. I let cousins know I checked early, due to the forecast, so they might want to buy some if they want.

My step son turn us on to an app called “Too Good To Go” where he’s gotten discounted meals and bakery items. I down loaded it and was able to buy a “surprise” bag of prepared meals ($9.99), and one of bakery items ($6.99); both from Whole Foods.
It’s items that have a sell by date pretty much on the date you pick it up. You don’t get to pick, it’s just value based on what they have. Bakery bag had 4 poppyseed lemon muffins; 4 large brownies; a box of maybe 10-12 large peanut butter cookies; and a half loaf of buttered garlic bread you put in the oven. Prepared meals had a shrimp scampi; boneless Buffalo chicken bites, fingerling potatoes w lemon; a vegan bean & cheese burrito. You just never know what’s in it. But the price is a phenomenal deal. And my SO eats just about anything, loves spices I don’t eat. There are 2 restaurants listed in our area as well. If you check it out, your area could be totally different products.

It’s raining now, and back up to 50. I’ll find some indoor project, or check out one of many streaming services. Or read!

Enjoy your day! Sorry I wrote a book…

well I woke up with scratchy throat and sniffles. So forced day of rest. It was a beautiful sunny day so out I went in my yard to enjoy the rays. Watered plants and sprayed the honeysuckle as I see bugs are at them already. My clematis is in full bloom now and looks fabulous. Feels like summer has arrived yay but a wee walk down to the water and wind and choppy waters were all I saw so I beattled back home It’s half a block away so not much of a walk

Good morning. A bit of a nice sun out this morning. I think it will be warmer too. It was a quiet night during the wee hours. I think the dry out period is here. Maybe some rain on Sunday, but then again — I don't depend on weather reports all that much. The furnace has come on this morning so it is cool outside as we s peak — low 40's during the night which is why, I'm sure.

Carol, though I'm doubtful it will offer a lot of help to you — we found here at our house a well placed fan in a couple of places (coupled with the a/c at 78) is what keeps us comfortable. Our a/c goes for fair periods w/o having to turn on and the air seems stagnant often by the time it does — so the fans, even on low tend to keep the air moving more and less stale or overly warm. I know you are much more warm natured so an answer for here may not fit your house.

Nothing special planned today. A couple of bills but that is standard. It will be back to my list. Hope everyone has a great day.

Finally the sun has peeped through although the temps are only in the low 60's, so still very cool with a slight breeze. There are mushrooms growing in the lawn so that will give you an idea of how wet it has been and there are plenty of them.

Slept through last night so it seems that turning the heat back on to dispel the dampness worked at keeping my knee quiet. Took Norco at bedtime and the one waking I had, responded to reading for about 15 minutes and then I drifted off until Regan played alarm clock at 6:30.

petite1, I had a chuckle about "the old lady" in the back seat and being ignored vs GPS. I can honsetly say I find GPS annoying and seldom activate it in my car. I do have access to maps via Sirius and use those if I am driving in an unfamiliar area. Glad you enjoyed your trip and I enjoyed your photos. We were in Charleston several years ago for the day and I enjoyed it. DH insisted it was just a short distance from Hilton Head and boy, oh boy, was he wrong. I think we spent more time in transit than we did in the town.

Just received the BC/BS claim notice about my knee surgery minus the surgeon's bills and it is huge. TG for Medicare and BC/BS.

PT is going well and she is changing up my exercises. She measured my ability to flex knee to butt and I've improved over 20 degrees since my initial eval. She wants both knees to be > 120 degrees so that is my focus. So today was a re-eval and new exercises. The damp is a negative factor it seems so I need the sun to stick around for a few days.

We have placed individual chicken wire wraps around the junipers we had planted several years ago. One winter the deer played havoc with them and really caused them to be misshapen. They can't munch on them now so they've shown some recovery. We'd like to enclose the entire area rather than enclose each because they grow so fast. So DH has to measure height of fencing to use and calculate number of poles we will need. Project for the summer is to enclose the bed on the hill and change out the fencing on the bed by the stream as well as the one in front of the house. He also needs to install new accent lighting on the hill bed. We had lighting that shone up into the trees or at the trees but had to remove it when they put the new landscaping in. He purchased the new lights and I think DS said he would help with installation.

Carole, glad your hairdresser suggested a new "do" for you. I always joked that changing my "do" was cheaper than seeking out a plastic surgeon and less painful. I like new "do's". Hope you like yours.

Illinoislady, when we moved into this house we had so many trees that we never put the air conditioning on until August. Now with many of these trees having to have been removed over the years due to old age or because they decided to hit the house, we will turn the air on most likely in June.

Out of self defense after 2 tree strikes damaged the house (18 years apart), we had an arborist check the trees and he was the one that flagged which of the tulip poplars, ash and cherry trees had to go. Our tulip poplars are well over 100 feet tall so they could easily strike the house if they decided to fall, so any that could hit the house are gone. The ash trees all became infested with ash borers and sadly had to be removed. They were such lovely trees but were dying by inches and we had to be concerned that they were spreading the borers to other ashes in the area.

Canarycat, the clematis is lovely. Mine did not bloom last year and I did not get a chance to cut it back, so I am not sure if it will bloom this year. I think it is purple, too. It is huge and covers the trellis I have behind it for support.

I am itching to get out in the garden and to be able to dig holes. I promised my PT some hosta and all of mine need some thinning. So I may just pot them and take to PT so others can adopt them. I used to swap with a neighbor who also was a gardening aficionado but she moved away.

I wish everyone a great day. Hello to anyone I have missed.

Happy Memorial Day weekend for those of us in the US. The day is supposed to be sunny and possibly in the low 70's so a decent day. I want to do some window box gardening and patio pot filling with the plants I have and possibly take another trip to Produce Junction for some ferns I had seen the other day. I want to plant ferns on the side of the hill that was not landscaped. It is in deep shade so ferns would be the best plants to introduce there. My aim is minimalist gardening with plants you would find in wooded areas, so a return to nature look. I'll try to get DGS who likes to garden involved once he finishes school for the year.

I hope to thin some hosta today as well. I have saved some pots to put them in for giving to others. They are so expensive at local nurseries or even Home Depot. They are crowded in a few of my beds and I have to keep them close to the house to keep them from becoming a deer buffet, though by the end of the summer they have actually chewed on them as well.

We went out to lunch at a new restaurant/taphouse near us. My DH, DD and DSIL had tried it earlier while I was hospitalized and they loved it. I decided to try the Canyon nachos featuring pulled pork, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. It was listed as an appetizer and it was so huge I had to bring half of it home. It was also delicious. DH couldn't finish his chicken sandwich either so we both have lunch for today. We will return and I signed up for their rewards program.

The weekend is supposed to be nice. I plan on making potato salad, a broccoli salad, cole slaw and maybe a cucumber salad. I have plenty of spring mix greens so that could be the base for another salad with craisins and walnuts. I love salads of any variety. DD and DSIL will be over for burgers and hot dogs. DSIL loves my potato salad so I plan on making all 4 lbs of potatoes so they can take some home with them.

I took a pain pill at bedtime woke once but fell back to sleep easily. Woke again at 5 am with severe knee pain, took pain med but needed the ice pack to finally knock it out. In PT yesterday I did a lot of new exercises so think this added to pain development. However, willing to endure it as long as I am making progress.

Hope everyone has a great day and weekend. Remember to thank service members for our freedom as well as their service.

Thanks, Chris. I do tend to overdo and need to pace myself or I will pay later.

I have been watching the hummingbird fly around the light outside the patio sliders. I learned that they like to use spider webs to construct their nests because it acts like elastic. So I think it has been stealing the spider webs that these lamps tend to attract. There is a nest on the one at the back door but we haven't seen any bird use it so I think we can safely remove it. The hummingbird also found the feeder that I was late in putting out this year. So I have been watching it use it today. It is surprising how long their tongues are. I need to find some red Lantana for the planter near the feeder since it seems they like both red and Lantana. Glad to see it is back.

Got potato salad and broccoli salad done and just ran out of steam. Both seem to taste better the next day. Can throw coleslaw together easily so I may make it later. i add raisins to give it a kick and the family loves it.

Cleaning bird cages now and will try to get outside to work on patio plants. Never made it yesterday because we got an afternoon shower. It's sunny and only 63, they claim it will warm up but said the same for yesterday and that never happened.

Illinoislady, I love pasta and what you had sounded very good. That sauce is easy to make using canned whole Italian tomatoes you break up with a fork, use olive oil and just use garlic to flavor it (remove once it's brown), add basil at the end of cooking. I buy a live root basil plant which thrives in a glass of water. Bumblebee eats a leaf a day and my last plant is over 3 months old, still putting out leaves. i just bought a new one and this should last over the summer. So I have it available for cooking as well as for his daily treat. He tears it into strips, which look like strands of spaghetti, before he gobbles it down. Likes celery leaves, too.

Hope your computer is easily repaired. I will most likely have to buy a new laptop because this one is too old to update to Windows 11 and I have worn out several keys with my weird typing method. I'm not good at computer repairs but DH and DS are. DS has built several for his family over the years.

Hope everyone has a great day.

My new "do" will require growing longer hair and shaping it to curve under. A challenge since the left side wants to flip up. Cindy, my sister and I go to the same stylist and we joke that she makes us look like hookers. I always do some hair rearrangement when I get to my car.

I went to a local salon today to get a pedicure and ended up getting a manicure, too. I got colored polish on the toenails but not on the fingernails. My hands look nice with the cuticles trimmed and a "natural" polish.

By the end of the day, I should be finished with packing clothes for MN. I'm waiting for a load of dark clothes to dry. Tomorrow I hope to get some cleaning done. I like to leave the house as clean and neat as possible.

Those cool temperatures some of you are mentioning sound great to me.

I can empathize with the hair styling. When my hair was longer I was very happy with the way my hairdresser cut it. But I definitely didn’t like the blowout because my hair had no body due to the amount of hair product she used so it was plastered to the side of my head. I would go home, wash it and fluff it a bit.

Illinoislady, the pasta sounds yummy and as Betrayal noted it should be easy to make at home. However, somehow I find it tastes better in a restaurant when I didn’t have to do the food prep and cleanup.

Safe travels Carole! We are running about 10 degrees cooler than normal in northern Illinois and I am loving the 60 degree temps. It is forecasted to be in the 70’s and 80’s by next weekend.

Betrayal. I know you are anxious to get back into gardening but take care not to over do it

I got in a 14 mile bike ride today and it felt great to be outside.

Wishing everyone a good week.

Self-respect cannot be hunted.  It cannot be purchased.
It is never for sale.  It cannot be fabricated out of public relations.
It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places,
when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it;
knowing the beautiful, we have served it;
knowing the truth, we have spoken it.

Whitney Griswold