2021: Think Positively for a Better Year!
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Congrats. Enjoy the time you regained. But keep asking people to step up and help. Great job.
I'm definitely going to think of it as "keeping Helene's voice in my head". LOL!
I'm going "up home" today to have lunch with my brother before the heads west. Now that my dad is gone, the family home is going to be sold and my brother is moving out west to live in my sister and BIL's in-law apartment. It's a million dollar home in Sedona so considering he's pretty much penniless it's a pretty good offer. But he's grousing. He thinks he should have gotten the family home. And I guess he's thinks the rest of us should have paid the utilities, taxes, upkeep, etc. which he can't afford. ((I don't know how else he could have stayed there.) I veto'd his first restaurant choice when I looked at the satellite view and saw no decent parking but he was pretty good about that.0 -
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I hope lunch with your brother goes well. He’s lucky he has a nice place to live waiting for him even if he doesn’t see that. How well does he get along with your sister and BIL? Is he flying there or driving cross country. Good job on the family insisting on sell your dad’s home. He couldn’t have kept it up and met the financial obligations.0
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Enjoy your lunch with your brother. It sounds like he has a very nice place waiting for him in Sedona, so hopefully he will get over thinking he should have gotten your father’s house. We’ve dealt with that some with DH’s sister. Since she is the primary caretaker for their mom, she feels pretty entitled to some things. While I agree that there should be some accommodation for that, it annoys me that she just assumes it’s ok to appropriate things without any discussion. DH is so confrontation-averse that she gets away with it, and I don’t feel like it’s my place to say anything to her. I’ve made my feelings known to DH but it doesn’t do much good.0
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As unfair as your SIL’s sense of entitlement is, in the end it’s just stuff. This year has taught as so much about what’s important in life. Tell you husband your opinion but then let it go. You can’t change him or his sister. Their dynamic probably goes back to childhood.0
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Yeah, if when dad had moved home brother had said "I'll take care of him in exchange for the house" I'd have said "sure" even if I had no idea how he'd keep it. Instead he said "don't expect me to do a thing for dad" so that pretty much sealed the deal as far as I'm concerned, added to the fact that he's not physically or financially capable of upkeep.
I almost envy him the adventure of driving cross country with no deadlines hanging over his head. Sounds sort of fun! I have this fantasy of taking a cross country train trip, sleeping on the train, sight seeing at various stops. I'll never do it (if you even can) but sounds fun.0 -
Helene, I agree that it is just stuff, but it isn’t the way their parents wanted it or the way they wrote their wills to indicate the fair distribution of property. Some of the stuff is actually fairly valuable as his parents were collectors of western art. There are several paintings that I’m certain she has appropriated without discussion, as well as jewelry and other items. You are correct that it goes back to childhood dynamics. She was a bully towards DH when they were kids and got away with it because he hates confrontation so much. I don’t especially like the paintings, but they have enough value that they would be worth having.
Maryanne, I’ve always wanted to do a train trip as well. I’ve thought about doing the one that crosses southern Canada going over the Rockies. I think the scenery would be incredible.0 -
This guy is a real pill. Both hilarious and disgusting (a short reference to my state's one republican idiot congressman):
Sen. Tom Cotton Comes Up With Novel Way To Hail Whiteness, Gets Harsh Smackdown
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tom-cotton-mondaire-jones-racism-wyoming-dc-statehood_n_60833b06e4b09cce6c10c2aa0 -
Maryanne, I see we both got the same email from Michelle Marsh. Hard to believe it’s 6 years since she set up the NS refugees board after NS kicked us all off. I had forgotten all about them. Like you, I went over and checked in.0
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Maryanne, I see we both got the same email from Michelle Marsh. Hard to believe it’s 6 years since she set up the NS refugees board after NS kicked us all off. I had forgotten all about them. Like you, I went over and checked in.
Which means it's been 6 years since the NS boards disappeared.
I check in usually once a day.0 -
Mike Pence’s COVID Rule-Busting Vail Vacation Cost Public $757,000 In Security Costs Alone
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-pence-covid-vail-vacation_n_6084ee3ae4b003896e04dbd40 -
I've got to buckle down and get back on track.
I started the day with Kashi high protein cereal.0 -
I’d forgotten all about them until I got Michelle’s email. It must have been over a year since I posted there. I’ll have to visit there more often.0
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Case counts around the world
While cases have been declining the US, Americans may not have realized that case counts worldwide are now back up at the level they were over the winter. Going by total case counts, the current top 10 countries for COVID-19 are:
US
India
Brazil
France
Russia
UK
Turkey
Italy
Spain
Germany
But what these countries generally have in common is large populations. The list of total cases per 100,000 people tells a very different story (not counting countries with fewer than 100,000 people):
Montenegro
Czech Republic
Slovenia
Luxembourg
Bahrain
Aruba
US
Serbia
Israel
Estonia
The US is the only country on both lists, which is a testament to how poorly we’ve handled the pandemic, especially early on. Every other nation with a lot of case counts generally has it by virtue of having a large population.0 -
This week is all about preparing for my trip to the Florida Keys on Sunday with SIL. I’m working out my packing choices and getting those clothing items ready, as well as all the beach essentials I’ll need. We have a snorkeling charter scheduled for the day we are in Key West, and a beach day planned for Key Largo, but the rest of the time is unplanned thus far.
I’m going to get a manicure and pedicure later today, after I finish doing laundry. I guess the mani/pedi is my reward for doing that chore, lol!0 -
I did a mani/pedi myself today. I was way overdue because of the trips to Okeechobee. My nails were a mess. We’ll be going home in Stwo weeks so I wanted to get my nails done and get a haircut. I’ll be seeing family on the drive back and wanted to look decent. Everyone s vaccinated and it’s ver a year since we’ve seen each other. Maryanne, how did lunch with your brother g?0
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I did a mani/pedi myself today. I was way overdue because of the trips to Okeechobee. My nails were a mess. We’ll be going home in Stwo weeks so I wanted to get my nails done and get a haircut. I’ll be seeing family on the drive back and wanted to look decent. Everyone s vaccinated and it’s ver a year since we’ve seen each other. Maryanne, how did lunch with your brother g?
Time is racing by. Boy, it's been 2 days since that. It went fine actually. We ate and talked, mostly politics. Then I drove around our home town a few minutes and visited the family home. It's really empty. I knew my dad had been pitching but apparently brother has continued. I hope we don't get grief from the bank/executor.
Raced around yesterday doing chores. Today I met with some other volunteers for the first time in person in over a year! We just talked and talked. We started with lunch and finally drug ourselves out of the restaurant after 4 pm! Luckily it was pretty empty.0 -
How long is the trip? You’re a good friend to travel with SIL considering how different you are in attitudes. Have a wonderful trip. Prepare for hot weather. This week is in the 90s. I wasn’t feeling great when I got home yesterday. I felt lightheaded. I think it was a reaction to the heat. The AC replacement was done when I got home. The house was cool and I drank extra fluids. I fell asleep watching tv and felt better when I woke up.This week is all about preparing for my trip to the Florida Keys on Sunday with SIL. I’m working out my packing choices and getting those clothing items ready, as well as all the beach essentials I’ll need. We have a snorkeling charter scheduled for the day we are in Key West, and a beach day planned for Key Largo, but the rest of the time is unplanned thus far.
I’m going to get a manicure and pedicure later today, after I finish doing laundry. I guess the mani/pedi is my reward for doing that chore, lol!
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Originally our trip was planned to be from Sunday to Saturday, 6 days. However, right after I made all of the reservations and booked my flight, I got a notice from the husband of my good friend who passed away last March from a very aggressive cancer that he was finally planning to hold the Celebration of Life event for her on the evening I was to arrive home. I really wanted to be able to attend, so I checked with SIL to see if she would mind if I came home a day earlier. She was surprisingly pleasant and understanding about it, so I changed my flight home to Friday. She later decided that she would also go home on Friday and was able to change her reservation as well. I think that will be long enough for us to do everything we really wanted to do while in Florida anyway, and I know I’ll be tired of dealing with her by then. She probably feels the same way, lol!0
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Wow, where did the last couple days go? Visiting my brother, getting the newsletter ready, trying to get some work done, lunch with friends yesterday, a 2-hour call with my sister today (we talk about once a year). And WAY more work still to do.
Lunch was fun yesterday. They left us pretty much alone and the place was pretty empty. I actually thought they could have been a little more solicitous. So I left a really big tip for using up the table but probably not so much as I would have left if they'd paid a little attention to us.
On this restaurant's web site they are advertising for a chef and a sous chef so I guess they're short handed in the kitchen but I wouldn't have guessed from the food.
I had Maryland crab soup, a grilled crab cake and salad.0 -
Pam - here's hoping your SIL isn't too much of a PITA. I've never spent any alone time with any of my SIL's. Just never came up and probably just as well.0
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Helene - I'm glad you're feeling better!0
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I think it was heat exhaustion. It passed quickly once I cooled down and drank water. Years ago, DH was in DC on business. I flew down his last day so we could do a mini vacation. It was August an very humid. I was waiting for the hotel shuttle in the blazing sun. Shortly after checking in, I felt very ill. I laid n the bed and it felt like I was on a ship. DH went to dinner with colleagues and I went to bed. We went sightseeing the next day and I still felt shaky at times and had to sit in the shade. I think I had sunstroke. I recovered okay but probably should have gone to an urgent care center. I’ve been careful in the sun since then.0
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This is the house our governor just bought. Screams "public servant" does it?
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WOW! Not what I would have expected.0
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I'm definitely old. Email from high school classmate. First boy I ever kissed is dead. First boy I ever dated is in a nursing home.
Of course our class has suffered a ton of losses. A classmate's doctor attributes it to the orchards. Many teenagers worked in the trees and in those days they'd just run the sprayer up and down the rows, didn't matter if they were spraying poison on humans. Many of my classmates have actually been gone for years.0
