This Year is Our Year for Success!

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Replies

  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    I feel for you and your family. This is a hard time for you. I’m at BIL’s in Okeechobee. We’re here a few days before we start home. I’ve been going through my sister’s closet and bureau to help him out. I took two huge bags of clothes to Goodwill yesterday. She was really a clothes horse even though she hadn’t worn most of the clothes in years. I offered to do some of this when we spent time with her last fall. I would have shown her the clothes and asked her which pieces to donate. She didn’t want me to so we just visited. I still have another closet to do but that will wait until when we come back in the fall. At least what I’ve done makes me feel helpful. I have another bag of donations all set Togo.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    That's great of you to do, Helene! Too bad I'm not close enough to my BIL to have helped out like that. I've actually never been to their home (in Sedona).

    DH worries about BIL not having water (same with my brother should he decide to stay in Oregon). I figure they are grown men that can decide what they want to do. LOL!
  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    What’s your brother doing in Oregon? You said he was unhappy living in AZ without your sister. Had he lived in Oregon before?
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    Got an email from ancestry about a DNA update. I hadn't been for awhile (ancestry is on my "when I finally retire list). They have a new feature where they tell you what percentage of your DNA was contributed by each parent (but you don't know which parent is which). Ancestry says I'm 20% German which seems low and it all comes from one parent?????? I don't see how that's possible. I guess it has to be my dad's parents (they are from PA Dutch country; my mom's parents are from Maryland) but I never would have guessed in a million years. Of course sometimes as Ancestry refines their processes results change so that could happen. Then they ask me if I can identify which parent is which. Nope!

    Hot sunny day here. Fed the colonies, now I'm doing chores, checking emails (which sent me to ancestry), etc.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    Helene610 wrote: »
    What’s your brother doing in Oregon? You said he was unhappy living in AZ without your sister. Had he lived in Oregon before?

    I haven't updated the story I guess. He and BIL co-existed for a few months, very unhappily. Brother moved out. He travelled to Oregon to see his dog (belongs to a friend). Stayed a month or so and moved back to Gettysburg where he got a job as a night clerk at one of the battlefield motels (relatively safe COVID job I guess). Quit that job recently, gave up his apartment and drove to Oregon. I asked if he was visiting or moving and he couldn't tell me. Now it sounds like he's visiting. Time will tell I guess. My brother, the rolling stone bachelor.
  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    If he’s safe and happy, that’s what you need to hope for. At least the economy is such that he should be able to find a job in Oregon if he decides to stay.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    Helene610 wrote: »
    If he’s safe and happy, that’s what you need to hope for. At least the economy is such that he should be able to find a job in Oregon if he decides to stay.

    He said the job prospects are better although Gettysburg as both a tourist and a college town isn't too shabby in that regards. Especially if you aren't aiming any higher than motel night clerk.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    DH emailed this to me:

    How safe and effective are 2nd booster shots? Are there side effects to getting a 4th dose of vaccine?
    A 2nd booster shot (or the 4th overall dose) of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccines appeared to be safe and gave a “substantial” boost to immunity when given about 7 months after the 1st booster (or the 3rd overall dose), according to a new study published May 9.

    “Fourth-dose Covid-19 mRNA booster vaccines are well tolerated and boost cellular and humoral immunity,” UK scientists wrote in the study published in The Lancet.

    “Peak responses after the fourth dose were similar to, and possibly better than, peak responses after the third dose.”

    The researchers gave study participants a half dose of the Moderna vaccine or a full dose of the Pfizer vaccine in a random selection in January, about 7 months after they received their first booster. The 2nd booster didn’t seem to have any major side effects. The biggest complaints were arm pain and fatigue.

    The additional booster also generated an immune response at day 14 that was higher than that at day 28 after the 3rd dose of the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

    Moderna’s fourth dose seemed to do slightly better than Pfizer’s, but it’s unclear why. Scientists said 4th doses of either vaccine generated what scientists called a “significant fold change” in protective antibodies and also boosted T-cells.

    Antibodies are a first line of immune protection that can stop a virus from infecting cells. T-cells come in later and destroy infected cells. T-cells can’t protect against mild infections, but they can keep infections from progressing to severe disease.

    The researchers also found that some people who had higher levels of antibodies before their 4th doses of vaccine had only “limited” boosting. Those with a history of Covid-19 had a similar limited response. The authors say this suggests there may be a ceiling or maximum response that can come with a 4th vaccine dose.

  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    My progress report this week (I haven't adjusted the goal BMI for having lost a little height - one thing at a time - LOL!)

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  • PamS53
    PamS53 Posts: 1,936 Member
    That article is interesting. DH and I got our 4th shots of the Moderna vaccine about 10 days before we left for our trip to the beach. SIL hasn’t had one yet and she did contract Covid while on the trip. DH and I did not get sick, despite being in close quarters with her before and for a day or two after she got sick. I think our booster shots definitely protected us.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    PamS53 wrote: »
    That article is interesting. DH and I got our 4th shots of the Moderna vaccine about 10 days before we left for our trip to the beach. SIL hasn’t had one yet and she did contract Covid while on the trip. DH and I did not get sick, despite being in close quarters with her before and for a day or two after she got sick. I think our booster shots definitely protected us.

    TPTB are working on the next generation vaccinations but for now the current vaccinations are certainly keeping a lot of people alive and out of the hospital. I'm keeping my eye on the current surge. I read it's supposed to die down by the end of the month but we're signed up for a cat show the first weekend in June. I made a mental note to reach out to everyone that week and see if anyone's uncomfortable doing the show. Playing everything by ear isn't fun but has turned into a fact of life.
  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    I made sure we had our fourth shot several weeks before traveling north. We haven’t worm masks in a while but I packed masks some and have them in the car. I expect to use them at stops along the drive back north.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    edited May 2022
    It's a grey, drizzly day here in Baltimore. I thought it might be a good morning to go get my annual bloodwork done and it was! Got a really excellent phlebotomist also, a plus! CBC is back; all normal except for one value that apparently means my platelets are old. Of course they are! LOL! I'm sure the other results will take longer.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    Got up today to news of school shooting and updates on baby formula shortage and other scarcities and then DH revealed we had no water! In the past week we had the anniversary of my sister's death, what would have been her 70th birthday, and my late mom's birthday. And of course we still have all the COVID idiots. I'm trying daggone hard to keep to my eating plan but it's tough.

    The good news is we got water again before I went out to see what bottled water I could buy. (We have a bunch.) And I discovered that the county actually has an interactive outage map, which we didn't know before. Once upon a time, when we still had the pool in the back yard, water for the toilet was no biggie but that is no more. I did pick up cat size paper plates at the grocery store along with more plastic cutlery. I suggested maybe we keep filled buckets of water in the tub. Not sure I was 100% joking (cause I'm not sure I'm in a joking mood today).
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    We had a tornado watch today, of all things. Were supposed to get severe thunderstorms but so far it hasn't amounted to much.

    I'm just sitting here working. My vacation email message has me out until Tuesday so I can get some peace and quiet. LOL!
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
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  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    My sister and I went to the new Downton Abbey movie yesterday. While we were waiting for the movie to start, everyone’s phones went off with a tornado warning. No surprise, none of us left. Who knows where we would have found shelter if we left. It was only for a half hour so we sat and waited for the movie to start. I didn’t know if I’d feel like I needed to mask but there were only 19 people in the theater and we were socially distant. That was my first movie experience in 3 years. We’re in SC until Tuesday because I don’t want to be on the road with holiday traffic.
  • PamS53
    PamS53 Posts: 1,936 Member
    Tornado warnings in the spring are common around here, although this year we had fewer than normal. I saw something on TV indicating that due to climate change, weather patterns are changing the typical path of tornado activity, with areas that typically don’t get them now having tornados.

    So many details are coming out now about the school shooting here in Texas this week. My paper today gave a detailed timeline including the many calls to 911 from children in the classroom begging for help and how the responding officers waited for more than an hour before confronting the gunman. So many errors were made, starting with the lack of gun regulations that allowed an 18 year old to buy 2 expensive semi-automatic assault weapons within a week and thousands of rounds of ammunition, followed by the apparent cowardice and poor judgment of the responding officers. Waiting for an hour to confront the gunman goes against their training and best practices for this type of situation, and almost certainly resulted in more deaths and injuries. I told DH yesterday, there will be many wrongful death lawsuits filed against the police department over this, and rightfully so. Those poor families. There are no words.

    Helene, how did you like the movie? I’m hoping to see it this week.
  • mdubbs1
    mdubbs1 Posts: 6,648 Member
    edited May 2022
    Pam - you're right, there are no words. Yet our politicians try to justify. Don Jr. apparently suggested someone could kill as many people with a baseball bat. Ted Cruz suggested locking all doors and putting armed guards in schools. They are all apparently terrified of losing the gun lobby's money. Such cowards. What I found a hoot and a half was the headline that you couldn't take a gun into the NRA convention.
  • Helene610
    Helene610 Posts: 2,831 Member
    It’s beyond belief that the NRA would go forward with their conference in Texas days after the mass killing of children. And lawmakers will probably respond with the same old platitudes and no real changes to gun control.

    We both liked the movie a lot. We were the first two to arrive. A bit later, a couple came in and he commented that he was the only man in the audience. I told him the other guys we’re watching Top Gun. A couple more men came in but we were mostly women.