WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2024

Latitude27N

Greetings,

The sun is rising over calm seas, it’s 70 deg this morning.

Thank you for all the comments on my hiring dilemma. I should clarify that in this case “friend” means acquaintance at best. My son spends time with her son and we say hello in passing both at Church and at the Athletic Club where I work and they are members. Our longest conversation was this recent one about her daughter. So I’m at peace over it and feel sure I made the best choice for my workplace.

I made 25 gift bags for my staff and have handed out a third of them. They’re filled with nuts, candies, and small items. It is not cheap to fill that many gift bags and I feel let down that there was not one thank you. There’s something odd about the culture down here that “thank you” does not seem to be in the vocabulary and you’d think I’d be used to it by now after 7 years. Even the $25 gift certificate to my assistant for Bosses Day was simply pocketed without comment.

I wonder: are my gifts too small?

17 years ago we went out after our son’s first Christmas and bought the biggest tree we could find on a post-holiday sale. We consider it his tree and he decides whether to put it up each year. I knew the day would come when he was too busy with life to put it up and that may be this year, his 18th Christmas. We’ll see. Last year he put it up a week before Christmas so we may yet see it.

I’m rambling a bit and will sign off now while wishing you all the best!

Diana on the island

kymarai

Good morning!
I thoroughly enjoyed our warm sunshine yesterday even though I was at work. I told a customer who had 4 big zero turns to pick up that it wasn't raining, or snowing, or ungodly cold, so was a good day yo pick them up. He wasn't sure he could, but did manage. There is nothing like having to pull around a mower in nasty weather. Wet butts and cold breezes! It is cold and raining again today.

Tory in the tree again yesterday! Couldn't yell at her because batteries were too low. Changed now! Cali kept hiding her mouse in the lower branches. My poor tree. Did take them out on leashes for a little while last night. Tracey I have my Scentsy pots and my trees (one in man cave)on timers. It is so nice to wake up/come home to them on.

Diana Love the idea of prepping! Glad it is working for you. Sad about friend. One of my friend's grandsons is autistic. He works assembly line well at Amazon. Little people interaction and routine makes it perfect for him. Hopefully they will find a good fit for her. I once had a customer who has schizophrenia want to work at our shop. I had to explain to him that it was high stress, messy, and fast paced, so might not be a good fit. He watched me work for about 30 mins and decided I was right. He would have had problems with the stress and constant noise. He repairs mowers out of his home and gets the parts from us.

Apparently I forgot to save last bit. I have read all though!

Cali helping DH brush his teeth-lol! Tory was up there on counter just before I snapped picture.
Cali jumped up on my shoulder while I was getting water out of fridge this morning. She is not my loving kitty, but apparently needing more attention today.
Better get my work day going. Sheets changed, laundry sorted and started, now work.

Make the best choices you can!
Be kind as this is such a hard season for lots of people!
Know you are loved by many!

💗
Kylia in rainy, dreary Ohio

barbiecat

My time alone visit to the dentist had it's ups and downs. Driving over I turned the heat in the car up so I was comfortable and listened to music from my phone on the car speakers. No one commented on my speed or my decisions of when to turn. At the dentist's office I had a long enough wait to be able to enjoy the beautiful holiday decorations in the waiting room. The cleaning resulted in x-rays and a chat with the dentist about a small cavity that will require a return visit in January.

Diana, I stopped giving gifts when it seemed that people weren't saying "thank you" and when I realized that when someone gave me a gift, I was uncomfortable if I hadn't gotten one for them. How sad that you worked so hard and no one acknowledged it.

Barbie in NW WA

pipcd34

721721

SophieRosieMom

Carol - thank you! I really am doing OK, just need to remind myself to focus on my blessings every day and not concern myself with the past or the future.

Annie - haven't heard from you in a few days (or maybe you posted and I just skipped over it.) Hope all is well at your end!!

Lanette

LisaInArkansas

Good morning from the damp Arkansas River Valley,

Heavy rain and thunder woke me around midnight, but now there are supposed to be a few sunny days in the offing. Hope so--the grey days of winter tend to wear on me when there are too many in a row.

Diana - I'm sorry, there is no way "to make a long story short" with me! But I put it in a spoiler, as everyone here has read my screeds on expectations before:

As an oilfield accounting manager, I had 18 women working for me in West Texas, and there was this weird, semi-cultural thing that anything I trained them on would have to be reintroduced to them about every six weeks, trained again, and then again. I thought it was just women, or just me, until I met and married my current and final husband, who ran a massive service truck repair shop for the same company, and the men who worked for him did EXACTLY the same thing. Unfortunately, on an individual basis, so you never knew when you were going to get that blank look and someone wondering what the heck you're talking about. That doesn't help you any, sorry 😁.

However, my point is that when it's across that many people, it genuinely is the culture, and you just have to accept it. Glad the "friend," wasn't a close one. It's all about expectations in the end... My husband and I expected employees to retain information, you expect them to be grateful for a gift, that mother expected you to hire her daughter. Expectations cause a lot of heartache, and when we let them go, it makes life a lot less painful.

Lanette, dear heart, The dark days of late fall and early winter are hard on us, and make everything shade toward the grey, I think. I had already mentioned that for me, it really does start to wear. Staying in the moment when we're not particularly enjoying the moment can be hard, and it's even harder when someone says that happiness is only when you stay in the moment! Especially when we're not happy this moment. However, I always find the thought that natural decay is actually a law very appealing:

I know you weren't actually talking about the decay around you, but about how depressing you find it. I found this piece, though, on the natural slide toward decay in our lives: "Entropy is a measure of disorder and affects all aspects of our daily lives. You can think of it as nature's tax. Entropy naturally increases over time. Problems arise: your house gets messy, your garden gets weeds, and the heat from your coffee spreads out."

You can't stop coffee from cooling, greenhouses from rotting to the ground, any of it. I find the thought that entropy is out there quite entertaining. Entropy always increases with time. It's the second law of thermodynamics! Our entire lives are a struggle against entropy. To contain decay. To straighten the messy room. Nothing we build, NOTHING, is permanent, and yet we treat both what we build and ourselves as though it and we are forever. It's the basic plight and reason for being of humanity, in the end--to try to bring order out of chaos.

I don't know why that amuses me, but it does. 🐈‍⬛😁😹 Hope it didn't depress you further. It is the law, after all. 😜

Kylia - So glad to see you posting again. Love to see the kitty pic!

OK, I've written a novel again. Time to shuffle off to do what I do. Labs tomorrow about this same time...

Love y'all,
Lisa in AR

kevrit

My bloodwork review yesterday came back pretty good. I’m pleased with that, except I had her test for a UTI, which I have and explains a lot. I’ve got to pick up the meds for that later today. My A1C went up some and I expected that: 5.4 last time to 5.8 this time. Too many holiday treats and emotional eating. I’ve stopped it after they took the blood and trying hard to control it now. Adding MCT oil once a day brought my HDL increased from 50 to 71 by adding the MCT oil much better. Total cholesterol rose from 127 to 181 b/c of the added oil and treats, normal for total cholesterol is below 199, so still good there. Normal for an HDL is 60-100. My eGFR from this lab dropped from 51 to 49, normal is over normal is greater than 59, so kidney not getting better. More kidney blood and urine tests on the 23rd for the Renal doctor. DH’s liver tests didn’t get worse but still not good. His bad numbers are due to his drinking. Overall, I’m happy with the results.

I’m over trying to make my middle daughter happy. The last text she sent me was a nasty text about DH. I you take his name out and put her name in, she described herself. I’m not commenting or contacting her for a while. I was happy she called, but it ended in a mess, I don’t need that, ever (I was going to say ‘right now’ but ‘ever’ felt right).

I need to get dressed and go get my meds. I feel rotten and hope they help fix my gut so I can fix my head! LOL

RVRita in Roswell

kevrit

Today is roast suckling pig sounds really mean! But baking cookies? That’s the ticket!



RVRita in Roswell