WOMEN ages 50+ FOR JULY 2016

peach your GS is too cute! NYKAREN

oops, 8 should have been 7-16-61, today would have been his 55th bday!!

work for the day: cycled on my recumbent terratrike 9.04 miles in 71 minutes and climbed a total of 95' for a total expenditure of 935 calories, according to my TomTom Multisport GPS watch. It felt so great!!

Mia - Sorry about your losing out to a cheaper consultancy firm. That sucks! I'm in a similar situation myself, as I've just learned that my proposal came in third place in a procurement process. I've had regular commissions from the organization in question for ten years but now they'll be sending the work to someone else. There went a tenth of my income! I can see and sympathize with your dilemma. It would feel SO GOOD just to chuck it and let the b**s sink or swim. At the same time, you don't want to burn bridges or give them any excuse to speak negatively of you if they're called as references. I'm sure you'll find a balance that works for you. Best of luck!

Charleen - The monster is almost certainly out of your fridge now, with or without the tips you've received. Still, I wanted to share one that works really well for a friend of mine. She puts the offending food in her garbage bin, then squirts dishwashing liquid over it. Bleeechhh!

Joyce in Indiana - Congratulations on not having to pack Charlie's wound any longer, but bummer that he is still having problems. I hope you find a suitable bag soon! I also hope Charlie manages to step up to the plate and become more self-reliant. Better for both of you.

In the middle of her delightful post about surprise parties and being lent "one of" her MS's Porsches, Chris in MA wrote:

All you newbies, one step at a time, don't try to do it all at once, it takes years to put on the weight and it doesn't come off immediately, but hang in there for the long haul.

This resonates especially much with me at the moment. When my father celebrated his 88th birthday a week ago, my brother-in-law asked if he had any words of wisdom for us young'uns, to help us live long and well. After a moment's consideration, Dad said "Hang in there!" :flowerforyou:

Beth and Heather were discussing travel. Like Heather, I travel a lot. Most of the time I'm just going from one familiar place to another, passing through the same old airports. Those trips feel about as dramatic to me as taking a city bus.

I suppose a bit of anxiety would be beneficial - keep me on my toes - but I scarcely worry at all. I'm nonchalant to the degree that I sometimes don't even start packing until an hour or two before I leave home. And when my luggage gets lost in transit (as it did two days ago) I can be completely relaxed about it. I know from long experience that it usually turns up.

But send me to a place I've never been before and I get palpitations! I especially remember a harrying work-related trip home from India. The journey started with a long taxi ride from Kottayam to the airport in Kerala - only about 40 miles distance, but what with Indian roads and traffic it took over two hours. (I felt especially sorry for the elderly man in an ambulance that crawled along beside the taxi for about half an hour. He was clutching his heart - which didn't make my heart feel any better - and was accompanied by three female relatives who beat their brows and tore their hair the whole time.)

My flight to Europe was out of Chennai (a.k.a. Madras) so I had to get there in time, especially since I had a separate ticket (paid for by myself) for the last leg of my journey, from Stockholm to Tromsø. The company I was working for only covered travel as far as Stockholm. If I missed my last flight, it would have cost me a small fortune.

The taxi got me to Kerala in fairly good time before scheduled departure, though I was a bit worn because my heart had been pounding for two hours. Then the flight from Kerala to Chennai was delayed! Still, I had a fourish-hour layover in Chennai, so I figured there wouldn't be any problem. But time passed and no flight. One hour, two hours, two and a half... Finally, the plane arrived, the gate opened, and we boarded for the 65-minute flight to Chennai. I arrived there with about 35 minutes to transfer.

Fortunately, I was traveling with hand luggage only.

Unfortunately, the passport queue was quintessentially Indian in scope and majesty. V e r y, v e r y s--l--o--w.

I made it through, and dashed to the gate. By the time I got there, it was more depopulated than any place I had seen for a week, but not officially closed yet. I sprinted onto the plane and collapsed in my seat, avoiding the glares of the other passengers. It sure felt good when I got to Stockholm, where the airport feels like an ordinary bus stop to me. Easy-peasy.

Hmm... that wasn't a story from my childhood but maybe it will do for now.

Heather again, about your DH's family who are world champion ditherers... Mine are like that, too, especially my dear mother. Grocery shopping with her used to be horrific because she wanted to compare prices on everything. She could stand for five minutes trying to choose the optimal brand, size, and cut of dill pickles. On the plus side, she's also a bit obsessive-compulsive, so she would always write out the shopping list twice: first a list of everything we needed, then an organized list, where everything was arranged in the order in which they appeared as one walks the aisles in the grocery. That saved some much-needed time.

Over the years, my father adopted a stoic approach to grocery shopping. He drove the cart, and simply stood waiting while Mom did her thing.

My family's indecisiveness drove my husband crazy when we were first married. Getting us all to pull in the same direction was like herding cats. But we've improved over time.

Awww Karen in VA - Did you read my post three times? :blushing: I'm glad you like them. I'm 100% with you on not wanting "stuff" anymore. For his 88th birthday, my father requested "a complete absence of presents" (not to be confused with a complete absence of presence )

Becca - Your sister's visit sounded like a mixed blessing. Good that she's talking with you now, at any rate. :flowerforyou:

I am now caught up with the posts. Maybe tomorrow I can share some highlights from my weeks in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, time for bed...

/Penny, near the North Pole

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Margaret

Janetr OKC – Then it probably is a working phone; haven’t seen too many of them around anymore – most people have their own cellphones to use. Usually, when you find one, the telephone book has been ripped out of them, or the phone doesn’t work and takes your money.

Becca – My DMS usually drinks (to me, to excess) when we are around; don’t know about other times; but, I would not be surprised. She tends to get into the “I love you so much” mood and I am not a person who is a hugger except with my own nuclear family. We all are meeting at the beach in late September. I’ve already told her that I am not going to get into any ‘political’ or ‘religious’ discussions; we will just have to ‘agree that we disagree’. On both subjects; I relate more to my dear oldest sister in both areas. Now that we know one VP; guess it will be interesting to know the other.

I’ve never seen my husband of 44 years drunk either. He will have a “Crown and coke” most nights; but, only one. He gets ‘higher’ on Margaritas. When we went to a Mexican Restaurant we had never been to before, after a Margarita and the owner giving us all a shot of Tequila, with salt on the rim, and a lime … he gave his to our DDnL#1 – she had already had a ‘medium’ Margarita and downed both shots like it was water. I came home and took my evening meds and slept like a baby rock!

Does your sister live far from you? Is it possible to get someone there to help her put out her ‘things’ and determine what she needs to get rid of? For some reason, I think my house was neater when I worked full-time and had 2 small children. When they were little we lived in a 2-story house and a split-level. I guess it was easier to keep the main portion clean because they could only bring down a couple or 3 toys at a time; and, they had to keep them in the playroom. When we built this house; I really wanted to take the plans of the first one (2-story) and work a new floorplan from it. It had so much storage space in it. Wasn’t the only 2 houses we’ve lived in. First house we bought in Jacksonville, FL was a 2-story ‘dump’ that we paid $9,000 for; it had huge room, a screened-in porch on the front and back. It still had food in the kitchen, including a bag of rotten potatoes … I don’t think there is a worse smell than rotting potatoes; but, maybe a dead person. We had to empty the house, clean it with Lysol and then paint it. It had dressers built in, in every room, small closets. That’s not the house I am talking about. We moved to a newer house from the one 2-story house to one in a nicer neighborhood, then got transferred, where we lived in a 4-level split-level house. We should have backed out of the contract the first time it rained and water ran through the garage. We had HOW on it and the builder was supposed to ‘fix it at his cost’. Never did. I dug up flowers and bulbs 3x while I was pregnant with my DYS – still wasn’t fixed. We sold it and told them about the water; but, we had not had any problem with it after the last time when he dug below the foundation and put drainage tiles and rocks. Shortly afterwards, the water reappeared, so we took him to court and won. He had to come in and dig up every wall on the foundation down below the foundation line and put in drainage tiles and rocks; and, then up the hill from the house and lay them in 4 places to make it run off when it rained. Other than that, I really liked the house; hated the builder by the time I had gotten down on my hands and knees to keep my flowers and bulbs.

Awww – Carol – your grandson is so cute without his front teeth; my 9-year-old has lost the two incisors by the 4 teeth in the front. She pulled one; after they took her to have the other pulled because the main one was growing in behind it. We used to laugh about DOGD’s teeth; she had awful teeth … looked like a vampire; and, teeth grew in more than once, behind teeth. The dentist was so surprised; like a shark’s teeth – growing in several sets. They had to pull 4 teeth to put her in braces before she started a new school once my DOS got ‘custody’ of her. Orthodontist told DOS not to put her in braces until he got ‘custody’ of her; because he mother would not have made the arrangements to take her to him like she should. What a loser!

Penny – My ‘luggage’ got lost once when I flew to Miami to visit sister. It really was NOT lost; everybody on the plane had lost theirs, too. They had it on a cart which was separated from us and I kept telling the baggage clerk, that my bags were on that cart; I had seen my labels on it; but, he would not let me go get it. I stepped over the rope and showed him and still he would not let me have it. Had to file a ‘lost baggage’ claim. They said ‘if’ and ‘when’ it showed up, they would deliver it to my sister’s. We got a call from the security clerk in her building at 11:30pm to tell us that my bags had been delivered. The ‘lost baggage claim’ gave everybody a bag full of toiletries. My sister grabbed one for herself. The man in front of us told them, ‘You CAN’T have LOST my baggage, my car keys and house keys are in it. My sister said, loudly, “What kind of ‘idiot’ packs his car and house keys in his baggage - how stupid is that?” She was already upset because she had had to come in and try to find me while her friend was circling the airport passenger ‘let off and pick up’.

Lenora

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Bicycling stats
Bicycle week 1
Sunday: 7.6 Miles--45 min
Tuesday: 10--53 min
Wednesday:12.27--67 min
Total: 30.3 miles

Bicycle week 2
Sunday: 11--60 min.
Monday:13.22 --67 min.
Wednesday: 13.6--80 min.
Saturday: 16.41 --90 min.
Total: 54.23

Betty

hey one other funny thought - Allie if you dump Tom maybe we could hook him and my mom up they could give each other a dose of crappy talk.....

Kim N California The polenta/tomato tart sounds AMAZING. Add: I just read your last post and I am mad at your mom. https://youtu.be/3H50llsHm3k

Barbie Good news from your electrician! And the photo below is posted in honor of Jake.

Mary "Everything I know, I learned from dogs." - Nora Roberts

Allie That's a sweet story about the wedding.

NYKaren Home sweet home! You have done some really important stuff this week.

Carol I love your toothless boy! So darn cute!

Joyce I am angsting a bit over Charlie toughing it through the gallbladder thing. It's lasting a long time.

Pip You are almost to 900 miles! Your late husband was a handsome rascal...I am sorry he died so young.

DJ

Becca Alcohol is tough to have as a best friend.

Penny Yeah, your posts are a good read...your story about the indecisive family reminded me of how our family made my friend Jeanette giggle when we were in high school. My family would have these epic, serious, reductionist and sometimes rather tense debates and discussions at dinner. I usually just tuned it out and focused on food. But when Jeanette stayed overnight at my house, she would listen to it for awhile and then start giggling at the absurdity of it, which would disrupt the whole thing and get my dad (not a giggler) started laughing and then he would try to get back to the subject at hand. Unsuccessfully. It often ended up with a bit of hysteria. I loved her for it.

Karen in VIrginia

For Barbie & Jake: