WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MAY 2017

Sorry Sharon about your #×+÷ ankle. How frustrating for you! Do you know exactly what is wrong with it?

Forgot to say I have lost another half pound! :drinker: I have only a few oz to go to get back to my target 140 lbs. Unfortunately I found out on my last visit to the doctor that I am an inch shorter than I used to be. I have now set myself the new target of 137 lbs, which is what MFP suggests for that height. I definitely have a spare tyre I could let some air out of. It would also make a round 60 lbs lost. (I have a tidy mind! :laugh: ) My drinking chart is looking good. I am pleased with that method of getting a hold on my alcohol consumption.

Tonight is spicy duck legs with roasted zucchini and crushed peas and mint. AF.

Love Heather UK xxxxxxx

Pip: Sorry to read about your fall; hope you are feeling better soon!

Barbie: Love the book recommendation; it is one I shall definitel try to find!

Heather: Congratulations on your latest loss!

Hogerda: Thanks for the jean skirt idea! I live in what is called the Pays de Gex (country of Gex), a small region along the Swiss border, separated from the rest of France by the Jura Mountains Life here centers more around Geneva, Switzerland, just over the border, than it does on Paris. Geneva is essentially ringed on three sides by France. Between our side of Lac Leman and the other, there are now 100,000 workers who pour across the border every day to work in Geneva. I made that commute for close to 30 years.

I think it is a beautiful place to live. While we can see the Alps in the distance, I love the Jura Mountains because we are close enough to watch the changing effects of the weather and even see the occasional animal up in the meadows. We are five minutes from the foot of the mountains. This is what we see from our back door in winter and in late spring.

Leigh in France

Morning, all...

The air conditioning went out at the warehouse on midnight Saturday night--why DO these things always happen on a holiday weekend? So, we nipped up to Walmart, picked up a window a/c and at least kept the place cool enough to sleep last night. Had it been the day before, it would have been much worse. The temperatures only got up to 80+ yesterday, but it was over 100 degrees the day before (38C).

Other than that, just a pretty quiet weekend. I did go work out yesterday, still struggling with the shortness of breath from that month-long cold. Didn't stay long, it was all muscleheads except me, and I just get tired of them peering at the fat girl actually exercising.

We did purchase our tickets to fly up to Alaska the week of July 4 - my husband's company shuts down for the whole week, and he gets the entire week off, and since I can work remotely, I can work anywhere. So--we're flying up on the weekend prior, his family is putting us up for the week, so no hotel charges (which saved us more than $900: hotels are expensive near Anchorage). They'll pick us up at the airport and drop us off, as well, saving us another $600 for car rental--also expensive in Anchorage in July. We can do an off-airport rental car for the few days we'll need one, if necessary.

We're going because Corey's dad is near 90 years old. He hasn't seen him since our wedding (Pop walked me down the aisle) and I told him I didn't want his next time to see his father to be looking at him in the casket. Worth every penny, as far as I'm concerned. And it was a few pennies, to be sure. But necessary--Corey deserves time with the man that raised him after his mother abandoned all of them when he was barely 12 years old. She took her youngest daughter with her, and left Corey's Pop to finish raising the seven kids still at home, including the youngest, who has Down's Syndrome. Corey is 9th of 12 kids, and I'm 9th of 10 kids. Talk about middle child syndrome!

Now I just need to lose 50 pounds to be back at the weight most of them saw me at the day we got married! (just kidding). Hopefully it will give me SOME impetus to lose a few pounds and feel better in my clothes, anyway.

Love y'all,
Lisa in West Texas

I'm feeling for everyone who's sweltering. No such problem here.

Saturday's excursion to Barentsburg for the cultural exchange was great fun. The Governor of Svalbard had put her ship at our disposal. The distance is only about 30 miles but for some reason the captain held such a stately pace that it took us three hours to get there.

Here's the view from outside the bridge, looking down over the helicopter deck.


As you can see, the weather was fantastic! I spent some time on deck watching the birds and enjoying the scenery. This next picture is especially for those of you who need a breath of cool air. I had to do some deep breathing myself – not so much for the oxygen as to counteract my acrophobia.


Eventually we drew near the little mining village of Barentsburg, population 400 or so. In its heyday, it was twice as large.


We docked and unloaded. Here you get a pretty good impression of why I might suffer acrophobia when walking around on deck!


From the dock, we took the long stairway up to town. I intended to count the steps but lost track when somebody asked a question. Later on, during a break, I walked down to the quay and up again, counting steps both times. There are about 260 of them (some covered in snow, so I don't have an exact number). Still, two round trips on that stairway totals at least 1000 steps. I feel them in my shins. :laugh:


One last picture from Barentsburg. This is the school, its walls pedagogically decorated with a mural showing life-sized polar bears, killer whales, and a blue whale.


The concert went very well. The audience was small, but tremendously enthusiastic. Afterwards, we went to the hotel for dinner. Naturally our hosts had placed many bottles of vodka on the tables and there was a lot of singing – in Norwegian, Russian and Ukrainian.

Just as it took three hours to get to Barentsburg, it took three hours to get home – and we didn't leave until midnight. I didn't want to wake up my husband to come pick me up, so I walked home. That was no problem. As Heather knows, essentially everything in Longyearbyen is within walking distance. And the sun won't go down until mid-September so dark isn't an issue.

I'll soon be flying down to the mainland for the summer. I'm a member of a little organization called Friends of Tromsø Botanical Garden. At nearly 70°N, it's the world's northernmost botanical garden, and they specialize – not unexpectedly – on plants from the Arctic and the Himalayas. They have an annual "Primula Party", when their huge collection of primulas all blossom at once and the garden is an explosion of color. That was supposed to be tomorrow but they've been forced to postpone because none of the flowers have come up yet. On the bright side, that means I won't miss the party! :flowerforyou:

That's it for now!

/Penny, soon to leave the immediate neighborhood of the North Pole

Janet ~ Congrats on the weight loss. Way to go!

Dana ~ Thanks for sharing your photos of your dad and and the Queen Elizabeth. Boy, was it loaded with men.

Leigh & Penny ~ Beautiful views.

I took myself to the Urgent Care near my home yesterday. Turns out one ear was stopped up with wax and the other with fluid. After getting the wax out I was told to take decongestants to help the fluid.

Everyone have great Monday!

Carol in GA

Barbie: Dog walking friends are wonderful. One of my neighbors will occasionally walk dogs with me, but she hasn't been feeling up to it lately. I worry about her because she has diminished lung capacity from smoking. Many times she really doesn't feel good enough to walk. When she does feel good enough she is a wonderful companion.

Pip: Love the "high five' dog photo. It puts a big smile right onto my face. :bigsmile:

Lenora: I would have loved the riding opportunity you had as a child. I couldn't do it then, but I'm lucky enough to be able to do it now. :flowerforyou:

Heather: I've always wondered about "bank holidays." Does that mean that banks are closed or that many businesses are closed & most people have a day off? :huh:

Sharon: I am sorry that your ankle is giving you so much trouble. I wonder about what is causing the trouble. I'm glad that you're able to enjoy your trike. (((HUGS))) We haven't had ours out on the road since last summer. I hope DH will want to ride this year.

Dana: My dad served as a Sea Bee in the South Pacific. He was aboard a ship that was attacked by a Kamakazi fighter. On shore, he worked at building roads & bridges and was right out there at the front lines. He wasn't shooting at others, but they were occasionally shooting at him. He worked in an area where the US used flamethrowers and had nightmares about fire and night sweats because of it for the remainder of his life.


Last night I was awakened by the sound of fire works, so I hopped out of bed and looked out the window. Across the river in Washington someone was putting on quite a display. It was coming from the Clark County fairgrounds where DH & I met Sue and her daughter for a horse expo a few months ago. To get there by car we had to drive 40 miles each way to Portland, cross the river on the I-5 Bridge, and drive several more miles to the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds is actually close to five miles or less from our house as the crow flies. :ohwell: I'm sure glad we went. Meeting Sue and her daughter was a real treat. :bigsmile:

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison