WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE 2017

Kim: I am so sorry about he excessive heat. When I was a kid we had a spell of heat that got to be in the low 100s. My mom & I were walking home fro the grocery store, & she broke an egg onto the sidewalk. It fried itself right up. Too hot! This was in the 1950s in Salem, OR. We had no air-conditioning and used fans blowing across ice. Would the idea provide you a tiny respite? :flowerforyou:

Sharon: You have my sincere sympathy. I hate the feeling of being overwhelmed. (((HUGS))) I hope you have a refreshing and fun vacation.

Heather: Congratulations on being under 10 stones!!! :bigsmile: Me, too! (I also had a little bump up and am taking care of business.)

Margaret: I am sorry to hear about the insulin resistance. My DH is an insulin dependent diabetic, and has been for over 50 years. I asked him about insulin resistance & he doesn't seem to know much about it. I hope you are able to get things into a better balance. I think taking care of sleep issues is vital. You are very wise to make it a priority. I had to keep charts for a long while to get my sleep into a healthy pattern. It was worth the trouble. :flowerforyou:

Lisa: I always record my food and exercise on my phone. When I get back from travels, MFP records everything the phone has stored & I haven't missed a day even when I'm not in my own phone territory.

Kelly: A couple dozen people at a family reunion seems pretty huge to me, but I know what you're talking about. When I was growing up, all of my grandmother's siblings and their descendents met for a Fourth of July picnic every year to celebrate Uncle Amos's birthday. It was a huge group. The family emigrated from Bavaria just before 1900.


I plan to skip yoga today because I'm not crazy about this teacher. Her workouts are a bit beyond my ability and that takes some of the pleasure away. I think I'll go out to the stable and visit Arrow before the day gets too hot if it is convenient for the stable owner. My Saturday class has been cancelled because my teacher has a conflict early in the day, and temperatures are expected to be in the 90's by the afternoon. That is too hot for me and I'm sure Arrow would rather loaf in the shade on such a hot day.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

"So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it's also the enemy of the realistic, the possible and the fun."

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Welcome to everyone who is new!

Paula: So sorry about your DH's friend.

Heather: Congratulations on the weight loss!

Katla: I cannot believe that someone would purposefully poison trees as a prank!

It is excessively hot here. Cannot wait for cooler weather!

Leigh in France

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Charlie had his appointment with neurologist today. He takes 5 pills of his Parkinson's pill a day now. Started out with 3 then went to 4, then 5 and now can go to 6 if he feels like he needs it. Also moved it from every 6 months to in 9 months.

Countdown to school break, I am so thrilled to be getting a break, it's been a steep climb this year!

Planning on a quick trip to Phila to help DOS Buy a bed/mattress. Always stressfilled but she needs the help and definitely appreciates it. Will be a very long Saturday and must set up for healthy food along the way.

NYKAREN

Heather: I have hanging pots of fuchsias and they also require lots of water, twice a day. We have an electronic device that automatically turns the water on and off twice a day, even if we are away from home. It is part of a system of pipes and tubes that we set up ourselves, and there are little drip emitters on the end of a little tube going to each plant. We also have the same timer system putting water into an ooze hose in the bed where I have planted a mix of flowers and green beans. We don't have many problems with snails or slugs but there are both chemical & organic ways to deal with them. For many of the critters, a dish of flat beer inside a dark "trap" does the job quite effectively. Good luck. :flowerforyou:

Leigh: Our former neighbor was a J*CK *SS. He claimed the tree blocked his views so he deliberately tried to kill it. It would have been an oblique view of a parking lot. We were all thrilled when he sold his place and moved away. :grumble:

Dana: "At age 68 I’m probably not thinking as an oldster. I still think I’m 35 and how I worked in my gardens in the past." Me too. What is the fun in thinking like an oldster? I don't particularly see any virtue in that, although I occasionally get caught by my own limitations. :ohwell:


I took DH and our dog out to meet Arrow the horse today. I brushed Arrow and lunged him, but chose not to ride. DH & the dog were not planning to stick around and no one else was on the property today. The stable owner had an important errand to run and left just after we got there. It didn't seem like a good idea to be riding alone out in the country with poor cell service. I put Arrow back in his stall and went on to run a couple of errands of my own. On my way home there was a young deer grazing at the edge of the pavement just a couple of feet from where I passed by in my car. This is in a residential area near the center of town, and within three or four blocks of our home. There is a ravine just across the road from where I saw the deer feeding. We regularly see deer in that ravine in all seasons of the year except hunting season. Then they lie low, even in the middle of town.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" -Audrey Hepburn

Katla – I want to live in my own home as long as I possibly can; hope to be able to drive as long as it is safe for me to do so. I’ve been on several 6-month driving restrictions due to seizures (which are controlled by medication) over the past 10 years. I know my DOS, next door would check in on me. He usually comes in every day as it is. He helps his Dad in doing things and they have cut down about 20 pines which had beetles in them. Not the kind that take out all the trees, just here and there. It is normal to lose a small % of trees each year; but, if they get them, we’d have to clear-cut them. So we watch closely and have a timber guy that checks on them as well. This fall they will do a ‘control burn’ on the field behind and to the side of the house. That is a 2- or 3-man job. I’d really hate to think I had to move back to town.

Becca – Do y’all have a “Meals on Wheels” where she can have one meal that is delivered to her daily or every few days and they’d check in on her as well? We also have someone that comes and builds ramps if needed. Maybe the Retired Vets or Habitat for Humanity or through a church. Somethings you can put her a ‘call list’ for places to check on her. Churches as well have programs to check on seniors.

Joyce – And there are Mothers who have donated their eggs and have used their uterus as an incubator. It’s bad when you lose all 3 children, one to Daddy, one to her paternal grandmother, then Daddy stepped in, and one got removed by DFACS and her Daddy came down and got him. Yep, 3 children by different baby-daddies. Of course the DFACS in the area he lived in checked him out as well. He was told that he’d have to move somewhere with a 2nd bedroom. Child care was with someone he knew. She’s gained some much needed weight and has gotten glasses, which was one of the reasons she wasn’t doing well in school, grades have improved. Mother has not done ‘anything’ that she was ‘ordered’ to do. Has been ‘in jail 3 or 4 times’ since - so I doubt that DFACS would ever allow her to get them back under the circumstances. According to Trey she is now living in this county about 5 miles away as the 'crow flies'.

We had to stop Cracker from chewing the stuffing out of things, her toys mostly; but, when she got ahold of my ‘flamingo slippers’ my DOGD gave me, I really wanted to ‘kill her’. But was able to sew them back up (several times). If the closet door wasn’t shut well, she’d nudge it open and get them. Now they are in a box. She’d have stuff clear across the house. Now, I buy her canvas toys; but, if they have legs or arms, that is what she does with it the first day, chews everyone off. She will play with them. Then I bought what has become her all-time favorite. A flat squirrel with squeakers at both ends. She shake it so hard that the squeakers would hit her on each side of the head. She chewed them out and all she does is shake them (yep bought her a 2nd one). Louis started throwing it across the room, now she ‘expects’ for that to be done. He just looks at me and I tell him, ‘well you started it … what do you expect’? LOL! She sure does ‘love her Daddy’; but, she loves me more! Because I will scratch her. Don’t feel bad, I never have my camera or or near me when Cracker does funny things, and she is such a ‘light sleeper’ that if we just move in our chairs to a different position her little eyes pop open. We have an old tractor wheel we use as a fire pit (burn pile). He build a bench by it; and, one end I can’t touch my feet on the ground at one end; but, it is level! I’d like to put stone or bricks down so we could use the area. I also want it to be more landscaped than it is. We’ll see what transpires on that one. He doesn’t mind spending money; but, he also gave me $30 yesterday, for groceries) and $20 of it went to one item. I don’t have any credit card debt, he doesn’t have but two and uses them ‘only’ for emergencies. I took the other 2 or 4 of maybe 5; and, ‘hide’ them by putting them into a block of ice in the big freezer. I told him that I tore them up actually. I never want to be into that again. I had one that the yearly interest rate was over 25%. I got tired of the interesting being ½ of the minimum payment.

I agree, it really saddened me because several of them I had gotten close to; but, we had moved back to GA when it happened.

My husband and DOS paint for a living. One of our neighbors whose wife was a bit of a flake, told Louis she had picked out a color for their trim (they had a brick house) … very large, 2 car attached garage to house, shop and a one car garage attached to it; and ‘dental’ molding around the entire home. That is a ‘hard’ job; and he asked the husband if she was ‘sure’ about the color; and, he told him that he would take her out of town on vacation to the beach house. They drive up and Louis had just finished it. She took one look and said, ‘it’s too dark, I want to change back’. Her husband (who had a LOT of money) told Louis, paint it, I know I will owe you at least 2x as much. When people start wanting to ‘add’ things to a job he has already bid on, he tells them … this will be extra (and normally gives them the price right them). Most of his work has been repeat of customers and decorators. But, he had one decorator that I guess she was trying to ‘pull a fast and furious game’ on the homeowners. She wanted him to take one gallon tinted a dark color and one gallon tinted a lighter color; then she would take one and add 25% of the other to it; then 10% to the other of this mixture and back and forth. Louis finally told her ‘if she continued’ he was going to tell the homeowner to show him the color they were trying to get and he’d buy the paint. All he needed was a bit of material or wallpaper and they can match it exactly at the paint store. If she continued down the lane she was, they’d have enough freaking paint to paint the house inside AND out. She finally got enough complaints from painters and carpenters that she decided to get a job she could actually make money doing. She was doing the ‘decorating’ on the side, and, living off her parents after a divorce.

Even ‘if’ Louis repainted a room the same color, he charges them as if he is painting it as a totally new job. He does NOT like to give someone a quote and then they go with someone who is cheaper, then they call him and want him to ‘come repaint it’. Most of the times the other painted has left globs of paint in the corners of the windows and they have drips, missed spots, or paints on the windows, or paint them shut. Breaking open painted shut windows and reglazing the windows is something that is already figured in, in his quote. One reason he is a little higher than some. He tells them that he will have to come out and look at what they aren’t happy with and give them a ‘new’ quote (for trying to correct someone else’s mistakes). What Louis hates most is to find that the previous painter has painted latex paint over oil without priming it. It will come off in sheets; and, they have to sand it, then prime it, then they can paint with the latex paint. He also washes down the house with a pressure washer and if they really do not need a paint job (unless they are changing colors), he will tell them that he thinks it could go another year or two. He’ll then wash down their driveway and sidewalks. He has never advertised in the 30+ years he has been at it, it’s all been ‘by word of mouth’. Generally, he will have 4 or 5 on his ‘waiting list’. He tells them ‘if you need this done sooner, then you need to find someone else. People who really want him, will wait.

What do you mean by ‘big window mural’? Oh, and Louis has painted rooms and the owners will have someone else come in and they will make it look like marble or other materials. They had one of the gated community property on the ‘list of homes’ one Christmas and she makes a LOT of money doing that type of painting. Louis has brought home some ‘hideous looking paint for shutters’. Two toned, painted with one color, then painted over with a different color and ‘aged’ by sanding it. He painted a brass chandelier not long ago, a gray, like the walls, and I slung white paint on it to look like that metal blue and white cookware you can find at places like K-Mart. I know I have two larger roasters and one smaller one. Had a big pot; but, went out while cooking bean soup after I had tasted it, and in the time I went out and got something from the shed, came back in and stirred it, to find that it had stuck to the bottom. Because I had stirred it, the entire pot had to be thrown out because it was inedible. The pot had bowed on the bottom. That sucker when in the trash!

Margaret – Every summer when we went to St. Augustine with the girls I’d go to a store that last year you had you pick of many flamingos, just whatever you were willing to pay; this past year, I went in and found only ‘one’ flamingo and it is white with silver rubbed on it and mirrored wings. I was ‘so disappointed’ because I had saved to buy something more expensive. Each year when we go ‘on vacation’ I try to ‘find’ a flamingo. Not sure I will do that when we go to Texas or not. Pelicans are big in Louisiana because of it being their State bird. Louis likes them; but, we only have a few pictures that have them in it.

Heather – I will be happy when I get to that weight. That's close to my goal.

I saw the PA this AM; I started having pain in my lower abdomen and everything I have that feeling, I have had a UTI. I met Louis and Mike for lunch; Trey was in a pissy mood and did not want to come, did not want Louis to bring him something back either. I got to the intersection that I turn to go to my MD; and, then could not even ‘think’ of where Wendy’s was. That’s a scary thought. I have been having some lapses in memory so Debbie asked me some ‘simple’ questions which I could answer. She told me that maybe the reason I am feeling ‘blue’’ is because of the weather; but, I needed to call my MD in Macon and discuss it with him. By the time I got home, he was closed; but, he will be ‘in the office’ tomorrow – so I will call first thing in the morning. Maybe just a change up on my medications will keep me from sliding off the deep end. I've forgotten to take my AM meds, sometimes not until Louis comes home and really gets on to me about it. I take it, if it isn't past a certain time; then wait to much later to take my night-time meds. I just 'forget'. It's not like it is hidden from me ... right on the counter. Usually, I keep up with it by making a slash mark on calendar and make it into an "X" when I take my evening meds. I'm sure that probably has a lot to do with how I am feeling.

I have a friend that just found out she ‘might’ have lung cancer. She is so down; and, I want her to ‘snap out of it’; but, not sure what I’d do if I had gotten the same ‘iffy’ flippant comments from the MDs. If it is cancer, she doesn’t know if she will go through treatment and she said she would NOT stop smoking. Being someone who has never smoked, unless you consider the Cuban cigar that a friend and I shared at the age of 7. I don’t understand smokers. We’ve had a ‘smoke-free house since we moved out here; just not a ‘tobacco-free house’. I, at least, don’t have to breathe it in. That came about when my diagnoses was COPD; later changed to 'sleep apnea'.

Louis has his mother’s mostly sunny disposition; he brother has his Dad’s totally ‘old grumpy old man bitching’ disposition. They work together and I hear Louis complain about his brother being ‘just like their Dad’; but you can’t say it to him.

Watching LSU and FL State playing baseball. Bottom of 5th, LSU ahead by 3. Hope they continue hitting those balls. FL State has been ‘favored’ to win; but, I don’t think they are. LSU was sort of a long-shot I think. Love me some ‘college’ baseball.

Lenora

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June Accountability
Progress - Tuesday , June 20th
✔️1. Carbs 50-75g (limit 25g/meal)
(B16, L0, D16, AS1, BBS26 = 59g)
✔️2. Fiber 30g (42g)
✔3. Track/complete entry daily
✔️4. Vegetables - big salad daily
5. Exercise - 30 Fitbit minutes (0)
6. No eating after 9pm.
7. In bed by 12am
8. Zone work - 15 minutes daily

Delaying travel to our lake house on Lake Livingston until Friday...watching Tropical Storm Cindy in the Gulf of Mexico. Our family reunion this weekend might be skimpy in attendance this year.

Eating better. Sleep still off. I quit worrying about sleep. I'll work on it after this weekend's reunion.

Onward.
-- Ginger in Texas

Lenora, and Katla. I will check on that. I know the Senior Luncheon here in Warrenton meets Mons and Thursday, but its a $5 charge. Those same days they deliver to about 50-70 meals on wheels. I shall check to see what's required. Thanks! She is driving her car tomorrow. She won't take hints or suggestions. There are societies rules, then there is her rules! Aaack!

My feelings these days run from feeling sad for the situation she's in, to mad in all the things her family isn't doing! Sadly, I am looking forward to this move to Whidbey Island with more and more excitement! Sometimes things have a certain natural course they must follow. Prudence might think she should live independently, but the reality is that she needs more care. More than I could ever do!
Hugs my ladies!
Becca