WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2017

Did an hour of Body by Bethany DVD (yoga). Depending on when Jess plans to leave (I would like to be here when she does), tentatively I've planned to do on segment of Beach Body Sample DVD, hold my plank, then take the extremepump class.

Penny - lovely pics. Those strawberries look SOOO good, I just want to grab one and have it!

Heather - now that you're rolling in the dough, you can easily afford to come to the US and cook for us all!!!!

After exercise, went to WalMart. What a good time to go, there's practically no one in the store! Made meatloaf and shrimp for us to have during the week. Think I may go out by the pool for a bit. Update: well, looks like I won't be going in the pool. Nancie wanted to go for lunch to this sushi place, and so does Jess so Nancie will be here in about an hour and we'll most likely go. Oh well....hopefully, it'll be sunny another day.

Marcelyn - thank goodness you are OK. Will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. What scary pics! Thanks for the comparison pic, that was really interesting. I remember when we would get water in the basement of our first house. Not fun at all. Thanks for keeping us updated about you. Boy, things are getting really bad

kwtlw - welcome! Good advice from matchka

Rye - I always say if Vince ever knew half of what he was eating, he'd never eat again! I'm constantly sneaking "healthy" food into him.

Joyce - when I'm cleaning the litter box, the cat just sits outside the litter box watching me, waits until I'm done, THEN goes in and goes. At least Mozart uses the litterbox before you clean it...lol

Rori - how conderful your condo got an offer. I'm sure she'll come up.

tiffany - congrats

Michele in NC

26 hours of continuous rain at our home now. We've had 22+ inches fall. Only 3 or 4 more days of this.... augh!
Houses in my development are flooding, ones that have not flooded in 30 years of being there. It really is crazy! My city house seems to have topped out at a foot in the garage. Minor really considering there are thousands of people displaced. A few pictures to give an idea of how the bayous overflowing affects the surrounding area. It really gets deep! In some neighborhoods water is up to 8 feet deep but most flooded neighborhoods are 3 feet or less. That's 3 feet too much!

The first is actually the clearance markers for the road that is covered by the water. The second is the stop lights over an intersection.

I had a sort of productive day today. I recently bought a combination washer/dryer unit to replace the washing machine and dryer that came with the house when we bought it. The laundry room is tiny and the way the machines have to be situated made it so that the door into the room couldn't be fully opened. (Can you believe anyone actually lived with it like that for ten years?!? I couldn't either.) Hence the decision to buy the combination unit. I actually bought it back in June and it was finally delivered last Thursday. So in conjunction with getting the new machine, I decided it would be a good idea to paint. And then I decided I needed a new floor cabinet to replace the wall cabinets that had to come down because the new machine is too tall. .

So yesterday I drove into Wenatchee (2 hours) to pick up a cabinet from Lowe's. Of course when I got back I was too wiped out from the four hours of driving to unload it and put it together. So that's what I did this morning. It took a little longer than expected because my two dogs aren't as good as helpers as another human would be. Then I spent the rest of the day puttering around putting things into the cabinet and thinking about other ways to make this tiny room more functional.

Because I was busy with that project, my step count for today is less than half what it was for most of last week, BUT my calorie burn is high (I don't believe for a moment that my Band gives me an accurate estimate of my calories burned - I'm sure it's always high - but I can see if I've burned relatively more or less on a given day).

Tomorrow I intend to clean out the mechanical room so that I can store the carpet shampooer and the vacuum in there. They were previously stored in the laundry room and they just take up too much room. Of course the mechanical room is also tiny. But I don't spend much time in there, lol.

Katla – We had one girl in our class who we all ‘knew’ she was pregnant; but, had plans on getting married the Sunday after we graduated on Friday. The ‘counselor’ did NOT like it when she got a ‘whiff’ of it and was not going to allow her to ‘walk down’ to get her diploma. Our class President went over her head to the Principal and told him that ‘if she did not walk; none of us would’. He took our side. Most of the time he did, much to the disdain of the counselor … he started being the Principal in our 8th grade year and stayed until we graduated in 1969. We were ‘his baby’ … our entire class. Always there for any of us. One of my HS boyfriend’s parents were divorced and any time there was something going on that normally a Dad would attend with his son, he attended with this guy.

Lanette – We are thrilled! They are going to the ‘most extreme’ to have this baby. A whole lot of daily things, such as shots given to her. Everything is looking good. They did a procedure on her that helped make the conditions right and they also laughed that the baby was going to have to be born after hunting season was over. It will be. They don’t plan on finding out the sex until it is born. A couple of her friends and/or customers has voiced that it makes it difficult to buy shower gifts. She doesn’t care … just give gender-neutral (or she can exchange it). They picked up a swivel-rocker from one of her customers. It is presently covered in ‘pink’; but, it will need to be reupholstered for sure. Not so much because of the color but because of the stains. And fading.

I retired on a disability from a job I LOVED. I think I cried most nights for 3 years for a lot of reasons. Now, I love being retired. I can do what I want when I please, it also took a lot of learning to say, “NO!” and stop feeling like I had to give a reason. Some people think you have all the time in the world when you are retired. I found that once my finger was removed from that job, my time got filled with a lot more. Made me wonder ‘how’ I did it with small children and errands to run. DH was a salesman at the time; and, when our boys had chicken pox back-to-back; we either traded days or ½ days of working. Some of the things I had to get used to is that my income dropped by 75%. That was a ‘huge’ hit for us. I had co-workers donate time from unused sick of vacation leave for long enough that I got ‘vested’, therefore I receive a retirement check and my COBRA-ed insurance comes out of it. It dropped when I turned 62; and, again when I turned 65 – of course, health insurance has only gone up. But, my time is far more important to me, now; than it was when I was working. We were also involved in our sons’ activities as well. The money end of it was probably the hardest part of it. Louis then decided he wanted to paint ‘full time’ instead of it being a ‘side job’. That was just a ‘hiccup’; he quickly ended up with more work than he could handle on his own and hired a couple of guys; but, he is so picky that he ‘expected’ them to ‘show up’ and ‘show up not hung over’. He finally just told one of them that he did not have enough jobs to keep him busy enough to pay him. No problem and he found work immediately. Then he had one that *kitten* all the time and Louis basically told him to ‘hit the **%%*&^* bricks. He filed for unemployment and Louis fought that and won. Then his brother moved in with us to help him. He hired another man – who has worked for him for over 15 years. He shows up on time, only takes 30 minutes to eat, a break long enough to smoke a cigarette. He wants and needs to slow down. DYS wants him to do it ‘now’ so that we can do things before we’re too old to do them. DOS works for him; but, really doesn’t want to go to the trouble of taking over. I have told Louis that he needs to tell Trey that he needs to start looking seriously for a job because he plans on retiring (give him a date) and then ‘do it’. Basically, he is ‘working’ to keep Trey having an income. I see him ‘tired’ and ‘I want him to stop working hard like he does’. Will thinks he ‘enables’ Trey and therefore he isn’t serious about hunting for a job. I think he wants a ‘position’ and not a ‘job’. Finding help will be hard for him. Louis has recurring customers and spread out over a couple of years … he knows that so-and-so will want their houses washed down at a particular place; then wait until a later day and paint it. Always has 2 (sometimes 3) jobs going on at the same time. Trey doesn’t understand why he does that … he thinks he ought to take the jobs as they come and finish them; but, he does it this way because of weather conditions. Doesn’t do him any good to have an outside job and it be raining cats & dogs and sitting at home; when he can pull off that job and go finish an inside job. Trey is good at giving quotes and the prices have gone up as well. When he was a manager of two different paint companies, he heard the grumblings of other painters about Louis always being on the low side of bidding. He has never advertised; all his business is by word of mouth. Trey especially wishes now that we had moved to Dawson when they were still in school so that he would have grown up with the fathers of the other children in the school. He is a talker; but, Jenn thinks everybody is snobbish because they don’t talk to her. They don’t talk to her because she does not talk to them. Unfortunately, her ‘attitude’ has rubbed off on the girls. Taylor is the only one that it never did. Jenn is just a ‘negative Nelly’ and that isn’t going to change. She posts things on FB that should not be anyone’s business. We have told her that ‘if’ she says anything about us – I’d beat her @$$! And I would, at least, try. Will has not spoken to her since she showed her @$$ to Tami and has no plans to do so. It is because of her that he doesn’t come home any more than he does. This past year, he did not come at all. So Friday was the first time in a year since I had seen anything but pictures that Tami always shares with me.

I would not mind working as a clerk in a store; but, not at the mall where you’d get the $#*T shifts and weekends and hoidays. I’d have to quite before “Stupid Friday” after a holiday, I can’t stand the shoving and pushing and grabbing things from one another. We have made a budge; in May … and we are trying to follow it. When we get home I need to take our personal accounts and compare it to what we actually spend for the month (of June). I might have to rearrange a few things here and there. But, basically we’re on a ‘fixed’ income.
But, all-in-all (with the exception of the first 3 years) I have not regretted a day for it; I knew I was unable to ‘do my job’, so I did have to retire on a disability. Thankfully I was employed by the Federal government when I retired and my checks are based on what I made.

Spend time with your friends and family. Nobody ever says “I wish I had worked more or harder or whatever.’ But when you don’t spend time with your friends and family, you will miss that. It takes budgeting your income and figuring out how you can cut back. I gave up having my nails done every other week when I stopped working. Too expensive and time consuming.

Lenora

I snatched this off FB. I've seen shots of this area on the news today, but this photo comparison adds some perspective.
View of the Houston skyline from the Buffalo Bayou Bridge.

--Ginger in Texas

Made it to pg 59. Will finish catching up tomorrow. Today was not a good day with DH. I feel defeated and worn after this day. I know I am not lazy or manipulative and that I am not using my health challenges to get away with anything. Ugh. Standing up for myself is tiring and it has been pretty good but today.......

Kate UK

GloworminWA wrote: »

Tooth has stopped hurting and started draining - antibiotics are working

Good to hear!

I broke a tooth a week ago ... it broke, was filled, broke, had a root canal, and has broken again. So I will have to see a dentist. But it was really starting to ache toward the end of the week and at the same time, I developed a sinus infection. Finally on Saturday night I went into an after-hours clinic and got onto antibiotics ... and both my sinuses and the tooth are feeling a bit better.

GloworminWA wrote: »

Welcome Diane and congrats on your continuing success!

Someone please explain what a bayou is. Read about them, sung about them but don't really know what they are.

Gloria in WA

noun, plural bayous. Chiefly Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf States.
1. a marshy arm, inlet, or outlet of a lake, river, etc., usually sluggish or stagnant.
2. any of various other often boggy and slow-moving or still bodies of water.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bayou


My brother and family have a bayou at the bottom of their road where they live just over the border from Texas in Louisiana, complete with alligators and snakes. They're expecting the rainfall that fell on Houston in the next couple days. They've been sandbagging ... but I'm almost thinking they need to start thinking about evacuation.


Sort of related to bayous ... I have a bit of a chuckle at the clothing line called Billabong. I'm sure many/most of the people who wear the clothing don't know what a Billabong is!!