WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2017

Karen in VA--I retired early due to the fact that I was literally sick of it (bullying, favoritism, violence, and my friends leaving), had a new boss (our old boss died of cancer) who frankly seemed to be pushing us to go, and the school across the way was flunking my boy in kindergarten. I became a nationally certified pharmacy technician to pay the mortgage. Working in a pharmacy has its own stresses but the response of my store when I called to say my husband just died was do whatever you need. I work about 8 hours monthly now--enough to keep my retirement with them for 2020 but then stay with my son (he attends virtual school) the rest of the time.
I saw the new boss recently-my butt is smaller.
Went out with dogs-it is cool and feels like autumn is here. Going back to bed to read paper, today is the first day of school online.

Morning, all,

Ginger, Marcelyn, Cheri, thanks for checking in, guys... absolutely astounding how much water can fall out of the skies.

Sue... I'm sorry, I know it has to be exhausting when your partner resents your condition in that way. Thinking about you.

Allie - I'd been waking up with headaches, too. They were really familiar, so I was pretty sure I was grinding my teeth at night again. They've made these fairly cheap remedies now called Plackers that will keep you from clenching or grinding at night. Woke up with no headache this morning, so it's working.

'[;p (<<<that was a drive-by rat-a-tat-tat on the keyboard from Egg--sorry, I don't speak cat, so don't know what she's trying to say ).

It's possible that the teeth grinding is because a buyer is interested in the warehouse again. It would be awesome to get the thing sold, but would also put our lives in an uproar again. And there would be some tough choices to make--many of which we seem to make over and over again.

For the uninitiated, we actually live in the warehouse, in an 800-sq. ft. apartment we built into it. We have a camper trailer out back, which is why the city code people aren't all over us like stink.

The company that's interested wants to bring in a 40-ton ice machine. Ice in this desert area is a commodity--sold between $2 and $3 for a 10-pound bag. It's trucked in daily. Every oilfield worker that comes out of here (a few thousand, at least) buys a bag every day--and every store buys it by the truckload daily or weekly. The warehouse would be perfect for them, as it has the semi-tractor-trailer-height truck bumpers they need--and one of only two places in town that has them. The other is a derelict building by the railroad tracks. So the warehouse would be perfect for them... but who knows?

As always, my fertile brain runs away with "if they buy it," into a series of "then whats." It can be exhausting. Especially since, for both of us, we're not settled on a specific next adventure. I think that we will sell what we can't fit in the two trailers (we have a panel trailer for storage), park the storage trailer with a friend, and then head up country, living in the RV, to find what we're looking for. At least, that's what I think today. But then I think about leaving my job, which I'm not ready to do, and then I think about, well, everything. It's distracting, and it's stressful, and it happens every time there's interest in this place--and it's been up for sale now for a YEAR.

Venting over...

Sorry about writing a book. Had to put it someplace, and thanks for the space to write it down.

Love y'all, thinking about so many of you this morning,
Lisa in West Texas

Good Morning everyone!

Tiffanie, congratulations on becoming a "Grammy"!! Miracles do happen! I just love holding babies.

Roni, fingers crossed that everything works out with the condo.

Marcelyn, thanks for sending the pictures. Can't believe all that water. Please stay safe and get out if you need too. Thinking good thoughts for those also dealing with the flooding.

Paula, boy have you been busy! I love new appliances! We had to replace our stove a couple of years ago as we have a mouse get in and couldn't get the smell out. Drawback of living in the country.

Lenora, good for you for sticking up for that girl. She earned the right to walk with everyone else.


Gloria and Machka, so happy to hear you are both feeling better.

Lisa, so much to think about. Never thought about the ice situation.

NYKaren - Kaylie is so cute!

My plan for retirement is to retire around 66. At that time I will get full social security and the house and student loan will be paid off. I went to a financial planner for the first time last year as it was free through work and he said I looked on target to retire are 66. My husband is 5 years younger so he plans to work to 62 and retire with me. We don't need much to be happy and the only plans we have right now is to be able to go to Spain once a year. Spain is where he got his masters. He is Cuban so Spain has a culture that feels welcoming to him. He taught Spanish for about 10 years. So our income dropped a lot when he left teaching. I know he would love to retire to Spain. But we don't have the income to do that. Also, I don't speak Spanish. I tried, it was a disaster. Not much in the way of jobs around here. No big industry in VT. Another reason why we are looking at other places to move to for retirement. I love VT as it is so beautiful but a hard state to make a living in. I'm ready to retire now so I know I will be ready in 3 years (only 62 now).

Still proud to say I am still losing weight. Along with the physical weight, the mental weight comes off. That was a surprise. Very welcome.

Well better get to work. It's just so much easier to type on my work computer.

Have a great day ladies! Terry in VT

Transfixed by reporting from the US Gulf Coast. So much water falling, so few places for it to go, and so many people in its path. :noway: I devoured all the information I came across, but with no TV and slow internet I'd soon read all I could get hold of. I'm keeping everyone who's in danger in my thoughts!

But to take my mind off the threat itself, I went out chanterelle hunting on the mountain behind my house. It was either that or watch paint dry. Literally! I put the primer on yesterday, and at ambient temperatures I can't paint a second layer until at least 48 hours later.

So I put my rubber boots on, grabbed a knife and a burlap bag, and headed up the slope. I flushed up a couple ptarmigans on the way. Poor things! Hunting season begins in 10 days. I walked up to the place my husband and I call Paradise (because of the flowers and the views), where I know I can usually find chanterelles in season. Then I did my methodical back and forth along the side of the mountain. After just a couple minutes - BINGO!

See them there, hiding in the grass? That one little patch yielded about a pound of chanterelles. I picked them lovingly, one by one, brushed them clean and put them in my burlap bag. (So much more enjoyable to clean them gradually in the field than all at once standing at a kitchen counter.) Whenever I grew tired and raised my eyes to the horizon, this is what I saw.

Nope, not tired anymore.

After harvesting everything in that particular goldmine, I continued wandering back and forth along the mountainside, mostly because I wanted to, not because I needed more chanterelles. As I walked, I thought of the comment from Rye (???...I think it was Rye... sorry, I forget who, one of our newbies who I haven't memorized yet :flowerforyou:) that my life is like a book or a movie. It doesn't feel like a book or movie to me, but in fairness I have to agree. I know how lucky I am and I'm grateful for every minute. If I should ever forget, a film team comes to my home town of Longyearbyen just about every week to remind me.

After finding another pound of chanterelles I decided to head for home. I also found one much better mushroom: a cep, aka porcini, aka Boletus edulis. Heather is well acquainted that particular culinary wonder. Unfortunately, flies of every stripe also love it and lay their eggs in it. The one I found had been above ground for some time and the top was full of maggots. But the stem - the best part - was essentially maggot-free, so I took that home.

And here is a selfie with chanterelles


My darling mother turned 93 today. I called her to wish her a happy birthday. She was cheery, but a bit confused, as usual nowadays. Two years ago, she broke both hips and her pelvis, one after the other, and suffered a minor stroke, all over the course of 12 months. She is no longer able to be the Superwoman she always used to be. She's apparently lost all her internal maps, and that's hard to take when you have one daughter in New England, one in the Pacific Northwest, and one who bounces around between several places far north of all honor and decency. (That's me.) But we enjoyed talking.

/Penny, porcini-plucker near the North Pole