I'm considering the outer Hebrides PATSY as a future abode. But I'd probably need a rowing boat to get there! Anne.

I was right; sauerbraten will never be a replacement for corned beef and cabbage. I barely ate yet i was too full at the end of the meal whatever that means, and tomorrow is a huge buffet at noon. Who cares? I'm not hungry!
SANDY, I don't think your landlady has a leg to stand on regarding less or more than the 60 days. She is breaking the lease (is there anything written in the actual lease?) that runs to August and I don't think she can charge you for more time than you remain, and if you do not move prior to August, I doubt she can throw you out! She would have to get a court order and it could take many months before a court date and it would cost her more than her mortgage to do this since you would have already moved by the end of August and she'd be stuck with the cost of the court date and no tenant to throw out! It's unpleasant, but perhaps she will discuss it in a non threatening manner so you can remain on good terms.
LIN, I recall how available you were for your Dad, despite his being incapable of feeling appreciation. That was so sad, but typical of dementia! You were a wonderful daughter. Every family handles aging parents differently. Mike and I made our decisions based on looming age and the desire to not burden children (who are close to your ages!) who do not live close. We are Floridians, whereas they live in Virginia, NY, Germany and wherever they might land next move. All are busy people and we love one another but evidently do not need to be close by (at least not so far!). My dear sister, on the other hand, moved to Colorado and loves being physically close to 2 of her 3 kids,(both very controlling, but my sister has learned to roll with their decisions!) and a huge bunch of grandchildren, great grandchildren (Her son-in-law married into her family with 5 children, now grown, married and very productive!) We are both happy with our choices, though now they are beginning to look for a place like mine and finding they don't exist in a lifetime care form! CCRC(Continuing Care Retirement Community) has tremendous advantages over rental communities, including large tax advantages.
PATSY, good luck with the knees. I remember when SANDY had her surgery, and her recovery was amazing! I am now bone on bone, and I can always predict weather changes!
ANNE, where the heck ARE the outer Hebrides?
I'm afraid to go back to the former page, and I recall JACKIE"S lovely long post but not the details, so hugs, dearest JACKIE, and I'll make up for it!
Buzz
..................................Always Believe Something Wonderful is About to Happen! .................

SANDY, take note of what BUZZ writes. Did you prepay the last months rent when you became a tenant? This means if you give 3 months notice you live the last month free because you've already paid. However, if you leave earlier than the three months the landlady can keep that months rent. That's how it works here. Don't be rushed into something for your landladies convenience! You need time to think things through and to find another desirable residence. Make sure the family are behind you on this so you are not pressured. Very wise to trust the Lord, he always comes through for me when I have a tricky situation to deal with. All seems lost and then the light bulb suddenly comes on! The very best of luck and know we are all behind you in thought.
Another busy day and then relief next week. Nothing drastic this week, just family chores etc. I went into the garden again for another hour or so of tidying up. I love gardening, but the body is starting to protest. I suppose one day I will be reduced to plant pot gardening. Jilly had a marvellous time. She loves the great outdoors and yapped at every passing squirrel, dog and person. Then she went to bed early which gave me peace to watch the TV which turned out to be lousy so I read instead!
I guess JACKIES friend showed up in the snow. Enjoy your week Jackie! LIN will be getting ready to greet her friends at church. I wonder what PATSY and JERI are up to a few days before spring springs officially on us?
Family day for me,
Anne.

Great news SANDY, very pleased for you.
Anne.

SANDY, where did it say I function??? If I'm online, I seem to lose all track of time til it's suddenly almost time to get up, instead! I'm glad your landlady hasn't suddenly changed from being so nice. And who knows, you may find a new place right there even nicer than your current place.
ANNE, I have learned to listen to my body, which seems to send new signals much more often these days! My walk to the elevator seems longer every day!
LIN, I trust that whatever you produce will be exciting and represent your love of creating vibrant new works. Were you always so productive?
JACKIE, did your friend arrive safely in the snow? Aren't you terrific having that nice warm pot of soup ready for her!
PATSY, I hope the knee is improving. I've had those series of shots a number of times, but in truth don't think they made any difference .
We just had a false fire alarm, but thought it was a real fire alarm, and I knew I could not get down 3 flights of stairs dragging my walker. Then they forgot to announce it was false!
Watched Wonderwheel this afternoon a Woody Allen movie with Kate Winslet and John Belushi...I left shortly after the unsatisfying end of the picture;Boom..it was over! Just like that!
If you are a follower of Woodie, see it. Otherwise, It seemed too conrrived
I might actually have supper now. I generally forget about Sunday supper until it's too late to eat!
Buzz

..................................Always Believe Something Wonderful is About to Happen! .................

Hello, and we've swung back to way below temperatures again. What a Yo yo season. To think I was gardening two days ago, and now it's minus 6!

PATSY, what a dilemma. I hate drug taking and after the disastrous results of 9 years ago (the blind spot in my left eye from broken veins, still with me, and the same problem in my nose from a massive vein breakage which landed me in emergency) I've not been to a doctor since in spite of her telling me I was in imminent danger of keeling over from a stroke 9 years ago! However, not everyone has my situation and so I hope you come to a resolution soon.

In the meantime Mark went off to the gym yesterday and he said the place was full of coughing, sneezing, nose blowing people and so he expects to get a bad cold any day. Honestly, you go to a gym to be healthy I thought. Then Mike informed us yesterday that after blood work he is pre type 2 diabetic! He's now got to stick to a Mediterranean diet so I've given him one of my old health books. "Optimum Fitness". At 82, touch wood, I seem to be the fittest, lol. I can't think of anyone in our clan who had type 2 diabetes! Or any diabetes. Hopefully he can get back to the normal range. Not easy living alone and a very busy job.

Talking of clans LIN you are not alone, in our age group anyway, in looking after our older folk. It was expected and mainly done because we loved our elders. It is the normal thing to do and you were exceptionally a very good daughter. God bless you for it.

Jilly is looking hopeful for a walk but it will be noon before we venture far and a reasonable 0 or 32F. Beautiful blue sky, very deceptive.
Bye,
Anne.

Hi Chris! Great to hear from you. Not having reliable Internet is a huge obstacle so I am glad you updated us. Busy! Very busy but what a lot of good you are doing.

Anne, I hope you are not freezing this evening. It warmed enough today that I pushed my trash cart out with my flannel shirt but no coat. But that was a short time outdoors. Yes, it is terrible to run into peop,e who are ill. Yesterday the message was given by an elder who had such a horrible case of the fl a few weeks ago. He spent lots of time wiping his nose with a tissue and sipping water. After the service he told me he was ill with a sinus infection and still was not feeling well even though he had been taking antibiotics for a few days. Yipes. This guy is usually impervious to the bus that go around. I hope your son stays well.

Oh, and I met the newest puppy in the Neighborhood this afternoon. They have had the tiny tyke for a week and her name is Skye. They have no idea how large she’ll be but she is a cutie now except she is grabbing everything she can get and tries to swallow it. Sound familiar? This lady has her hands full with not just the puppy but two pre-school toddlers. Ooooh. I would imagine her husband is happy to be the one working with all the energy with kids and puppy.

Patsy, I am afraid I too would be anxious but I am always anxious about anything related to health or problems with my house or broken cars or problems with electronics......I guess just about everything. I hope you find a resolution that is satisfactory to you and to your health care provider. I am known as a non-compliant patient. If he told me to take the medication, I would likely say no and he would say you will die and then he would walk away because really, I am horrible to deal with when it comes to medications and shots of all kinds.

Buzz, I am sorry about the fire alarm. When I was working in a high rise office building we had required fire drills. I was happy to have them actually as I was always nervous being in a building up 25 floors or so where not only did windows not open but no ladders could reach you. So it is important to know what you are supposed to do if it is for real. We had to carry people down the stairs if possible or if you were a floor monitor, you had to stay with people who could not walk the stairs until help arrived. Everyone went down a few floors and stayed in the stairwells and the fire personnel moved upward in the building moving people down. Did not want a rush of people jamming up the stairwell or possibly hurting each other.

I am going to move along now. We are going to try to play Mah Jongg tomorrow. Yippee!!

Hugs.

Lin

Good morning dear friends. I've just sat quietly catching up with your posts before regaling the events that hit my friend and I yesterday although actually starting Sunday night. First though, a photo of my garden on Saturday before the Beast from the East sent yet another blizzard our way that dumped over 6" of snow in a couple of hours!!

It's a story of lessons to be learned and never being too late to take stock of our lives and recognise we aren't 20 anymore especially since I've read your posts and see coincidences in stories of medical dilemmas!
My friend Pat arrived along with the snow and we had a great afternoon catching up in front of the fire. On Sunday we woke up to a huge dumping of snow so my neighbours kindly offered to take George out for his walk although I think they secretly wanted to go and explore the moors and snowdrifts! All was fine until that evening when Pat said she felt a strange tingling in her face, then her fingers and toes. We did the classic stroke test but that didn't seem to indicate one and as we knew a paramedic would struggle to reach us I gave her an asprin and suggested an early night. No better in the morning we phoned our NHS helpline describing all her symptoms and they said they would send an ambulance. What happens first is a paramedic in a car and she duly arrived after about and hour and a half having struggled to reach us and said she thought it could be a mild stroke so called for an ambulance but then took Pat's blood pressure..... 204 over 143!!! Another call was then made for urgent assistance and 10 minutes later an ambulance arrived. Pat is now in hospital and I followed on an hour later once many of the roads were cleared. 20 miles away in the city not a flake of snow to be seen!! Anyway Pat was sitting up in the emergency department after an MRI scan chatting to the nurses and feeling she was in good hands so after a couple of hours I headed home again because she has stayed overnight for observation. Hopefully I can pick her up either today or tomorrow and her son will travel by train from London so he can collect her and her car and drive her home, no doubt with a prescription for blood thinners!
Why I've told you all this is because I am aware Pat has had a few chats with doctors over the past couple of years about lifestyle and perhaps taking medication that might ward off such events but of course we all feel we don't want to go down that route don't we. At times we have to take stock and funnily enough we were doing just that on Sunday afternoon when Pat was thinking she should cut down hours in her part time job. She'll be 71 next week but charges about like a teenager, mostly for other people and I was saying she needs to look after herself too so maybe this was the little warning she needed and thank goodness it wasn't a whole lot worse. What we put in ourselves is a personal choice and I'm the first to avoid any chemical substances even if in pain but as a doctor told Pat yesterday, medical treatments have advanced tremendously in the past 10 years. Try not to be too scared Patsy but instead investigate all options and know your doctor will be doing his best for you.

It was lovely to catch up with all your posts and I was relieved to read Buzz's concise advice about renting property and leases. We'll be stopping off at the Outer Hebrides on our way home from Norway so I'll take a few photos of properties Anne might like to retire to along with the sheep!!
Time for a calming shower then make sure the hens are ok before walking George. I'll let you now how the week progresses when I can.

Jackie

Hello, time to be on my way soon. Looking forward to seeing my Mah Jongg friends again. It’s been too long.

Buzz, I thought I had everything sorted for my taxes when I started to receive email questions last evening from my preparer. I spent the rest of the evening researching responses and emailing back and forth with her. I hope we are done now and just have the final phone appointment later in the week. So good luck my friend, it seems taxes can present challenges.

Jackie, what an experience. Good for you to keep your head. You provided excellent help in the circumstances. So, yes, lesson learned. Nothing is fool proof of course and everyone’s different. I hope your friend gets home safely and that no additional storms are on the horizon. Hello George! And I hope you and all your household are well.

Anne, you do come from a line of very hearty and adventurous people. I don’t think Jilly would want to move though so best to stay where you are?

Must move along now my friends.

Hugs.

Lin