60 yrs and up

@AnnPT77 wow, that's so many bothersome things at once, so sorry, will pray you get it all resolved. I know what you mean about getting older, my body sure doesn't ask permission or even warn me about what's coming & some things I just have to live with & adjust my expectations. @ByeByetoDiabetes I'm sure you'll get stronger. I took to heart what Heather from "Half size me" says is to do what you CAN & not dwell on what I can't do. one step at a time

BCLadybug888 wrote: »

Hey 👋 hope everyone survived Easter with fond memories and not too many lbs lol... My chocolate is gone, 2 more Hot Cross Buns to go and that just leaves some ham, and ham is not a problem lol.

I am down like .5 today, week over week, so feeling good about making some real progress again.

How's everyone else managing? Is it Spring yet where you are - some frightful weather shown on the news!

We still have 3/4 of our ham. I sprung for a big one, with a brown sugar glaze. My partner cooked it to perfection.
We’ve had it as the big Easter meal, and a bunch of other little ones. Tonight was tomato soup with ham chunks and some tillamook Swiss on the side. Gonna have to freeze it in portions in a couple days.

@annliz23 Good job caring for your husband. I’ve been my husband’s caregiver well over a decade now. At the beginning his A1C was ridiculous. I can’t remember exactly, but it was over 12. Yikes territory.
I had to be Nurse Ratched in the early days of his dementia. Denying him sooooo much.

No regrets though. His A1C is just under 6 now. He exercises daily on our NuStep, and he gets a fair amount of treats. All’s well enough.

I hope your vehicle and health issues get sort out soon, Ann.

That hoya is a stunner!

@BCLadybug888

Keep waiting for the roses. They are pretty tough. Around here they can almost be weeds. One of mine is a Mr. Lincoln I planted at a home I rented many years ago. I think I dug it up and moved it once. Then I dug it up and took it when I bought my house over 20 years ago. I think I moved it, too, as I didn't like where I had planted it. It loses some main stems from time to time, so I do have to go pick which ones to keep. It appears to have some kind of disease now though. There's other roses that were here when I bought my house. Some are quite gorgeous. One isn't really, but I tend to it anyway. I made a mistake and planted a native rose once in the front yard. It wouldn't stop. I cut it down. From time to time, it sprouts up a new seedling. I think there's one out there now. I might leave it now that my madrone has grown so tall.


@AnnPT77

What a bummer about the car. I bought a 2011 RAV4 from a friend about 18 months ago when he moved to Australia. It's a high level trim that I'd never opt for myself, and it's a rare 6 cylinder model. I really enjoy driving it, and I can carry four passengers fairly comfortably - three for sure. My friend who was going to drive me over the mountain to pick it up found out they were also selling a 2007 Corolla, and she bought that sight unseen. We found someone else to take us BOTH over there. Well, just a few weeks ago she came out of the grocery and went to the place she had parked her car. Her car was not in the spot. Another car was. Someone was really not paying attention when backing out of their space and shoved her car across a planting strip and out into the street. Damage wasn't that awful, but they totaled it. They didn't give her what it was worth. It was in good shape. She quickly found a Hundai, but she doesn't like it and will sell it if she finds another good Toyota.

A couple years ago while I was getting my "new" canoe (the 30 year old Wenonah Advantage that I sold last year) dialed in, someone did a hit-and-run on my truck. I was very glad that the estimate was low enough they didn't total the truck. I did buy that truck brand new, but that was in 1997. In three years it will be 30 years old, and by then I might have to replace it. I don't want to tow my trailer with the RAV4 even though it has a brake controller and a transmission oil cooler.


Around here my camas are blooming like crazy. I planted a dozen bulbs about 20 years ago. Each summer, I collect all the seeds that I can. Then in fall I spread some and I spread the rest in the spring. There's now so many I could actually start digging some for food or to spread by bulbs. They are fascinating plants. It takes many years of growth before they flower. As they start to grow, the roots reach down and then put tension on the very small bulb to pull it down into the soil to it's ideal depth. When Lewis and Clark first saw this part of the world, the camas were blooming. They thought they were looking at an inland sea because of the shimmering blue carpet. My double-file viburnum is starting to bloom. There are fiddleheads on the sword ferns I trimmed back last month. The madrone tree is flowering. Some of the tulips are at the end of their bloom, but other varieties aren't open yet. Some of the columbine are about to pop. I got a transplant of a purple one from a friend, and I've been spreading the seeds. I had already been collecting seeds from others around town. Most of mine are the native yellow and/or red ones. Good stuff. The hellebore died. That's OK. It wasn't that nice; I dug it up from a neighbor who thinks it's a boring one. It is. The Corsican hellebore bloomed a month ago. Camilia are almost done. Rhodies are a few weeks away.

Out in the forest I expect to see false Solomon's seal really soon. Trillium are out. Trout lilies are out. I will probably go looking for wildflowers today if I'm not too sore. I failed to get my foot out of a toe clip yesterday when I stopped my bike, so I fell to the pavement. Oops. Not my new bike. It doesn't have toe clips, but it makes me nervous to try out the clipless pedals when my shoes arrive. I've never used clipless pedals, and I know there's a learning curve. Then I'm also wondering if I'll remember which type pedal I'm using because it's a natural thing for me to pull my foot out of a toe clip. It's a different movement with clipless. I may have to take the toe clips off my commuter bike.

AnnPT77- once I had an older car that due to primarily cosmetic damage was determined a 'total loss' by the insurance company. They paid me out my claim and allowed me to buy it back for 'salvage' price, then I went about getting it fixed myself with the $$ they had paid me. It was worth it to me as I had bought the car from my parents, and they had bought it new - so I knew the history of the car + maintenance, and it was low mileage for the age and would've been impossible to replace for the same $$.

BCLadybug888 wrote: »

AnnPT77- once I had an older car that due to primarily cosmetic damage was determined a 'total loss' by the insurance company. They paid me out my claim and allowed me to buy it back for 'salvage' price, then I went about getting it fixed myself with the $$ they had paid me. It was worth it to me as I had bought the car from my parents, and they had bought it new - so I knew the history of the car + maintenance, and it was low mileage for the age and would've been impossible to replace for the same $$.

That's interesting: Never occurred to me. However,

1. It's too late. I just signed the title over to the salvage company and FedEx-ed it per their instructions this afternoon.
2. I was going to need a new car sooner or later, and it will probably be my last car, given my age and how long I hang onto them (unless I crash one!). There are some advantages, like safety features and better mileage, to getting a new one.
3. There's zero sentimental value to it. I bought it myself after I was widowed, in fact the second car I bought for myself with no one else involved.
4. The body shop told me that probably part of the reason they totaled it was that parts for cars this old are hard to get, and very expensive. (It was a 2009, but I think I bought it in late 2008 IIRC.)

In case anyone wonders how much (little) damage it takes to total a 2009 RAV4, there's a photo in the spoiler. Some of my friends speculated that the ball joint might've been destroyed or the frame seriously bent. All I can say is that the body shop drove it (on the flat tire) from their back lot to their front lot so it would be easier to unload my possessions from it. That's not definitive, but . . . .

In other news:

The rowing club did our second work day at the community garden/greenhouse. I spent about 2.5 hours scuffle-hoeing and shoveling weeds, then carrying them in buckets to a big container. (I assume they'll be hot composted.) I'd never scuffle-hoed before. It works surprisingly well for shallow-rooted weeds. The clumps of grasses (and a few other perennial weeds) were better dug than hoed.

Tomorrow is our annual boathouse clean-up, and I hear we're starting with moving boats out of the boathouse, then wheelbarrowing more limestone fines to low spots in the floor, then washing boats and putting them back. It'll probably be a reasonable workout.

I got the pathology lab results back from my upper GI scope. Once again, all perfectly normal, so my rib pain is still a mystery. I need to schedule a follow-up with the GI specialist (per post-procedure instructions, no specific goal I'm aware of). I had a routine blood test, and will be seeing my primary care doc at the end of this month, so we'll talk about next steps then.

I have another scan on the schedule out a few weeks to re-image the upper left lung nodules that look benign (per radiologist) but need follow-up because new and because lungs are a common site for breast cancer metastases and I have a history of stage III breast cancer. This likely has no relationship to the right lower rear rib pain. I'm not super worried about this, since zero breathing issues even with heavy workouts, but maybe the universe will smack me with a big bad surprise. Ya never know, I guess.

Right now, I'm working on the new car.

That's all I've got going. Oh, yeah, my weight is down a couple of pounds, so maybe my typical Winter up-creep is starting its Spring down-creep. That would be good.

How is everyone else doing? Notable life events? Progress toward goals? Issues you need help/advice with?

lisakatz2 wrote: »

I can't remember if I joined here in the over 60 club.

Crushing my goals, really excited to be here. Losing at a good pace, feeling better every week.

Lovely flower pics! Wish I had a garden.

I don't know you but I am proud of you. You are focused on your health and so am I. :-) Congratulations on your success. I am not much for small talk here (yet) I have bigger fish to fry (and a lot of it) LOL
Stay focused!

Welcome to the group, @Slashnl and @Drev7998!

What may we do to help you, @drev7998? This is a kind and friendly group.

Hello to all the 60+-ers on this thread (and those slightly younger who've joined us as well). Special greetings to those new to MFP or to this thread!

I've been less active here lately. Mostly some unexpected issues: As I mentioned, I'd crashed my car, no one hurt thankfully, but the insurance company totaled my 15-year-old car, so I had to rush around and buy a new one. That's mostly resolved at this point, just a couple of minor follow-ups. Now I'm using the owners manual as bedtime reading (yawn!), and working on figuring out all the fancy electronic features current cars seem to have. (I'm grateful for my IT background at times like this.)

Still no answers on the mysterious rib pain, but I'm seeing PCP on Monday, so hoping we'll firm up a new plan.

We're not quite rowing routinely on water yet, but I think it will happen in the next couple of weeks, if the weather cooperates. It's been pleasant to get in some bike rides on the paved trail system here on the nicer-weather days.

That's about all I've got for updates, though some of you have mentioned liking the flower pictures, so I'll put in a few at the end, since the Spring ones are IMO especially nice. I will put them in a spoiler so those who like them can click and see, but others won't have to scroll past.

I'd love to hear how things are going for you-all, too!

Here are some flowers from my garden:

@MargaretYakoda, that's very cool! Which one is your kid, if you don't mind me asking? (I've never been a SCA person myself, but one of my earlier room-mates was.)

AnnPT77 wrote: »

@MargaretYakoda, that's very cool! Which one is your kid, if you don't mind me asking? (I've never been a SCA person myself, but one of my earlier room-mates was.)

The big guy with the yellow “socks” and the turtle on his shield.

Husband there has a real smile watching the kid swing a sword. Those are few and far between these days. Dementia has flattened his emotions.
Husband used to be the chief archer of our local group. He and the kid each have a gorgeous yew long bow with horn nocks (the ends that hold the string) that they made themselves long long ago … but
these days he’s not safe on the archery range.
I didn’t mention there was archery happening, and fortunately he didn’t notice it in the distance in the field behind us.

I haven’t been to an event since I began using a rollator. It wasn’t as bad getting around as I expected. I’m pretty sure physical therapy and regular exercise on the NuStep played a part in that.
I managed about 1 1/4 of a mile over the course of a few hours walking around that little field.

I was “snack mom” for some of the fighters. Grapes, pretzels, sliced cheese, and a little roast beef, with fizzy water so they wouldn’t dehydrate. That armor looks rough, but it is protective. Which means swingin sword is hard, hot work.

And I brought a few of my little drop spindles that I make out of dowels and wooden toy wheels. I teach people how to spin on those little things and send someone home with their own drop spindle and a small handful of wool roving.

Got one new student who was very happily spinning by the time he left the event. A success!

All in all it was a lovely afternoon with family and old friends.