WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2024

Carol - so sorry to hear about your brother, my sympathy to the family. All three of us kids in my family are still alive and relatively healthy - these days, at our age, we aren't promised tomorrow. I'm crossing fingers I'll be able to see both my sis and brother and their spouses this summer, it's been quite a few years even though we keep in touch by email and phone calls.

Lisa - absolutely love the addition and how nicely it's fixed up. The fern is gorgeous. I think your brickwork looks great and I wouldn't be overzealous about removing much cement. I've seen a lot of old buildings that look just like that, with bricks just peeking out in some areas. Gives it character.

Beth - many hugs to you and your mom. Is there a memory care unit where she currently is?

Sue - I like Evie's ideas about taking pictures of the mess. Do you have a photo of her and her make of car/license plate? Just something to tuck away. I try to not get paranoid, I just worked with the police too many years and watched too many Vera episodes.

Linda - I appreciate your input on flooring. All of this is good to know if I decide to ditch my carpeting, or eventually move to a new place that needs new flooring.

Heather - I think you mentioned setting up temporary sleeping arrangements on the first level of your house after surgery? Glad to hear you are still able to get some exercise in, being careful of the hips. Sorry about the frustration with cancelling the cruise and getting everyone off the dime to follow through. That kind of stress would make my pain worse.

Flea - I was just thinking about you yesterday, so happy to see you pop in here. Glad everything with your mom's estate is finally finished. Hope your job - and your DH's new one - are going well.

A while back, I ran across a YouTube channel "Hospice Nurse Julie." Again, it just popped up. I wish I had known about it several years ago when my DH was starting to fail with dementia and become frail. Even though he never made it to hospice, what she says about the final stages really rang a bell. I kept trying to get food into him, but he was slowly shutting down - I believe several months prior to his death. He never became agitated - perhaps it was due to his self medication from the "420" shop. Or maybe that was just him. I'm grateful for that.

If anyone is interested, here's a link to her channel. She has made several videos about Alzheimer's and dementia. Here's one:

Make it a fabulous week!

Lanette
Rainy and chilly SW WA State

Carol-So sorry for your loss.

Beth-Sending hugs.

Michele-Ouch on the hip! Hope you feel better soon.

Eclipse is beginning now. It's getting darker. We get 55% eclipse. I'm more focused on not looking at the sun. It's like "don't touch your face" during COVID. Now, all I want to do is look at the sun.

Tina in CA

Anyone remember this?

"You flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun." Carly Simon

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/viYv1CyxeaQ

Lanette

Saga rang me back. Afraid of missing a booking I guess. I now have the number of the insurance people. Progress.
Not only am I pursuing this current claim, but I also want to discuss the next cruise insurance situation with them.
Wheels turning slowly.

Heather UK xxxxxxxx

Joy - Hope your daughter's news is good. Hopefully, the lack of urgency means that it isn't urgent, and isn't just incompetence on someone's part. Home improvement is as close as Corey and I ever come to arguing--we're both conflict-avoidant, which has its benefits in terms of doing projects together. 👀🙃😀

Heather - Good news getting some information you needed from Saga, hope you can get what you need sorted all the way around.

So... I was outside at totality, I took pictures with the selfie side of my phone, like Tina I was just trying not to look at the sun, and wanted to! Didn't work. The pics just look like the sun. The birds never stopped singing, Egg was inside getting a snack when I walked back in. I tried wearing Corey's welders helmet to look at the sun, just gave me an instant headache from the weight. 🤷🏻 I dunno.

Anyway - smelling like leather and sweat and dirt at the moment, but after two hours, I decided I like the bricks with the German schmear (thank you Barbara, I'll use that later with Corey... 😀). After I got all the mortar cleaned off around it, I was able to get all that detritus in the dumpster... then I took an hour to pull some siding off under the carport. I told Corey I would pull everything off that I could reach. Not as much as he probably thought, as I think he thinks I'm six feet tall.

I'm not. 🙃 But I might get out and do a little more once I take a break. Or maybe not.

Rebecca - You have my full sympathy. I just don't give in anymore. No matter what your sister promises, you know what she's like better than she does, and it will all happen. My answer these days is "I'm not traveling anymore," and I use the excuse of the old military life when I deign to give any excuse at all. You can use that one too, if you like. I've done that bit, I have no urge to go anywhere else. Possibly ever. I may change my mind someday, but it's not today.

Time for a snack.

Later, y'all,
Love,
Lisa in AR

couple of quick thoughts -

Heather - My mom had the sock ease thingy that Debbie mentioned and she got the hang of it right away and it really helped !

Carol - sending hugs (((((((((((()))))))))))))))))

Beth - I wondered if you should have mom check for a UTI - others here have said that the symptoms are weird as folks age.... and if that is part of the issue it might help.


smiles
Kim in N. California

Lanette ... I watched the video. Thank you.

Kim ... UTIs are definitely part of the problem as she has them continually. We are now considering prophylactic antibiotics. While the UTIs worsen her dementia considerably, they are not the sole cause.

Eclipse ... we were in the path of totality and the cloud coverage was horrible until about 15 minutes before the full eclipse. Then we had patchy clouds and were able to see the crescents and even the full eclipse through breaks in the sky, but it was still hazy. We only used the glasses for a very brief time. But the amazing thing was the instantaneous change from light to full darkness and then light again. I must not have been paying attention in science class ... I had no idea that I was watching the shadow of the moon pass over us. I had to ask my husband why it was so black to the west. The darkness honestly was surreal and to see the western sky turn flaming orange before becoming startling bright light again was beautiful. Of course, my idiot neighbors had to set off fireworks! Two and half hours later, the clouds moved out and the skies are clear again. Figures!

I've had more conversations with family and the facility today regarding my mom. Today, she was cooperative and pleasant. Lanette ... yes, her current facility has a highly rated memory care unit. One of the reasons we chose her current facility. At the moment everyone is watching her. I guess there is a narrow window of opportunity for successful intervention in the timing of moving a person into memory care. I will be learning more about this at Thursday's family meeting.

Beth