WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MARCH 2025

Machka - congrats on the new job, so glad it's permanent and you can stop the resumes and interviews, as you mentioned, and get on with better things. Beautiful ring! Also thanks for your foot history. Interesting how many of us have foot problems - my mom did, but I don't recall other senior age gals ever mentioning problems with sore feet. Maybe they suffered in silence, or didn't "overdo" it like I did tramping up and down the paved street for 45 minutes at a time nearly every day for years and getting metatarsalgia. I'm not saying others shouldn't walk for extended periods of time on pavement —- I just overdid it and did not pay attention to pain like I should have.

I noticed that the hammertoe next to my big toe that I was developing a year ago has now gotten better. Dr. D said it would get worse and I love proving him wrong. 😉 The middle toe next to it was curving so I put a silicone cap over it and have been wearing it for probably 6 months. That toe isn't better but I'm thinking about how to fix it. 😁

Rita - sounds like, from your post a couple days ago, you've made great headway in finding a new spot. Nice that part of your life will be getting settled. Can't wait to hear more about it. Will you also be helping a ranger like you are doing right now? Good job on the faucet leak! Holding the flashlight is the most important part of the job. 😁

I've found a new mystery on Britbox - Good Ship Murder. Gives a look at the insides of a huge elegant cruise ship and made me think of you ladies and your cruises and I realize why you like them so much! The ship is cruising around the Mediterranean, the ship's first officer (gal) and guy lounge singer (who used to be a detective) join forces to solve murders. Plot is light, a there's plenty of neat scenery at the ports where they land.

Barbie - thanks for letting us know about AARP Magazine and Farmer's Carry. I let my subscription expire - it was coming under DH's name and I neglected to get signed up under my name. I need to do that, I always liked their articles.

I haven't done any Farmer's carry or worn my weighted vest in over a month - wanted to get the verdict on my lower back pain and didn't want to more risk injury with heavier weights. Anxious to see what the PT says about all of this. Maybe he'll want me to keep doing it and use heavier weights! 😏

Allie - so glad you are home. I bet Siri is glad to see you, hope she's letting you sleep.

Lisa - ACK! Fire season already. Boom, summer is here for you. Do you think you'll see any more snow? Weather likes to go from one extreme to the other it seems. My grass is long enough to mow in some places but cool and wet for the next 10 days so let 'er grow.

Heather - glad too your swollen feet/ankles have resolved.

Enhancing your immune system - I finally finished that long 3 1/2 hr Andrew Huberman podcast "How to Enhance Your Immune System" with Dr. Roger Seheult this morning. Very good, glad I chugged through it 1/2 hour at a time. Yesterday I got a nice walk, between raindrops, among the trees at the back of my property. Also did some heavy duty weeding and cleanup and spent time getting the hens of out mischief (more chicken fencing is on the shopping list.) Anyhow the podcast said 15 minutes outside, even on a cloudy/cold/rainy day, really enhances our immune systems. Again, I think of how healthy my farmer parents and grandparents were - rarely had colds and viruses and if they did, they got over them quickly. That sunshine might have been part of the magic.

Hugs - a final comment about hugs. I was never a big hugger, and a lot of people aren't. But in the past couple weeks I've gotten hugs from guys I really like. Just friendly hugs, not the *kitten* grabbing like my DH did (he never was much of a hugger just for hugging's sake. Stood there stiff like a board and winced until I let him go. 😁) Anyhow, I realized how much I miss hugs. And I ran across information somewhere that women need a hug a day. My girlfriends and I usually hug, most of them are a lot shorter than me. Not the same as a hug from a tall guy, but it's a hug just the same, right?

ON that note, I better close before your eyes glaze over. 😁 Give yourself a hug from me if you're not opposed to it.😍

Lanette 😎

SW WA State

Machka ~ Congrats on the permanent job! So glad for you! The ring is beautiful!

Lisa ~ I agree with Barbie mentioning that a new computer user should not be afraid of touching anything lest they make mistakes they don't know how to correct. Have found that if you keep trying you can find a work-a-round.

Rita ~ Guess I missed the part that you had found a new site for your camper. Will have to go back and see if I can find it.

I find that I seem to miss a lot of things as the pages move so quickly.

Went to the eye doctor this AM and was told that there was a film behind the lens of my cataract replacement which is not unusual. If my health insurance agrees, I can get the film removed. Found out that this is why a lot of things look blurry to me and it may be why driving at night is a terrible experience.

Carol in GA

Kylia - getting away to visit your brother in Maryland sounds great, a nice change for you.

Interesting about that practice in Detroit cancelling your DH's appointment — not taking out of state insurance I'm presuming?

More medical insurance whoop to do…I found out that my Medicare supplemental insurance carrier, Regence, (a kind of big one here in the Pacific Northwest) wasn't able to get a contract with Providence and Swedish Hospital in Seattle, which is another large hospital group in my area.

Sooo…. people who have Regence won't be covered if they have to go to Providence and Regence is their primary insurance. That's a lot of people in my community and most if not all people who work for the state. I spent some time on the phone with Regence yesterday. People on Medicare, like me, are OK since Medicare is my primary and Regence secondary. If Providence no longer takes Medicare, then I'll have to go elsewhere. The chances of Providence dropping Medicare are slim to none… But I'm going to shop around a bit this fall during open enrollment.

Speaking of, I have my DEXA scan at Providence Imaging tomorrow. Kind of curious to see if my house walking with weights has favorably impacted my bone density over the past 2 years.

Carol - hope you can get that film behind the lens cleared up. And your insurance steps up!

Lanette 😎

SW WA State

Machka - Many congratulations on securing that permanent job. Phew! All those applications must have been very energy demanding.

Tomorrow late afternoon, John's sister will be arriving to park in our drive while she spends the weekend in a hotel near the pier with her walking group. She is driving down from her holiday in the Lake District, picking up people on the way, and will drop them off at the hotel, and park with us. She will have to get a bus back into town. Things are always complicated, rushed, and exhausting with her, but she seems to thrive on it. I couldn't even contemplate a timetable like that. She is four years younger than me. It will be nice to see her, even for a few minutes, and I will have a snack ready, just in case. She will pop in again on her return journey on Sunday sometime. 🙄

Tomorrow is Bea's 9th birthday! I hope she likes her present, the t-shirt and skirt I posted before. John made a funny card of her up a tree. She's having a film night with 12 classmates, at her house, with snacks. They have rented Moana 2. She planned it all and wrote lists weeks ago. ☺️

Love to all, Heather UK xxxxxxxx

Hi everyone,

I haven't had much time to post. I was working on my certifications at work and home. I pulled many all-nighters to get it almost done. I was going to go in and do the manekin, but since they won't pay me for all my work, I decided to do it on the clock this weekend. I have not exercised in a while(almost 2 weeks)due to my pulled muscle. So, I slept with heating pads and rubbed my leg down with Biofreeze and Synergy Blend. Today, I was able to work out again. I feel so much better. I was getting down on myself.
I got approved to go on vacation with DH. I wanted to save money. This time, we will stay at our condo and enjoy the amenities. Well, I am going to shower and do my manicure. I will wait till I get to Florida for my pedicure. The lady there gave the best pedicure. I got a lot of reading done. I need to update my Goodreads. It was 81 degrees in Mississippi, and the wasps were nasty today. There were 2 in my living room. When it is warm out here, the bugs are vicious. I saw my therapist, and that was nice. I told him I was a little blue due to my leg, but I will try to prepare for the 5K on April 12th.

Welcome back, Penny. RE in Texas, I am so glad to see you back as well. Lynn, are you sure you don't want another dog in maybe a year?

Welcome to our group Shamac! The more, the merrier. Do you want us to call you Shamac? What state are you from?

Lisa, my co-workers, and I believe that I genuinely have ADHD. I want to do everything but have trouble focusing to get it done. I need to work on decluttering again because my desk here looks like it belongs to a crazy person.

Machka, hopefully, you will find time for your feet. It would be hard to be grounded from biking because your feet got too bad. I love your ring. Is it aquamarine?

Pip, I knew you would get back to the number one spot.

Rebecca, I was curious about the Cosmic Crisp apples. I love the Honey Crisp apples. Rebecca, I got my bathing suits from Amazon and Land's End.

Kylia, don't be hard on yourself. You have a stressful job, and when you quit smoking, eating becomes a factor. When I am stressed at work, I blow bubbles. My dog loves it when I do it at home. My co-workers think I am crazy.

Michelle, you are very social in Florida. Is it warm out there?

Rita, where are the jokes? Where are you currently living? I'm worried about your living situation. Are you okay?

Barbie, are you almost done with your "to-do list" in handling Jake's affairs?

Hello Carol and Lanette, how are you doing?

Margaret, did you plant any bulbs for spring?

Carla, how are you and your son doing?

Well, I had better check to see if my meds are ready at Walgreens. Until then, enjoy your weekend.

XO,

Mo in Mississippi

Thank you all for the congratulations!

Regarding your feet -

 I have my mother's bunion on my right foot, and I always remember her expressing regret that she had surgery to correct it. Pain management is certainly better now than 30 years ago, though. It may still keep me from ever having it corrected.

Lisa, why did your mother regret the surgery?

Machka

 - congrats on the new job, so glad it's permanent and you can stop the resumes and interviews, as you mentioned, and get on with better things. Beautiful ring! Also thanks for your foot history. Interesting how many of us have foot problems - my mom did, but I don't recall other senior age gals ever mentioning problems with sore feet. Maybe they suffered in silence, or didn't "overdo" it like I did tramping up and down the paved street for 45 minutes at a time nearly every day for years and getting metatarsalgia. I'm not saying others shouldn't walk for extended periods of time on pavement —- I just overdid it and did not pay attention to pain like I should have.

Lanette, my mother has very painful feet too. But I don't particularly remember my grandmother mentioning it.

One of the contributors might be footwear. My mother wore the very pointy toed shoes for many years and did a lot of walking in them.

Like these … my feet start crying just looking at them.

But then again, when I was in my early 20s I wore pumps with 5 inch heels quite a bit.

Also, I have always had a large collection of shoes, many of which are the sort I can only wear one day or for one event, and then not again for a while. In comparison, my grandmother had a small collection of sensible shoes. Even her church shoes were low pumps or sandals.

So it is entirely possible that my mother and I wrecked our feet in our youth.

Machka, that commute sounds so very painful. Were there no taxis/Uber/Lyft because of the road closure? Hope the podiatrist has do-able recommendations. Con VERY gratulations on the new job and beautiful aquamarine ring.

Barbara, the traffic was stopped in the direction I wanted to go. There were many times I was passing cars as I walked.

Hobart is built in such a way that an accident on a main road can bring the whole city and surrounding area to a halt. It's situated on the mouth of a wide river going into a bay with mountains behind so traffic depends on 3 bridges.

In this case, the road feeding into one of the bridges was closed by the accident.

Also, I leave work late. Many of the commuters had left work an hour or so before me, and I suspect they scooped up the taxis etc. By the time I got out there were hundreds of people waiting for a bus or something. The first bus that was able to go would have been able to take only a portion of them. It was a mess!

There was a thunderstorm over Tasmania that day as well, with 19,060 ground strikes recorded and 16 new bushfires including a couple closer to where we live. Today it's a bit smoky out there.

Machka in Oz

Lisa: I have my mother's bunion on my right foot, and I always remember her expressing regret that she had surgery to correct it. Pain management is certainly better now than 30 years ago, though. It may still keep me from ever having it corrected.

Machka: Lisa, why did your mother regret the surgery?

Machka - Sorry, those two sentences were combined in my head, but didn't come across on the page. My mother's regret was pain after the surgery. She said it was bad before the surgery, but quite a bit more painful after, and it never stopped. Apparently, the nerves never stopped firing, walking or not. And when Mama said "quite a bit more painful," it would have probably dropped me in my tracks—she was prone to downplay her own pain.

Rosemarie - You look tremendously busy, dear heart. Are you still taking quiet time for yourself?

Mo - I hope you enjoy your little vacay with your husband as much as you enjoyed the time with Baby Suki. You definitely deserve the downtime.

Got a load of laundry in and need to get the dishwasher going, as well. Trying not to take too much - it's only one night. But since we're driving, I can take my own pillow and so on. Kinda love that. Can't really get much done with that until Corey's up anyway, and really hoping he sleeps in. We won't leave until after lunch, so I've got lots of time to get a few things done.

Pretty sure I'm not going to take my laptop, but might check in on my tablet. Not sure I'll even take that.Which reminds me, I need to get it charged up. Have a grand day…

Love y'all!
Lisa in AR

Friday … day off work …

Took several bags of stuff to one of the OP shops. Good to clear some stuff out. And a win … I didn't look around the OP shop or buy anything there!!

I also discovered a couple more bags of stuff at home that I think I'll be tossing.

We also dropped off my husbands mobility aids, except for his "kneelie". That freed up some space!

At home, I repacked the linen chest, covered a chair with a very tight slipcover (it looks great!), and tidied around my chair. I also washed and hung out to dry 2 loads of laundry and cleaned my bathroom.

Plus I went for a bicycle ride. I do prefer cycling to walking or running, and felt like my feet needed the break.

Machka in Oz

Barbie - Thank you for the suggestion, I've incorporated it! And Carol, thank you, as well. It does seem to be a theme, simply being afraid of breaking something when you're messing around with computers.

Barbie - I cannot begin to tell you how happy this made me:

🎵 Dancing this morning.

Which reminds me, I need to get on the elliptical!

Love y'all,
Lisa in AR

The clothes I bought for Bea were pronounced 'fab'. 😃

My SIL has just rung to say she is one to two hours away. Shame she won't be able to visit for longer, but she might have a cup of tea, and I have hummus and crudités prepared. (She is pre-diabetic) If she doesn't want them we can eat them for lunch tomorrow.

My Kettlewell order arrived, and it is perfect. I'm glad, because they are more expensive than my usual purchases! A heliotrope, slash neck, long sleeve t-shirt, and a silver ice button down cotton shirt to wear open. I plan to wear them with my navy linen wide leg trousers and my new pink mirror sunglasses! 😎😅 I'm expecting an Amazon delivery with a maxi, navy, full gathered cotton skirt. I'm expecting to hate that one on me, and will probably be sending it back. It looks wonderful on the skinny model. 😲

Rosemarie - Yes, a window cleaner is a normal thing here. We live in a three storey house, and it would be impossible to get to them from the inside. Having the sea nearby means we get a lot of salt sticking to them. He comes every other month, so it's not expensive. He uses a long water pole and brush.

Love to all. Heather UK xxxxxxxx

Did an incline interval workout today. The plan for tomorrow is todo a yoga DVD

After working out went to the dollar store becauseI needed a birthday card for Jess. Her birthday is the Saturday after we get home so I’ll probably mail it from down here

Did I tell you that the gal who runs the ceramics place resigned? It must have been pretty bad because she’s the type of person who would give 2 weeks’ notice. Guess I’ll find out what happened when we get home. She did say that a few of the gals are going to get together for “painting parties” and that she has pain we can use. We shall see…. Oh, I think I did tell you. Well, now you know twice

Off to the pool!

Michele