Just need to talk to my friends (179)

Mint

Good afternoon

82F right now, giving high 80s, thundershower this am and may be more this evening, hot meeting cold, suppose to be in 69s and 70s next several days, maybe I will get some more yard work done

Called a snow plow guy a bit ago.  We’ll see if he calls back.  Hope this works out.  Told mom I’m getting someone.  She fussed a little bit.  Wanting to act like she can get the people that weren’t able to be dependable last year.  When I told her I needed to try and find someone dependable she told me good luck.  Anyway thinking I won’t tell her til we get a snow and need someone , that I have hired him, assuming  I can find one to hire.  Would be such a relief for me if I can find someone dependable.  Have three more I can call in her area if these don’t call back.  Going to get it done anytime there is two or more inches automatically.  My sister said that would make me an ideal customer, lol.  Her husband use to run a snow plowing business.  Does that sound like a good plan not to tell her til we need him.  I can’t depend on what she says, she isn’t being untruthful, she just sees the world from a different window and at times does not interpret things the way you and I would.  Hoping it isn’t something she will dwell on and won’t think about it again til it snows.  Except I’m going to get those markers and mark outline of driveway as that helps them a lot.  Can’t wait too long to do that as want to put in before ground freezes.

She did tell me the LMG got a snowblower and he said he would snow-blow.  He is not dependable, has lots of health problems & family issues.  Told me she didn’t want him snow blowing because it is messy.  Told her we couldn’t be picky.  We need to get it done however we can and if LMG would like to snow-blow when there is less than two inches I would be eternally grateful.

Take care

Lorita

Ssounds like a good idea, Sara.  Maybe she'll forget about it.  Snow seems a long way off.  Supposed to be 101 here today. 

Jo C.

Sayra, your plan is very wise.  Your mother, historically as is her way of being, is not going to be able to process things well nor use logic nor adequate judgment.  To continue to involve her over and over will only glean the same results upsetting to both of you over and over.  This is a very good plan and you are a wonderfully thoughtful, caring daughter.   Your mother is truly blessed to have you as her advocate and carer.  The plowing will be done and she may make complaint, but she will soon move onto something else.  Or . . . if fate is kind, she will not complain at all and be able to enjoy seeing a clear drive.   One can hope. 

 Just heard on the news that the vaccinated, 82 year old Queen Margrethe of Denmark has been diagnosed with COVID after attending Queen Elizabeth's funeral.   Oh boy.  Crowds of thousands and thousands with no masks to be seen anywhere.  If not tested, will never know how many contracted the virus, so it all remains to be seen what if anything will transpire or even if tested or even made public.

 J.

Lorita

Ssounds like all bases are covered, Judith.  Glad you're in a good place. Slept too long so had a headache.  Took pain pill and allergy pill so it's better.  I'm doing short posts so I don't lose them.  Still reading.

ronald71111

Was gone 3 1/2 hours this morning and enjoyed the time away tremendously. Stopped at the casino to make sure they had enough money to pay their employees this week. After I helped the casino out I needed a stop at bank for myself and Lou's sitter. Drove around listening to the radio and checking out new constructions. It always amazes me how old areas change. I remember growing up hwy 80 in Bossier was full of honky tonks and now it's all bussineses. Stopped on the way home and picked Lou and me up catfish and fried okra for supper.

Ron

ladyzetta

Hello Front Porch Rockers.

I have been pet sitting for 10 days and I had no internet connection I am trying to get caught up on what's ya all been doing. That will probably take a few days. 

Ron it was nice you had some time to yourself I bet you really enjoyed that. I am looking forward to being in my rocker on the front porch for your birthday celebration on Saturday. I have had a pretty crazy week. 

I just had my Great Nephew move in with me two weeks ago. He is my sister's grandson she passed away 3 years ago. He is 22 he was living with my mom helping with her care till she passed away 2 years ago. He lived in Sacramento pretty close to being homeless, so I had him move in with me and he really has been a help. I took him to the beauty collage today and we both got a haircut. He starts his job at Taco Bell tomorrow. It's been nice having him here it makes me feel like I still have a kid at home. Sometimes he treats me like I am an old lady Iam not used to that. I can still do for myself. Iam only 77!!!!! )   I am blessed to have my son and nephew living with me. But Iam glad he goes to work tomorrow I miss my alone time. 

Hugs Zetta 

Lorita

One of the Pyrenees probably Stormy chewed the top off of the glucosamine canister and ate 20-30. Of them. Called the vet and he said they were probably absorbed. If happened before 3:30 when I let them out. said to give them some warm milk.May make them sick but he thinks that will be all. So, I'm worried about them. They're asleep now.

Lorita

Ron, glad you enjoyed your time away yesterdsy. Just a short time can make a big difference in how you feel. May e you will be able to do this every week.

Zetta ,so nice you have your son and nephew with you. I know you enjoy your alone time so good you will still have that.

It's in the high 70s this morning.  So nice if I could get outside.  Bet the girls are enjoying it.  Just wish we could get rain.

Better stop before I lose this.  Hope everyone is well.

Lorita

Hi,

Just talked to Sam to be sure he got the taxpapers.  He did and will call me when he has them finished.   I'm going to do better next year.

GPs still okay and sleeping.  It's been  close to 12 hours so, hopefully, it will be okay.

Sarah is hanging in  there.  Had a mammogram yesterday. They wanted to do another one because they saw something on the last one  There's an infection around  her feeding tube on the same side so  it was  inclusive.  She has an appt. Today with the csrdiologist.  So far hasn't gotten a new PCP.

Had so much I wanted to write about. Tablet is doing better this morning and now can't think of what I wanted to say.

Still having some problems with allergies.  Took Loratadine this morning so will see how it works.  Have found when my hands is arms itch I can sprsy with water and it helps.  Carol is having oribkems, too.  Not itchy, just watery eyes and congestion.  Hate to wish for frost but...

 Better stop before this is lost.

Lorita

On Sarah's mammogram I meant inconclusive.  Sorry.

Mint

Lorita my friend use to give her dog glucosamine so hopefully will be ok.

Lorita

II hope so, Sara.  I give it to Sheena every night and sometimes to Stormy.  It's just that there was so much.

It 16 degrees coo!er today.   Girls are in the barn.  Saw Samson laying g in. His favorite place by the pond. Kind of like a loner like Billy.

Sara,did you get a return call from the snow guy?  Hope you can get someone obligated for Winter.

Jo, did you ever be your tablet fixed?

Day, have you noticed how much more expression things are on QVC?  Clothing and food especially..

Lorita

Called tech club and they said my 15 year old laptop is shot.  They can transfer everything that in on it to my new one.  Will do that next week.  Guess I  have  made good use of it but just hate to change and learn windows 11.

As for the tablets they said it is best to have Amazon customer service take care of them.  The 10" is still under warranty.  Jo, I remember problems you were having with repairs.  Was it Amazon Fire?  I do not like change.  The older I get the more I resist.  Just one of the many perils of aging, I guess.

Jo C.

Did some more checking around and found Moderna Bivalent Booster.   Have an appt. to get it tomorrow morning.   Will wait two weeks and then get the Fluzone Vaccine.  

Lorita, I love my Fire tablet; I used it only for Kindle books.   It worked just great until we had a power outage; when power came back on it went fritzy.  I could NOT get the thing managed talking to tech support, so our son who is very tech savvy took the tablet and worked with the Tech folks and got it all fixed just fine he said.   I worked on it with tech for days and days with no success, he had it fixed with tech in about 30 minutes.  Love him.  Also, he has my new laptop and has been putting it all together for me with this and that.  I will have the devices this weekend.  I too really feel a bit uncomfortable having to use new programs.  This older laptop is like an old friend who has been faithful and I did not update anything on it; I have been glad that it and I continued to be able to work.  We are both oldies.  Its card is fried and it works only by ethernet cable which son figured out and fixed for me.  Fifty feet of cable to get from the WiFi to where I use my laptop, taping the cable to the hallway baseboards and into the room where I use it.  

I do have a Kindle Paperwhite which is so very tiny.   I can use it to read, but do not know how to work the majority of commands, etc. to get full use nor to get full access to my Library which has around 542 books.  Of course the darned things do not come with a manual, and I have tried to figure it out, but will have to wait for someone to show me as I am coming up zero.   Looked online to no avail.  As said, I am a total zip when it comes to anything technical.  I have to be shown, press this, press that.   My talents are obviously hiding somewhere else, and if and when I ever find them, I will let you know.

County recently removed any mandated masking in stores, restaurants AND now on all transit - buses, trains, rail lines, etc.  There is NO testing going on but they based this on 100 cases each day per 100,000 people. Currently, without the testing, the count is 98 cases per 100,000.  If the count "rises" again, masking will be back.   Transit out here is always tightly packed with people, so who knows where this is going, but I can take a guess.  Testing would be more accurate, but not being done and masking of course continues to be a political football.  Supposedly, COVID is supposed to go up significantly in the winter, but the masking issue will contribute to that.   NHs and hospitals can continue to mandate masks and most all are doing so.   

Sounds like the dogs are doing fine, so glad they are okay.  Like kids, have to keep everything away from them up high.   My bad was when I sent checks for Christmas to three of the grandkids and son . . . I put the checks in small deep square boxes and filled the boxes with gold foil wrapped chocolate kisses and wrapped the boxes prettily with paper and ribbon.   The boxes were mailed, son put them under the tree.  While he was out, the dog evidently smelled the chocolate and had ripped open  all the boxes and ate the candy. OMIGOSH; it was really lucky he did not get very ill . . . chocolate can even be fatal for dogs.  I learned never to do that again.

So; the day of the planned Edison outage for new equipment installation, the temp has been confirmed, we will indeed be in the three digits.  I had so hoped it would be cool as there will be no AC until the power is back on again.  Always something to make things interesting, but if that is the worst thing that happens, it's all good.

It is nearly 8:30 pm our time, so I shall mosey along down the road . . . sweet dreams everyone,

J.

ronald71111

Good morning to my lady rockers! It's funny that tommorow is my birthday and I saw this post first thing this morning, "Tommorow is be nice to Grumpy Old Men Day". Guess I need to get out and about tommorow and see how many people will be nice.

Lately I've been thinking about letting my boys know my feelings about caring for me if I need it. Lately old age memory has worsened with me and if dementia ever steps into my body, I dont want either of them to go through with what I am now. Hopefully they will not have to deal with it, but they need to know my wishes.

Ron

Lorita

Morning,

That's funny, Ron, but you can't be considered a grumpy old man!  I think it's probably a good idea that you talk with your sons and let them know your wishes.  I won't have anyone to do my final arrangements so I took care of that last year, made the decisions and got it paid for.  Gives you a good feeling.  Now to figure out what to do if something happens here and no one knows.  But, if I don't post for a couple of dsys you all will know something is wrong.

Jo, I've read a couple of Bsrbara'\# books on my tablet and enjoyed it.  They seem to be working all right st the moment so won't rock the boat.  I feel the same as you about my old laptop.  Really hate to let it go.  I think ants got into it and messed up things.  And, many places now don't support internet explorer which I really prefer  But, things change.

I have a little flip phone through Consumer Cellular and don't even know all it can do.  All I need is to be able to make and receive calls, text s little bit and take a picture..  No desire st all to get another kind of phone.  I'm old enough to.be resistant to learning many new things.

Stormy and Sheena seem to be okay this morning.  Mike called last evening to check on them.  Thought that was really nice of him.  They outside now.  Seems cool this morning but summer returns this sfternoon.

Better stop and have my morning juice.  Itchy this morning after I came into the LR.  Hope all of you are well.

BethL

Good morning Friends.

Iris, hope your brother had a great birthday! Were you able to join him in celebrating?

Ron, I am glad your neighbor gave you 3.5 hours to yourself. Sounds like you had a good time. You need to do this for yourself more often. We all need breaks to keep us going! 

I hope all of you in a heat wave are getting relief. We seem to be in a cool wave now. High in the 60s yesterday and just 54 this a.m. I'm liking it. We attended a cross country meet for our granddaughter yesterday. That was fun. 

Judith, so glad you have Winda. She sounds like a real gem.

I am so glad you like your haircut, Jo. A good hairdresser is like a diamond! I have only had 3 over the past 30 or so years. The first one suddenly left her business without notifying her clients. I called her with no response. I went down to her salon and spoke with another stylist there, and ended up "hiring" her. Then, she moved out of state and she referred me to yet another stylist in the same salon. I have long hair and I don't get it cut very often. Maybe twice to three times/year on average. 

Sara, I'm glad you have a snow removal plan. You do a good job with your mom and her idiosyncrasies. You are a patient and kind daughter. Are you still getting garden produce? Are you fermenting, canning, dehydrating or freezing?

Hello Zetta, glad you are back posting. We miss you when you are gone! It won't be long till you are in Arizona. What a blessing to have a winter escape!

Lorita, I am glad you are making steps to get onto your new computer. I am amazed you have a 15 yr old one that is still working, to some extent. My last one started getting REALLY hot, overheating - and had very low battery life so I got a new one. I still have the old one but I transferred everything over, under the "guiding eyes" of the Apple store employees. It worked well. I did not realize Jo was having laptop issues too; I was aware of the Kindle problems. Jo, your son is a gem for sure. Glad he was able to help you. What kind of laptop did you get? My new one (old one too) is a MacBook Pro. I've had Dell and HP in the past. Hubs is on his #3 Chromebook (they haven't typically lasted very long but they cost less than $300 so frequent buying can be justified.)

Jo, my dog (years ago) got into one of those heart shaped boxes of chocolate and ate them all - papers too! Vet said it was too small an amount to do damage. The dog I have now - I was taking morning meds and dropped a vitamin d pill and she scarfed it right up. I learned to move my medicines to another area of the house so that won't happen again. 

Health dept here expecting a heavy flu season, based on what happened flu season in Australia. They recommended getting the flu shot now. Normally I'd get it in mid October to hold me through May but I went ahead and got it. Some people take elderberry in the winter to supposedly help their immune system; I take Epicor. Can't hurt, might help. Info at epicorimmune.com if you are interested. A little background: it was a feed additive for animals and Factory employees at Diamond V’s manufacturing facility who were exposed daily to the fermented animal feed were not using much sick leave.

Why were the factory workers taking fewer sick days than their colleagues working in the office? To find out, Diamond V commissioned pilot studies comparing the factory workers to a similar group of office workers. And, those studies showed the fermented product had supported the immune health of the factory workers that were exposed.

I have only tomatoes, lettuce and spinach in the garden now. I cut back the herbs (actually still have basil and rosemary and red veined sorrel but I don't eat them - I love to smell them!) The green beans weren't nice so pulled them. The cucumbers were dying so pulled them. I am going to make ham and beans and cornbread for dinner tonight. We have been having enchiladas (chicken usually) quite often lately. They are delicious!

We had 2.65" of rain Saturday and 3 "trace" rains since. We do need it; we're in moderate drought. Rivers are so low. 

Well enough said for now.

Blessings, Beth

jfkoc

Jo...take a look at Kindle for Dummies

I just downloaded Chrome on my windows 10 somy screen looks the same as it did on my windows 7. 

The cardinal rule is, I think, do not change defaults. Otherwise you can take a look at the new bells and whistles. 

Remember if you have been using Chrome almost everything you have created is living in a cloud just waitting for you to call upon it.

Iris L.

Beth, my brother lives in NY and I am in CA, but I sang him the birthday song.  My mother started that tradition when we were children, and I continue it.

Iris

Lorita

That's sweet,Iris.  Bet he enjoyed it.

Lorita

T ablets acting up again.  May not be able to post for awhile.

BethL

Healthy Brownie Recipe

Gluten free, dairy free, high fiber, sugar free (has honey or maple syrup)

Blend in blender until smooth then pour into 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 15-20."

1 1/2 cups black beans

2 T. cocoa powder

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. maple syrup or honey

1/4 c. coconut oil, melted

2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. baking powder

Mint

Good evening

Was in 40s this am, high so far 60 today. No strong wind like yesterday so felt nice today got quite a bit of things cleaned up outside. Still plenty left to do.  Hopefully can get a bit more done tomorrow.

Zetta I would not like being without the internet that long.  Very nice of you to help your nephew out.

Lorita have not heard back from snow plow guy.   Going to leave all four a message soon and see if I hear from someone.  Trying to decide if it would be better to wait til Monday rather than doing in a Friday evening.

Ron that is kind of you to talk to your boys about that situation.  You have had much stress lately and that is not helping you either.  J the lady I help is so much better since she got into assisted living.  The house was overwhelming her and making things bad.  

Lol Ron, I had a saying when I worked.  I called certain individuals GOWM’S.  Won’t say what it stood for but will tell you I saw myself being a GOWW at GYN the other day.  Didn’t like being that way, did apologize but at same time I should have been apologized to also.  Anyway that might be another story for another day.

I’m liking the cool weather too Beth.  Cold when I started working out this morning and I was layered well.  Knew I would warm up working.  By lunch time I was hot and unlayering ( is that a word)?  Picked all my peppers and ripe tomatoes today and getting rid of all my plants as I come to them, except my dahlia.  Saving it til last.

Beth I’m fermenting cabbage like some Europeans do.  Hope this turns out well.  They make a brine and pour over it, they don’t create a brine from mashing the cabbage, much easier.  Dehydrating peppers, onions, tomatoes, greens, herbs and garlic.  May do some apples a little later.  Water bathed pickles, relish, banana peppers and tomato sauce.  My first time for water bathing and I enjoyed doing that.  Next year hope to do more so have more space in my freeze.  Used some frozen spaghetti sauce the other day that I made last year and it still tasted really good.  I really like herbs Beth.  I dehydrated a lot of them.  Put sage in my shredded chicken the other day, added crushed crackers.  Tasted like dressing, really enjoyed it.

Have you made the brownie recipe Beth?  If you have I’m going to try it.  Ham, beans and cornbread sound good.

The cloud, when I got my new IPad it pretty much took care of everything.

Speaking of Fosamax.  When I went to dentist this week it was time to fill out a new history paper.  They had several questions on there regarding it and that class of drugs.  That reassured me that I am not comfortable At all with it and they can just think of me as a GOWW but won’t be going along with that part of their program,

Hope each of you get  good night’s rest.

BethL

I forgot to say that I had dill and fennel growing and several black swallowtail caterpillars on them. I may have chrysalis in the garden even now; the swallowtails winter over in their chrysalis sometimes so I am being very careful as I cut back plants. My zinnias and verbena bonariensis and black eyed Susans are still blooming. Also roses and Rose of Sharon. They will not be removed until frost or hard freeze. I like having some color in the garden. Hydrangeas are beautiful this fall.

I made the brownies today. Hubby LOVED them. I liked them. The main things I liked about them are that they are high fiber, healthy, and give me a shot of dark chocolatey goodness when I want something sweet. I will definitely make them again, and probably freeze individual serving sizes so I can have a sweet when I want it. 

Went to lunch today (Mexican cuisine). I said "Gracias" to the server, one of the few Spanish words I know, and later he was speaking to me in Spanish! lol

Going to get groceries tomorrow. Kids and grands coming over tomorrow evening and I plan to make roast in the crockpot, corn casserole, and mashed potatoes and gravy. 

Have a good weekend, Front Porch rockers!

Mint

Good morning

51F, 10.5C.  Sunny they say, nice

Happy Birthday Ron.

My dill self sows.  Have some coming up now and should get a few more sprigs to freeze.  Really like dill too.

Beth my flowers are still blooming too.  I have to do things slowly because of muscle pain and so I have to start and just do it.  Also I stop deadheading end of August so that things can self sow that will.  Love self sown plants, the best kind.  I experimented with something this year.  I start seeds in little grow bags.  You plant whole thing into ground and get no transplant shock.  So this spring I cut the bottoms out  of the plastic containers and set whole thing in ground.  Cover the black pot entirely with soil or will dry out.   No transplant shock, great root system when I pulled them up.  Will always be my method now.  Had kind of forgot about doing it til started pulling little black pots out of ground lol.

Will try those brownies Beth and see what I think when get time.  Like black bean burgers.  Enjoy your evening, sounds like a good meal.  Always nice to eat with others.  Something I rarely get to do.

Take care everyone

BethL

Sara, I think your planting method is brilliant! I have a lot of those little peat pots that you plant in, remove the bottom and plant in garden. They decompose naturally. I don't use them anymore and would be glad to give them to you if I could.

I have lots of self-seeders, mainly flowers: nigella, black eyed Susans, cleome, larkspur, verbena bonariensis, balsam, jewels of Opar, lupine. The coneflowers have a good-sized seed head and replant themselves too, as do the ox-eye daisies.

Happy birthday, Ron! I take it you really like to cook and eat fish. When I was a kid, my folks had a cabin at a lake and they would catch bullheads, sunfish, bluegills and crappies. Fried up, mmm, boy were they good! I like salmon when I eat out, but I can't seem to prepare it in a way that tastes good here at home. I've tried several different ways; I give up. We used to get potato crusted cod at the grocer and that was good. I know we should eat more fish and I'm going to work on that....probably not salmon, though! Whitefish I think. Ate out yesterday and had shrimp. It was too garlicky but tasted fairly good. Saved half and hubby ate it when I got home. Some people like mackerel, anchovies and other types of canned little fish. That does not appeal to me although I know it has health benefits.

Going to make tomato sauce in the crockpot to freeze from my home-grown tomatoes. Tomatoes did well overall. Still lots of green ones on the vine but don't know if they have time to ripen or not. I have never eaten fried green tomatoes and maybe I should try that.

Bye for now. 

Jo C.

HAPPY, HAPPPY BIRTHDAY MR. RON . . .

AND AS PER YOUR REQUEST (you just have to guess which one of us got squeeezed into costume, makeup and wig - she is now recovering from the experience in, BideAWeeTime Rest Home)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH3oOVKt0WI

PER NEW ORLEANS STYLE TO OUR LOUISIANA FRIEND FROM ALL OF US TO YOU:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laPhvAZ_2m4

WE ALL WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY "NEW" YEAR FILLED WITH BLESSINGS AS SO RICHLY DESERVED, (even if you were a grumpy old man which we do not believe for a minute!)

THREE CHEERS FOR RON!! - PSST:  Someone please light the candles; Zetta, get the champagne; Lorita brought the ice cream; and everyone - LET'S SING - and throw confetti!!  Birthday hats, paper whistles, WHOOPEE!

  

loveskitties

The very happiest of birthdays to a wonderful loving husband.

May it be a peaceful happy day for you and Lou.

Hugs

Lorita

Hhappy Birthday, Dear Ron.  .  Hope you have many more.  Looks like it will be a good party.  Looking forward to seeing you blow out all those candles

ronald71111

Just returned from eating at a Mexican restaurant and riding around for awhile. Lorita, fish is one of the foods Lou will eat without any trouble getting her to eat. That is the main reason we have fish often! I like fish, but just every once and awhile. 

Thanks to all my front porch ladies for the birthday greetings. I especially enjoyed Jo. sending the New Orleans jazz attachment and the Marilyn Monroe. After seeing the Marilyn Monroe I closed my eyes and visualized all my front porch ladies in their white dresses and blonde wigs singing happy Birthday to me.

Finally got rid of my old car yesterday, now I'll concentrate on a carport. Dont remember if I mentioned but I just had new central air and heat unit with wifi thermostat installed last month and my bank book is looking sad.

Ron