Just need to talk to my friends (198)
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Good morning all , on my way to the senior center for what is called a "POP UP BREAKFAST" it's usually an egg and cheese on an English muffin and home fries and a drink.
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Good morning all.
The weather has been stunning here the last 2 days— low 80s, low humidity and sunny. The weather here should be delightful.
I took Mother with me Saturday and let her loose in Wegman's for an hour. We split up and when I called her to meet up she didn't hear her phone over the loud music. Her watch vibrates when she gets a call, but she doesn't always notice. I can't fathom this— mine will wake me from a dead-sleep. It took a while to find her as she ricochets around. We caught up finally and I drove her home. I offered to drop her at the pool, but she declined. She's doing that a lot (loss of interest in activities one previously enjoyed) and it freaks me out given that I am getting a real MCI vibe from her lately.
She's got her guest room torn apart. Again. I don't know if I'm looking at garden variety ADHD (she's always done this but had more stamina when younger to complete the task in one go) executive function deficits or something more. She's decided she wants to use the closet and bedroom set to store some of her clothing. Currently she puts the offseason stuff into totes in the garage. The closet is filled with the most random collection of other people's stuff— a couple of boxes of photographs from her sister's house in Maine, boxes of things we pulled out of my sister's apartment after she died so her children would have them (umm, they're 44 and 41), a box of things that were dad's mom's that he wanted (nobody else has fond memories) and boxes of slide carousels and art supplies from when they taught. Mom retired in 2000; dad got downsized when they closed his school and hadn't taught since 1979. Now everything is out of the closet, out of the boxes and in piles around the room. It's not an improvement. I'll be heading over later to bring her enchiladas and check on progress. I can at least get the stuff she put aside for me out of there and deal with it here.
Her memory is better than it was in April before she was treated for Lyme Disease, but the word-finding is a struggle— either she subs a similar sounding word or describes it as someone learning English might or it's a "thing". Dad didn't do this so much; he became a human thesaurus code-switching out one noun for another— incarcerated for locked-up, for instance. I had a phone conversation yesterday with her switching topics with pronouns so loosely I had trouble tracking. First, she was railing about my ex-BIL, a loathsome creature, and she segued into how sweet "he" was since he was neutered— she went from idiot BIL to niece's cat without me noticing. Pity, she was talking about Teddy the cat and not BIL.
Mom sees her psychiatrist for a med check Wednesday. She'll share her concerns about "losing it" and her doc will assure her she's fine. Ugh. Meanwhile I am still waiting on a callback from the Memory Center. I'm cool with that, I figure if somethings going on there will be more clarity in 6 months than now.
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Judith— That's a lot of rain at once. Yikes!
Iris— That's a lot of money. I have a friend who lives in San Diego who has a similar set up with an apartment/garage plus a home on a small lot. All the buildings take up most of the lot- she was a 6' perimeter around the house, driveway and a backyard/patio that's maybe 10' x 12'. She has a son on spectrum and plans for him to live in the apartment and rent the house for income when his trust inherits.
Lorita— Martha and Snoop are good friends. They've done cooking shows together and even come as a boxed set wine put out by 19 Crimes. I really enjoyed watching them at the games.
I hope all have a safe and pleasant day.
HB0 -
HB, years ago I began moving things around, like your mom, with the idea of organizing and arranging, but I eventually realized that I was only moving things from one place to another.
Snoop was everywhere at the Olympics! And he'll be even more everywhere at the LA Olympics, since he'll be on home turf. I have seen a box of alcohol with his face on it at the supermarket, but I didn't know if it was wine or beer. He really has made a name for himself over the years.
Lorita, I like to watch the athletes walking into the stadium. And I watched the LA portion. But the rest of it I couldn't watch. It was unwatchable. But now, LA will think they have to top Paris. Also, Karen Bass, the mayor, says this will be a car-free Olympics, everyone will have to take public transportation! I don't know how that's going to work, riders are getting murdered on the metro and bus drivers are getting stabbed. Maybe we'll have driver-less busses by then.
Iris
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here…
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I made a mistake. Snoop did not have a concert at Venice Beach, but at Long Beach. Long Beach is his home town. And I missed the ending of the closing presentation. Apparently Tom Cruise flew in and jetted to the Hollywood sign. That would have been spectacular, I'm sorry I missed that part.
I'm sitting on my balcony now. Workers are working on the roofs, and I'm smelling tar.
Iris
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I'm here, too. Our rain gauge ran over, one of those long 5" ones, but there was a five gallon bucket nearby that had over 6" of water in it. The creek across the road was out of banks and ponds are full again.
Talked with Carol and, Iris, she said the same as you and I, that the closing ceremonies were hard to watch or follow. Still don't understand them.
HB, Years ago we had a social work student at the VA whose mother had alz. She said her mother had all of her clothes out of the closet laying on things. Said if she didn't see them she didn't know she had them. Guess that's just part of it.
With all the rain we are going to steam to death until it dries out some. Stormy and I are going out to check the pastures this afternoon and hope the grasshoppers have drowned or been eaten by birds. This morning when I looked at the rain gauge there were four or five sitting on the top of it. The news just said mosquitos are getting worse with global warming - hotter conditions for longer. I have a few bites this year. I have a fun strap on the porch and little, black bugs are what is filling it this year.
Iris, I saw him coming down from the roof. You didn't miss anything.
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@Lorita I don't think we're quite there yet. Her spring/summer things are all neatly put away in her 3 bedroom closets. She wants to purge the upstairs guest closet and drawers to keep some of her off season clothing in that room and also to prevent me from having to do this again when she dies. Some of the stuff was my aunt's husband's family's stuff that we'd brought south to hand off to his brother. Alas, when I brought the first load of photographs and birth, death marriage certificates to his CCRC they informed me he was actively dying and wasn't expecting to make it through the evening. Neither brother had kids, so no known heirs.
So now we both have a bunch of random things that aren't even from our family. Yesterday she made little progress because she was sifting through her BIL's (and his brother's) old report cards with comments from the teachers which were hysterical given their personalities as adults. Mom used to summer next door to his family in Maine, so she's known the family since she was about 4. Quirky bunch. I get it. I have a box of letters my uncle wrote to different TV shows and manufactures complaining or praising their efforts. The box has the carbon copy of the latter out along with the reply, any enclosures and the envelope it came in. I mailed these to myself and the night they came my family and I took turns reading them aloud and howling with laughter.
@Iris— That's the thing, I don't know if I should be concerned or not. She's got some significant ADHD (combined type and too old for stimulants) and has always done this. I promised to come over for a bit tomorrow and help her sort through some stuff she wants to give my niece. If we can get that boxed up, maybe we can off load it in a week or two.
HB0 -
Thats a lot of rain.
HB guess I’m blessed that my mom has already pretty much gotten rid of everything in the house. We will have very little to get rid of unless something changes.
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I pity whomever has to clear out my house when I'm gone- just a big trash truck would work, I guess.No one to leave anything to and nothing here to be of interest to anyone. Carol has been doing this for four years but she has four kids to leave things to.
Iris, just saw on the news you all had another earthquake. Did you feel this one?
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When my wife died and I sold a 9 room house and moved into a one bedroom apartment my kids (2) took what they wanted and I donated to my church (dishes, sheets,pots and pans etc). If I could use it I kept it. Everything else I used "800 GOT JUNK". It was worth the money(1800.00)
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HB…I would just leave my mother alone to "potter about".
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I agree with Judith. She sounds like she's enjoying herself.
Mint, how did your mom get rid of everything? Clean sweep?
Lorita, no, I didn't feel the latest earthquake at all.
Iris
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good morning everyone
my mother never did save papers and cards or anything like that, so she never had any of that stuff. I’ve had to take care of all her bills for quite a few years now, so I have all that stuff at my house. Everything else she gave away. When my dad died, we got rid of all his clothes fairly quickly. I know we didn’t throw them away so we either gave them to people or I took them to Goodwill, I can’t really remember.
good Lord’s will my nephew will be leaving Thailand in four hours. He will not get to Columbus until 2 PM tomorrow. If nothing happens, I will go with my sister to pick him up.
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Good morning
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@jfkoc and Iris— I would happily leave her to putter around. She has significant anxiety with a side of depression. It runs in her family. She's on 2 different SSRIs overseen by a psychiatrist which helps take the edge off. This behavior has an almost manic feel to it and is related to the anxiety. She's also got ADHD (untreated) so the mess she creates in puttering unsettles her further. When she was younger, with dad leaning on her, she would power through these projects but now she doesn't have the stamina or the consequence of his ire so it doesn't.
I'm headed over later to take a stab at lessening the chaos and making her feel like she's made some progress. As luck would have it, she sees her psychiatrist tomorrow and I'll encourage her to mention this then. Normally I don't insert myself in this appointment— she needs a safe place to complain about me.
HB2 -
I'm here. Got up early, got my goal accomplished, then checked out the pastures in the Gator with Stormy. As soon as Denim & Co. Is over I am going back to bed. Everyone else is already asleep. Will be hot, hot so will stay in except for keeping water tanks filled. Got a new float valve but need a shorter hose.
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HB…understood. The pottering is the problem. That is really too bad.
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Hello,I finally used (I should say my wife) used the new blender. It is extremely light and bigger and less noisy. My wife takes leftover fruits cuts them and puts them in a bag and freezes them and when she makes a smoothie takes from the freezer and puts them in the blender.
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Glad you all like the blender, David.
Earlier when I was posting I saw a post from JeriLynn. Didn't get to read all ofbit but in the last paragraph she said her 82 year old aunt had a light stroke Can't find the post now.Did any of you all see it?
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Good afternoon,
Yes, Lorita: my Aunt had a stroke. She was driving at the time of onset and had the good sense to pull into her son's house where they called 911. She is still able to live alone (her son and daughter in law live 1/2 mile away) and is able to manage her household. She is no longer allowed to drive, so she is sad about that. But she's a trooper. She lives down the road from me. She is our Matriarch and beloved, so she has lots of nieces checking in on her. I do believe she also has some symptoms of early stage dementia. But, she's doing ok for now. Thank you for asking.
I've been reading and thinking of you all. Not posting much because we are constantly on the run.
DH is still struggling with dizziness and we are in process of getting worked up for that. He's been in the house for just over a week and is getting cranky. He's not one to sit. But, he's behaving and staying inside. I'm not letting him drive. I hate when my folks don't feel well. We all do.
No new babies to report. Animals are all fine. I'm proud to report I did NOT run over anything with the lawn mower, lol.
Hot and dry here. Humidity is high. A little rain forecasted for later this week. A set of great grands are coming for dinner tomorrow night. One is a vegetarian so she will have Alfredo pasta while the others have Chicken Alfredo. Salad, green beans of some sort, fruit tray, pineapple cream cake and Italian bread.. Easy enough and will send them home with leftovers.
Hope everyone is faring well. Big hugs, JeriLynn
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Here is a heart-warming story about Ivy, a Great Pyranees that was lost and found by a kayaker.
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Morning
Ron
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good morning everyone
glad that new blender is working well for you, David.
Nice to hear from you JeriLynn. Sorry your husband continues to still have such a hard time.Wishing your aunt well.
Ron I made your salmon cake recipe yesterday. I don’t like using the canned salmon because it has such a high sodium content. I do see they have it’s either low, sodium or sodium free but they don’t carry it at our stores and on Amazon, it’s some crazy price. So I just bought frozen salmon and I baked it and then I crumbled it all up and made my salmon patties. I used my sodium free baking powder, so now I can make them and they’re very low sodium. I use cornmeal instead of the flour and I air fry them and they just turned out so nice and crunchy. They’re really good thank you for the recipe . I freeze all the extras and win. I eat them. I put a little bit of oil on each side and air fry them. They’re not as good as the first time but they’re still good. It makes me a fairly healthy quick
good Lord’s will my nephew will land in Boston in just about a couple of hours. His mom and I are going to leave about 12:30 PM to go pick him up. Will be good to see him.
take care, everyone
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Good morning all.
David— I'm glad you're back to enjoying your breakfast smoothies. My niece always uses frozen fruit chunks in hers but then "ruins" them with kale. That just doesn't work for me.
Lorita— Did you treat yourself to anything new from Denim & Co? I like their half-sleeve tees but most of the colors are too bright for my tastes; I wish they'd do more neutrals.
Jerilynn— It's lovely that your aunt has so many caring eyes on her. She must be pretty special. I hope your DH gets some answers for his dizziness— being stuck in the house must be so hard for him. And you. Pineapple cream cake sounds amazing.Iris— What a sweet story. That picture of her in the baby pool is a scream.
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I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. I had to be up early, but this is ridiculous. I predict a nap in my near future. I think I was a little stressed.
Yesterday was the 10-year anniversary of the death of my niece's long-term boyfriend. She was living with me at the time, and it was just tragic all around. The weather was freakishly similar to the day he died— a perfect 80F summer day after a month of humid heat. We texted a bit in the morning. She's very happily married now, but will always carry a place in her heart for the BF and was feeling melancholy, I guess.
I helped mom with some of her purge for a couple hours around lunch. Things were worse than they'd been the day before. Not only were there more things pulled out upstairs, I found two paperwork debris fields in the LR and on the kitchen counter. We dealt with those first. Her psychiatrist called to reschedule her appointment today for late October. Ugh.
In the guest room, we started buy running things we needed to toss out to the curb— stupid things nobody needs like old lumpy pillows. We just beat the trash truck so that's done. The weirdest find of the day was the discovery that she had not one, but 2, nearly identical purple packable lightweight down jackets. She doesn't even like purple. I side-eyed the purchase of the one from Lands End which I've seen her wear 2 or 3 times about 6 years ago right after she moved back to the area. The other one was a hand-me-down from her older crazy sister. Auntie lives in a tiny condo and shops nearly as much as my mom does. She has a space problem and needs to make room often and will give perfectly nice things to mom, so she doesn't feel quite so guilty. My mother doesn't need all the clothes she already has.
I brought home a small box of pictures. DH and I had a flood in 1999 in which we lost almost all our photographs, so DS hasn't seen many of us when we were younger. DS got a real kick out of some of the pictures from back-in-the-day; he was a little shocked at how short the dress I had for the 1971 Junior Prom was and was surprised my parents let me out of the house in it. He was even more surprised that my mom sewed it. And for the record, Lorita, it was a double-knit.
I drove DS to the college to register and do advising, but his re-enrollment didn't go live yet, so he needs to go back this morning. He'll get his car back later today which will be useful. The whole advising thing was a mess— so many hoops through which to jump. He's trying to do a career change and they're making the process ridiculous. They want his high school transcript. FTR, they didn't need it when he attended and graduated from this college before. Ugh. It's crazy-making.
HB1 -
Good morning, all. I am now a heart failure patient. This is the latest explanation for my extreme fatigue and poor functioning. I have a new medication, Entresto, I'll see how this goes.
JeriLynn, I hope your aunt improves quickly. I hope your DH gets an answer for his dizziness.
Mint, will your nephew be going to school in Boston? Enjoy your visit with him!
HB and David, sometimes I add frozen broccoli crowns to my morning smoothie. I find frozen spinach to be slimy in a smoothie.
HB, lumpy pillows might make a nice bed for a cat. I know that dogs can chew up a pillow.
Iris
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Morning, HB, Didn't buy anything this time. Most if my clothes are Denim &Co., been wearing them for years.
Iris, I enjoyed the story about the GP. Most people will do everything possible to help any animal in need. Pyrenees are the most wonderful dogs imaginable. You might not think so but they make great housedogs. They have a double coat so can't stand heat so this summer they are housedogs. They love cold weather and snow.
JeriLynn, do you think your husband's dizziness has anything to do with his heat stroke? I know it messed up Charlie's thermostat. He couldn't stand the heat after that. Toad had one years ago and it still bothers him. We have 35+ head of happy girls today. They're happily grazing. Two of the cows left their little ones behind the barn while they went off to graze- saw them when I went to the mailbox this morning. Amazing how much the grass has greened up since the rain but the grasshoppers are still here in force. Enjoy your day.
Judith??
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here…dealing with grown children
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Harshedbuzz, yes I'm glad we have our smoothies back
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they have now been dealt with…lol
Iris…fingers crossed that the new meds are going to be a big help!
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Iris, what do you put in your morning smoothie? I need to get into having those. Did get frozen pineapple and mango to make ice cream in the Ninja but haven't done it yet. Been a very uneventful day, as usual. Haven't felt on top of the world but do feel better now. Iris, do hope the new medication can help you.
Judith, guess a person never gets over being a mother or matriarch. What happened with your flip house?
Hope everyone sleeps well
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Commonly Used Abbreviations
DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
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