Just need to talk to my: friends (216)

Our weather has been wacky too. Friday I woke up to —- snow. Not just a tiny amount, but about 4 inches! I was kind of worried I wouldn't be able to get out (they don't always plow our street), but I was able to navigate it.

Here's the backyard: Ugh

Not happy. It snowed all day, but thankfully only light snowing, nothing horrible after that first heavy snow.

And we were able to do our drive to San Francisco without a lot of fuss and muss. And SF is 75 degrees today!!! I barely even know what to do with all of this warmth. 😄 It's so nice.

The Bay Bridge - one of my favorite views driving into SF (SF itself is off to the right):

The drive was nice too - lots of springy flowers and trees - all very pretty.

Iris - I've really been enjoying your photos! Excellent photo of the whale! What an experience

Ron - Be careful with pneumonia, essentially everything that everyone has said. I'm also sorry that your Missouri experience isn't what you'd like it to be (yet). Give it some time.

JeriLynn - You're so busy! And you're going to have a busy summer too. 🙂

Lorita - I'm glad you have your medical alert necklace. It's important.

Tornado watch in effect here. Stormy night.

Wonderful family evening of food, fellowship and family ❤️

Good night and peaceful rest to everyone 🙏

Sorry, I haven't had time to read or to post. We get up early and are on the go all day. We are so remote that there was very limited internet service, only within the hotel premises. We saw more whales and had other adventures. We are now in Ensenada. I'll post more when I have more time.

Iris

Good morning. It's damp and gloomy at the moment on my end of the porch. Winds and rain to pick up in a few hours. Yuck. The ground is saturated, so I am expecting downed trees with road closures and power outages.

Iris— Thanks for sharing the pictures of your trip. They are fabulous. I've never whale-watched despite summering in an area known for that as a kid. DH and DS went out on a day boat from OCMD and saw whales which was not expected. They both said the whales smelled bad.

Beth— It sounds like your visit in TX was lovely. I hope you have/had a safe trip home.

Lorita— I'm sure I'm not alone in being happy you are being more mindful around the use of your medical alert pendant. It's pointless on your nightstand.

Judith— Rat or mouse?

Jerilynn— I hope your family celebration went nicely. You must be proud.

Do the goat-mamas generally produce singletons? Or could your estimate of 6 be impacted by twins?

Carl— Is the pendant waterproof? Falling in the shower is common enough that I know several people who had a LO do it.

Mom used to fight me on her pendant saying she'd wear it if she went for a walk. Duh, there are so many folks walking dogs, driving by and peering out their windows in her neighborhood that she'd have a whole team of people assembled by the time she hit the ground. She's better with the watch.

Gothic G— The snow is pretty in your backyard but I get that 70F and sunshine is preferable by mid-March. I hope you have a nice break.

Eaglemom— I hope you're safe this morning. I suspect your current conditions will be here in about 6 hours.

Ron— I hope the meds are working well for you. IME with mom, the "presenting concern" at the ED triage is rarely the diagnosis at discharge. This complicates things because I have several options for hospitals— one where her ID and pulmo's practices have privileges and 2 that are part of the health system where most of her other docs are.

I am kind of surprised you weren't admitted as mom almost always is so they can do several days of IV steroids and abx along with industrial strength nebulizer treatments. It sounds as if perhaps you got on top of this early before that became necessary.

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Things are mostly the same here. Baby knee is still being a jerk at night. I am still taking a single pain pill to get through the overnights. There's no driving until I am off meds.

PT is coming along; this week I am cut back to 2x/weekly sessions. I am fairly close to reaching my goals and may be cut loose soon.

Mom is on my list this weekend. She proudly shared with me the other day that she went out for a walk without her POC. (portable oxygen concentrator) Last week when she was off the POC "to put shoes on" (this got quite the eye roll from her pulmo, btw), her O2 dipped to 78— she's not to a point where she can be OK off O2 routinely except if she's calm and seated. I do check this every time I see her so we can report to her pulmo and cardio next month. I am sick to the teeth of playing oxygen police with her— the medical professionals (cardio, pulmo, ID, PCP and 2 PAs) and I have gone over how oxygen can't be "banked" for use later.

I hope all have a safe and pleasant day.
HB

Snow flurries and ice forming, temps in the low 20’s tonight. It’s raw outside.

HB, the Mamas can drop singles twins triplets or even quads. We’ve never had quads but often have twins and triplets. That’s usually when bottle feeding comes into play. I’m hoping everyone delivers before we leave Mid April for a month long trip

@Mint

It could be a mix of factors. If your mom's progressed, or if other residents are more demanding of attention and/or the newer staff are less talented at keeping her content and uptick in behaviors would be expected. I'm sorry. How are things when you and your sisters visit?

Tornado watch here now.

HB

Rat(s) and maybe mice. What I saw saw was a rat I think but some of the poop is tiny.

Ron…I was given severe warnings about the glue traps and have them placed carefully. In my bathroom I put a chair in front of them.

@GothicGremlin

77F sounds dreamy.

Your dad seems awfully familiar excepting that mom loves going to the doctor. She's got quite the team— PCP, pulmo, cardio, derm, infectious disease, retinal specialist, neuro-ophthalmologist, optometrist, hand surgeon and dentist. PCP was making noises about turfing her to an endo for osteoporosis. I thought my head was going to explode.

I don't know any first name Stantons; it's my birth surname. Both my nieces have it as a middle name. I toyed with it for DS but with his last name it would have sounded ridiculously pretentious.

Mom was extra -extra today. DH and I picked her up to go to the grocery store of her choice. She chose Wegmans. Once again, she had an excuse for why she wasn't using the POC. The excuse du jour was getting dressed. O2 was 83 and dropping. I got her hooked up to the POC and off we went. Once in the store, the plan was to split up and for me to call her an Uber when she was finished shopping as my knee wasn't up for one of her 2-hour trips. We picked her up at 1:30 and were at the store around 2. We checked out by 2:45— $175 so not a quick trip. I hadn't heard from her by 4:15, so I called and got no answer. Her location wasn't updating on Find My App, so I called again at 4:30 and got no answer. I'm getting nervous because the battery on her POC is only good for about 3 hours on a full charge at 2 liters. This would be worse than one's Uber turning back into a pumpkin.

I called customer service and the wonderful gentleman who answered hunted her down for me and put her on the phone. She was just checking out, so I was able to arrange her an Uber and got her home just as her battery hit 2%. That's got to be good for 5 new white hairs and a wrinkle.

HB

Good afternoon Porch Rockers.

Lorita. Im glad your paying more attention to your medical alert. As much as you do inside and outside you need to have it on all the time. Im going to find me one. Im not alone but during the night the kids are upstairs and my bedroom is downstairs. I really don't watch Wagon Train much anymore, they got boarding as well as Gunsmoke, I have seen them all. Im now watching Law and Order SVU, I used to watch that a lot.

HB. Im sorry to hear your baby knee is still giving you issues at night, hopefully your still getting some sleep. I don't like pain so I would want the strongest meds possible. Your so good to your Mom, she is lucky. Im glad you were able to find someone to track her down, I bet you were worried.

Beth. I remember when those space pictures were taken, I guess that shows how old i am. Sorry to hear about your blizzard warning. Be safe. We had a seaver, wind warning 2 nights ago and the wind was normal. So hopefully your blizzard warning turns out to be mild.

Mint. I bet the staff changing upsets and confuses the residents. When my DH, was in MC. He had special caregivers and they were his favorites. He would have been very upset if they left. I think if I was a resident and things canged it would be hard on me. Please try not to worry about it.

Iris. Keep sending us pictures, please. Was the whales skin ruff? My guess is yes

Eagle. Sorry but I had to laugh when you were telling us about the yellow umbrella that flew by. I wonder where the wound up at?

GG. I loved the picture of the bay bridge, that was the one we always went over. I heard they paint the Golden Gate every year, they start at one end and when they finish, they go back and start over again. Is that a fairly tail or is it true. We spent a lot of time in San Francisco, Bodega Bay and Jenner, when I was a growing up. Enjoy lunch with your old friend.

Ron. I hope your feeling better. How long do you think you have had phenomena? Im sorry at times your second guessing your move to Miss. I know at times if Im feeling down about something, I miss my home in Oregon.

Judith. I sure hope your rat/mice have been taken care of. I hope it was a mouse and not a rat. I think rats are really big. I would hate to see one stuck to glue.

I did not realize this was getting so long so I will sign off for now.

Hugs Zetta

Crazy weather. A young woman told me yesterday that her son had gotten sunburn Saturday when it was 75 degrees but had to bundle up Monday when the wind chill was zero. The wind was pretty brisk. I put my trash can out Sunday night and it was blown over in the AM.

I remember reading an article many years ago (in National Geographic I think) about the Golden Gate bridge, and it said a crew of men spent their working lives painting it. By the time they finished it was time to start over again. I knew a man in Kansas City who did the same in the interiors of post offices, just painting and repainting the many POs in KC. There are millions of people who spend their lives maintaining the things that make urban life possible, and we never notice them - unless they stop showing up.

"top o' the morning"

HB - that's just it (about the doctors) - once I got my dad in to see a doctor, you'd have thought they'd been good buddies for their whole lives! They'd be joking and having a great old time. So why did he fight me all the way? I have no idea.

That's cool about the name "Stanton". Btw, we had lunch with him today, which was a lot of fun.

eaglemom - Have your umbrellas shown back up yet? I wonder if they'll turn up.

Zetta - I haven't been to Jenner or Bodega Bay very often, but I've enjoyed them when I've been there.

Zetta and Carl - About the Golden Gate Bridge - I've heard that too - about the amount of time it takes to paint it. I can believe it, although, in the length of time I lived in SF, and the many times I've been over that bridge, I've never seen anyone paint it. Could just be me though. Here's your trivia for the day - do you know what color the bridge is? International Orange. I learned that from one of the traffic reports on KCBS in SF.

Ron - I'm glad you're starting to feel better.

I've been out and about. Last night was the Death Guild anniversary — 33 years. Death Guild is the longest running weekly goth club in the world. Impressive. It was a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time socializing and dancing. My feet still hurt! I was either standing for dancing for more than four hours - in boots. I guess it's good for me? Plus I was wearing velvet, so I was really hot. I had to go outside and get some of that cooling air.

Tonight we went into the Mission to Sangria and Salt - the resurrected Cha Cha Cha. It's a different place, but they have a lot of the same menu items that Cha Cha Cha did - and they taste the same. I was so happy. I've always loved that place. So I guess it's true - occasionally you can go home again. 🙂

Good morning!

I saw a good show in Branson yesterday, Reza the illusionist. Lots of noise, flames erupting from the stage, and mind-boggling tricks. Good times!