Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

I bought myself a really nice iron some years back.  And I must admit that I do iron most of my golf clothes and some of dh's clothes, too.  It's mainly pressing and touch-up.  I have a clothes rack in my laundry room.  When it gets crowded, I know it's time to set up the ironing board.  I iron in my bedroom with the tv on to entertain me.  Probably every 3 weeks or so.

We never ironed sheets and pillowcases when I was growing up.  We did have embroidered scarves with hand-crocheted lace for the dresser tops and those were starched and ironed. 

Last night I went to a women's Christmas dinner at the local Methodist church.  One of my neighbors is a member and she sponsors a table at this dinner and invites the female neighbors.  We met and had champagne at my neighbor Katie's house before we went to the church.  It was a lot of fun getting together with the other women.  There was an auction to benefit a charity.  The kind of auction where you write down your bid on items.  I bid on a silver fleur de lis pendant and won it.  The charity was a shelter for pregnant young women.  Several of them attended the dinner with their babies and the babies were adorable. 

I haven't felt my best today.  I've been having sinus drip and have developed a cough and some chest discomfort.  But I got some chores done anyway.

Tomorrow afternoon is a Christmas music concert at St. Timothy's Methodist Church.  The choir there is wonderful and the concert is very professional with symphony musicians and trained soloists with beautiful voices.  I look forward to the event every year. 

Wishing everyone a good evening. 

Rev, burned your EYE!!! Oh my gosh, that's terrible. How lucky for you that a doctor was nearby.

I rarely iron except when sewing. When we were first married, I took in ironing for money. I'm very happy I'm not that broke any more. Now my favorite words are "machine wash warm, tumble dry low".

To me, the essence of keeping the soul nourished is obedience to one's conscience.  I don't think that the soul can be nourished unless people have a strong sense of conscience that they have educated and developed and soaked in the universal and timeless principles of integrity and service.  This way, the individual's soul becomes part of the universal soul of service, contribution, and making a difference.
 
Stephen R. Covey

Sandra! I had a wringer washer that my Mom used.... Ha! I used to connect it all up in a hallway, into our tiny bathroom, and fill a big galvanized rinse tub. That's how I washed my babies diapers, and all of our clothes when we first got married.

Then when both girls were born, we moved to another house, and I got a REAL washer....! But didn't get a dryer until maybe 1970.. We always had clothes-lines... Now I dry clothes for a few minutes, then hang them on hangers, or the one line I still have...

Still don't have a dish-washer though... I didn't think I needed one...

Ah man, she completely flunked at the spelling of catsasstrophies. I think she meant catastrophes.. She's having TRUBBLE with her "f" key? That ain't the only one honey.....

Is "thinkable" a word? Probably not, but it SOUNDS good... Ha, ha! You have "wrinkles"?? We don't care... we all get them when we grow up... but then if we never "grow up" we never get them... so no worries on THAT one!

I love when you post little Cammi... Yes, we ramble on about the most innate things... meaning worthless... or even indispensable or probably having no value what-so-ever.... but if we entertain ourselves, that's all that matters.... And sometimes there ARE no words that we make up... but we understand.

YES they love you... we all do! Even with that silly hair-cut you got... with your wrinkles.

So are you better now? Did you have fun socializing? Can you post a picture? Wait..... Have Joey do it.... or even Katy-kat...

Meemers! You got your bra? Or Bras? Good for you!

Morning Rita... Yes, the Asthma is a little better... Still taking pills, and using the Nebulizer... and inhalers.... You know, the nasal rinses really help! I don't know what HAPPENED! It came on so fast...

Hi Puffin and Jackie.... I have been lax in my efforts to post more...

Yes Sailing! My clothes froze too! I was about 8 months pregnant with my first one, and stumbled over the laundry basket I was hanging... but didn't do anything... just rolled around.... Ha! I STILL use a clothes rack to finish drying our clothes! I just always thought the dryer was expensive to run, so only use it to fluff up the clothes a little....

Rita, I missed that you got burned? A curling iron? Geez! Are you better now?

And morning Joan, Minus and Wren....

Mommarch! Yes! There WAS a reason ! It was because you NEEDED it! And HE knew.... He took care of you.... Sometimes these things happen, and you KNOW you are being watched after....

Like when I was flailing around in the alley, like a beached whale, and couldn't move... And the neighbor just "happened" to come up the alley and thank GOD he chose not to run over me, and he stopped in back of his Parents house, to drop his Dad off...(Theresa & Eddie) and he had a wheel chair in his trunk! So I was wheeled down to our house, and into my car.

He was our Guardian Angel that day....

Revup! MAN! That was an AWFUL story! It really must have hurt!

Carole, I hope you didn't catch that from me.... Those nasal rinses really worked for me.... AND the pills....

Hi Teacher... And Wren, I used to take in ironing also! Anything to make money.... Even did hair for my neighbors, cousins... etc.

They paid me a dollar! I must have been nuts..... even THEN! Ha, ha!

Hi everyone

Sorry I haven't posted in a while- don't know why. I read the posts every day. Just been feeling a little lost I guess- stuck somewhere between after cancer and and recovering me. I find myself suddenly on the "back nine" and don't want to be there just yet. I totally blame the cancer for that and it makes me both mad and sad at the same time. Until then, I was a homemaker, very active mother and grandmother and shopped, cleaned, cooked, did laundry, went to visit friends a few hours away, etc. I admit that when my DH passed, I lost focus for awhile, but then just as I was coming out of that fog- the cancer struck. And even though it has been 7 months since my last radiation, and 3 months since my last Herceptin infusion, I am still stuck in the "invalid" mode. I do no cleaning, shopping (except when I choose to run to Walmart for a specific item), or cooking and most of the time I sit in the same spot, mostly reading. I guess it hits me harder when I am here in Fl because I am in MY home. I ran this house for 36 years- now I feel like a guest. But the truth is that I just don't have the energy to do anything. That said, I have had two active weekends in a row that were very enjoyable, but again, I was just a spectator, not a real participant. I guess that pretty much sums up my condition, I used to bean active participant in life, now I feel like a spectator. Wish I knew how to get the energy to become a participant again, even in a smaller role.

That said - we may have had a wringer washer when I was very little, but I don't have clear memories of that. I do remember being one of only a few in our neighborhood that had our own washer in our apt. Most everyone else did their laundry in the one set of machines in the basement of the building. My father somehow strung a line from our dining room window to my brothers bedroom window on a pulley system ( which was pretty incredible, since we lived on the fourth floor). During the winter, when it was too cold to dry outside, there were lines down the hallways in our apt that you had to duck and weave thru and sometimes it took more than 24 hrs for the clothes to dry. Everything got ironed, including handkerchiefs which made no sense to me- the first time you used it, it went back into your pocket in a ball. Dishwashers were for people that lived in their own homes, not for apts. in fact, after I moved to Fl, my parents and my sister and her family bought a house in upstate NY. Washing dishes had been so ingrained by then, that they had the dishwasher removed to give them more cabinet space. I, too, put clothes back in the dryer with a wet washcloth for 15 min or so to avoid ironing.

Fri night, my youngest DD had made plans to go look at some Chistmas light displays with several friends. They left without her. Her daughter was especially disappointed, so I offered to go with them, so they wouldn't miss it completely. We met up with the friends at the first house, which I didn't expect, but I had a very good time. I will put some pix at the end. Then last night, our cleaning lady said her church was doing a live performance of the Grinch. So I bought 6 tickets and my 2 daughters, 3 grandchildren and I went. It was great. The kids loved it. The tickets were $20 apiece, but it went to a good cause, and they served appetizers and desserts during the breaks. And yesterday, Santa himself visited a neighbor, and he had a gift for every single child there, including Kayden and Victoria, who don't even live in this neighborhood! Imagine that! Our weather obviously doesn't support sleigh traffic, so the local fire dept was gracious enough to escort him. It's a town tradition that has been going on as long as we have lived here, and each generation welcomes it with awe.

I will post pix in a few minutes - for some reason my iphone and ipad are not sharing pix like they are supposed to.

Anne

Chevy, I'm so glad you're feeling better. Also, I really liked you "Back Nine" entry. That is SO true! Thanks for sharing.

Carole....I hope you feel better soon, too.

It is a gloomy Sunday here even if the temperature is relatively mild for this time of year in Illinois. I am counting the days until we head out to sunny FL.

I didn't iron for extra money during my younger days, as I probably wouldn't have had any returning customers. :-) However, when I first started teaching, I needed something to supplement my rural teaching salary. I lived in a college town and typed papers for college students. I charged 10 cents per page....can you really believe that????....so a student could get a 10 page paper typed for $1.00. My typing skill were LOTS better than they are now but still, that usually took me an entire evening because there couldn't be any mistakes and we had to use correction tape or typing erasers to make changes. I think most of our generation were not afraid of hard work and didn't expect a huge monetary compensation for the jobs that we completed.

Well, I have a 25% off coupon from Barnes and Noble that is burning a hole in my purse so I am going to run into town and select a book for my daughter-in-law for Christmas. Everyone in my family gets a book from me..along with other gifts....and I still haven't gotten one for her. I can spend hours in that store just browsing!

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday afternoon!

Rita, I have given many books as presents through the years.  At one time that was what I gave children in the family--books.

DH and I drove over to Academy Sports earlier and bought three bicycles for my niece's children.  We selected mountain bikes for the 11 yr. old boy and 9 yr. old girl, who told their grandmother that "dirt bikes" were on their Christmas list.  Dirt bikes are motorcycles so we assumed they were talking about mountain bikes that can be ridden on gravel and dirt.  They have chunky tires.  We got the 5 yr. old girl a really cute 20 in. bike.  It didn't come with training wheels so we bought them separately and dh will put them on.  These Christmas gifts are from my sister who isn't the grandma of the kids, from one of my brothers and from dh and me.  The grandma sister is holding the bag for buying the Santa Claus gifts for the 5 yr. old since the mamma is flat broke, though not too broke to buy marijuana and the daddy is in jail headed for a prison term. 

Academy Sports was full of people buying things. 

Anne, maybe your body is telling you what you are capable of doing.  If you want more energy, I would suggest beginning an exercise program.  Maybe attend some exercise classes for stretching or gentle aerobics.  I know it may sound crazy but physical activity can give a person energy and a good kind of tiredness.  You can probably gradually resume your old life. 

Jackie, the sun is shining brightly here and the high today is supposed to be about 70 degrees.  We have had wonderful weather in Nov. and Dec.  The weather gods will probably give us our share of lousy weather in Jan.

Anne -- I agree with Carole.  To get more energy you need to expend more.  Also you might think of checking in with a Nutritionist for a list of foods that would help with energy production.  As well, hope you won't misunderstand, but maybe you are going through some mild feelings of depression that could be helped with a short run of medication.  I'm thinking so mild that it is not evident to you or anyone else, but enough to present challenges that don't seem to have a fix.  

I do think it is very possible to be in an in-between state where it is difficult to "join" up successfully with 'how' it used to be and it may take a few try's of different things and or different combinations for you to get more into the SWING of a 'normal' state again. 

Sure hoping  for you and everyone that finds themselves facing a hurdle - there will be an answer -- it just has to be discovered.   

Sun tried so hard just now to come out --- but at 4 p.m.  It will be dark in an hour so what little tiny bit we saw petered out pretty darn quick.  Rain is expected for tomorrow so I do know what color I'll see them.  Sigh !!!!  Well, I know it will be back -- obviously patience isn't my middle name.

Jackie

Jackie, Great poem/song! 
Here's a pic for you and the cat lovers here

Anne, love your pics!

Joan,

That is so it -- with the felines in the household.   Of course, they are equal opportunity.  Anything that looks like something you could climb will be.  I guess it shouldn't have come as a BIG surprise to us the first time it happened.  That first yr. of no tree was it seemed my best decorating year EVER.  Murphy's law I guess.  I was enchanted by my own tree when usually I'm a tiny bit more ho-hum in that regard.   Well, before too long -- over the tree went.  I did my best to "restore" it, but it wasn't quite there, then it went over again.  Well now --- there is almost no way to re-apply tinsel that is now securely wrapped around some of the tree branches---and even if you are fortunate enough to hang the ornaments about as/where they were --- the disrupt, raggedy look can no longer be erased.  We took fishing line and hooked the tree to the ceiling.

I think cats have an eye for REAL beauty.  After it was attached securely to the ceiling -- no one wanted to climb the raggedy thing my once beautiful tree had morphed into.  So, on an after Christmas sale --- I bought a big wreath -- and ever after that has become our tree.  There are some things it is easier to give up when you are a "rescue the furies" type.  I have to say I've been able to avoid a whole lot of work in the years since I have not put up a Christmas tree. 

Chevy ,

I also hope little Tracy drives up to your house one day to let you know she remembers what your love and care felt like and what it did for her.  I imagine someone who could reach young adulthood and be able to find the strength to go the right way because she had a person ( you ) in her life who gave her stability and acceptance when their was turmoil all around her.  I'm sort of a 'dreamer' I guess, but it is what gives you something to reach for and sometimes obtain.  I'm dreaming that your dream comes true. 

There was actually minute sun when I first got up this morning.  Guess that is why I woke up when I did which was actually a little late.  Wasn't long before the sun disappeared and rain started falling.  It has backed off now, but I think will be with us all day.  Sigh !!!!  Tomorrow will be better.   At least I saw the sun and know their still is one, eh !!! 

Hope Monday is good to everyone......

Blessings

Jackie

Thanks gals.... Thank you Jackie.... yes I get chills thinking Tracey will someday just come by.... Every Halloween I hope a couple of those kids will be Tracey and her little Brother.... but not yet....

Wren.... Some little kids just go through life, not knowing any different.... Her Dad was in Prison, & her Mom was in and out of jail... But it was her Grandma that gave her a "home"..... until even she gave it all up..... I didn't even ask her her last name... Didn't know if her Parents were married...

Maybe "someday"......

Hi everybody.

Wow I missed a lot---Chevy a chld never forgets the good things in life but they try to block the bad, so I'm sure she remembers her times with you. And the LAST 9 HOLES waaaaaaaa

OK I anyone is sick just take action for u'rself some cold flu stuf is going around like crazy, so pay attention and stay in.

Loved the pics, I always do, it's so nice to see and yes Anne like we always say we're all dierent and everything does take longer than we think to feel better.

Carole as soon as a kid could read I'd always buy books as a present, I don't think they wanted that but I always thought they really need that==I remember when Joey was 4 He had his own books and he's still adding and loves to readbut now he explains things to me, but in my defence I probably knew all these things, jst forgot them. (shut up Chevy)

Jackie it's glumpy and rainy here too, but I like this weather, I'm not a sun person at all. But I know u love it. But its warmer tho so I hope it stays like that for a while anyway.

Oh the party was marvelous but didn't go to sleep tilafter 4am Sunday--so u know I'm still screwed up, talk about 9 holes. we were laughing so much I was hurting. And super homemade food--It was great, but I'm still knocked out, but I'm working in a daze. I put red and green chalk stuf in my hair--so that was my Christmas look, I'm sure I'll do it again.

OK just trying to Ketchup and stick my nose in.

The roots of love sink down and deep and strike out far, and they are arteries that feed our lives, so we must see that they get the water and sun they need so they can nourish us.  And when you put something good into the world, something good comes back to you.
 
Merle Shain

I enjoy and love what is shared on this thread.