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

Seems like I'm not getting posts again! Oh No!

Still have our colds, now mine has gone to laryngitis. I have NO voice! Just keeps going on and on. Jean

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

unattributed

Posts seem to be coming again, Yay!

Got a tiny bit of voice today, hope it stays, wont use it much. Warmer today but was pouring all night. Between rain and coughing on and off night! We have only had not even a coating of snow this winter! Is it really winter. I do enjoy the snow, when it's fresh and clean. DH used to plow in the winter , and I did the sidewalks, as there wud be no school the next day. Loved the white and quiet . Hugs, Jean

Sun is holding so far, but had trouble with all my doors on the car as well as the back hatch door of my Blazer where I keep the feral cat food. At my first stop I had 10 or 11 cats patiently waiting while I struggled with the door. I kept slamming it around the bottom and side edges trying to loosen it up enough to open. Finally ( I think a couple of the cats had almost given up ) it came open.

That is a part of the cold weather I could do without but it was so wet most of the day so I'm sure it was the fact that we had a lot of moisture going on for a couple days previous.

Should be fine now. Tomorrow Dh says it will be a little warmer. Good !!! May not have to fight the doors anymore. Elsewise we are enjoying the sun even if it is not warming us too well.

Jackie

I see everyone has enjoyed the holidays. IllinoisLad amen to your last post. Not posting very often as my DH and I are enjoying the children and doing some traveling. We went dancing at the Opryland hotel on new years, something we haven't done in years. Live, laugh and love. Lindab142 follow what your doctors say. I called my days of rads, groundhog days like the movie. I also took a half xanax to calm my nerves. The center had such nice nurses that cut up with me really helped. You can do it! Shuf

Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love--for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another.

Ram Dass

Our fire is easy. Just light the gas logs! I love our little fireplace. The flames are flickering now. DH and I are enjoying our before dinner cocktail. Dinner will be one of my favorites: grilled ribeye, potatoes and salad.

I didn't leave the house today except to go outside and shake out a rug and go out another door to add some black oil sunflower seeds to the bird feeder stuck to the living room window with suction cups. It's so nice watching Mr. and Mrs. cardinal at the feeder. There is also at least one tufted titmouse.

Hope everyone is warm and comfortable tonight.

Jackie, I am just curious as to where the feral cats stay when it is sooo cold. I feel bad for them. It is so nice of you to go feed them. I would do that if I knew where some are. I am such an animal girl.

Carol, I am going to PM you about Pinterest.

any puzzlers here? It was a tradition in Lew's family to do a big jigsaw puzzle over the Christmas vacation at his mom's house. When Mildred moved into the nursing home I missed doing a puzzle so started doing one in January when it was too cold for outdoor activities. Friends gave me a 1500 piece puzzle for Christmas (largest one I've ever done), pretty outdoor scene with lots of flowers, a pond with a footbridge over it. Sure wish I had Millie's big dining room table right now. I'm working the main puzzle on the kitchen table, have all the pink flower pieces set up on a card table in the living room, and various cake pans of sorted pieces. You know it's going to be a hard one when you can't get the border totally together.

When you live in the present moment, time stands still. Accept your circumstances and live them. If there is an experience ahead of you, have it! But if worries stand in your way, put them off until tomorrow. Give yourself a day off from worry. You deserve it. Some people live with a low-grade anxiety tugging at their spirit all day long. They go to sleep with it, wake up with it, carry it around at home, in town, to church, and with friends. Here's a remedy: Take the present moment and find something to laugh at. People who laugh, last. -Barbara Johnson

I had a puzzle last year that I could not get together. I worked on that thing for ages. Finally the cat landed on the board it was on and it hit the floor. I didn't try to get it back together. I was relieved, to tell the truth. Now I do puzzles on AARP games site. I do the easy crosswords too. I think the person writing the crosswords is very old. They use words I've only read in childhood books like Nancy Drew.

Puzzles are a fact of life at my house and I've spread the love of puzzles to many others. From the first year I was married (1970) I got a new puzzle for Thanksgiving. It was set up on a card table and family members were welcome to work on it off and on through the day. I also have one for New Years Day and enjoy working on it while watching the parade. When we cruise, I bring along a puzzle for sea days and always make new friends who want to help me. Years ago when we started going to a friends house to visit on Thanksgiving afternoon I brought along an easy puzzle. That group has grown from about 6 people to 40 or more. At least 10 of us work on the puzzle and now it just wouldn't be a holiday without a puzzle. We started doing it for the annual Super Bowl party for the ones who don't watch the game and now that's a tradition.

At the Senior Center near our house, there is a room dedicated to puzzles with completed ones (glued together and framed) decorating the walls and cabinets full of puzzles. I took puzzles on our October trip to the Florida Keys and to my solo trip to Chicago for Christmas. The proof I am an addict is on my cell phone and Kindle. I have apps that are jigsaw puzzles. They aren't as good as the real thing, but come in handy often.

As long as we are talking about addictions, I must confess my addiction to adult coloring. I've amassed quite a collection and enjoy sharing them with people at the senior center. I just sit at a large round table and invite any who stop to see what I'm doing to choose a picture from one of the books and join me. Some have started bringing their own books and colored pencils. There's a good sized group that is growing every week and today the director told me we could have our own official Adult Coloring Group. We'll be on the printed schedule and get to meet in the arts and crafts room. I'm delighted. For once I'm doing something trendy! My new books are ones on Victorian Houses, 1950's fashions, and First Ladies throughout the years. Amazon has them from $2.99 up.

Puffin, I too am a crossword addict--the tougher, the better (even those British cryptics). My favorites are diagramless--I've exhausted all available books of all but the boringly small and easy ones--and NY Times Acrostics. I started doing them because I am a fountain pen collector and love to solve puzzles in ink with a smooth-writing nib. Unfortunately, these days the paper is much pulpier and the nib catches and the ink bleeds. It can get expensive and wasteful to scan or photocopy each puzzle on to smoother, fountain-pen-friendly inkjet paper. I currently do the NY Times crosswords online. I get bored with Mon. thru Wed.--they aren’t hard enough to be fun until Thurs. Saturday is my favorite (it’s even tougher than the larger, themed Sunday puzzle). I used to love the New York Magazine crosswords, but they’re no longer as cleverly written as they were back in the 1970s-80s. I find the puzzles in the Chicago papers to be no challenge at all.

My theory about why dumbed-down gossipy tabloids are so popular in the UK? Because so many British readers' brains have been fried by those devilishly difficult cryptic crosswords! (Those are the only kind I found for sale in London bookstores).

Sandra, I think I may try Amazon for the coloring books you mentioned. Almost all the ones I found at Barnes & Noble were just pages and pages of patterns. I ended up buying one of VanGogh's most famous paintings (with full-color thumbnails for reference). I looked online for Venus Paradise blank color-by-number pictures, but they're insanely expensive because they're now collectors' items. (And the numbered pencil sets are used, and mostly incomplete). I loved Venus Paradise back in the day because they were actual pictures, with guidance as to which colors to put where. (If I could choose colors myself, I'd be coloring my own sketches instead--but I draw like a kindergartener). There are plenty of paint-by-number sets, but they're messy, not very portable (and the oil-painting sets give me asthma from the fumes and can permanently stain).

Hi gang,

In pain from yesterday's treatment and the area around my nipple is grayish and hard. Didn't sleep much. I finished working 2 hours from home to finish a project and I'm going to have some hot tea and sleep for a little while.

I'm not handling this rads biz very well. I feel it doing something to me and am wondering if I can negotiate with my Dr. to do 16 total treatments with boosts instead of 16+5. Think today is 9 or 10.

Have never been into puzzles, but I like the word search games and we have an app called Dropwords on the tablet.

I have 1 adult coloring book and some sheets friends have copied for me. My phone doesn't have enough storage to do it online.

I used to really enjoy making and selling jewelry, but it's a little less now; it's the slow season. I may take apart some items and redo them.

Here's my latest creation - a tree of life bracelet.

Hope you all have a great day,

Linda

Mornin all,

Sandra- I have just discovered adult coloring books. I only have the one my DIL gave me for Christmas but never thought of looking on Amazon for new ones. I find it so relaxing.

Heading over to see my sweet GD, Lucia again tomorrow. Then back to Fl the last week of Jan. With my DD in Fl due at the end of Mar, I doubt I will get to see Lu again before she comes to Fl in June. Going to try to fit in a one week trip up here in late Apr, for my oldest GS's 17 birthday, and a routine visit with BS, but doubt I will be able to fit in a trip to SC. Maybe they will come here for a weekend. My brother is meeting me in SC sometime this weekend so that will be fun.

Keyboard is lagging behind again so I guess that's my cue to wish you all a good Wed.

Ann