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

Sometimes you cannot believe what you see.
You have to believe what you feel.

Morrie Schwartz

Jackie, Hope you get good news! Hate that waiting. Welcome to Leapfrog!

Hope all comes back benign Jackie. Hugs!

J

This just in from the Boston Globe: for the second time this summer, the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston has been vandalized. Tonight, windows and part of the glass door were shattered.

A friend is one to whom we may pour out the contents of our hearts, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. -Arabian saying

Sandy, that's terrible news. I just don't know what's wrong with people.

MJ

Poppy, I think that's the only way you can survive in Texas. Aren't you glad we didn't live in 1800 when none of this was available and we had to wear high necks, long sleeves and multiple petticoats? I don't know how women survived back then.

I think that is why life moved so slowly in the south. MIL grew up a sharecropper's daughter. She had no indoor plumbing or electricity until the 1940s. She often told me they picked cotton before sunrise and finished late in the afternoon into dark when it was a bit cooler. But she said the humidity was still really bad. H says there was no A/C in their house until he was in high school in the early 70s. It was too expensive for central air and window units. They had no A/C in school at all - just open windows and ceiling fans.

He gets up at 4:30 am & goes outdoors at sunrise to get yard and garden work done. By 10 am he is inside for the day. His job for the light company worked the same. They did as much work on the outside of units as possible before noon and spent the remainder of the shift doing inside maintenance. Sometimes they had to be outside during the hot part of the day and it was rough. The heat and hard labor made an old man of him.

Good morning -- it rained overnight here, but while it is cloudy, I don't think we will get more right now. Friday looks better for more rain. It is humid outside. No breeze which isn't too good either -- just makes it more feelable. That is okay though. If it stays cloudy we will do all right. Didn't bring things out of the trees this time and I'm very happy about that. I think I'm just over the major cleaning we had to do before.

Otherwise it is going to be a good day. Hope the mugginess doesn't toy with my energy levels. Hope all of you have a wonderful day as well.

Poured late yesterday afternoon when I went for my mani, though it was still pretty warm. The Lyft driver on the trip home (I foolishly didn’t drive because I’d expected parking in Lincoln (no)Park would be nonexistent at rush hour) picked me up on the wrong side of a busy arterial, which I had to cross in the middle of the block. To add insult to injury, his A/C didn’t work so the windows were down. I protested that wind makes my hair tangle, and when it tangles it breaks. So he only grudgingly rolled the windows up most of the way, and only once we got to Lake Shore Drive—it was hot & muggy. Bob surprised me by getting home in time for dinner. Because of the weather, and because I’m drinking less than 1/2 glass of wine when I do drink at dinner, we drove rather than walked.

Stormed like crazy overnight & into the morning, so I got away with not watering my plants again. Tomatoes are ripening rapidly. I’m picking and Bob’s eating them as fast as we can. Back has been twinge-ing, but I’m not giving in and letting it lock up on me. Had a good workout today, courtesy of a morning Baclofen, intermittent use of heating pad, and a combo of roll-on lidocaine and Bio-Freeze. (A study found that OTC 3%-4% lidocaine patches with menthol relieved back & joint pain better than prescription 5% Lidoderm patches, since the menthol helps the lidocaine penetrate). The roll-on lidocaine is even cheaper than the OTC patches (which in turn are 1/4 the price of the Lidoderm ones). So, folks on this thread suffering joint pain from taking AIs, get some store-brand roll-on Lidocaine and some menthol roll on, ointment or gel (Bio-Freeze, Max-Freez, IcyHot, Blue Emu, etc.).

Today is ( gates to the park open at 3 p.m. ) first day of Balloon Fest here. We may go since Dh gets off at 3 p.m. from work. This because his boss needed to trade some time with him. It just works out this way -- no one was thinking Balloon Fest. So -- maybe that is a good omen. If I go ( and if there ) I will have to look for the pottery lady. Through the years ( though I hate to admit it ) some of the vendors are not so spectacular. The rule of thumb before was anything for sale needed ( as closely as possible ) to be home designed and made. Some buy t-shirts or sweat-shirts but dream up and make decals or decorations for them. I sort of became disenchanted a few yrs. back but almost always buy a piece of pottery from the pottery lady. If we go, I hope she is there.

Otherwise, though there is still some dampness out, it seems like it will be a dry day --- which means the balloons will go up this afternoon -- then will return to the park later to set up for the Balloon Glow tonight. After that, the first day fireworks. They are pretty spectacular actually. I have always looked forward to that segment of opening day/night. I found them far better than the 4th. fireworks displays.

Centralia Balloon Fest - Home | Facebook

www.facebook.com/centraliaballoonfest

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Centralia Balloon Fest. 707 likes. Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival held in Foundation Park the 3rd full week-end in August 35 hot air balloons, evening...

Hope you can get into this Balloon Fest information. One of the first Balloonists you will see is Kevin Heintzmann who owns The Drifting Dolphin He is the blonde-headed man in the basket taking off. Standing by the balloon basket before it takes off is his wife ( in blue tee ) Emily. They crewed for many yrs. before getting their own balloon. Crewing is hard work but those who do it seem to love it. I have heard that being up in the balloons in flight brings a very peaceful feeling to most people. I guess I will never know as I'm not fond of small places ( like a fairly sm. balloon basket ) and even airplanes make me nervous --- especially if they are going over water.

Decades ago when I was still an Asst. IL Atty. General, I had to fly to Albuquerque for a deposition. I arrived the day before, early enough, to watch a few balloons making trial ascents before the festival. Gorgeous!

I think N. Mexico is one of the only other places where it is allowable to go right up to the balloons and pilots. The balloons are enormous and I do think so very pretty. Some of the special shaped ones are not only pretty but somewhat fun as well. We didn't go last night ( Fri. ) as we both were just too tired. We may try again tonight though it won't be as fun. No fireworks -- that only happens the first night.

Woke up this a.m. to lots of thunder -- some very loud claps of which one woke me up. No rain though --- maybe some of the balloons lifted off, but I didn't go outside. Too interested in the morning news and coffee. I have a somewhat full day. Dog-sitting for little Muffin, my cousins pooch. He is a sweet, fun little guy so fun for me. They are headed north to Rantoul as daughter and hubby are selling their house and need to empty it. They will bring what they want home with them and the rest will be sold in huge house sale. Daughter and hubby have enough that they just bought everything new for the home they purchased in Fla. Love the everything goes way of doing things. Sure couldn't do something like that myself. The younger generation maybe aren't as attached to things as the older ones usually were and are.

Hope you are all going to have a great Saturday.

When my MIL died, the brothers took what they wanted out of the house. Then they turned it over to an estates agent and she sold everything that was left. She even found a buyer for the house.

I'm not too sentimental either. I have a few items that mean a lot to me from my grandmother & my mother. I do have my MIL's lace doilies. Most she made herself and I have a couple of tatted pieces from H's grandmother. Some of those pieces are almost 100 years old. The grandmother gave me a tatted christening cap she made for her first-born in 1920. He died at birth and she wouldn't use it for her other children (she told me it was meant for a first-born). She wanted us to have it because we were the only ones in the family to have a son to carry on the name.

S will get the house and everything in it. He knows I have some good jewelry that is to go to his daughter (if he has one). Other than that, he can do whatever he wants with the stuff. I remember the mess we had going through MIL's & my mother's things and I want to spare him that, so I have been very selective about what I have kept. Most of what I have saved has a family history or story attached to it.