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

The smallest act of kindness
is worth more than the grandest intention.
- Oscar Wilde

It's overcast this morning but cool. My self-appointed task is to week the graveled little playground. It's only about 50 x 30 feet and weeds tend to favor the edges next to the wood border.

This afternoon we'll head north to Bemidji for my WW meeting and then out to eat at another restaurant "new" to us.

Happy Monday.

Just wow -- more rain last night and more on the way today. Maybe a couple more days too. My little job will be over late this afternoon. They ( my employers ) left pretty much in the rain and will return in the rain. No fun, but they have a driver so that will make things better.

Weeding is not fun -- and every time I come down our walk I grab a few. Still hard to keep up. Every thing is ongoing where weeds are concerned. Back to the rain though -- we went out to eat last evening and I foolishly left my umbrella in the car. I do this pretty consistently. At any rate -- the rain we thought would be more like mere sprinkles turned into a super heavy downpour. Finally lightened up enough for us to make a mad dash to the car. Oops, the parking lot was flooding and we were in water to almost shin level. Shoes soaked, along with bottom of pants. Not squishy fun for sure driving back to Doc's house. Dh got in his truck to head home and change clothes while I went in to wash and get in pj's. Just a real mess.

The cheeriest thing to say is that I hope most of you are able to have a nice no-rain day and as for the rest of us -- hope to stay as dry as possible.

Quiet here yesterday. I'm done with my little bit of ( 4 days ) dog sitting and can spend a bit more time here. Just wow though. The weather is striking. Pouring rain today though it thundered through the night but didn't really produce anything. Making up for it this morning. My poor Bill ( black lab retriever ) stays right on my heels and lays down where I am. Still have no idea why dogs seem fine for however long -- then suddenly become highly distressed in thunderstorms -- even when inside. Bill just paces and paces. As long as I'm sitting here though he is resting which he likely needs.

Rain I think most of the day -- but thunder with it only this morning and maybe again this afternoon. I'll have a lot to do in the interim. Once we get out of the thunderstorm/rain sequence I think the heat is really going to turn on. Yikes !!! Already wishing we could skip that and its not even here. Up side today -- don't have to wash my car. Hey -- sometimes life is good.

See you all later.

Weather last night was perfect for the Roger Daltrey+band+ symphony orchestra concert performance of Tommy at Ravinia (our version of Tanglewood). And the concert was awesome--I'd never heard the opera performed in its entirety by the Who, except on the album of course and a bootleg of a Los Angeles live show. (Saw them do Quadrophenia twice). I've seen Tommy: the Musical three times: in its original B'way run (a month before it won some Tonys), the road show that came through Chicago, and a 10th anniv. barebones production that I'd like to forget (though it wasn't nearly as bad as the movie). The B'way version was terrific, with the parts fleshed out, scenery & choreography, and "I'm a Sensation" (which I'd always envisioned as a B'way song) as a showstopper, complete with pinball machines flying suspended over the audience (a la the chandelier in Phantom of the Opera). But I firmly believe that you've never really heard Tommy until you've heard it with Daltrey, a band, and a full symphony orchestra.

Most of the audience was baby-boomers like us--with a contingent of Gen-Xers and a smattering of millennials--and a fair number of rather confused, staid Ravinia Festival classical subscribers (who were good sports nonetheless). It made me feel better about being 67 (albeit with one arm in a brace and the other in a sling)--if Daltrey can still do that at 74, maybe I'll keep going (assuming my appendages heal). Gordy & I were happily singing along with everything.

Tomorrow Bob & I are going to a French wine dinner at Mon Ami Gabi to celebrate our 47th anniversary.

Life, like any other exciting story, is bound to have
painful and scary parts, boring and depressing
parts, but it's a brilliant story, and it's up to us
how it will turn out in the end.

Bo Lozoff

Still hoping for positive good healing Sandy so that you can continue to do the things that you love. And Carole -- I got a kick out of Mary and Lyman though I do know what starts out as fun chatter if happening over and over becomes stale and boring. Guess the important thing is that Mary and Lyman stay 'in tune' with each other and not get bored.

Also enjoyed your new mop. You know, you can sort of tell what thrills us. I'm still thinking about the dishcloths you embroider and how much I appreciate them. I still have a lot though many are getting a bit stringy from lines coming loose.

More rain coming today to help herald in the heat that will be right behind. Sure not looking forward to that. Well, that is what a/c I for.

Hope you are all going to have a wonderful day. Been wondering what Puffin is up too -- anyone know???

There are nine requisites for contented living:
HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure;
WEALTH enough to support your needs;
STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them;
GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them;
PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor;
LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others;
FAITH enough to make real the things of God;
HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Still recovering from last night's wine dinner at Mon Ami Gabi's 20th Anniv. party. (Too much wine, too much food--full, not tasting portions of each). Gordy moved out this morning--our housekeeper Carrie took him and incidentals in my car (which is bigger, and hers is parked too far away) to meet the movers at his new place, unpack & set up. I am wheel-less (and still in my PJs) till they get back. He'll stay with Leslie tonight because his new bed hasn't been delivered (he had a twin here, she has a queen, and they struggled in a double over the weekend at the wedding hotel; so he bought a queen); and his AC is yet to be installed. Hope it's not too big for the window. It's a 12,000 BTU, which will cool the entire apt, especially with the ceiling fans. I might get dressed and walk over to the CVS to fill & pick up some prescriptions and OTC Nasacort. (Normally I'd buy the latter in bulk at Costco--but the mold & pollen counts are high, I'm out of it, and I would spend more on the Uber/Lyft to Costco than on the Nasacort).

I posted this elsewhere: had hoped the surgeon would give me, as an anniv. present, a cortisone shot into my TFCC. Nope--he gave me more X-rays; which reveal I will have to have surgery. 3 surgeries (at once): screw together my broken L scaphoid bone; debride the TFCC tear; and to keep from reinjuring the TFCC, have my congenitally too-long ulna shortened (from the middle--bone has to be sawed through, a 3mm wafer cut out, and then screwed & plated together--tons of fun at TSA screening). Surgery day is 7/10 (could've done it next week, but Carrie's kids & grandkids are coming up from Birmingham for the holiday). Will be in a plaster cast till 7/17, when I am switched to a full-forearm-and-palm "Muenster splint" (leaves the inner elbow open and allows me to bend & straighten it, but immobilizes the wrist) for 3-4 months: 8 weeks wearing it 24/7, then up to 8 more wearing it at night.

Amazingly, though I did cancel tomorrow's gig, my singing partner wants to keep the 7/22 and 9/14 dates--he says that though I'm a decent instrumentalist, my vocals, songs and wisecracks are more of the drawing card. We wouldn't have been able to do tomorrow night that way--it's 2 full sets and he doesn't get back from his tour till late tonight, so no time for him to learn my guitar parts (or flesh out his own). I'm in decent voice and can still play harmonica.

Sandy, You should have been here to see the 440 ft cruise boat go through the Ballard Locks. They said it had 8 ft clearance on each side. Enough if you're careful and attentive. komonews.com has photos if you want to see. Lots of spectators on both boat and locks.

I don't envy you all that time in a cast. Still, if they can fix everything that's wrong and you can play again, it will be worth it. But in the hot weather, too. Although if was winter you'd have a hard time keeping both sides warm. Gee, I wish I had a housekeeper help me move. That would be the life. Gordy is a lucky guy.

Between 4 and 5 am, I was awakened by a thunderstorm with quite a strong wind. I jumped up and rolled in the awning over the deck and went out on the deck in my nightgown to put my two large geraniums down on the deck. In past years one of them has been blown off the built-in plant stand and damaged. Meanwhile my gown got wet. I went back into the bedroom, got a replacement gown in the dark, crawled into bed and went back to sleep!

This morning it's overcast.

The Cities area in MN is having heat wave temperatures today and, unfortunately, we won't escape some increase in the temperature. It's supposed to be low to mid 80's. We are signed up for Couples Golf at noon and afterwards will have dinner with the group at the Y Restaurant. I'm hoping for a breeze during golf.

While we're gone, the weekenders will start arriving and more of Mary and Lyman's wedding group will be arriving, too, occupying two more available camping sites. It's very likely that more thunderstorms will visit us tonight. Mary will be on pins and needles hoping the weather is friendly to the outdoor wedding tomorrow.

DH and I have been through quite a few locks, too. The most picturesque were in Sweden on the Rideau (sp?) Canal. We would step out onto the bank and admire all the blooming flowers. The boat was a lovely little vessel. Our cabin so tiny that I don't get a good sensation when I remember it. The cruise was quite an experience. We also saw picturesque locks in Ontario, operated by hand. They were used by pleasure boats.

Happy Friday.

Carole, our weather here was not so kind either. I heard late in the day that some thunderstorms with straight-line winds were headed this way. Well, there really isn't much to do ( minor adjustments ) but wait it out and see. They got here around 7 p.m. and in short order we lost power. We have a nice radio ( the one Dh got me for my birthday last yr. ) and set it up in the dark with a flash light. Didn't get a lot of news. I had told Dh earlier that I thought/wished we could know/hear on the radio what was going on in town.

Turns out Centralia was hit fairly hard. I haven't been to town yet, but it was a bit after 1 a.m. before our power came back on. I would imagine that yard/tree people may be all over town cutting up the trees that often easily come down during straight line winds. We did watch our trees out here and it is sort of a sea-sick type feeling -- watching all the trees been way far over and then way far over the other way. This while water is pouring from the sky.

So I'm glad you were able to dry off and go back to sleep Carole. Hope for you and the resident/wedding group all goes off just fine. Probably is a little nerve wracking to have planned an outdoor event when lately we do seem to have such un-certain weather patterns affecting lg. parts of the country. Ours now goes into heat wave. Sigh !!! Hope you are all fine and have no storm issues.

97 today,, heat index 105. More of the same tomorrow, heat index 110. (Will water the tomatoes at night). Not so bad being housebound with the AC running. Killing a lot of time watching mandatory continuing legal ed videos. Have to report completing 30 hrs. by midnight tomorrow. Including the live seminars in London & Rome, 25 down, 5 to go. Keeps me from watching too much news.

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

Carol Mosely-Braun

"The wind is in from Africa, last night I couldn't sleep..."--Joni Mitchell, "Carey."

Well, any insomnia I had last night was more from Bob's coughing, my trying to get both my "problem child" arms well-supported while turning over to keep my sinuses clear, and my asthma making my breathing sound like a calliope--but there's a huge Sahara dust cloud making its way west across the Atlantic, expected to hit here late tonight and certainly tomorrow. Sunrises & sunsets will be spectacular--but it'll be really hazy, and cars parked outdoors likely to get yucky.

Looking to hit 99 today (93 here on the n. lakefront), 110 heat index. God bless air conditioning! Not gonna be a problem staying home to get those last 5 hrs. of MCLE done before the midnight deadline. Bo-ring, but I can keep the computer on in the background or take it into the bathroom with me (TMI).