Missing people

Am guessing Abe is still having connection troubles.  Hope Alice, DK, Victor, et al are all OK.

Check in, if you can

Annie

Thank you for caring, Ann. I am "okay"  but recovering slowly from the 
Norovirus.  They wished to keep me longer in Rehab, but I was worried about 
catching more things.

Just keep getting better, Alice.  I hear what you are saying about recovery coming slowly.  Don't push too hard.

Annie

I'm here :-)  Just a little short on posting subjects. I agree with you - where are all the flowers gone?

I hope that you are well, Abe. We worry, you know.

I have been busy with my new venture for selling vegetables and getting all the stacks, media, ground cover, seeds and all that goes with that ready to plant.  
http://floridasuncoast.locallygrown.net/faq

One of my ideas that I hope sets me apart from the other growers is offering a hanging herb garden like Annie's Simon and Garfunkle garden.  In the quest for that endeavor, I have been looking for a prostrate rosemary.  I think I can deal with the bush basil and sage may have to be separate (it will be a choice for the customer).  I am looking for Rosmarinus officinalis prostrates.
So far I have not found it locally.  I can clone it if I can find it.  Any one that finds it let me know.  I hear it is a plant of choice for ground cover in places like Texas and New Mexico.

I do hope that everyone is well and just busy.  It is so hot here, 92 degrees with a humidity of 70 per cent.  It is hard on an old lady.  Add 15 degrees for the black ground cover. 
Jazzmin has more sense than I and stays by the house under the truck.  I am mainlining gator ade and wearing my big hat and sweat bands. 
It is not over till the fat lady sings.  I do not know any fat ladies.

Love,
Betty

8/8/2014

                        Betty..

                                I will check with the nurseries here..

                                                Love Joe

Hi Ann,

It's been a difficult summer for me but I'm still hanging in there--just not much time for what I need and like to do. Hope you and our colleagues/friends are well.

Victor D. Lopez wrote:

Hi Ann,

It's been a difficult summer for me but I'm still hanging in there--just not much time for what I need and like to do. Hope you and our colleagues/friends are well.

What has been the matter?

Long story, Alice. Both of my parents have very serious medical conditions and both had to be hospitalized--my mom repeatedly with four surgical procedures, one still pending before month's end, since May. I'm usually very good at compartmentalizing, but not so good this time. I'll write about it eventually. For now, we're just taking things one day  at a time.

Dear Victor, I am sorry for your troubles.  One day, one day, one day  is how I have gotten through many days in the past.  I hope your mom has good care and hope.  Hope and the will to get through troubles is important.  Sometimes elderly people lose the perspective of hope.  It may be up to you to remind about hope.  Love, Betty

Dear Victor,  
I am so sorry about your parents.  This time of life is not easy.  You certainly have your hands more than full.

Thank you, Betty and Alice. Some things just cannot be fixed other than by God.

Posting with mixed emotions.  While i am pleased that so many of you checked in, my heart goes out to you regarding your reasons for not having been here.

Alice, keep on keeping on.  Betty, I did a local search.  We have lots of prostrate or creeping rosemary here, but i haven't found a nursery that would ship a plant to you.  I've had to let go of my Simon and Garfunkle and Spaghetti baskets because I cannot take care of them, or I would figure a way to ship to you myself.

Victor, there is little more difficult than dealing with the health problems of our own aging parents.  I especially get that now, since the tables have recently turned, and I am the aging parent who needs the support and help of my children.  Your mom's situation has reminded me that I should be grateful that my problems are not nearly as serious as those of others.  Relatively speaking (no pun intended) I am quite fortunate, and doing as well as I can expect, considering my condition.  My thoughts are with you and your mom.

Annie

How you deal with your ageing parents will help you when you find yourself in similar circumstances, Victor. We never stop learning. I hope things ease for you and your wife over the coming months.

I'm back.  My wife and I went on a five-day trip to Tirol, Austria with a group of Seniors from our village.  It was a great five days.  Being in the Alps to me is heavenly.  At 2210 Meters, the air is fresh although thin.  Being above the clouds is about as close to heaven I will get with my feet still on the ground.  Some peaks still had snow on them.  We ate too much and must now work it off. 
Returned last evening and my garden needed attention.  Harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans.  Weeds needed pulled and I think I worked off at least a pound or two.  Now to eat veggies and get back to some normality.
Thanks for caring.  I didn't watch any news while on the trip and didn't miss much.  Strife continues.

My poor mother in-law devoted herself entirely to her aging/ailing mother.  Her mother had the expected outcome--she died at age 82.
My mother -in-law lost her husband to another woman.   
Attend , but don't overdue it.
Welcome back,. Abe, So glad you had fun.

Aging parents is a complex issue.  I don't know the answer.  I also know that I have no one to care about me in my old age so I must stay well.  I must get a handle on proper eating which is the root of any ailments I have.

Welcome back everyone.

Sorry, DK, 

Wanting to stay well and doing it are two different matters.   I ate well, exercised well, and am still unwell. I suspect Ann ate and exercised well also.
There is  a monster called aging  which gets us all.

Not so sure I took such great care of myself.  Thing is, I've always had good health, regardless. I smoked; had a bit of bronchitis. After a certain age, I put on weight, in spite of eating relatively healthy.  I've never cared much for sweets or desserts, but I like a glass of good red wine.  The worst thing I ever did to myself was to try a low-fat diet.  Gained weight on it.  Started eating healthy fats in moderation and eventually got the weight under better control.  But I was hardly ever ill.  Light cases of flu on occasion, maybe a mild stomach virus.  Had a stubborn case of pneumonia in my mid-twenties.  That, plus three babies and a miscarriage were my only hospital stays as an adult.  Had a great attendance record as a teacher.

From the time of my divorce, I've never had an abundance of funds, but as a retired teacher, I have an excellent pension and above average health insurance. The particular center I'm looking at is very reasonably priced - an older highrise that has recently been remodeled, but has kept the great art deco look in the apartments, common rooms and grounds.  The vibes are good.  

It will still take time and a huge amount of change and aggravation, if it works out at all.

I just have to focus on accepting these changes and finding ways to make the best of them.

Sounds like a great opportunity to me, Ann. The freedom to be yourself with the added security of being part of a community.

8/12/2014

                       Victor..

                                I will say a prayer for your parents, I know what your going through
                             I went through it with my Mom...Keep your chin up and that sunny smile.

                                                              Joe

8/12/2014

                        Ann..

                               I'm happy to hear your feeling better. Me, I finally quit smoking for
                    good with the help of New Mexico Quit Now ( They send free patches,) I
                    found out that when I was doing it on my own I was doing it wrong ! What 
                    I did was 2 weeks # 21 MG , 2 weeks #14 Mg and 2 weeks #7 , NO !  The
                    way I was told by them is this 28 days #21 Mg., 28 days #14 and 28 Days
                    # 7 , they have a great support system and call me twice a week to talk.
                    I do have to be careful about wanting to eat something , so I suck on mints,
                    Two weeks ago I went to my Dr., and told him he was doing a dance and a jig
                     in the examing room when I told him I quit, he took a blood test to see my red
                     blood cell levels ( when you get CPOD and live at a high altitiude and smoke 
                     your red blood cell levels skyroket which is dangerous,) so he told me two months
                     before my level was 22.5 and on this day it was 19.5 , so I have to get it down to
                     15 which is normal, I'm determined and hell bent on doing it ! Matter of fact a friend
                      and I went to Canyon Road where they have art galleries ( I love looking at art,)
                      and after an hour she asked me how come I haven't asked to stop and take a brake
                      becuse I would get short winded, I said see I don't smoke anymore ! I even went
                      on a strict diet in Nov.,2013 and only use a salad plate, haven't eaten beef since
                      then, only chicken, fish, pork tenderloin, small red potatoes (1 only,) vegetable, a
                      friend of mine gave me a can of Brown Rice and small black beans from Whole Foods,
                      " Eden Organic Rice & Caribbean Beans- Lundberg Brown Rice & Black Beans," I love
                      it because the brown rice is a small grain unlike others I tried where the grain was
                      chewy and crunchy, you should try it Whole Foods has it and Albertsons Mkt. has
                      it in the organic isle, I think I paid $2.49 a can well worth it...I didn't understand
                      I think I read your moving to an aprtment ?

                                                                   Love Joe

Congrats about quitting smoking.  It isn't an easy thing to do.

The longer your lungs are clear, the better your COPD should get.  It sounds like you're getting better already.

I've been eating healthy for some time now, organic when i can afford it.  Meats always free-range and grass fed.  Beef is fine so long as it hasn't come from penned-up, grain-fed animals.

Drs, I have found, are not the best nutritionists.  There are many sources today for learning healthier ways to eat.  Michael Pollan's Food Rules is a good one - short and simple.

I've been looking into the possibility of moving to a senior living community.  Wrote more about it on the Big Changes thread.

I'm dealing with type 2 diabetes and heart problems now. Judy keeps my pills and injections on schedule, and that helps a lot. When I was doing it on my own, I was a mess. I usually forgot to take everything. She took charge.

I've got a book about half finished with the working title "Sweet Man, Confessions of a Type 2 Diabetic." Instead of the usual book about the disease itself and its diagnosis and treatment--there are about 27,000 of them on Amazon--I'm writing a collection of funny things that happened associated with becoming and being an "insulin junkie." Every day Judy or I remember at least another one. She'll say, "Remember that time when..." and I'll dash off to my computer to add the anecdote to the list.

Stay well, all.

Your book sounds a bit like Alice's Peas, Pills, and Parkinson's.


You are very fortunate to have a Judy.  I would imagine she feels the same way about having an Al.