Saturday June 17

[Shirlv]

Morning All 65°>82 and sunny. No special plans just the normal routine. Have taken a floor lamp apart to replace a light socket. Never attempted that project but YouTube made me do it. It’s a swing arm floor lamp so having trouble pulling the cord throw the arm. Will search more today. Karen’s new grill reminded me of grill dinners. I like kabobs on the grill bur no longer have a grill so thought I would have kabobs in the toaster oven or maybe in the air fryer. Will think on that. Do not have skewers either but do have wooden chop sticks. The more I thought about Joe Pickett the madder I got. I really wanted him to take care of the bad guys so finished watching the series. Slept good last night. Lol Be safe

[OregonLuvr]

Good morning Shirl I am up and at em sort of. Sitting drinking coffee and planning my day. We will be cooler today and right now it is semi cloudy. I have made the Kabobs in my air fryer. I used the wooden sticks but you need to soak them in water first for a while or they could catch on fire....so they say. I now have some metal ones. They work much better on my grill than the wooden ones. But I like the wooden ones for the air fryer.
Beth when he set the volume level it was perfect. But then we put the app on my phone and were playing with the volume for right ear, left ear, both..........lol so I think I probably turned it up. I have them on fairly low right now and that is so much better. I didn't wear them at all yesterday because I didnt go anywhere or watch much tv but will put them in today so I get used to them. I love I can talk on the phone without turning on the speaker, I just hear in my ears,,,,,,,,,,,,what a novel idea LOL

I am going to work a bit in the garden, I bought some worm castings to mix into the soil they say it brings new "life" to the soil ha ha We shall see. I have terrible clay soil here so this will help. Right now everything is looking great. I have blossoms on my yellow squash with a baby squash growing, also my zucchini. My acorn squash has blossoms too so I am pretty happy. The tomato plants are all doing well with a couple of small tomatoes and lots of blossoms. I am taking very good care of my garden this year.

Will be heading to Medford on Tuesday and come home Friday so glad I got my drip system all set up, it isnt going to be that hot so they should do well while I am gone. I got my license plates in the mail so I ordered new frames for them as I dont want all the car dealership advertising on my car. They will be here tomorrow so then I will put them on. When I get back I am going to tackle staining the rest of my decks and put a second coat on my back deck then think that is all my big projects until winter when I start painting my bathrooms.

Time to get my day started soon

[Bethers]

Shirl, I'm glad you gave Joe another try and were able to sleep after. Karen, I used to use the feature to have the audio come directly to my hearing aids on the phone. Love it. But try not to talk on the phone much and it seems my one friend who calls all the time, does so before I'm up and wearing them or other inconvenient times so I rarely use that feature any more lol

About to walk Ty while it's still cool out. Then my hopes are to do some outside with for a bit, too. I can get distracted to easily so no promises lol

Anita, did I miss it? Did your tags get found?

[asirimarco]

Good morning to All - I read every day - love hearing about all the gardening and trials and tribulations that seem to be plaguing all of us of a "certain" age. We too can't understand the speaking in the movies any more, too much LOUD music. I have to have on the CC. The older movies from Hallmark, about three years ago the music was not so loud. And the movies were much better. Miss the old actors. Always have to have the speaker on the cell phone, or can't understand a thing.
Bill's computer crashed last week so he had to get a new one - Windows 11 - everything is an "APP" on it. He is so frustrated with it. He couldn't set it up because he still can't see very good. So I did what I could. He wanted all his old game programs chess, backgammon and cards. Of course they don't come with the new computers. Finally found them on line - had to buy then and download them. And he has an old Risk game that we can't find. Rather I did find it on line but have to make changes to the Registry ??? to download it MAYBE Yesterday he had to go to eye doctor for third shot for the wet macular degeneration. We were there almost five hours...While there he was playing with his IPhone and somehow managed to loose his pictures>>>I finally got them back but not the way he wanted them. Lord I have to bite my tongue sometimes. But while waiting I did discover I could get the Nook App and read my books on my Android phone. Was a pleasant surprise when I opened it and it synced (Need to get used to SYNC SYNCED, I guess) right to the book and pages I was reading on my Nook reader.
At least his eyes have improved quite a bit. Hope there is more improvement after this shot. Next shot in six weeks.The long covid is improving somewhat too. He is having more good days than bad. Big celebrations her in Vegas when the hockey team won the Stanley Cup. Parade tonight. And tomorrow the final soccer game of the Americas is here in town. Canada vs the US. He can watch the games but doesn't really see the action but the commentary is good. Had a big rain storm here yesterday morning, got more rain in a couple of hours, including a flash flood warning for the whole town, than we usually get in the whole month. All the plants outside look so clean and happy today.
Enough blathering need to post my blog. Dedicated to our son - he would have been 65 yesterday. Gone two years already, seems like yesterday.

[chalet05]

Sheila and Beth, no car tabs. I did find that if lost in the mail, I don't have to pay a fee. Will wait a few more days and go to the agency in person.

Sandi, I had no idea about that App Library! Martha, glad you found the camera icon. My aunt introduced me to CJ Box books - read the first one which was good but too much suspense for me. Just can't deal with it anymore. Making kabobs might be something that would entice me to buy an air fryer!

I took yesterday off and read. Books to read so tempted to do that again today, but I won't. It's still quite breezy so really don't want to use the pressure washer to clean the Sling, but it's cool enough to be outside. We'll see.

[MandysMom]

I has a busy week. Started Monday with seeing my primary care Dr. He ordered a renal artery/kidney scan, looking for stenosis, which causes high BP. Scan Thursday, showed nothing worrisome. Friday saw cardiologist, who will take over my BP care. He ordered a bunch of tests, including echocardiogram, 30 days Holter monitor, and stress test. All to done over next six weeks. In the midst of that, I have pulmonary function test, and probably a overnight sleep study, followed by a titration overnight study. Going to be a busy summer, but I'd rather be camping. I have suspected, since this new Cpap was delivered in Dec 2020, that something was off about it. Before I left, the cardiologist asked, are you curious how I'm leaning on this? I said, yes. He said he's leaning towards this being a hidden form of sleep apnea, not being correctly treated by the Cpap. He will communicate with the pulmonary/sleep Dr on findings. I am not getting good sleep, haven't for long while, and my O2ring shows my oxygen level is dropping numerous times overnight. Did you know, untreated sleep issues, can cause high blood pressure? I did, which was why I have been annoying my PC for over a year, trying to convince him to stop throwing pills at it and refer me to pulmonary and cardiology!
Meanwhile, trying to get my steps in, while so tired I'm not getting a lot else done. It can all wait, with hope by fall, I'm back on track, and maybe off at least 2 of 3 BP pills!
I have had a fun week chatting with granddaughter. She is a Girl Scout, and earned a trip to Savannah GA, to visit the Juliette Gordon Low home, the founder of Girl Scouts. They have lots of other excursions as well. Yesterday they learned about dolphins and saw 4 dolphin babies! It was 57 years ago, almost to the week, that I visited Savannah and the Juliette Gordon Low home. I am loving that she is second generation in our family to visit the historic home.
That's about it for me. Have a good weekend everyone.
Velda

[Shirlv]

Anita, I avoid the suspense too. Watching the Pickett series I turned the volume down and looked away a lot lol. I thought enjoyed it though. Will watch the next season when it is free. You won’t regret getting a small air fryer and fixing 12 minute fish and chips dinners. Lol I say small in case you have limited counter space. I will have to cut an inch off the chop stick to fit in air fryer but that is doable.

[JudyJB]

Got all the paperwork done for the transfer, and about now they should be picking her up at the hospital and moving her. Hospice will meet her at new place. Frankly, i don't think she will last more than a week or two, but we did not want her dying in the hospital. Interesting is that I have not been able to understand her recently because of her confusion and mumbling. But last night, she was refusing oxygen and the nurse called and asked me to talk to her. Amazingly, she was very lucid and her voice was clearer and stronger than it has been in weeks. Mostly she just said she wanted to die and did not want food or oxygen or anything anymore. She said she was an adult and could make her own decisions! And she was right. But the hospital was going to restrain her to keep her oxygen going, but she was really not getting much, so I talked to charge nurse. They gave her some sedation and were going to see how she did with no oxygen at all.

I've been having migraines for the last month or so, and my DIL suggested a little extra blood pressure medication until I could get to my doctor, so I took part of a pill, and it helped. I had to fill in a ton of paperwork from home, hospital, hospice, and insurance, but it is done. Got someone to go get her stuff from her previous dementia facility.

I am dog sitting, and this Brittany has had a couple of thousand $$ spent on training. However, she is my son's dog and he is the only one who has really worked with her. Plus, she has been trained to stay in her own yard, and does so, but this means when she is let out, she runs like crazy. She is a very fast and active dog. Anyway, she does not get put on a leash very often, and the only one who does it is my son. He also jogs her three miles each day. Result?? Dog has been badly behaved this weekend of camping with me. She has been pulling me in a circle to the point where I pulled a muscle in my knee, and it is very sore. She is strong and has been racing around me while on the leash in this campground. She was trained using a shock collar, which I do not like, but I wish I had it now. I told my son that the kids needed also to be working with the dog on a leash, because I think she has figured out that: 1) she only needs to behave with him, and 2) if she does not have the shock collar on, all rules are off!!! (I am going to lecture and try to train the three teenagers that are perfectly capable of making this dog mind, without a shock collar.)

Mostly, she has been sitting on my couch, which I allow and put a rug on for her, and watching the people going by. My son's neighborhood is filled with very big homes on very big lots, so there are not a lot of dogs and very few kids, so all of this must look like terrific fun for her. (Luckily, she is a good dog with kids, and if they pet her, she will roll over and wag and lick them.) I would like to take her for a longer walk right now, but my knee is sore, and dog has to learn to stop pulling. I make her stop and put her in a sit-stay position, but she is so excited she is mostly ignoring me, and it is very tiring to be constantly restraining her because she is strong. I need to do the stop and reverse with her. She loves kids and goes wagging crazy every time she sees one or some adult says hi to her! Anyway, here is naughty Daisy!

[OregonLuvr]

Only 75 today and I was going to trim my Maple tree but the neighbors have company and are sitting outside on their porch which faces me. So I am being a polite neighbor and I can trim my tree any day. So not much else going on right now, going to find something to watch on the tv and test out my hearing aids.
Judy sorry about your aunt but she sounds like she is ready to move on. Nothing wrong with that. Glad hospice will be there for her. Velda hope you get yourself straightened out and get back to normal. I can't tell you how great I feel being normal again.
Need to figure out dinner, think I will make Sour cream enchiladas as I bought a chicken at Costco on Thursday so time to pull the meat off now for Emma and for my enchiladas.
Shirl I bought these for my air fryer

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008N ... UTF8&psc=1

[Redetotry]

Judy sorry to hear about all you are having to deal with for your Aunt's care. If your son spent thousands of dollars and the dog was trained with a shock collar he should ask for his money back as that is a really bad way to train especially if they had it set to anything but vibrate. Actually your voice is one of the most important training tools that most people don't use. You have to speak to your dog in that voice that children learn they had better do what they are being told. I used to help teach obedience classes and that was the hardest thing to train.

Velda so good to hear you are finally seeing doctors that seem to understand and are doing tests for your BP problems. I thought is was just this area that had a bad health care but I'm hearing from actual reports that this country has a health care crisis. No wonder we have to do so much research on our own.

Martha do you have closed captioning on your TV? I can't understand a lot of the programs especially on PBS and the closed captioning is great. There is so little on that is good on the stations we get I end up watching a lot of Shark Tank reruns. I would rather read than watch TV though so it doesn't bother me too much.

I am so happy, I got my van back today and I'm even more happy that the bill was under $200.00!! I am not happy though about it taking so long!!!

[Cudedog]

Velda so good to hear you are finally seeing doctors that seem to understand and are doing tests for your BP problems. I thought is was just this area that had a bad health care but I'm hearing from actual reports that this country has a health care crisis. No wonder we have to do so much research on our own.

Velda, I too am very happy to hear that you are finally seeing the right doctors to address your problem! I am sending good wishes that they discover the reason, and are able to get it corrected easily and quickly.

BJ, I can't speak of health care in other places, but here in my area of Northern California it is not good. I think part of the reason is that big health-care corporations have moved in here, doctors have been forced to join them to stay afloat, and the corporate heads are now calling the shots - not the docs. Doctors are being squeezed salary-wise, profits are going to the stockholders, and the corporations are getting a major tax write-off at the same time since they declare themselves as "non-profits".

I don't know of anyone who would want to spend years and major dollars at school becoming a doctor, then have to work under these kinds of conditions. Which helps explain why enrollment at medical schools is down!

And, yes, doctors are under further stress because they are limited by their job constraints as to how much time they can spend with each patient - easier and quicker to just prescribe some pill than it is to spend actual time to get to the root of what is causing a patient's problem in the first place.

And so it goes. It is bad, and is getting worse.

Anne

[OregonLuvr]

Anne I was pretty worried about healthcare when I moved here. Many of the doctors here were either leaving or retiring. Took months to get an appointment, expecially if you are not established with anyone. I went to Urgent care once when I was sick last year, didnt do me much good except I got the antibiotics for my bladder infection. I kind of reviewed the practitioners in this area and there were some decent choices but they were not taking new patients. I finally chose a PA-C of internal medicine. I am so happy I did. I love a good PA or FNP They take so much more time with you and an extensive history. I am lucky I found Kaitlyn, she was born and raised here, worked at the hospital and clinic, went to OHSU and eventually got her PA license in 2018. She is married and has kids so I assume she wont be going anywhere soon. I never feel rushed during our visits. I also have a good Pulmonologist, I feel very fortunate I found these people. As a nurse where I worked I could just ask other nurses or even some docs who would be my best choice. Here I had no one to ask. I see my Rhematologist next Thursday, just for an office visit. Will schedule my next infusion after we talk because he said I am doing so well we may go a bit longer than 6 months I hope so. I used to have lunch, camping, dinner etc on my calendar now all I have had for a while is medical appts eyes, ears, lungs sheesh at least I dont have high blood pressure or diabetes.....yet
Didn't do too much today, still getting used to the hearing aids but they seem to be working just fine. I have them pretty low but I have the tv pretty low too now LOL YAY BJ got her van back. Nice price too....unusual.

[snowball]

I so wanted to spend the day on the bed reading... but had to go to the store... was out of milk of all kinds...
came home and put stuff away then did a couple rows on that baby afghan it would be so much easier if it was different yarn got a late start on supper cause I wanted to finish the row... made a recipe that I'd heard about sorta tenders/nuggets depending upon how one cut the chicken breast dipped in milk/egg mixture dredged in bread crumb/parmasean with some seasonings in it... baked could have done it in the A/F but it made more and I wanted steak fries so did the steak fries in the A/F chicken in the oven lots left over tossed it in the freezer... I'm not doing a really good job at getting stuff out of it
one of Judy's miller's found it's way into mom's house and I can't find the fly swatters really hate the stupid things... oh Judy was reading an article that says to avoid lighter colors blue green beige and white they don't like those colors especially green which really surprised them as they are found in grass... but then who knows
Velda glad that they are coming up with some ideas and tests that hopefully will find the reason...
I got a mask to wear at night so I'd stay on oxygen hasn't helped I often remember taking it off...
that good Anita that you won't have to pay a fee for getting new tags... that is just weird that they have gone poof hopefully not to someone else's car..
Carol so glad to hear from you and that things are on the up mostly .... sometimes I see your blogs on FB but sometimes I don't so got caught up
you all have a great day
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Good late evening gals!

Worked on the cat door today. Now I just need to put on the pool noodles so it stays snug and supported in the door. Went to the library to pick up books I ordered, nine of them! Mostly on ADHD but some on photography and photo editing. Something I want to learn to do for fun.

My physical issues seem to be mostly with my joints. My wrist is killing me. If I move it a certain way, I get a sharp, stabbing pain shooting into the palm of my hand. I did finally find my better wrist brace and have been wearing that but am still getting pain with certain movements even with it on. May have to get it checked out this week if it doesn't improve.

Watched golf from 10am to 8pm today! . I did some reading during that time, as well as working on the cat door. I got a new cat brush for Sophie. Gets more of the underfur off. She loves being brushed! I have a tiny fuzzy pillow that is about 6 inches square that she loves to play with! She even dragged it thru the old cat door tonight to take it out in the porch to play with! Last night she came up on my bed for a little bit. First time she has done that. I am putting her "treats" in with some wet food and she is scarfing that right up! She sure isn't lacking in energy! I am finding very few clumps of fur laying around now. She was mostly chewing around the area that was shaved for her spay. I am wondering if it was starting to itch where she was shaved and that is why she was pulling out the hair around it? What ever the reason, it seems to be subsiding now which is great!

Was very hot today. My car gauge said 108*. Too warm yet tonight to turn off the AC so will leave that on all night at about 82* in the living room and 77* in the bedroom. Tomorrow we have high wind warnings again for the afternoon and over night.

Judy, sometimes people who are close to passing will get very "awake and lucid" shortly beforehand. It can fool somd people into thinking the person is getting better. Glad she was able to let you know what her wishes are. Also glad you have a place for her to go where she will be taken care of by Hospice now. Hope the dog settles down some!

Have a good night!