Margm

Weird is how I have to accept my understanding of computers.  If I copy something at all I'm a computer wizard.  

5 hours ago, kayc said:

"You can't fight city hall"

Certainly, you can.  At the time, Mama didn't even know where "city hall" was. I think she was saying this for a time that "politics" were simpler.  

Mama told me two things that come from a farm girl, 95 long years, and they were "You can't fight city hall" and "Don't question the Bible."  She had a lot more things to say, but those have hung with me.  

Last I heard, a long long time ago, it was $2000,   

Scott goes to the VA.  Has been trying to schedule for his teeth that are so bad.  They won't call him back, or rather they said they'd call back, but won't.  So, he went over there and waited them out.  Set him up for the last of July.  His teeth are bad.  He has to go over to get their attention.  He is 100% disabled.  But a friend could not get a rheumatologist appointment, had to go to a many miles away rheumatologist and it was three months away.  Medical care in the USA is atrocious.  It is easier sometimes to just die.  (Louisiana has a tax to pay on dying).  Arkansas didn't. They had to ship my sister off by ambulance to a town in another state for emergency colon surgery.  A very bad patient anyhow and she still fusses about this.  Could not find a colorectal surgeon immediately within 300 miles.  She has insurance, but sometimes some doc's won't take certain insurances.  I do think Canada has better turnaround times and medical care.  

My heart goes out to children who come from alcoholic/drug families, broken homes, and those who grow up in such bad conditions.  I was blessed.  We didn't have money much, but we never wanted for anything.  Mama and Daddy loved us in their own way, but we knew we were loved.  I had shirts made out of feed sacks, but the bunch of children in my town most were as poor as we were.  Daddy had a steady job, Mama had three meals on the table.  I don't know how she did it, but on canned soup night she would take a can of Campbell's Mushroom Soup, can of water added, a bunch of crackers, tea always, dessert always, homemade, and it fed four of us and we were not hungry.  My mom had some mental disorder, but she was so pretty, and I got my whippings with a belt from Daddy and a switch from Mama.  I deserved them, I am sure.  Mama was just like all her sisters, so I was a teenager before I knew things were not just right.  I never realized how parents could be mean until I was grown.  I left home/married to get away from Mama.  He knew it.  Somehow with a lot of troubles, we kept our kids fed, clothed and I thought safe until the youth minister abused Kelli when I was being treated away from home for cancer.  My brother-in-law was keeping her and what person would think that going to church was wrong at any time?

I'm sorry for abused children and wish those things didn't happen.  Not many of us grew up in "Leave it to Beaver" homes, but some of us were lucky. 

Wish we could have worry-free senior years like we had worry-free child years. Mine were not worry-free.  Like Billy always told me, if I didn't have something to worry about, I'd find it.  I did worry I would lose my parents when I was very young.  The four children across the road had lost their mom at age 29 with a brain tumor.  It left a lasting impression of how fragile life was.

Karen, I've lost weight and my dentures cut into my gums.  Besides all the things I cannot eat, I have to be careful of the things I eat because they dig into my gums.  I am just too old to be bothered with new ones though.  Only if they break.  Good luck with your doctor appointment.  

We have had rain and flooding but have never been in a low-lying level.  It never seems to affect me.  What is bad is when those new homeowners who paid between a quarter million and half a million for their houses.  They are in flood level land, and it happens.  I hope they have good flood insurance.  I hope the insurance pays too.  Insurance can be an iffy business.  We had life insurance on all members of our family, recommended by our state government jobs.  It was paid off and the insurance companies went bankrupt.  I think our flood insurance carriers in Louisiana are so overdrawn that they cannot honor their promises.  Just business as usual.  My sister, I have to let her off at the supermarket door.  I find her by the coughing I hear.  I have to park as close as I can.  She loses her breath.  Her thing now is she is going to buy a bicycle, so she doesn't have to depend on me.  All she has to do is ask and I'm there within 30 minutes, I've never declined or acted like I minded.  I figure I'm being paid back because she was the only one (and my daughter) to take care of my mom.  I was in the hospital so much and then Billy passed away.  Mama passed away 10 months after Billy.  By that time my sister had to go back to AA and had just gotten her six years (pin, coin,?) but with the recurrence of her cancer I think she is ready to drink again.  That, I can do nothing about.  If it provides relief, and she did use it for relief.  They actually were astonished that Billy was smoking weed to help with his nausea.  He smoked it in the yard and unfortunately for only a short time.  The doctors were not astonished, it was the nurses.  He couldn't hold anything down and went so fast.  We had a deputy a few houses down from us and if it helped him, I was ready to fight for his right to use it.  They have medical cards now where they can use it.  He could not stand by himself, but after one time of using it he (sitting outside) saw me coming and ran bowlegged to hug me.  There is a time and place for all things.  This was the time.  

Just read about it on the news.  Please be safe.  We are having lots of moisture to the air and my sister cannot breathe outside.  I know the air quality must be bad for y'all too with all the smoke.  Take care.  

I'm sorry Karen.  I at least had a pair of old ones when they had to remake my gray ones.  I never went back to that dentist again.  And, they had been recommended to me.  I promise, the color gray was a dark gray.  Who in their right mind would send out dark teeth.

I was happy that my reading glasses are the 1.25, lowest ones.  I asked when to be fitted for glasses and he told me I did not need them at all.  I got to see the bags under my eyes, so all's well that goes well.  Proud for you.  I depend on reading glasses; my eyes get tired.  But I was reading with strong ones before the surgery.

I read the new C.J. Box, it just went too quick.  Enjoyed it.  Was not a real cliff hanger, but makes you want to read the next one as soon as it comes out.  I'm bad about telling "spoilers" and it drives my kids crazy, so I try not to tell too much.  

I notice Nevada Barr has her 19th book out.  I'm so far behind on reading her, I doubt I will remember the first one.  I'll give this one a look.  Thanks Karen.  

Me, a petless person, I now have a cat and 14-year-old poodle.  Kelli moved in the back bedroom when Bri left.  Bri has not gotten back in contact, but that is just another problem many families suffer, and she fits an adoption trauma profile although we have had her since she was born.  Love that woman/child so much.  Kelli pitches in and does everything.  I didn't do anything anyhow, does not matter who lives with me.  I take care of my sister mainly and as yet she does not live in a nursing home, but the new biopsy showed cancer.  With the chemo brain, I'm the only one she will tolerate.  TMI. 

I have had so many dogs for pets, and I did not want to go through another passing away or me passing away and leaving one.  Paul, the cat, has taken a liking to me though, and I'm not a cat person.  Does not bother him.  Sweet cat.  Kelli keeps them all up to "snuff" with all shots, no fleas, etc.  Nawlins (the old woman poodle) can't hear or see much.  Her heart is failing, but Kelli keeps her going and we have the vet near the apartments.  I just dread the inevitable.  It will really hurt Kelli.  (me too). 

Enough going on, but will have to just say, "nothing else going on."  

Love the pup!!!!

Your just a few years older than my son.  I keep trying to get him to go to the fitness center he pays for each month.  He has fallen back into old habits though and his liver suffers.  He has free 100% VA care, but like my dad, he is afraid of what they will say.  My dad passed at 65 from a very curable cancer, if you go when you first have symptoms.  There is nothing they can do for me, because of the destruction from the radiation, but that same radiation has given me 42 more years, and my diet is so different from the keto one I tread a thin line from the diabetes.  I've outlived the colon rupture and sepsis from over 10 years ago, and I guess there was a reason, to take care of all the others.  Alcohol and cigarettes have almost made my little sister an invalid, certainly with a chemo brain.  And, it is a mean brain.  But we are our brother's keepers.  All the college degrees and the beauty contests that she won did not make her intelligent.  Still, she is going down fighting.  I'm proud you are faring so well with your health.  Keep it up.   

Kay, when I was a kid my mom smothered venison steaks and they were delicious.  Also, my dad thought he would feel better drinking goats milk, so we entered, in a small way, having a goat farm.  We got our cow's milk in bottles left on the porch by the milk truck.  Mama switched goat milk in one of those bottles.  Honestly, the steak was delicious, and the goat milk was sweet, very good.  I was of the age I didn't want to eat Bambi's mama or dad.  I became a complete vegetarian for a long time.  We had a wildlife festival at a reservoir/reservation once a year.  Kelli, as a tween tried all the kinds of meat they offered except Nutra.  For a long time, I wouldn't eat anything but chicken and smoked turkey.  The thing was, I didn't know I was eating venison or drinking goats' milk and they thought it was funny my reaction.  Didn't trust them after that.  Of course, Billy, my mom and dad all grew up eating wild animal meat.  A guy I sat by in Walmart waiting for my sister told me about all the ways he cooked racoon now.  

We had a cat named "Peaches."  Kelli had bottle fed her when working as assistant manager/nurse at an assisted living facility.  Mama cat would not feed her, didn't want her.  This was not an inside cat.  She'd sit on the window and cry.  The adventures this cat went through would make a children's book.  I cannot count the number of "fixes" she'd get in to.  We had bears that would eat the grubs out of a downed tree, at night. They were seen in daytime, but I only saw two of them.  Arkansas bears looked like a snub tail very fat big dog. She lived a very long time and got out of scrapes that she had no food or water for a while.  (Up a huge tree).  But, as the song goes, "the cat came back."  She was her own cat, did not care about the loving and cuddling.  She did not like the big possum that ate her food each night. So, we closed the carport doors at night and found out a very fat possum had decided it was his home too.  They lived in unison until we found possum scat everywhere.  He didn't want to leave.  One time in his elderly years Billy had to kill an animal.  He was heartbroken.  A man I talked to at Walmart told me how good they were to eat, and raccoons too.  The wildest game I ever would willingly eat were the fish we caught.  Now my mom and her siblings fought over who ate the squirrel brains.  Billy once (in much younger years) killed a wild pig.  Mama and Billy dressed it out and put it in butcher paper and froze it. I didn't eat it, but they said it was horrible.  Fed mostly on acorns.  Acorns are pretty, but I don't think humans will eat them.  

It is just an eye drop for after the surgery.  If it is contact lens, they are permanent.  I just got the regular ole lens that my insurance pays.  

I did.  One was prescription and you bought two bottles (tiny), one bottle per eye.  I kept letting them supply me with the "green" topped bottle but learned it was OTC "Refresh, for contact lens" and I guess that was for the new lens.  I still buy that kind.  Not to put a bad thing for the millions who are so satisfied, I had the "most famous" doctors in Shreveport, also the very most expensive.  It was almost like going to the oral surgeon and him turning me away because I would not get "screw in" teeth.  The first visit I paid $300, and my insurance never required me to do that.  Then I was given the different "plans."  I could have the regular lens, but then the next special lens that were $1000 per eye (and was told insurance did not cover this.), the next was $2000 lens per eye and I think there was a $3,000 lens per eye ($6000 total) not covered by insurance.  Like most people, I only wanted regular lens.  Going to be 82 in August, and if it kept me reading for the length of time I have left, I was happy.  Even at my age, I never had visible bags under my eyes.  I do now.  But again, maybe before the surgery I just couldn't see them.  I am happy to keep on reading, so looks do not really matter as I shake too bad to put on makeup, and really, any old barn looks better with a coat of red paint.  When we were finished, I was told I no longer needed glasses.  I do still use reading glasses, just not strong ones.  My eyes feel irritated if I read too long (and this ole gal reads a long time.)  I'm actually afraid to quit reading, with my mom having Alzheimer's, and I still take Xanax (to sleep), and have been warned it adds to dementia.  I feel as long as I can comprehend what I am reading, I'm okay.  Sometimes with family issues, and I think I am a direct descendent of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, family problems are so prevalent I feel like I am on the saddle of a tall mountain and one more push will be on the side of dementia. And believe me, I am not trying to make a joke of this.  

Also, when I went in for my follow-ups, there were so many waiting that had had the expensive lens implanted and were having trouble.  I'm not trying to put down the lens (well, I guess I am), but at my age, all I want to do is to see and not be blind.  I can do that.  

Congratulations.  Just keep on with those drops.  

54 minutes ago, kayc said:

I'd be dead already if I ate what you eat!

I will be dead if I don't.  I fight below the level of diabetes on every four-month lab work.  I sure don't do it for fun.  I miss raw vegetables, especially celery and have not had a wonderful salad in 10 years.  

Do you possibly use men's thick gloves to do all that work?  Makes it harder to do but might lessen the injuries.  

Kevin, is this what happens every year? You have massive snow (water) and then you have massive fires?  We have massive flooding.  I guess strange things happen wherever you live.  I did love those water coolers in Albuquerque, and probably around Karen's home.  But, the takeaway was it took water and water was not in high supply.  They were so comfortable to sleep in at night, and I think Albuquerque is about 5,000 feet.  Maybe more.  I remember the doctors having people with heart trouble moving to lower levels.  

And, I'm on here trying to kill time to face the day and people with their petty gripes and fusses.  Mama cannot choose sides anymore.  So both get angry at Mama.  Good.  Means I don't have to talk to them.  

As you know, my diet is high in carbs.  I can have meat protein.  The only vegetables I can have are potatoes, green beans, cooked carrots, cooked/pickled beets, and all the sweets I want as long as there are no nuts or seeds.  I go to the doc every four months for lab work check and mostly blood sugar check.  He realizes I cannot eat healthy.  My mainstay is eggbeaters and instant grits.  No corn whatsoever but can have grits and I have learned to make a "grits bread" from that.  I fixed a potatoes, green beans, carrots and mushroom soup, HB meat, and beef broth soup last week that was actually good.  I cut down on the size of it and had it two days.  I hate to cook, and the frozen dinners all have seeds of some sort in them or corn.  One day I just drank three Glucerna's.  Probably the healthiest I have eaten.  If I eat wrong, I suffer terribly.  It is TMI to tell you how, but I do place a cross in my bathroom and say, "Please God, I promise not to eat that again."  I have 13 crosses in my bathroom and have not had to add others in a long while.  Propranolol helps my essential tremor, but my stay in the bathroom was four hours. I also had to cut out caffeine.  Addict that I am, I miss that "lift" but cannot handle the shakes.  My old reliable meds do not hurt me.  Anything new heads to my gut and a prolonged stay in the essential room.  

Having a lot of (my kids) sibling rivalry and trouble right now.  I do have to take care of my sister constantly, and my granddaughter is still here.  Too much wear and tear on this nearly 82-year-old woman.  I cannot run away from it.  When I was fighting cancer in 1982, I had a lot of family troubles with my dad with cancer too.  He was a mean cancer victim (like my sister) though and will have been gone 40 years day after tomorrow.  Family troubles seem to be the norm with me, and I wrote that little ditty back then:  "I'm not that important, life does go on, if I wasn't here then I'd be gone."  Written out of pure exhaustion.  I'm there again.  And I'm still here.   Gotta take my sister for surgery in south "big city" where all the traffic is.  She will be impossible to handle, of course.  But I am all she has, and we are our brother's keepers. 

As far as the LGBT (QRS) and whatever letters they add, you just live and let live and thank God it was not something you ever wanted to be.  

ADDENDUM:  Kay, listen to Karen!!!!!

Marty, I hope I don't get thrown off.  Sorry folks, my vocational aspirations were just above the floor.  Spent 43 years in medical transcription, and loved it.