Fed, coffeed, Wordled, crossworded and abluted. Mostly dressed. 50F in this warming trend. Weird weather pattern. Snow forecast for next Wednesday, then 60s three days later.
An old friend from our Foreign Service days has finally signed on to Facebook, after many years of resistance. I’m not sure why they’ve waited so long. FB is only as glurgy as you let it be. I just drop the hammer on anyone who shows up uninvited. There weren’t many people from those times that we’ve cared to stay in contact with, so I’m glad they’ve relented.
I promise I’ve been reading everyone’s posts. It’s just that I never seem to get to the end of the thread before I need to go do other stuff, so I haven’t been participating much this week.
FCM, you are an incredible DIL for doing what you’re doing. I don’t know many (any?) people who would get up in the middle of the night to accompany their MIL to the bathroom. I hope you heed the same advice you want MIL to take: you dont have to do everything yourself. I know you said help is on the way; that’s good. Use them all you can. I learned this during my dad’s last days - the compulsion to take care of family is strong, but the act of doing so can take a terrible emotional toll. Please make sure you and FCD are taking care of yourselves as well.
Boo, I’ve heard tales before of rideshare drivers refusing to pick up passengers with walkers, wheelchairs, oxygen, etc. It’s absolutely reprehensible, and I hope you can get some satisfaction from Lyft.
This… does not sound like a bad thing.
Just reading about your vacations makes me tired.
I like both root beer soda and root beer candies. I don’t drink sugary soda anymore though, and I’ve yet to find a palatable diet version, so a good root beer quaff is a rare treat these days.
As for me, I’ve got a possible inventory job coming up in a couple weeks, but things there have slowed back down, and I can’t count on this job to make a living.
I found a work-from-home gig training AI bots. Basically, I chat with the AI and get two responses each time. My job is to choose the better of the two, and sometimes explain why. This allegedly helps the bots improve the quality of their responses. And I get pretty good money for this. Beats Doordashing anyway. I’m hitting it as hard as I can right now because there’s no telling how long it will last.
Not much else going on in Wheelz World right now. Talk to y’all later.
I’ve found A&W zero sugar (not “diet”) to taste real close to the real thing
I also like Coke Zero, which uses a similar sweetener formulation. So if you have experience w Coke Zero you’ll probably have a similar reaction, thumbs up or down, to A&W zero sugar.
I saw them on indeed or one of the other job search sites.
The website is dataannotation.tech
Anyone can sign up. You take some qualification exams, and if you pass, they start offering projects to work on. Payment is via PayPal. It kind of sounds like a scam, but I checked it out before I pulled the trigger. It’s legit!
Pilot, I do like Coke Zero, so maybe I’ll give A&W Zero a try. Thanks!
FCD and I were just discussing this.It’s great that she’s bound and determined to get better, but it ain’t gonna happen. However, I fear once she accepts reality, the spiral will accelerate. I guess it’s a good thing she’s almost blind, because she’d see that she’d nearly skeletal. Her pacemaker is clearly visible under the skin.
I helped her shower then dress - actually she showered herself - I just set everything up for her and sat just outside the door. Once she was done, I helped her towel off. Just putting on 3 items - underwear, slacks, and a pullover - wore her out. She went immediately back to bed.
I went to her apartment and brought back the perishables and the ice cream I bought her the other day. She asked for some last night - oops! I also emptied her hamper - her clothes will be added to ours for tomorrow’s laundry day.
Anyone else here on AT&T network? That’s what Consumer Cellular uses, and we’ve got no phone service. Texting works fine. I googled and saw it’s a nation-wide issue. At least it should cut down on robocalls.
<Adjusts ermine and tiara> Thanks, but for all my whining, it really isn’t much more work. The MMP is my pressure valve, and it’s nice knowing that I can spew and you can all read or ignore as you wish. But I will be glad when we know what’s going with the visiting medical folks.
Spousal Unit used to like Barq’s diet - can one even buy that any more?
I’ve had lunch. I think I hear my recliner calling. Maybe I’ll doze while MIL naps.
Not as far as my is concerned, but a few systems lower downstream were … less than happy.
For the very first time in my life, I had this conscious thought: “Wow, I really can’t eat too much X too late at night.”
And then had something of an existential crisis.
I have NEVER been one of those “Oh, I can’t have Y or Z after 6 p.m.” types of people … WTunholyF?!?
I also used to think it was kinda funny when old ppl made noises standing up.
I’m still comfortable squatting and reaching things off very low shelves at work, but my co-workers have stopped asking if I’m okay each time.
(It doesn’t hurt, so much as it requires … leverage sometimes.)
How wonderful!
Would it make any sense to quickly install them now?
It’s not like you or FCD won’t find them useful in the future … (or hell, if you so much as mildly twist an ankle or overwork your back, they’re nice to have).
It’s not “as if” … that IS the case.
Gotta be awkward as hell for her, too.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
… and the introvert in me just got whupped upside the head with a brand-new horror of future aging.
I understand why it has to happen, of course, but … { shudders }
Well, with that ringing endorsement … !
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been here for … how many years? Not that many, but … wait what year is it? … okay, look, the point was supposed to be, I still don’t know some of them, and mix up a few others regularly.
For a brief half-second, I thought this was some new political slur or something.
Sweetie, if they start giving out “longs” of alcohol, I’ll be hunting down friggin’ malaria vaccines.
Yanno. Just in case. Gotta prevent that malaria!
Especially cuz I can’t stand gin. So swampy’s anti-malarial plan won’t work for me.
Oh…
Oh, no.
What if the free alcohol for a malaria vaccine IS gin?!?
I hafta re-think this entire plan now.
I gotta ask: how was THIS name your go-to for “generic stranger”?
Alright. You’ve guilted me into letting you back into my good graces.
Although Monkey (who’s currently wandering the 'hood again with a belly full of treats) will tell you I’m a softie.
Right after he tell you how HORRIBLE I am to have put tin foil over my stuffpothead clutter objects he enjoys flinging.
Yeah, been on my To-Do List for a bit, too.
Do what now?
Man, nobody told me any of this adulting shit!
Probably a good instinct.
How’s your “raining down hellfire & damnation” campaign comin’ along?
{ blinks in utter confusion }
For context: it’s in the 50s today. Heat off, door flung wide open.
When I got up I put on a sweatshirt and warm PJ pants out of habit. By the time I’d opened the door to take out some trash release the howling demon, I’d already decided that was way overkill.
So now I sit, in a rainbow tie-dye T-shirt. Thin cotton, short sleeves. I can actually see the goosebumps on Pilot’s arms from here.
Still got the warm PJ pants on, cuz taking those off AND donning a different pair of pants would have required an absolutely unbearable amount of effort.
Considering some of the meals you’ve described …
This is why I believe a sudden, unforeseen, instant death - or dying in your sleep - are the best ways to go.
Unfortunately, the former tends to leave gruesome remnants, and the latter can still be preceeded by lengthy, lingering illness.
There’s really no good way out, is there? Not even IF you got to choose from a catalog (“I’ll take the swift heart attack listed on page 46, and can I get that in an X-Large? Maybe in the pretty green-and-blue wool pattern?”).
You are 50% correct. Here, have a half of a gold star sticker.
My mother’s idea of a last-minute trip was laying out everything she was gonna pack onto the guest bed only three days in advance.
That’s how I grew up thinking people travel.
HA!
Sometimes, that’s the best possible outcome.
Had that one a coupla times. Once I dreamed I WOKE UP* and let me tell you, once I actually did awaken ferrealz, trusting reality was surreal.
Us, too!!
I’ll bust the sweatshirt back out by then.
I joined a bunch of groups for photography, nature stuff, plant identification, craft ideas, etc. and follow things like BBC Earth.
As a result, my FB feed shows very, very little of the crap people complain about, and almost zero political glurge… it’s mostly a never-ending reel of interesting new macrophotography projects, handmade wood furniture, shots of herons hunting fish, videos from big cat sanctuaries of someone rubbing a jaguar’s tummy, etc.
Can I ask a question of the soda drinkers?
What’s the damn difference?!?
At work, we sell both Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Someone asked me what the difference was and - as someone who simply dislikes carbonation - I had no answer.
Different artificial sweeteners?
Out of sheer curiosity, are these situations more like an “opinion” thing? Or are the two statements objective facts, although one may be less true or perhaps false?
So is it, e.g.
BOT 1: “The sky is blue.”
BOT 2: “The sky appears blue, except at night.”
vs.
BOT 1: “The Miami Dolphins suck donkey balls.”
BOT 2: “The Miami Dolphins are an underfunded team, but how 'bout them Cowboys, and Who Dat? Also, Roll Tide.”
Afternoon all. Been a fairly busy morning, loaded up the car with clothes for the laundromat and stopped at the bank, then to Dick’s Sporting Goods for some gift cards for the soccer players I’m coaching, then to Duluth Trading for a couple pair of jeans, and made a quick stop at BJ’s Wholesale for Tide Pods since I had left mine at home. Also bought a couple more XL shirts as all my XXL are now gone, then to the laundromat…which was closed today for remodeling… So home now with the water on and will do two loads (underwear and shirts) then check the usage and maybe do some more. Also will watch soccer and get those filters changed, so for me it’s a pretty active day.
I switched from regular Pepsi to Diet Pepsi/Pepsi Zero Sugar, they both taste about the same and while slightly less good than the regular stuff, they are still pretty good and constant use has let me develop a taste for them.
Pilot, sometimes sloth is not a bad thing, especially when there isn’t a few hundred cruise ship passengers crowding things; snorkel like a sergeant.
rocky, good luck with the paint vote. May it be less contentious than the November election.
talkie, glad that peace reigns in the household, and hope the trenchcoat guys are gone by your next office hours.
Wheelie, that is an interesting job; of course you know you are preparing them for the AI takeover of the world someday, so tell them to be nice to us humans…
{{{{FCM}}}}, just because I figure you need some right about now.
shoe, there is a water filtration filter in my refrigeration, Frigidaire says to change it every 6-9 months but they are a bit costly so I can ignore the little red light for a year, but it is time. Pretty easy to do, twist out and twist the new one it. Might even take the shelves out and clean them while the waters’ available (where am I getting all this ambition?).
I often say I plan to die at 96 by being shot by a jealous husband…
OK, need to turn the soccer games on and move the laundry around, so have a good afternoon all.
Yeah, I belong to an Alaska page for the photography. And if a page doesn’t turn out to be what you like, it’s a simple matter to unsubscribe. I did that with a Vietnam vet’s page that turned out to be a bunch of bigoted assholes.
Could be either, or both. The bots generally stay away from opinions, unless I specify a persona. For example:
Q- What do you think of the Dallas Cowboys?
A- The Dallas Cowboys are an NFL team, founded in 19-blah blah blah…
Q- What do you think of the Dallas Cowboys? Answer as Troy Aikman.
A- The Cowboys are a great franchise! I have many fond memories of playing with them, etc.
Basically it is a indeed a difference in the artificial sweeteners. The Diet Coke blend is an older sweetener, therefore more ‘chemical’ and to me bitter tasting, while Coke Zero uses a newer artificial sweetener blend which to me is tastier.
So I was wrong about the sweeteners being the difference. Here’s the official Coca Cola answer:
The taste. Both drinks are sugar free and calorie free. Coca‑Cola zero sugar looks and tastes more like Coca‑Cola original taste, while Diet Coke has a different blend of flavours which gives it a lighter taste .
I know both of them taste scads better than Tab™️ did 60 years ago when I started drinking diet pop. Better than no pop but not by much!
I loved Tab and lived on it and cigarettes during college.
I have been a human pincushion this week. Tuesday I had my left knee injected with HA gel. It’s feeling about 25% better. Today I saw the foot doctor and was diagnosed with a neuroma. I chose to have a cortisone shot right in the dang neuroma. I am now reclining and icing the injection site.
I also work for the same company as well. I’ve been doing it since November. It’s sometimes kind of fun and sometimes kind of monotonous. I do enjoy chats where I ask them to tell a story in the voice of someone else such as Monk or one of the Golden Girls!
Yep. He got the tracking number today. If he had been willing to wait, it would have been free. Now we have to pay for the diagnostic and repair then try to get reimbursed. At this point, I really don’t care, I just want him to have his computer back.
I know, right? I go along just fine without cookies, but then those lil gap toothed cuties hit me up in front of the grocery store and I don’t have any control anymore.
nellie I get my shots at the grocery store pharmacy and they give me a 10 dollar off any purchase of 10.01 or over coupon. I walk right over to the booze section and buy my own shots to drink when I get home.
Me too!
I’m quite sure they will be happy to take it. Chickens can eat almost all of your compostable scraps except citrus or bell pepper cores and seeds.
I participate in a gleaning program so always bring home way too much produce for the two of us to eat. Giving my left overs to the chickens is always the last resort, I’d much rather give it to people. Even if the chickens do get it, that means the food doesn’t end up in the landfill, which is where it was headed before I got ahold of it.
FIL spent his end days with us. Of course I don’t know what you are going through, but I do know it isn’t going to be easy and I hope the best for everyone involved.
I’ve been able to convince my mother that ice cream on toaster waffles is great for breakfast, it’s got milk and eggs and grain so is full of protein and fiber. I don’t know if she really believes me about the health aspects, but she does eat it three or four times a week.
Have a great day and drive carefully!
Good luck! Be sure and tell us the results.
Sorry about the blip, I’m glad you are enjoying yourself anyhow.
Neat! I hope you find something permanent soon.
I thought I didn’t like gin until hubs started making it. I was wrong, I do like gin very much!
Dude!!! That sounds exhausting and so very peopley!
I hope you feel better soon.
So today was Tai Chi (I remembered the note on the door) and I brought the eclipse up to TC friend, asking if she was going to be able to get the time off to go. While I didn’t really want to spend all that time in a car with such a relentlessly healthy person, I do like her and think it would be fun to watch it with her.
She said she’s pretty sure she can’t get that much time off so I reminded her that I was taking my time on the drive, but a younger person could do it in 13 hours, spend the night, watch the eclipse, spend the night and then race home so she is thinking about doing that instead.
NF and I will be discussing our plans more when we get together for lunch next week. We still have six weeks but so far I’ve done all of the planning and she has gone along with me, I don’t want her to feel like we can’t make stops she wants as well.
Started Typing: 2:49 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 4:13 PM ET
It took waaay too long to catch up at work after being OOO for two days, but I’m finally able to slack a little…at least, until the next email comes in.
I was super happy to bring Bailey home on Monday afternoon, but seeing how she is in the car these days broke my heart a little. Going to Dogtopia on Friday morning she was uncomfortable, and actually became incontinent in the car: luckily, I had a waterproof seat cover that I was able to simply throw away (a new one was delivered before I picked her up). Then, Monday afternoon after I lifted her into the car she didn’t have the hind leg strength to rearrange herself on the seat for better stability/more comfort. She just stayed where I’d put her, shaking a little. That was a first. I took the stops and corners very slowly, to minimize her sliding around. Good thing it’s only a 15-minute drive. And when we got home, for the first time ever she couldn’t jump down. My poor old girl! She’s always been a champion passenger; it’s hard to see car rides being so tough on her these days. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t take her to daycare anymore.
I have a ramp and a stepstool currently in storage that were each purchased to try and help her get in/out of the car, but they both still require a jump at some point. Plus, all of the dog mobility things tend to be either massive or made for small dogs: she’s medium-sized (42 pounds) but ramps are too bouncy, and she needs big steps to feel comfortable. I’m currently considering a sling to help get her in the car. I’d love to try some kind of an outdoor lift…something like this, but freestanding and with rails. I’ll keep thinking. Meanwhile, her next vet appointment is in April: I’ll talk with the doc about arthritis/pain med options then. I’d really love to take her back to physical therapy, which she did for a couple months in the fall of 2022, but I simply can’t afford it right now.
The next few days will be on the busy side: I have a volunteer-related event tomorrow evening (staffing a membership/info table), and my volunteer org is having an event on Saturday that I don’t have to “work” but which will take me out of the house from 9am-3pm. Then on Sunday there’s a lunchtime jam session that I’m planning to attend; thankfully, the venue is super close to home and I can decide how long I want to stay.
Thanks; and, I do indeed! Most days she’s still able to get up there herself (eventually), but sometimes she’ll try – and bark – for a while and then give up and go to her dog bed. On Monday I figured the horrible car ride home (on top of boarding) would have taken too much out of her, but she surprised me by eating like a horse and then being persistent about jumping up on the couch before crashing for the rest of the day. Good dog!
That’s a big deal! Congrats!
It’s also ungracious to define “need” (and/or “help”) for someone else.
Just sayin’.
HA!
Like others have said: you did good.
One day last week my personal trainer came out of a back room 15 minutes late to our session, which isn’t like him at all: when I asked if he was alright, he said, “Not really.” An ex-GF had been texting him all day, out of the blue (she lives out of state and he’s been married for almost a year), and right before our session was supposed to start she’d told him she was planning to kill herself that evening. I cancelled our session immediately. I talked with him for 10-15 min, to let him be upset and to give him a little advice (he’d never been in that situation before), then he left to go be on the phone with her.
Even though I’m ~25 years older than him, during our sessions he’s the “grownup”: it was funny how our dynamic changed in a heartbeat and shifted to a big sister/aunt kind of vibe. He’s a good guy (I almost typed “kid”…oy), and I’m glad I was able to be there for him in those first minutes. Afterwards I wondered if I’d given him good advice/been helpful, but the next time I saw him he was sincerely very grateful (and the ex didn’t go through with it).
I actually remember the moment I heard that for the first time! It was sometime between 1994 and 1997: I was living in an apartment and had become pretty good friends with my neighbor, and his college-aged brother had come to visit and we were all hanging out. My neighbor and I were both like “‘bomb’?!?” and even teased his brother about using that word.
Flip that around and you have the truth.
It can totally be your sole topic! Post whatever you need/want to post!
Amen! It’s taken a little tweaking/curating over the years, but I enjoy my FB feed. Of course, it helps that most of my friends aren’t morons…and that I’ve learned it’s alright to snooze/unfollow people (I used to feel that it was disingenuous to not simply unfriend the terminally annoying).
I sent a couple of photos to your FB messenger, nursey things that might help your MIL. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to post images here.
Also, the nurse, the occupational therapist and the physician therapist will also evaluate her and make expert recommendations for equipment and modifications to make everybody’s life easier and the best it can be. That is very much in all their wheelhouses.
My unasked for advice? When the nurse, OT or PT suggests a device or piece of equipment, just buy it, the best, most specific to her size. Don’t settle for the generic one size actually fits very few version that insurance will pay for. And don’t wait til she agrees to spend the money-she’s not going to think she needs it, she thinks next week she’ll be stronger next week and back home. This geezer nurse with decades of home health experience says: just do it, buy the right stuff, the right size, right now.
When the OT comes, they should be able to give you an assessment of reasonably simple changes you can make. When Mr. L was in rehab after his hip replacement, I contacted a disbility supply store for things like elevated toilet seats, and they came out and did some things for us, like installing grab bars in the shower. Not very expensive and really worth it.
My FIL also acted like he thought he was going to recover. I think it’s good up to a point, but unfortunately his lady friend and her daughter helped feed into his less realistic assumptions and he ended up making medical choices that prolonged his life by probably about a month, just enough to let him suffer through two hospital stays and a long stint in a rehab hospital instead of being at home with his loved ones on hospice. Not that I’m bitter.
It sounds like your MIL isn’t making those kind of counterproductive choices, so if her attitude makes her happier, it’s not bad.
I’m willing to save the various gluten-free options for those who need them, but otherwise as far as I’m concerned, any GS cookie is worth eating!
It’s all part of the rich pageantry of life! I’ll trade anyone my red or blue flavored candy for their root beer. I also have a weakness for the cream soda and lemon-lime flavors.
There I was, squeezing in one more post before giving in and going to bed already, thinking, “Which ones were the bastidges who left Boo in the lurch? Uber’s the one everyone complains about, right? Lyft’s supposed to be better…” I should have checked. Doesn’t matter - I’ll fight all of 'em for you!
Man, cats and their incessant need to be in places you don’t expect! I once shut mine in the under stairs closet for probably half an hour while I was using the vacuum I’d hauled out of there. Mine was full-grown, though, and I believe he was using some very adult language.
Been there, doing that. When my doctor told me I have a hiatal hernia and said I should take famotidine and avoid eating spicy food, I just eat there blinking at her. It’s just not possible - that’s not me!
The first time I squatted down and then flat-out couldn’t get back up without a complicated intervention involving the floor, it was the same way. As my MIL used to say, getting old isn’t for sissies.
If you figure out how you get motivated for fridge cleaning, you let me know, ok? And I used to just kind of dismiss that water filter indicator, until the time I left it go too long. It was kind of stuck in there, and when I unscrewed it, it pulled another piece out with it. One flooded kitchen floor and expensive repair visit later, I was left with the lasting motivation to change it in a much more timely manner.
We’ve just gotten back from Mr. L’s cardiac stress test. He was really worried about it, since he’s definitely incapable of doing it on a treadmill and the last time they did the one with the chemical stressor, he felt like he was going to die. Either they’ve fine-tuned the chemicals or he was better prepared this time, because he sailed through it. We even went to brunch afterwards, and I had a mimosa! A small one, since I was the driver, but it felt like we snuck in a little celebration there.
It’s another gorgeous day here, although there’s a wind going that carries a tiny reminder that it’s still winter. I should be out working in the yard, but I’m…not! So I’m just going to try to luxuriate in the feeling that I’m playing hooky instead.
is concerned, but a few systems lower downstream were … less than happy.
