Thank you. I am just really upset about all of this. I just want her kids to have their mama back. :( And I keep thinking of her cat, which seems silly. The poor guy doesn't understand what is happening. :(

My husband's friend (about 50, male, respiratory therapist), was in the hospital since July. He died today. Thankfully, his wife and children were able to see him alert one last time before he died. His name was Chris. My friend Michelle is still on a ventilator and will be getting a trach tube tomorrow. She will still be on the ventilator, but the trach tube will allow them to decrease her sedation so she can be more alert. I don't have a good feeling about that. I feel like they are just waking her up so she has a chance to see her family one last time. I just don't have a good feeling at all. I hope I am wrong.

I did cry when I read the news. I'm confused why there isn't more excitement about this, to be honest. I've talked to a couple people about this news and they are acting mad and pessimistic about it. I don't get it.

I never, ever see fact checking on my or my friend's posts on FB. I wonder why that is... *ponder*

It was made in the 40's in an older style. It's definitely 1940s, based on the paper tag and age of the wood.

Mine is a near-antique, probably made in the 1940s. The light at the top shelf was a later addition.

I got my pierced around age 6. I vaguely remember one of the holes closing up and my step-father re-piercing it when I was still in elementary school. They have not closed up since then. I got a second set of piercings when I was in college. The back of them will sometimes start to close up if I go without earrings for a long time, (like, months). I got my belly pierced when I was in my early 20's. A few of my friends were doing it, so I did it too. 🙄 I took the ring out when I developed a nickel allergy, and the piercing closed up quickly after I took it out. It was far more bother than it was worth!

I had mine pierced at age 6-ish. If your kids are brushing their teeth independently then they can handle the minimal care of pierced ears. I had a second set of piercings done when I was in college. Again, the aftercare is minimal. I am surprised this is such a big deal for a lot of people.

My friend Michelle is being intubated tonight. 😞 I can't find the correct adjective to describe what I feel right now. I keep thinking about her husband and children.

I read a The Prudent Homemaker Blog. I have never spoken with the lady that runs it, but she comes across as calm and utterly unflappable. It's very calming. For some reason, Sandra Dodd also calms me down 😅 I know she has the opposite effect on many people, but there's something about how she writes that can usually get me to stop freaking out. In the spirit of "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", I realized that late night social media and news scrolling sent my anxiety sky high. Avoiding both of those has helped tremendously in my attempts to regain calmness.

Yes, you are doing the right thing! If no one else is telling you that, I will tell you as often as you need to hear it: You are doing the right thing! Your kids may be disappointed now, but they will look back on this and think of what an incredible example you set for them during an awful time. Hang in there. This is a tough time, but you are tougher. (((hugs)))

My neighbors are a bunch of busy bodies. It's so cliche, too. There's an older lady who's constantly ranting on the fb neighborhood group about how the neighborhood has gone downhill with all these "new comers", and how she's been here 25 years and blah blah blah and what we need is an HOA and blah blah blah and what about community pride and blah blah blah and we're all going to hell in a hand basket blah blah blah. She gets all the other older ladies worked into a lather when she starts this. They've memorized the vehicles that "belong" on each street, and if they see a car that they deem "out of place", they get all worked up and start posting that we need to keep an eye out for bad activity. I wish they'd get some hobbies.

I miss sitting on the beach with my grandma. My grandma was not the sweet, little old lady type of grandma. She cursed like a sailor, chain smoked Pall Malls, and would meet me at a bar to have beers when I was home from college. We spent a lot of summers sitting on the beach, listening to Frank Sinatra and Paul Harvey on the radio. I miss that. A lot.

Cherry pie for me!

Paper goods were low and the store had signs up saying shoppers were limited to 2 of paper towels and 2 of tp. Everything else seemed normal-ish from what I saw, although I didn't go through the entire store.

Don't freeze the potatoes. They turn black and revolting if you freeze them.

My understanding is that she hasn't been stable enough to do it. I think the primary challenge right now is the secondary bacterial infection she developed while hospitalized. It sounds like (maybe?) she is "over" the covid pneumonia and that what they are left dealing with the secondary infection plus the inflammatory changes that covid brings to heart and lungs.

I would get the dog and tell the older sons that the dog is coming. If they feel very strongly that they do not want to live with a dog, then maybe it's time to move into their own apartment, where they have control over these things.

Oh I'm am so sorry. I can't imagine the strain and heartache you must have right now. You are all in my thoughts. (((hug)))

@dsmith I'm so sorry. That is too much in such a short amount of time. ❤️ Don't lose all hope for your fur baby. I used to be a vet tech, and there is so much they can do for pets with cancer now. I'm talking years of good quality, enjoyable life. I'm hoping your vet can help you put together a treatment plan that gives you so much time with your pet. ❤️

Thank you for asking. ❤️ No change in her breathing or the pneumonia. She is too exhausted and in too much pain to update, so her husband is updating now. He says that her breathing is stable as long as she is perfectly still and calm. The good news is that the hospital let her husband come see her. They fitted him out in head to toe PPE and he got to sit with her for awhile. I want to see that as an entirely good development, but there is part of me that is very concerned they let him see her because she may not pull through. They have managed to keep her off the ventilator, which is good. Another good thing is that her ICU room has a big window, so she can see sunshine and trees. When she was still able to update, she said that she had not seen the outdoors in 3 weeks. I'm hoping the mental boost of seeing her husband plus blue sky, trees, and birds will help her keep fighting.

My kiddo is only just inching into logic stage type thinking at age 12. He was not at all accelerated in that way at a younger age. In fact, some of the conflict we had with teachers or other adults was that they expected him to be able to reason and manage emotions with the consistency of an older child.

YAY!!!!!

I've had those moments, too. It's like the floor drops out from underneath you and you're in free-fall, yet everyone around you is sort of oblivious to it, even though they are the ones that pulled the lever on the trap door.

Oh Quill, you are a far nicer person than I am, because I would have pushed your SIL right off the boat into the water. I'm so sorry. 😞