This is so true. I am dealing with my mil living in a home with a spiral staircase, three different sets of steps all around the house (and refuses to allow us to put a wheelchair ramp on it), rugs everywhere though she is a fall risk and her doctor has repeatedly reminded her she needs to get them up, in a rural area with long EMS response time even though she could sell her place for a boatload, buy a retirement condo in town 3 blocks from the hospital and pharmacy and put a bunch of money in the bank, and absolutely NO plan for anything but dying in her sleep at home. She is 87. She has a ton of medical appointments, but no uber, no lyft, no taxis, no public transport except if she would move to the retirement condo in the county seat. She is reliant entirely on me, and I can't go back to work because of it which is hurting me. I turned down an offer of another marvelous community fine arts director job in another community outside our county because of her. I can't be there, and also here to get her to her myriad of appointments. I cried for 3 days when I turned that job down. Some of us desperately need a break.

True. No system will be perfect. But we also do not have to have a system that is so NOT a system that it is abjectly abysmal for so very many people. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

Nice windows and beautiful bushes can go a long way to improving the look without a horrible price tag.

If you want the space for something else, then by all means, dig those guys up. However, if you have adult kids and relatives who might enjoy them, you could consider dehydrating/drying a bumper crop off them and gifting them. Commercial chives bought in the spice section are often ones that became over ripe, and have lost flavor. Fresh dried chives are so loaded with flavor that I can hardly stand to use commercial. The taste buds learn, and then become spoiled rotten! 😂

Rural communities do not have taxis, uber, or lyft. So that is an option in the city, but not for a bunch of folks.

A lot of people do not have these resources. Most families cannot afford for a spouse or adult contributor to the household to move to part time work or quit all together in order to care for elderly relatives. It isn't a feasible option. Even other fairly healthy still driving 65 year olds in my area who could drive for older folks are still working full time and can't afford to quit or scale back.

Spot on. In terms of what we need, more community cleaning and housekeeping services for seniors. More public transport that is reliable and handicap accessible. Geriatric doctors that make house calls. (Totally a thing in France. My mom has gotten sick twice while visiting my sis, and sis just calls her doc, and he sends someone over. Not kidding. $50 for her as a non-resident, and they apologize that they have to charge her because they don't like healthcare being passed on individual ability to pay, but they are required to charge non residents.) We could have more senior centers, more senior meals. Our county has funding for only ONE senior meal a week at the one and only community center in the county in the one and only place in the county that has a handicap accessible bus. We could have more subsidized senior housing for semi- independent folks, but we don't because "amassing wealth in the hands of a few".

This. Algae Bloom has become a real problem on the Great Lakes caused by warm winters, too warm springs, and fertilizer run off. No one listens. We needed regenerative farming practices 30 years ago to stop the petroleum based nitrogens being sprayed on the crops. I don't blame farmers. They have been doing what the Department of AG tells them to do in order to feed the world. This needed to be a top down policy change when scientists said, "STOP" not an individual farmer decision. Combined with high CO2 this was a massive, ticking time bomb. These algae blooms are not of beneficial algae but toxic algae that can make people sick, kills fish and wildlife, could even kill a child if exposed to enough of it. It pollutes groundwater, destroys native fish populations, wrecks absolute havoc. Lake Superior, once thought to be immune from such destruction, has been experiencing these blooms now due to warming water temps making it now possible for this crap to live in this once very cold, very in polluted lake. The Great Lakes contain 22% of the entire planet's freshwater. If we trash these waters, humans will pay in spades! Wildfire ash only makes the situation worse. The train had left the tracks and still, nothing changes in any substantial way. And it isn't on you, me, and the little guy to do it. Low income and middle class are not even close to the primary polluters and causes. The wealthy are the worst with the top 2% of earners causing 35% of pollution, all those fortune 500 companies. This is me staring directly at the Big 3 automakers for dumping benzene, lead, mercury, you name it into the Flint watershed, and then doing not one damn thing to clean it up. I am staring directly at the Department of Defense for burying tens of thousands of barrels of PFA fire regarding in shallow tombs at the old Wurtsmith Air Base in Oscoda, Mi, barrels which they new within 20 years would rust out and cause these carcinogens just a couple miles inland of Lake Huron to leak and poison wells, city water, and the Lake, causing even more aquatic nightmare leading to more algae blooms and wildlife and human die off. I am staring at the petroleum industry who has known for decades, and then suppressed evidence and reports, engaged in wicked propaganda and bribery to maintain their profits no matter how many humans suffer and die. This is me staring at the Department of Ag, ConAgra, Monsanto. I blame leadership who has been 100% complicit and cares more for power and lifestyle than the people and planet they represent. I don't blame my neighbors, the local hardware owner or anyone else at the absolute mercy of these overlords. We have to drive cars because they refused to invest in rail and buses. We have to continue on in order to care for our families even if that just makes the future even more bleak. Between increasing frequency and strength of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires, I see a time fast approaching when no insurance company will sell homeowner insurance to any of us little guys. What happens then? Will the powers that be take any notice of the number of us kicked to the streets by banks because we can't insure our property?

Two things: First, Canada immediately had a spring drought following the snowy winter. The conditions were much much warmer than has been historically (in terms of humanity time frames) normal. High temps and dry were the impetus. Second, while 90% sounds good, it is still 10% less and that less means the water table is lower. 10% means vegetation is holding less moisture making it easier to catch fire. For some types of trees, 10% is all it takes to be the difference between healthy and heat resistant vs. kindling for the fire. Add to that wind conditions that allow a very small fire to whoosh rapidly into a massive one, and you have a disaster. It is a lot like talking about climate change in terms of heat. My nephew, brother in law, several other relatives keep maintaining "What is 1 or 2 degrees warmer? That's nothing!" But they get rather quiet when I ask them what is the difference between 98.6 and 99.6 or 100.6 in a human - healthy to sick. The difference between 96 and 95 in a human - cold vs. hypothermia. The difference between 106 and 107 - brain cell death. In terms of the earth, the difference between 33 and 32 - freezing or not freezing. 1 or 0, subfreezing to subzero. 1 degree of difference and ice sheets are melting, ocean levels rising. They usually get quiet and concede the point, but they also still want to spout and not believe because they are resistant to anything that challenges their status quo. 😉 I also know I am "preaching to the choir" here. It's just that a lot of people do not realize how quickly trees, underbrush, ground vegetation become too dry to resist heat over drops in their moisture content. Pine trees are often a cause because when too warm, their sap/resin can ignite. That stuff is crazy flammable. Pine trees have been known to actually explode. It is wild, and terrifying. Northern Michigan is covered in them, and though we have not, prior to this latest threshold of warming, been a hot zone for wildfires, we had a huge one by Grayling, MI last spring. May and June in this state, for most of its human inhabitants' history, has been very mild, cooler temps. We had 90 degree days and a drought. Such a bad idea for northern pine. Then it was further complicated by how much dead ash tree we have due to the invasion of the emerald ash borer which has decimated the ash tree population. So there were huge, forested areas with acreage of dead ash trees laying around, and pine trees ready to pop their skins from the drop in moisture content along with temps they normally do not feel. As a child, the whole concept of "going up north" in the summer and experiencing 90 degree temps was just an insane thought. The same for my parents, and their grandparents, and great great parents. In the rare case of it, it would be a day. No many days, not weeks. Climate change has entered its terrifying stage.

The problem is that without a searchable database, the POA means nothing unless the person has the paperwork on them. This is a massive issue in the medical industry. The default is always "next of kin" because hospitals and law enforcement have zero way of knowing that an incapacitated or dead person has someone else designated for POA. Even if she had designated someone else, the ME would have released her body to JP unless the POA person had happened to be informed of what happened, and showed up with the paperwork before JP got to her. Case in point. My father tried to kill my mother and commit suicide. He was unsuccessful on both counts, and his injuries never knocked him out. Mom was unconscious. He was next of kin and yes, the ER staff consulted him for medical decisions because until proven guilty, it was his "right" as her husband. I have lived this nightmare. I was able to get an ER doc to declare him "altered mental status" and then they started asking my brother to make decisions, my idiot brother who is the last human who should make stressful medical decisions but he was eldest. All of these stupid traditions are bad bad bad. Eventually though, he decided he didn't want the burden and told the staff to start consulting me. Everyone needs a POA. Everyone. And it must be in some sort of searchable database so medical professionals can quickly look up whom to call. They have a searchable database for blood marrow donors, they can have one for this.

And yet so many people "Climate Change is a Hoax"! Sigh. It is right in front of our faces, and the natural disasters are just getting closer and closer together.

It is a 31 aqi currently here. I hope this holds while we are in Virginia, and my gardens are largely unattended. Lots of hugs to everyone who is struggling with this today. My heart goes out to everyone in the world in wildfire zone right now. Be safe, please.

They make a GF Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix that is, for a boxed GF item, pretty darn good. I should see if any local grocery stores have it and buy some.

Agreed. I know that in my case, my entire teen years and young adult years before getting married, I was very scared if something happening to me like losing consciousness, having a head injury, etc. and my parents being my next of kin. They held some very bad religious beliefs during those years which would have resulted in preventing medical professionals from giving the standard of care. I didn't have a choice as there was no one informing me of any rights I might have had at 18 to designate someone else nor how to make sure that medical professionals knew my parents should not be legally allowed to make decisions. I did manage to get this changed for healthcare at college once I turned 18. I started college at 16, and there wad no legal loophole to keep them off the emergency contact list. But when I turned 18, I asked my Intro to Psych professor if I had any rights, and he said in terms of the college student health, I could sign paperwork to make my aunt and uncle my emergency medical contact. Later I was able to get it changed at the housing office as well to keep my R.A./R.D. from calling them. But, if I had been off campus when something happened, there was no way to stop an ER doctor or police officer from defaulting to my parents. Not married? Find out who the parents are and call them would have been the default. Being able to designate with my driver's license would have resolved a lot of anxiety. It isn't just a Mica Miller divorce issue. Young adults leave their parents' religions and need to be able to have someone else in this role. If I were say one of Tom Cruise's kids and left scientology, I would not want dear old dad having any say in my medical care, and I would want law enforcement to know that I am not good with ending up as a "Shelly Miscavige".

We really need to discuss, as a nation, this whole next of kin situation. I think there should not be an automatic "if you are married your spouse is next of kin" right. Some spouses, even if very loving and nurturing, are not good with medical decisions. I think we need "when you turn 18, you need to designate a person, and if you don't, social worker will be called to make the choices" law. It just needs to be an everyone thing. I would love for it to be a database, like driver's licenses, so that hospitals, police, social workers can do a quick check and see who the current decision maker is. It could even be a DMV/SoS thing just like updating your driver's license at 18 to indicate organ donation, only this is "rank 1, 2, 3 the people you want to make decisions for you if you are incapacitated or to release your body if killed", and then it is in the database along with your driver's license/state ID. Since these id's are renewed every 4 years, there would always be a designated time to re-think, and if a change needed to be made before the renewal, an easy change to make just like change of address. If this system had been in place, Mica could have designated a trusted person foe her next of kin, and law enforcement when they identified her and began the investigation would have seen "sister POA" or whatever and released her body to that person, not him. I know a lot of people would squawk " but marriage" and yet, how many times is this a problem for women before we start to take it seriously? And I will NEVER believe "Girlfriend's husband drove his wheelchair into the community poop after dark" until someone produces security camera evidence of this "suicide" that has been verified as not tampered photographic evidence. Too many coincidences. Occam's Razer.

The water is cold. But, we are pretty determined to get out there. So we are going to launch from a beach on Lake Huron where we can get in the kayak from about 2 ft of water which won't be completely awful since the sun will have warmed it a bit. We are going out on a very placid bit of water, take it easy. So our legs will be warm again by the time we have to get out and haul the kayak up the beach.

I would not want to keep quite so much white looking white. Too much work for me with a husband who splashes stuff all over. Whatever I have for flooring must HIDE the husband antics! I know someone with white carpet in their living room, and it is always pristine. However, I am not capable of that. No talent for the housekeeping thing. White flooring would make me fall into a catatonic state. Think Goldie Hawn in "Overboard" sitting in the rain barrel going, "Buh buh buh buh buh buh buh" while staring into the void. 🤪

Just checking in. Injured a shoulder and could not keep up with my goals for the rowing machine/kayaking season. It was really disappointing. But I am healed now and am clear to kayak so I will be gently getting going on the rowing machine again in preparation for a short kayak trip in late June.

Thanks. I forgot to check this morning. This means I need to keep a close watch on the garden because if ash residue accumulates on the leaves of the plants, it affects respiration/photosynthesis. All last May and June, I had to rinse the plants regularly.

How long do you plan on being in this house? I think that functionality trumps aesthetics if you will be there more than 5 years because you end up regretting living so long with less space arranged in the way that makes it work for you. I tend to think converting the existing garage into functional house space and putting a garage in front of it with the right sized apartment is best if you are there long term. Given the way things are going with the housing market, the shortage of single family homes is likely a very long term problem so if you wanted to sell the house in the next 10 years, I don't think most buyers will sniff at the aesthetic issue. They will find some way of making the house have road appeal.

Everything I have read seems to indicate that bird flu does not transmit through properly cooked eggs. Cooked was always mentioned, so maybe avoid making homemade mayo or eating sunny side up eggs. Contact your county extension office and ask about testing for backyard flocks. I wouldn't bother mentioning anything to this family if testing isn't even available. We do have testing for it in my county because it is a bio security test that has to take place in order for 4H members to show their poultry. but I don't know if it is available all year or just prior to county fair. Keep an eye on birds in your yard. According to our DNR, if you find more than one dead wild bird on your property that do not show signs of obvious trauma like a cat caught it, this is concerning.

Amazing! Congratulations, and thank you for what you are doing. You make a huge difference in so many lives.

😭😭😭

My understanding of Probate in Michigan is that the court takes a percentage of the estate for the costs of processing the estate legally which the court would not have needed to do if there had been a will or trust. If the estate is worth less than $24,000, there is a simpler process called "probate for small estates", and they do not take as much money to cover court costs. Above $24,000, it is a lot more complicated and expenses are much more. If there is out of state property that makes it even more complicated. If this land is not in a trust or will, I don't think you can avoid probate. It is just Michigan law which is why it is so important to get folks to have a will even if it is just a very simple one. Even though you would like to clear this up quickly, unless the estate is less than $24,000 and does not include out of state property, I don't think you can avoid probate court, and in all likelihood, 2-3 year process should be expected. From what I know of Michigan Law, it is impossible to avoid probate if a person dies intestate.

I would like to say that without the robot maid from The Jetson's and the Replicator from Star Trek ALL kitchens fall short. All of them. No exceptions. Not even Gordon Ramsey's kitchen is anything better than just mildly disappointing!