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Bambam

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Everything posted by Bambam

  1. Yeah, that is a big no, you may not wash my windows without proper equipment, backup, insurance, etc. I'd report them to the local law enforcement personnel. Maybe they are legit and stupid, but a couple of them? I wonder how many simply felt sorry for them and gave them money. The local sheriff deputies would have stopped by to talk with them. You also have to have some sort of permit to go door-to-door here, and the local sheriff is good about posting what group/person has those on the county FB page. That said, no one reports the Girl Scouts or your local neighbor kids who are going door-to-door selling their cookies or fund raising stuff.
  2. One thing I will add, my relative got both knees done and one hip before she turned Medicare age. Once she hit Medicare age, the requirements for getting a hip replaced were tougher. If she had got that last hip replaced last year, she would not have to lose any more weight. But due to Medicare requirements (at least according to her doctor), she has to lose an additional 25 pounds in order to qualify for the surgery. She had lost some between each of the previous surgeries, so she was much heavier with the first knee replacement.
  3. I'm going to give up (maybe) and wear my reading glasses while scrolling through the WTM. I was SURE the thread topic was "Basement Fishing". That sounds intriguing, let's check this out, and wouldn't it smell. Oops. "Finishing" not "Fishing".
  4. We still have a landline as well (poor cell service in our area). We get several robo calls but no where that many! I just don't answer the phone unless I know the person who is calling. Most folks don't call our landline any more, so that makes it somewhat easier. But it is super annoying. Often the Caller Id identifies someone as "real last name, real first name", and if you fall for that and actually answer it, it is Spectrum or TV Services.
  5. Most times I've been told to donate or keep the item, but a few times they have wanted whatever shipped back. But, IMHO, the way for the retailer to do that is like Zappos. They mistakenly sent me a pair of baby shoes instead of the adult shoes I had ordered, so they immediately credited my account with a $25 gift certificate, emailed me a pre-printed mailing label to tape on the box, arranged for USP to come pick up that package, and arranged for the shoes I had ordered to be shipped right away. That is customer service!
  6. I have two USB rechargeable hand warmers. They are nice, but they are heavy, fairly fat (even the thinnest one), and they only really last about 4-6 hours (regardless of what the Amazon description says). And once they have no charge left, they are a brick. I much prefer the Hot Hands disposable ones - they last a good 7-8 hours, they are lightweight and flexible, they easily fit in a glove and still allow you to do most whatever you want, and when they are not warm, you can toss them. I can easily fit the Hot Hands in my jean pocket but the Zippo rechargeable hand warmer makes an odd bulge. So, if I'm heading out for a long day where I will need the hand warmer a lot or don't want to carry a lot of stuff with me, I'm using Hot Hands. If I'm going to church and going to be sitting in a drafty/cold building for a couple of hours, the Zippo rechargeable hand warmer is fine.
  7. One of my kids got an AirBnB in a major metroplex in the extreme south part of our country. Ad listed "A/C and Heat". Turns out this place has a Space Heater. A Space Heater is their "heat". Starting this weekend, it is going to get cold there, and a space heater is just not going to cut it with two nights in a row well below freezing. Already with the temps in the 40s, it is not keeping the place warm enough. This space heater = heat isn't an issue 99.8% of the time in this city because you rarely, rarely need heat. I never would have thought about asking clarification of has heat - Oh, is that a space heater or what are you using for heat? They are trying to cancel the reservation and get at least part of the $$ back as they will have to find other accommodations.
  8. My DH has talked about retiring plenty. However, I am afraid he would stay home in his home office and never leave the house except for church and garage sales. He did take some welding classes and has invested in a LOT of scrap metal so he has materials for whatever he decides to make with his welding machine - but seriously, there isn't a lot of useful stuff that he can make here (or that he has found yet!). I suspect he will once again decide to help me be more efficient (he rearranged my kitchen one Saturday when I was gone), which will need to some conflict. He is not interested in traveling at all - even to visit an adult child 1 hour away, I have to bribe him with a garage/estate sale/thrift shop visit (usually more than one) to get him to go. So, he is going to stay home, putter in his garage (welding, some woodworking stuff, rearranging and rearranging), probably do some gardening, read books, watch youtube videos. I find a lot of my time is spent helping others - taking MIL and other older ladies to medical appointments, shopping for them, visiting, etc. I'm glad to help out and have met some really interesting older ladies who have great stories to tell. I finally have time to read more (so hard before!) and can work on my flower beds (we have too many!). I've been thinking I would like to start some sort of handicraft but haven't seen one that I like. We feed the birds, we keep the birdbath clean, we watch the birds, we put out the heated bird bath when it gets cold (rare here, but we will have a week it needs to go out starting this weekend). When the weather was nicer and I had more time, I would select different city parks to go walk around at. When DH retired, I might see if I can enlist him in this too - and maybe include some semi-local state parks. And quite frankly, part of the time is spent either trying to reduce the amount of stuff or just staring at it trying to figure out what to do about it.
  9. My mom was no help. She was 800 miles away and had absolutely no interest in helping with baby, and quite frankly, I would not have wanted her to come anyway. DH did stay home for the first week (maybe 2?) with each baby to help, but that was all the help I had, and really, it worked just fine. We had friends bring a meal when we had second child (they kept first one while I had second), which lasted for a couple of meals. That was lovely! My sister guilted her into coming to see the first baby maybe 6 weeks after she was born. I have a picture of my mom sitting about a foot away from baby on couch - which is about as close as she would get. My mom was not a baby person. There is another picture of my sister holding the baby. I do not think my mom ever would. That was just my mom, so it didn't really bother me.
  10. I think some people are just excessive worriers. My MIL is one. We left a child home all day, safe neighborhood, close neighbors who were always home during the day who could help, we had a landline at that time and she was well able to use it, she was very capable and independent. My MIL acted like were insane and horrible neglectful parents because, " a venomous snake could have got into the house and bit her without her knowledge and she could have died." (or something like that). And we were ????? So, we just ignore that sort of thing - her worries are excessive and endless and rarely make any sort of sense. And we often just don't tell her situations because it is like she is looking for something to worry about. I never told her when a kid was sick because she would call at least once a day. One kid threw up once, and she wanted me to take kid to ER. Nope, this isn't an ER visit worthy event. I'd try not to let it bother me. I know sometimes it is hard, but make a good evaluation of the risk and any benefit to action (? would calling actually help??), and if not, just ignore and go on.
  11. My DH has a welding apron (thick leather but more supple like suede), and gloves that go up to your elbow. I'd suggest considering investing in some yourself for when you have to put Obama in his carrier. I wear the apron when I need to trim DD's cat's nails or put him in the carrier. He is generally a good and peaceful cat - except for those two things. I don't find the gloves give me enough flexibility to handle him, so I don't use those.
  12. This may not help, but story of a relative. Pretty much constant cough - asthma suspected but inhalers didn't seem to help. Doctor thought maybe silent reflux - put them on PPI in the morning and Pepcid (prescription strength) in the evening. Cough has pretty much magically disappeared. We also made her eliminate her two humidifiers (nasty orange/pink mold in them) and got her easier to clean humidifiers about the same time - so it could have been that too? It gets pretty dry in the house here in the winter time with the heat on.
  13. age 11 - IL, mid 70s. Breakfast we were on our own - so usually PB sandwich with reconstituted orange juice or hershey's cocoa chocolate milk. Lunch - Mom usually made - either a sandwich or leftovers from the night before. Often it was bologna. Nasty foul stuff. I bought a couple of slices at the deli to let my kids taste it - and they thought it was evil too. During the summers, we kids at home (mom at work) usually had a Campbells soup. My favorite was bean-n-bacon - which my middle sister hated with a passion. Supper - usually something with hamburger. I was the first one home, and the only one who could make dinner if the family was to eat together (older sisters off to work, Dad off to college (worked during the day, took night classes), mom worked semi-late). Spaghetti, sloppy joes, chili, hamburger helper - basically that is all I could do - something with hamburger! We always had a garden in the summer, so plenty of tomatoes, green beans, corn, radishes. If there was a salad, it was iceberg lettuce. Weekends mom would cook real food - fried chicken, roast, steak, etc. But, wait, I think we had navy beans regularly one night a week too. Often mom made yeast rolls (lovely!) to go with them. There might have been a little in them but not much. There wasn't a lot of money to go around, so my mom was excellent at stretching meals - I grew up thinking everyone had beans in their chili and sloppy joes. We had leftovers regularly but Mom usually managed to find ways to sorta disguise them. We rarely went out to eat. As I got older - maybe 15?16? we used to sometimes go out for pizza. If we were traveling to see relatives, we might stop at a fast food type place. We did get Pepsi and store bought candy once a week though. My dad would clean an office building on Friday or Saturday nights - and the whole family went with him, and we had a little party at the end - split two Pepsis (5 people) and a small bag of mixed chocolates.
  14. Based on what I see in folks carts at the grocery store, many of them are mostly purchasing frozen/prepared foods. Cans of beans vs dried beans. Hamburger helper/meal options where you just add meat. Microwave meals - fish sticks, chicken nuggets, stuff like that. I too have some of those options in my pantry for emergency meals (little time to prepare). But they are rare here. We have a local Thanksgiving Food Drive. For years, people donated turkeys. About 5-6 years ago, the organizers requested folks bring canned meat products vs frozen turkeys as many of those turkeys were not being used. People didn't have the pans/know how to cook them/etc. This may not be typical as people who received those boxes went through a process to make sure they meet the qualifications of need.
  15. One of our daughters is married. They decided to not have a wedding, which was a complete and total surprise because she has always dreamed of a wedding/wearing a fancy dress/what her bridesmaids would wear/etc. We gave a lump sum comfortable for us. The other daughter is not married, and I would be surprised if she gets married ever, but time will tell. At that point or sooner, we will have to figure out what to do. We did pay for 9 semesters of college for each. One got a BS, while the other got a BS + MS in that time. Prices increased during that time, so one costs more than the other. It's hard to figure out how to be fair, because technically one got more $$$ spent on her college education - but to a great extent that was because prices increased (rents went up 50% plus other general costs increased!)
  16. Okay, I was off to google CBS gummies because I had never heard of them, and if they were helpful, I wanted to do research. But they were CBD! It probably would have taken me several minutes to figure that out!
  17. One of my friends several years ago had her knees replaced (not at the same time) and they had her use a little machine like a bike pedal that they put in the bed with her so she could start working on that. That was probably 12-14 years ago? When my sister had hers done 3 & 4 years ago - I asked about that cycling machine, but that surgeon no longer uses it - said it wasn't very useful. I don't know all the particulars about each case - but I'd say my friend was younger (maybe 10-12 years younger) but more overweight than my sister. So I don't know if age/condition/weight/general health/etc plays any part in the PT prescribed afterward. My sister said the pain after the surgery was nothing compared to the pain she was in before the surgery. They made her give up all her pain meds for 7 days before surgery, so she was really feeling the pain and limping along. I did strongly encourage her to take the pain pills they prescribe after surgery for a few days because I didn't want her to get behind in the pain front because it is so hard to catch back up. I'm probably looking at a knee replacement in the future too. I'm not as scared about it seeing her journey. I stayed with her 2-3 weeks after each knee so I got to see the nitty gritty. But a few things I did not know 1. You have to watch/catch any and all infections very quickly. She has to take antibiotics before any dental work. She said she was told any infections would head for the replacement joints very quickly and cause problems? 2. The replacement joints don't last forever. 10-15 years is the life expectancy.
  18. My sister has had both knees replaced. She wished she had done it sooner. 1. Her surgeon had her start taking Vitamin D, C, and zinc well before her surgery - and would check her levels and postpone surgery if the levels were not to his satisfaction. He also has you increase (wildly IMHO) your protein intake. But I think all these things help with healing, so it makes sense. 2. Her surgeon has excellent results from his patients. But he also has them do a lot of PT. Two weeks of PT at home (2-3 times a week for two weeks, I can't remember which), and then 2 times/week for 4-6 more weeks at therapy place. 3. Get Press-n-seal. They suggested we use that to cover the area so she could take showers without getting wound wet. My sister's doctor recommends a spinal block (I think that is the correct term) in addition to general anesthesia. No way would I do that if I were conscious. I know when she had the hip replaced, there was a fair amount of tugging/moving/etc to get everything in place. With her knee replacement, I think the doctor pulls the muscles to either side to get at the knee (so no cutting of muscles). That sounds uncomfortable. And my doctors during my C-Section were talking about GOLF. Really??? I'm cut open here and you are pulling a baby out (and me off the table with that baby too!), and you guys are talking about anything other than what you are DOING? It was a little disturbing to me. But everything came out okay, so they obviously knew what they were doing and probably had done it 10,000 times, but still, as the poor conscious patient, it was unnerving.
  19. I bought a pair of Hokas (Zappos, I think). At first, I thought they were wonderful. I have wide feet, high arch, and high instep. But after a few days, I noticed that my feet were rolling inward whenever I walked. I've never had that problem before. If I concentrate when I walk, I can stop it, but that seems so weird. They are very pretty shoes, so they are still in the closet (mostly too late to return them) and only come out for short events where a dressier walking shoe would be nice but there isn't a lot of walking. Sometimes I just wear them to the grocery store because I want to like them - but I just don't. I recently invested in a pair of Kuru shoes (saw them suggested here I think). I really like them so far, but I've only worn them a couple of days (several hours each day) in the house. The Kuru shoes have much more space in the toe box than the Hokas did.
  20. Should it be like finger foods (grazing) or will folks be sitting down to eat a meal? If the first, I'd probably head to Sam's and get their little appetizer things - mini quiches, egg rolls, taquitos, chips/dip, cheese cubes, fruit tray, veggie tray. I'd freeze some baggies with water for putting under the stuff that should stay cold (like the ranch dip for the veggies) - or use those cold packs you use with the 9x11 casserole dish carriers. If it needs to be more meal-ish vs. snacking, I'd consider either doing a few soups that could just stay warm in crockpots, or do a taco bar in crockpots - taco meat in one, beans in another, rice in the last. Toppings can stay out, but I would put ice under cheese. I'd use flour tortillas vs. taco shells, or maybe I'd use the individual bags of corn chips to use for walking tacos. Or I might just do hotdogs in one crockpot and chili in another, toppings can stay out. Or a baked potato bar. For me, I'd be after things that I don't have to make then but could just reheat (either making in advance or purchasing already made).
  21. You know, I believe humans can order their prescriptions from Canada too. It does take longer to get the first one (2-3 weeks).
  22. I'm sorry. Anniversaries are tough. I hope you have a good day.
  23. One mom who one of mine dated her son. Son, 17 yo, pretty responsible, had been working 2-3 jobs for many years (mowing lawns/yard work/etc before he was 16), got good grades in DC classes, helped out at home. Had to be home from dates by 9 at the latest. 9 PM. Also was not allowed to leave the town we live in. Rules seems controlling and bizarre and arbitrary at the same time.
  24. Paper flower bouquet. Longer lasting than flowers, no smell in case that bothers her, still attractive to look at, can throw away when you are tired of it (no clutter!) or save for another day (clutter!). For an extra $5 they ship it for you too. https://www.lovepop.com/collections/lovepop-flower-bouquet-shop Freshcut Paper also has these, but I think the Lovepop ones are better. They do, however, have some smaller ones which are nice too. ETA: and significantly cheaper, so https://www.freshcutpaper.com/collections/flowers
  25. I'm so sorry. It is a mess. And every year too. I donate the weird stuff we get like that and hope someone else can benefit from it.
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