Jean, I hope someone is home with you during the day! I wonder if cold foot baths would be any more cooling than what you're already doing? Last night I held an ice pack to my neck over my jugular vein to feel cooler. But I'm not sure if something that cold would be too much of a shock to your system when you're suffering heat exhaustion? It's good that you're staying well-hydrated. I had been worried about my dd because she normally doesn't want to drink much between meals, but she's definitely drinking more water in this heat.

Last night was bad. My daughter and I were "playing" turn on/turn off the fan in the hall window all night. This morning I was up at 5:45 and I wanted to cry because it was so hot. I had reached wet t shirt territory. (I'm wearing it under a sundress.) *Thanks again to Roadrunner for more excellent cooling advice. This morning I asked my dh if he had ever heard of ear candling. He was shocked that people do this. I told him I would never do it, but I thought about ear candling this morning when I discovered that the high heat is melting more than my chocolate candy...

My dh dropped a bag of frozen blueberries this morning. I rushed over, telling him to move back because most of the berries were on the rug in front of the sink and I didn't want him to step on any and stain the rug! But you definitely had the bigger mess to deal with! I hope your dog was helping you with the clean up!

For those of you who don't have AC, check your chocolate ! I eat some Dove dark chocolate candies everyday, and today it seemed softer like it was just starting to melt. I put all our candies into the refrigerator!

It's almost 3:30 pm and according to the local tv news headline, we're supposed to get up to 106 degrees today. At least that's what their huge red headline and gigantic map on the homepage announce. But when you look at the very tiny weather info on the other side of the page it's currently 95 degrees. Then when you look at the hourly temps, we're supposed to reach a high of 97 by 5pm. I hope the tiny info is correct and we don't hit 100 today!!! Right now, it's 87 degrees in our kitchen (SW corner of the house and lots of windows so it gets hot in the afternoon). I'm hoping we can keep our windows open tonight. Last night I was on duty to try to keep my daughter from turning off the fan in the upstairs hall window. I was able to keep her away, but some considerate neighbor started burning something...maybe a fire pit since it didn't smell like bbq?...and I had to close the window. I really hope we don't have a repeat of that tonight!

Jean, how are you and your bunny doing today? Yesterday I took Roadrunner's advice about pouring cold water over your head, and it is wonderful! I had a headache in the afternoon and the cold water cooled me off and my headache went away, too! I'm doing the cold water rinse again today. (I haven't gotten to the wet t shirt stage, but it could happen!)

Our neighbors have a meat smoker, too. The husband is the outdoor meat cook...thankfully he smokes mostly in the fall and winter, and then in the spring and summer he uses the charcoal grill. Unfortunately we get the smoke because they position their smoker and grill the same way that your neighbors do. Last night I think their son came over with some friends, and the grilling started at around 10pm. We had to take the window fan out and close the windows in the kitchen/family room.

I saw something kind of funny at the grocery store this morning. I was laughing with the lady working in the meat department at the big pile of packages containing soup bones! Not surprisingly, she said they weren't selling well. Maybe some people freeze them, or can you feed soup bones to a dog? The freezer section with ice cream and popsicles was practically empty. I was surprised that the overnight stockers weren't working there, but maybe the shipment hadn't come in yet. And one of the stockers that I see each week was putting cartons of broth on the shelf, so I guess if you want soup during the heat wave you're in luck

Having a basement can also be a little like having a panic room! This has only happened one time, but one day the police were all over the neighborhood looking for a bank robber. There was a police car parked out in front of our house in the middle of the street, and the policeman was next to his car holding his rifle and using his open car door as a shield! My kids were small and I didn't want to scare them so I just said we were going down to the basement to play. Nothing happened outside, but I was thankful for our basement bunker that day!

mommyoffive, I like your list! I haven't used foil on the windows, but I have a big collection of auto sun shades in a variety of sizes/styles! I also use space blankets to cover some of the bigger windows.

I think this is the reason we don't have AC...dh was born and raised in NYC without it and he has always said that it isn't worth it here for the few hot days in the summer without the humidity. (I also get zero sympathy when it snows here!) The house I grew up in had a basement, and my dh couldn't understand why a basement was so important to me when we were looking at houses!

No Air Conditioner here. I'm toast, literally. But I'm trying to be optimistic... according to the news, the record here was 103 degrees in 2009 and I guess we survived. I just heard UW professor of Atmospheric Sciences Cliff Mass on the radio. He doesn't have air conditioning either and he expects to survive. I might check his weather blog this weekend just to be sure! (I only seem to read his blog when we're expecting extreme weather.) Right now it's about 5:30pm Friday and it's 80 degrees in my kitchen. Our basement is 10 degrees cooler, and I'm afraid to check the temp upstairs where all the bedrooms are! We have many fans, but unfortunately my daughter (with autism) isn't a fan of fans. She makes it her business to go around turning them off. I don't know if it's the mechanical sound or the feel of air moving...she won't tell us what it is. At least my son (also on the spectrum) tolerates fans, EXCEPT near the table when he's eating because he doesn't want air blowing on his food. And neither will eat outside because of bugs, but that won't matter this weekend since our little patio has a brick wall and will be like an oven. TravelingChris and others, thank you for your prayers! If you don't hear from me again you can assume I went out in a blaze of Laurie.

Several years ago I thought I had a plantar wart, and I showed it to my regular doctor at my check-up. She wasn't sure, but she was going to try to freeze it off but the tip of the sprayer kept flying off so she told me to go see a podiatrist. ( I'd never been to a podiatrist before, so I don't know if the one I saw was good or not.) He said it was a seed corn, not a plantar wart. He removed part of it and applied a poultice. The poultice was supposed to stay on for a day or more, I can't remember exactly, but it fell off the same day so it really didn't do anything. For me, I think wearing Birkenstocks and other sandals with bumpy ridges, etc. on the footbed caused my problem. I never walk around barefoot because I get hair slivers easily, but walking barefoot is supposed to be a cause of corns/calluses, too. It isn't just from wearing shoes that are too tight. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16896-corns-and-calluses

Epsom salts are drying. Could you maybe try soaking your feet without the salts for awhile to see if you notice an improvement? You might also want to go to you tube and search for Dr Dray. She's a dermatologist and some of her videos are about foot care. There's a lotion she recommends for dry patches on the feet but I can't remember the name right now...I'll see if I can find it. (Kerasal foot ointment, not a lotion)

I've been watching some of her quarantine cooking videos on you tube, and I remember this recipe. I haven't tried it because I can't eat dairy, but I'm thinking of making some for my family. About how many days will this keep in the refrigerator? ...just in case only one person likes it which always seems to be an issue here... Thanks!

This is what worries me because there are people who will do more than just think about it. With all the publicity, his kids won't be able to go anywhere without being stalked by press and stared at by the public, at the very least. And there will be someone who won't think anything of yelling at them something along the lines of "Did your daddy molest you, too?"

I hope Katy isn't basing this thread on the you tube lady without the crystal ball. I just watched her most recent video and it sounds like since Friday there's a protective order so that if any children's names are part of evidence/discovery then the defense lawyers must make sure that the information is secured and not available to anyone in JD's family, etc. The you tube lady sounds especially happy that Jim Bob won't be able to know any of this sensitive information. I'm no fan of JD. I hope the judge and prosecutors are doing everything they can to make sure JD's lawyers can't find some reason to get a mistrial or anything like that! And it makes sense that a protective order is in place to protect the identities of all child victims. But I don't remember seeing anything about child witnesses being called? It seems like a protective order could lead to a lot of speculation from outsiders who don't have any knowledge of what's really going on, and it makes it impossible for the defense to speak out about this speculation without violating the order.

Where did you read this?

Black Lives Matter and Marxism: https://www.socialistalternative.org/marxism-fight-black-freedom/black-lives-matter-marxism/ "Overthrowing capitalism cannot end all aspects of racism overnight, but it can do away with the exploitation that lays the basis for class society’s divide-and-rule approach. There is no other road. Black liberation can only be won through the socialist transformation of society."

I was just listening to a local talk radio show while getting dinner organized. A mom of an 8th grade middle school student (public school) used her cell phone to make a video of a lesson presented in her child's science class (remote learning). She contacted both the principal and the teacher, and apparently these types of lessons are presented in a variety of subject areas at school. The video is just over 7 minutes long. https://mynorthwest.com/2937573/rantz-teacher-uses-science-class-to-call-white-middle-schoolers-privileged-oppressors/

I don't understand the ha ha face you left for me. And you didn't need to defend your alma mater on account of me. I used a concise definition of a course on Critical Theory and Marxism that I found using a search engine. Some of the explanations of CT are too long-winded about the Frankfort School, etc. So I used the one I found. I was not in any way trying to paint your alma mater as a marxist institution, and l agree with you that it's good to have a well-rounded education. Studying a subject doesn't mean you necessarily embrace it...I get it.

My understanding is that you have to begin by first understanding what is meant by Critical Theory. I found a course description from a Philosophy department about Marx and Critical Theory. https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/courses/1314S/PHIL/PHIL-366-1314S I think this is why crt in the classroom is concerning to conservative parents...because marxism is at the core.

I understand how you feel. I got the treatment from family members when my 2 dc were little, and mine never broke any of their stuff either! And like you, I had been allowed to babysit their angel. But the parents didn't want to return the favor when I had my kids. Now I'm going to stop because this thread is supposed to be about you!!! I like Tanaqui's advice. I was going to suggest that when you leave you could say something like, "We're leaving now. It's safe to bring the big blocks out of hiding." But Tanaqui's approach is better. I'm so sorry the visit has left you feeling like more of an outsider. Our families should be the people who care about us the most, but it doesn't always work out that way. Maybe it's just as well that you don't live near them because I think you'd feel worse if you were local. (Ask me how I know.)

When my kids were little I had to call the police because I had seen 2 men on our neighbor's porch. When they threw his newspaper into the bushes I knew they were trouble. They didn't do anything else at his house, but then they came to our house and knocked on the door and rang the bell. I was already on the phone with the police dispatcher, and then I was scared to death when I could see them walking around our porch by the windows. They left, but the police found them nearby and talked to them. Their story was that they were selling magazine subscriptions. This also reminds me of something I saw on the local news. It was a warning about people who try to look like they're with a utility company by wearing a reflective vest and then they can case your property by pretending that they're inspecting something. They had a homeowner's video of a man walking around trying doors and windows. Before my mom passed away, she was living in her house alone. I went to a meeting in her neighborhood when a local church was planning to host a tent city for the homeless. The homeless group told us that one of the benefits to having them in the neighborhood was that their tent dwellers would regularly leave the church parking lot and go on a walking patrol around the neighborhood! I was very suspicious about that...it sounded more like a cover story for casing the neighbors' homes and cars.

I'm the same way about houses, without having experienced a trauma like you did. My grandmother grew up in Poland and was kidnapped by gypsies when she was very young. She was taken from her ground floor bedroom, but was later seen and recognized in town and was reunited with her family. For the rest of her life, she refused to have a ground floor bedroom.