chair jockey Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Welcome back, Lakewolf! (aka Lonewolf, aka Lakewoods. :lol: ) I will be 59 in Oct. So in a year you switch to the 60 and older thread? Aww, I'll be sorry to lose you for 10 years. And welcome to Lakewolf. :) 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Phiffenella Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Welcome back Lakewolf. I'm new here since you have been away. I checked out the over 60s thread but this one is more active. And since there is no over 70s thread I figure I can pick which ever other one I want. I am, after all, over 50... 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Spotastic Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 I'm only 32 and I peek my head into the 30's, 40's, and 50's threads. This is where I generally feel most comfortable, though. :) 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Lakewolf, from another newcomer welcome back and cake 🎂 time 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Welcome back, Lakewolf! (aka Lonewolf, aka Lakewoods. :lol: ) I will be 59 in Oct. So in a year you switch to the 60 and older thread? Aww, I'll be sorry to lose you for 10 years. And welcome to Lakewolf. :) Ha! You're not getting rid of me that easily, Mr. Bond! :D 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 All AVENistes are ageless, it is tacit agreement of entering AVENland 9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blondie12 Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Happy Saturday, everyone! My first trip of the year is coming up! On Wednesday, my friend and I are heading to Las Vegas, for 5 days. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be attending the Star Trek Convention. Yes, I know, I'm a Trekkie Nerd! It will be nice to have a little fun and also explore the strip a little more. The weather is supposed to be in the 100s, yikes! Welcome back Lakewolf, cake!! I think you'll find us all to be friendly and active on this thread, Just for the record, I don't want anyone to leave this thread! As Phiff has stated, we are all over 50, some are even in their 60s and 70s! Some like Spot are younger, but I believe we all belong here. We are all friends and we can all share our experiences and gain valuable insight from each other. Plus, I believe we are one of the most active and alive threads on Aven! So, welcome one and all! Enjoy your weekend!!!! :D 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Finding myself Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Just for the record, I don't want anyone to leave this thread! As Phiff has stated, we are all over 50, some are even in their 60s and 70s! Some like Spot are younger, but I believe we all belong here. We are all friends and we can all share our experiences and gain valuable insight from each other. Plus, I believe we are one of the most active and alive threads on Aven! So, welcome one and all! Enjoy your weekend!!!! :D Well said Blondie12. :D 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Finding myself Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 A couple of weeks ago, I started doing some turning out of all the 'STUFF' I have accumulated over the years. Today I have done a little more. It will take months to complete, but I want to work on the turning out alongside doing other things. I have started by focussing on clothes, the contents of wardrobes initially, and then will move onto the drawers. Exciting I know, but it needs to be done. ;) 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cdrdash Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I'm back from hiking/geocaching. Here are my pictures from today. The candleabra tree was quite impressive!! https://picasaweb.google.com/105234689104952250166/Butano_Candelabra_8_1_15?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPPxhaeatZGDzQE&feat=directlink 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deja Vu Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I am over 50. That's all. 'Nuff said. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cdrdash Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I am over 50. That's all. 'Nuff said. The scientist is having fun coming up with units for 50. Yup. You are over 50 inches. You are over 50 years. You are over 50 seconds old. You are over 50 minutes old!! You are over 50 miles from me. You are probably over 50 dollars in net worth. :D And all those things apply to me too .... too much said 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Autumn Sunrise Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Am I living in an insane parallel universe?? Two weeks ago, we (and a wide area around us) had a substantial snowfall. Now we have bush fires in the nearby Blue Mountains, in fact, a short walk from where we used to live when we first moved out of the city. (I'm kinda glad we don't still live there ;) :o ) Over a hundred firefighters, and a couple of water bombing helicopters (no, not the one that Bronwyn Bishop chartered :D ) have been fighting the fire since Friday night. It seemed to be coming under control last night (it's Sunday pm here now), but then apparently it spotted into a couple of new locations. No properties have come under threat yet, but there are high winds and all the nearby residents are on alert to evacuate if the situation deteriorates. I wish it would rain . . . On a more cheerful note, I went to the local First Sunday community market this morning. I know quite a lot of the stallholders, and it's always fun. Anyway, I took some boxes of eggs, since our hens are laying far more than we can eat at the moment, and they were snapped up within about ten minutes :) I hope everyone's having a good weekend :D 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Cathy, here's another one - "you are over 50 pounds"? :) Autumn Sunrise, I hope they get the fire under control soon. I read one firefighter lost his life in a wildfire in California recently. So sad when that happens. :( Congratulations on selling your excess poultry output. I wish it would rain there and here! 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Autumn Sunrise Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Thanks, Dave. I heard that things got a bit hair-raising for a while (the fire was upgraded to red -" emergency", and I believe some homes were evacuated, but now it's been downgraded back to "advice" and things seem to be calming down. They've also had a bit of rain. We had a kind of mini cyclone here this afternoon - quite scary, it hit suddenly and the wind was making a loud roaring noise, quite unlike its usual sound. However I didn't really have time to be scared because I had to race up and shoo all the chickens into their house, then run around checking things that needed to be secured. I stayed outside to monitor the situation, and used the outside time to do some weeding and pruning. After a while, it went back to being just normally windy - whew! I think your "wildfire" and our "bushfire" are much the same thing, but somehow "wildfire" sounds scarier to me. It's tragic to think of firefighters (or anyone, for that matter) losing their lives in such circumstances. We had a brief thunderstorm and a little rain tonight, but now the stars are out again, and it's quite peaceful :) 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cayce Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Good morning all. :) After a six month sabbatical to deal with family issues, I'm back. :D The short version: My father had a massive stroke in February and after lingering badly in a nursing home for two months died. It was quite horrible for my mother and me. I did everything I could to end it, including "pulling the plug" twice. Since then many more things came to light, such as my mother having dementia (at least) and that required moving her immediately, which in reality took another six weeks. Since I have no siblings and they had no friends or community, that left me to deal with literally everything. I learned a lot quickly and things are settling down to the point where all I really need to deal with now is sell the house (in progress), and five federal and one state tax returns. Ugh, but also in progress. All of this occurred 400 miles away so entailed a great deal of time behind the wheel, because of course I was dealing with my own medical things and this great country is divvied up by state, so back and forth it was. As you all can imagine, there wasn't much good to share. <_< Cathy was good enough to drop me a (life)line and here I am! I read back about ten days, there was so much I had to draw the line somewhere. Spotastic! Wow, you are indeed the hero, but I also understand your point that you do what you have to when the time comes, I'm so glad your presence of mind kicked in to save the day, and your lives. It's so nice to see all the familiar faces still here and also noting all the newcomers over this time. In better news, I'm finally taking a break here and there and yesterday got to spend the day at Jaialdi, a week long celebration of Basque culture that only happens once every five years. There were many sport and dance competitions along with a display of over forty "Karro Kampo's" a traditional sheepherders wagon/home that puts the tiny house movement to shame. Such simplicity and down right ingenuity. I had a great day immersed in Basque culture, history, language, and really needed the diversion. Hello again to those still here and welcome to everybody new! Cake for everyone. :) 9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cdrdash Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Good morning and welcome back from your sabbatical Cayce and may your Dad rest in peace. I'm off to Nisene Marks state park today for a hike with GLS. Will be lots more people on the hike today as opposed to just two of us on yesterdays hike. I prefer the smaller hike but this hike won't be too bad as several of the people I know are coming are people I really like. I may also have to deal with my nemesis as he might show up for the hike. Three of us are meeting to car pool elsewhere so we can avoid having him in my car! I'm curious whether he will actually show up. He was sent a letter by the club admonishing him to behave better (he was annoying more than just me) on hikes. He responded that he would not attend certain leader's hikes but today's leader was not on his list. We'll see if he shows up. Cathy 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tja Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Cayce, so sorry for your loss and subsequent trials. Very glad to see you here, again. Welcome back! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chair jockey Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 My condolences on your father's death. Hope your mom is comfortable where she is now. And I can't imagine driving back and forth 400 miles multiple times over six months. Once I no longer needed to do so I'd run a steamroller over the car! One helpful thing in avoiding the casino is that it's more than two hours by public transportation to get to the closest one. But starting in about 13 minutes there is a seasonal charity casino opening in a fairground about a 20-minute local transit trip from me. I fell asleep very early yesterday, woke up in the middle of the night, sat here thinking about the seasonal casino while talking to people online, went back to sleep around dawn, woke up again just less than an hour ago and am sitting here thinking about the seasonal casino again. It's open noon to 6 am every day until it closes at 8 pm on September 7th. Until then I expect things to be somewhat difficult. In positive news, this morning for the first time I met someone else who is aware of the work of Romanian-French philosopher Emil Cioran. That person also introduced me to two other philosophers named Ligotti and Zapffe (I forget their first names). All of them deserve the same kind of recognition as was received by other, vaguely similar philosophers, such as Kierkegaard and Sartre, but those latter philosophers yielded to their own fear of the people in power and expressed views that promoted the perpetuation of society despite not entirely having those views. Ligotti, Zapffe and especially Cioran did not yield and were therefore highly negative, and in the 20th century negativity was largely shunned by the English-speaking can-do world. Only now that feelings of hopelessness and helplessness are becomng far more common among ordinary English-speaking westerners are people taking some interest in their work. To me Zapffe is the big winner because he was not only forthright and uncompromising but also funny and approachable, and the way he lived his life was totally true to his beliefs. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tanwen Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Good to see you back Cayce. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles - I can never think of anything appropriate to say but thanks Cathy for your timely assistance. At least when I was having my problems with my mother I had my sons' backing - a bit of a mixed belssing as dementia is a cruel disease robbing you of the person you've always known and leaving an erratic and unpredictable shell. 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Welcome back, Cayce! Sorry you had to deal with all of that and my condolences as well. I hope things settle down and you can get a respite. The Basque cultural event sounds interesting. What an intriguing culture. Yes, Autumn Sunrise, I think you're right about bushfire and wildfire. I'm glad to hear your local fires are getting under control. And glad the cyclone didn't cause any problems. I hope you don't get the annoying guy, Cathy. Apparently he thinks you're acceptable as a hike leader. Maybe you can do something about that. (jk) lol But seriously, have fun. in(k), stay strong! Sounds like you've been doing well so far. Spotastic, do you have any advice or pointers for someone who might like to give embroidery a try? I keep thinking about the Hobbit map you and your wife did. It's so cool! I probably wouldn't try something like to start off with, but it's the kind of thing I'd maybe want to work up to. Tja, I hope your work travels are going well! Tanwen, I hope things are going well in Annwn. Sounds like a great place to visit. :) I saw there is a new Terry Pratchett novel coming out in a few months. I'll probably place it on preorder. It's another in his Tiffany Aching stories, which to me always feel more connected to traditional British mythology than most of his other Discworld stories. That's one of the genius aspects of the Discworld - it's so varied and expansive he was able to write books that ranged around all sorts of themes, evoking different places and cultures in our world, parodying various sorts of fantasy lit, lampooning modern things from Hollywood/the movie industry to postal services to vampires and werewolves to crime fiction, and on and on. 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Spotastic Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Daveb, that all depends on what specific type of embroidery you wanted to do. :D My wife creates most of her patterns herself. She made a tutorial last year on how she created a pattern out of a doodle that she made. We also have several patterns if you wanted to give them a try, a couple of them are free, and my wife does give some good explanations about how to do them within the patterns. I do more specifically cross-stitch like this sugar skull and the asexual flag that I made for myself and someone else on AVEN. Cross-stitch is fairly easy in theory, since all you do is make X's in order to make a specific pattern. The steady rhythm of it is why I enjoy doing it so much. The main thing to keep in mind when cross-stitching is to make sure that you make the X's the same way throughout the design in order to make sure it looks uniform. There are also a lot of kits that you could pick up in craft stores for cross-stitch that would have all of the materials that you would need for it. 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Phiffenella Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Cayce, I feel for you! Dealing with my mom in her final years nearly did me in.... Our fires here are horrendous. There are now 21 major fires burning simultaneously with over 8000 fire fighters engaged. One of my friends had to evacuate from an area that has fond memories for me. And we are early in the fire season, after years of drought. Sad, very sad. Yesterday was my "negative event" anniversary...and I did just fine! First I went to my favorite coffee shop (Peets) for a cappuccino and a slice of pumpkin bead, then had a 90 minute massage with deep muscle enhancement from one of my two favorite massage therapists, followed by a burger and potato salad at my favorite burger restaurant, and lastly a trip through Trader Joe's for some of my favorite yuppie comfort food. Mind you, all three of these places surround the same parking lot so I didn't have to even move my car! Then I came home and slept like a baby. And I booked another 90 minute massage with the same therapist in two weeks AND a two hour massage with my other favorite therapist for my birthday weekend. I have a membership at the massage salon but hadn't been in in several months so I have credits built up to have more than the standard one hour massage. Back to school meetings start this coming week and school starts on the 12th. I have no idea how my 2 month break lasted about 2 weeks! I guess that's because when you ar over the hill you pick up speed! :) 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deja Vu Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Good morning all. :) After a six month sabbatical to deal with family issues, I'm back. :D The short version: My father had a massive stroke in February and after lingering badly in a nursing home for two months died. It was quite horrible for my mother and me. I did everything I could to end it, including "pulling the plug" twice. Since then many more things came to light, such as my mother having dementia (at least) and that required moving her immediately, which in reality took another six weeks. Since I have no siblings and they had no friends or community, that left me to deal with literally everything. I learned a lot quickly and things are settling down to the point where all I really need to deal with now is sell the house (in progress), and five federal and one state tax returns. Ugh, but also in progress. Welcome back! I can relate - my dad died in March after a long illness with round the clock care needed for the last few weeks. We've been dealing with my mom and estate issues ever since. She may be experiencing some dementia - it's hard to tell because she's also taking sleeping pills and Tramadol and things are not going well. I feel your pain! 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Spotastic Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Tramadol is what I take for pain. When I first started taking it, it did all kinds of things to my head and I still can't concentrate as well as I used to. I totally get not being able to tell just how bad things are because of the complications of medication... 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Thanks, Spotastic! I'm not really interested in cross-stitch, more into the other kind of embroidery with different stitches and such. I want to do my own designs and/or stuff like Celtic knotwork, maps, and things along those lines. Next time I'm at the craft store I'll see what they have for beginners. I have done plenty of hand-stitching to repair or modify clothing (for costumes) and to make puppets and stuffed animals ages ago, so I'm not unfamiliar with sewing needles and thread. I am sure I'd have plenty to learn to get up to a decent level of competence with embroidery. But that's part of the fun. :) Phiffenella, the massages, and food, and all, sounds good. I keep wanting to try a massage to see if it helps with my back pain. I just have to get around to finding a place and seeing about setting up an appointment or whatever. I hope they get the fires under control soon! 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deja Vu Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Speaking of massages... Today I got a shiatsu massage from the husband of a friend. He is in school to learn to do this (it's a multi-year process and very involved). Next winter they start studying diagnostics - so they can tell where the body needs help based on what they are finding. Right now he is collecting info but doesn't always know what it means. And, because he is a student he can't charge for it yet, but does need practice subjects. Enter.... me! I've had massages before but this was a whole body experience and 6 hours later I'm still pain free. That's a big deal for me and I'm doing my happy dance! I told him to keep me on his guinea pig list and eventually on his paying customer list. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Phiffenella Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Daveb...look for a Massage Envy. I got hooked on massage when I lived in Southeast Asia. And when I came home I injured my rotator cuff and ended up with a frozen shoulder. I found a fabulous massage therapist and saw her monthly for 15 years. Sadly she died suddenly. I went several months without a massage but was really missing it so I tried our local Massage Envy. They are a chain & I was sceptical but was pleasantly surprised. At least our local one is good. Not every massage therapist is equally talented but a good therapist can really help with pain. Especially if you go for regular sessions. Try it. You'll like it! 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deja Vu Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Daveb...look for a Massage Envy... My friend's husband says Massage Envy is a good chain, and they hire people who know what they are doing. Which is good - in MN, you do not need any kind of license to hang out a massage shingle. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Phiffenella Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Deja Vu....I do know that Massage Envy requires a minimum of 3 years experience to be hired. And I think they all offer a reduced price for an initial treatment. I've been a member for at least 3 years. It's one of the few luxuries I treat myself to. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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