anyone past 50 on here?

[daveb]

1 hour ago, ryn2 said:

Where I live there are far more buyers than sellers right now.  It’s a great time to downsize into a rental (or move away) but a lot of people aren’t listing because they have (good) reason to believe they won’t be able to find something themselves.

That's what I was finding here, too. But like Pickles suggested, maybe my variables are different from the people she mentioned. Different part of town, different price points, different wants and needs in houses? My agent just increased the maximum price in the listings I am getting, and I see several more houses that I hadn't seen before. Still, nothing that really grabs me. I may be better off staying here for another decade or two and building up more equity. One silver lining is I can see why my mom decided to stay put in her old house.

[Semisweet]

18 minutes ago, daveb said:

I may be better off staying here for another decade or two and building up more equity. 

A decade or two? If the house is bigger than you need now, can you really see yourself still there in your 80s? I’d like to downsize before my 60s are over.

[daveb]

1 minute ago, Semisweet said:

A decade or two? If the house is bigger than you need now, can you really see yourself still there in your 80s?

Yep

I just wouldn't use some of the space. Or I might spread out more.  

And both of my parents are still in their own houses and they are only 20 years older than me.

[pickles.]

My mom stayed in her last house for her last 30 years. She loved her house, and loved being there, but there were parts of it she didn't use the last few years (the whole upstairs, the pool).  She couldn't maneuver the stairs, so she moved to the main floor and rented out the upstairs.

[ryn2]

Yeah, makes sense to do improvements you’d want either way and then see how it goes for a while.  You may love living there alone, or you may find you still want to move.  There’s no rush...

[pickles.]

4 hours ago, cdrdash said:

YAY!!  Thanks for telling me the news.  

I want to hop right on that trail tomorrow!  I have a sprained toe, so I have tonight to ponder the wisdom of that choice.  I sprained it on April 25 (trying to leap over the dog gate at my friend's house), and both my doctor and PT have told me to stay off it, but that's pretty much impossible with my job (I am on my feet all day), and with hiking with AVENItes. 😉

 

As the doc and PT both said, teachers are the worst at following doctors' orders.

[cdrdash]

Mowed my friend Peggy's lawn and did a bunch of weeding.  I am so tired and sore right now!  She had many many dandelions growing in her yard.  At the start I tried to remove them all by the roots.  It took me an hour and 15 minutes to do a 2 by 4 meter strip of lawn.  I gave up pulling them up by their roots after that and just mowed them down and then tried to pull up the remaining ones and didn't worry if I didn't get the root.  The rest of the lawn took another hour and a half to mow and weed.  Then I had to carry all the weed refuse to the bin and finally swept her front patio area.  I could hardly sweep the broom by the time I finished sweeping the patio. I was there for 3.5 hours.  I came home after finishing and drank a big bottle of Gaterade drink, took a shower, and then cat napped all afternoon!

 

This weekend I am doing a short hike on Saturday and then attend the Loma Prieta Gay and Lesbian Sierrans picnic from noon to whenever it finishes.  On Sunday, I plan to go on a morning hike.   It will be good to do it in the morning as the summer heat is finally arriving to the SF Bay Area.  Mornings are cooler!

 

Cathy

 

 

[pickles.]

10 minutes ago, cdrdash said:

At the start I tried to remove them all by the roots.

Do you/does she have a forked weeder?  (The end looks like a snake's tongue.)  They work well on dandelions.

[cdrdash]

Just now, pickles mcgee said:

Do you/does she have a forked weeder?  (The end looks like a snake's tongue.)  They work well on dandelions.

I had a brand new one and part of the slowness at first was learning how to use it.  But then it was just very hard packed dry dirt.  The palm of my right hand is the most sore as I had to work hard to get that weeder into the hard ground and get the root!  

 

Cathy

[AllThisTime]

On 5/28/2019 at 6:53 PM, Semisweet said:

I also find you process information differently looking at a screen or at a hard copy, so I prefer to do some of both anyway.

@Semisweet You got me to thinking about how I process information, and how when I jot something down or write myself a note, I'm more likely to remember it (even if I've lost the note!).  I am also one of the hold outs who still prefers a real book to an e-reader. 

[daveb]

7 minutes ago, cdrdash said:

I had to work hard to get that weeder into the hard ground and get the root

Oh, weeding in hard ground is no fun. Much easier when the ground is soft and moist.

[ryn2]

26 minutes ago, daveb said:

Oh, weeding in hard ground is no fun. Much easier when the ground is soft and moist.

So true!  I mowed tonight but will weed Sunday evening as it’s supposed to rain most of the time from midnight until then.

[Muledeer]

I've been on the road for the last few days, working.  I visited my friends in Laramie last night and they still had a fire burning for heat in their woodstove, and tonight, I also have a fire in my woodstove.  It rained and hailed this evening.  I'ts 37 F.    The aspen trees still haven't come into leaf yet.  The snowplows were out doing their job on Tuesday when I traveled across the state.   Can Summer please begin now?  

 I heavily watered my greenhouse vegetable garden then left it alone for four days and it's thriving. I'll be eating lettuce in another week.  There is some kind of rodent activity underneath my trailer I need to check out.  They have torn out some of the insulation and I heard one chewing on the floorboards under my sofa last weekend.  I turned on the sonic rodent repeller devices, which usually seem to work.  

 

While traveling across Wyoming on Interstate 80 today (the major east-west highway through the USA) I saw two things that put a smile on my face:

 

A baby antelope fawn nursing its mother  and...

 

an (older) cattlewoman assisting the family moving their cattle on the Red Desert.  She had a whip and was just wailing on a stubborn calf .  All the cattle ahead of them  were running - it was a well-organized cattle drive.  and...

 

the mule deer bucks have gathered themselves up into groups and they have velvet antlers.  Males and females each break into same-sex groups this time of the year and the pregnant does go off on their own to give birth..

 

 These events were simply snapshots of life while passing by at 80 mph.  I think I am seeing more things because I am finally getting used to wearing my eyeglasses all the time, now.

 

 

[daveb]

1 hour ago, Muledeer said:

Can Summer please begin now?

But not here please.

[pickles.]

1 hour ago, Muledeer said:

She had a whip and was just wailing on a stubborn calf .

I'm guessing this was the one of the three that did not put a smile on your face?

 

10 minutes ago, daveb said:

But not here please.

Seconded.

[Semisweet]

8 hours ago, AllThisTime said:

I am also one of the hold outs who still prefers a real book to an e-reader

Same here, and many others clearly agree, as print book sales have actually risen and more independent bookstores have opened in recent years. (Years ago I went to a talk by some tech executive who declared that print books would be extinct by 2010. So glad he was wrong.)

[teatree]

1 hour ago, Semisweet said:

Same here, and many others clearly agree, as print book sales have actually risen and more independent bookstores have opened in recent years. (Years ago I went to a talk by some tech executive who declared that print books would be extinct by 2010. So glad he was wrong.)

I have never used an e-reader. There is something about a book--the heft, the smell (I ALWAYS have to smell a book before I read it!), the history of a used volume, whether your own or someone else's.... The design of the pages is also important to me--if it's an ugly font or the leading (space from base of one line to the base of the next) is too tight, it really turns me off from reading the book. So many factors! However, I'm told that a positive attribute for e-readers is that you can increase the font size to aid with aging eyes.

 

And remember when vinyl records were declared "dead"?...  

[will123]

1 hour ago, teatree said:

I have never used an e-reader. There is something about a book--the heft, the smell (I ALWAYS have to smell a book before I read it!), the history of a used volume, whether your own or someone else's.... The design of the pages is also important to me--if it's an ugly font or the leading (space from base of one line to the base of the next) is too tight, it really turns me off from reading the book. So many factors! However, I'm told that a positive attribute for e-readers is that you can increase the font size to aid with aging eyes.

 

And remember when vinyl records were declared "dead"?...  

Never used an e reader here either. I have no plans on going to e books or the digital version on magazines (which we seem to be bombarded with ads for).

[cdrdash]

I'm in a nervous mood this morning.  I am having to rely on a neighbor I hardly know (although she was very nice when I dropped off my key to her last night) to let the fire alarm tester guy into my condo this morning and I'm off to lead a hike and then go to our club picnic where i am one of the club leaders and I dislike being one of the people in charge of a social event.   I'm hoping the mood will fade as I start going into action, leading the pre-picnic hike, and then attending the picnic.   At least my usual experience of these things is I do lose most of my nerves once things get started and often I have a good time, but invariably I have this mood before social events.   

 

I'm off to hop in my car and drive to Sanborn park!  Will probably report back later tonight on how my day went!

 

Cathy

 

[Kelly]

5 hours ago, Semisweet said:

Same here, and many others clearly agree, as print book sales have actually risen and more independent bookstores have opened in recent years. (Years ago I went to a talk by some tech executive who declared that print books would be extinct by 2010. So glad he was wrong.)

Good that they are still being printed.

 

And books will not likely disappear. I have thousands in my she-shack/library. They won't go away until I do (or they may stick around long after I am gone).

[daveb]

I vaguely recall an episode of Star Trek (the original series) where someone was into analog books and I thought it was cool even back when the show first aired.

I tried to use an e-reader, but couldn't get into it. I know people like the convenience of taking a small device with numerous books when traveling, but I actually prefer lugging around 2 or 3 analog books. There are other advantages to e-readers, such as being able to adjust type size as Teatree said, being able to do searches (even for words that might not be indexed in a book with an index), the ability to read even when you are unable to or don't want to turn on lights, but those aren't really enough for me to get into e-readers.

[ryn2]

3 hours ago, cdrdash said:

I dislike being one of the people in charge of a social event.   I'm hoping the mood will fade as I start going into action[...] my usual experience of these things is I do lose most of my nerves once things get started and often I have a good time, but invariably I have this mood before social events. 

Same!  I hope today stays true to form and you do enjoy it once it’s underway.

[ryn2]

1 hour ago, daveb said:

 

I vaguely recall an episode of Star Trek (the original series) where someone was into analog books

...in Wrath of Khan, too.

[Myssterry]

I am not planning on changing to digital music scores.  They do have some advantages, but I like to own a tangible collection of scores.

[Semisweet]

I also have a number of books that are signed or inscribed by their authors. I don’t think any writers are autographing digital versions of their work. 

[cdrdash]

Back from the hike and picnic.  Mostly it went well and I had a good time.  I was a tad bit stressed out on the hike because 2 of the 13 participants were struggling with the uphill and I felt sort of bad about that as the hike was advertised to them by my friend J. as being easy.  It really wasn't easy though.  It was short at 4.5 miles but there were two big hill climbs of about 300 feet elevation gain each so it was not really an "easy" hike especially if you are not a seasoned hiker like me.  Oh well.  The picnic was very fun and relaxing.  I had very little to do and got to chat with a few people I have not run into for a while.   So my nerves were gone by the picnic.

 

I  had a really good conversation with a woman I had not met before who was a paramedic and knew a lot about Traumatic Brain Injury and understood my frustration with Bob's TBI and how it is hard to have any goals for Bob for the future because TBI is so unpredictable.   It was good to talk to someone about Bob and his struggles who understood TBI and its affects.  She gave me confidence in continuing with dealing with Bob in the short term and trying not to have goals for him in the future.  She agreed that this works better for TBI patients.  You just cannot predict what will happen so its best to live more in the moment with them than in the future.

 

Oh and the fire alarm guy was let in and I found my key on my kitchen table as my neighbor promised.  So it was a good day.  Here are pictures from the hike.  I see signs of summer creeping in (less wild flowers and more brown/golden fields): https://photos.app.goo.gl/HUKFc6iTDPbqWvPL9 

 

Cathy

[pickles.]

9 hours ago, Kelly said:

in my she-shack/library.

❤️ this!

[Myssterry]

That sounds like a good day then, @cdrdash  Lovely pics as usual.

[Skycaptain]

@cdrdash, great photos as always.

 

I reckon I'll have my first courgettes by the end of the week, they're about 8cm long at the moment 

 

Ebooks seem to be going our of fashion as fast as they came in 

[ryn2]

8 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

Ebooks seem to be going our of fashion as fast as they came in 

They’re still very popular where I live.