@MusicCandy @SadMe70 A place to communicate

Hello! This was a tiring week with kids back to school! It is hard to get up at 5:30, but I am trying some CBD gummies and am definitely sleeping well. Unfortunately they are very expensive, but I only use half of one at a time, so at least I am getting twice as many nights for the money! I have been able to get right up and squeeze in my 20 min of exercise and about 15 of stretching, which isn't much, but I've done it every morning. I got one short walk this week, about 45 minutes. Except for sushi carryout and chocolate red wine last Saturday night with our son, I ate well this week, so even though my weight loss is slowed way down, I'm at least holding onto what I accomplished this summer.

I started wearing KN95 masks to work, and while uncomfortable, they aren't all that bad. I am not teaching my lessons yet, so I am not having to talk much yet, which I suspect will be less comfortable/hot. I was SO glad when the governor issued the public health order on Thursday requiring masks in schools. So many parents on local FB groups had such a fit, calling it child abuse, etc. Such idiots! Many of the kids I saw were wearing their masks correctly and without complaint. They are more mature than some of these adults! The K kids are mainly the ones that have masks falling off or being played with, but about half of them are doing really well for 5 year olds! My annoying co-worker that I will be paired with when our lessons start still won't wear hers over her nose, but if I stick to my KN95s and most people are masked, I feel somewhat better. We had positive student cases by day 2, and the teachers of those classes are required to quarantine, so already we have teachers out and subs running low.

It is scary to see the numbers rising in hospitals again. I don't know how people can deny this virus or be anti-vaccine when the majority being hospitalized now are unvaccinated! I imagine you have even more cases this week with schools starting back with lots more opportunities to spread it.

An apple with cream cheese sounds delicious! I do love cream cheese (and just about any other cheese!!). How is your shoulder this week? I finished PT with mine, and it's not all the way healed, but I made progress. I guess that's as good as it will be. At least I can unhook my bra from the back again! Good for you keeping up with what exercises you can do. Stairs are great exercise! I do a LOT of modification with my cardio videos. I just do the parts I can do, and do some other movement if there is something I can't do. One guy that I watch talks about how you are winning just by moving your body. He's very encouraging. Keep on doing your walking and stairs!! I hope the pain at night has eased off so you are able to sleep better. Nothing else goes quite right if you can't sleep.

I am glad you do not need a statin! I'm so happy for you that all your efforts to control the cholesterol without meds are working! Keep it up!!

I'm also so glad for you that you got a lovely afternoon on the river! Floating along for 5 hours sounds absolutely amazing to me. You totally deserved that! Your dinner also sounds delicious. Your co-workers are right and you need to do that sort of thing more often!!

Congrats on momma kitty getting spayed. Fingers still crossed that you can place all the others! I am not surprised that one uses napkins instead of her toys! Typical cat. My mom has aluminum foil on the tops of all her kitchen cabinets to catch grease from cooking. Her new cat climbs up there, shreds it, and throws it down to the floor to amuse himself.

Arrgh on the bookcase and mantle not being done! My husband just put some box of stuff in the kitchen a few days ago, and put a note on it saying "very temporary location" since he knew I would complain about it. I am far from being a tidy person, but he has so much clutter I just can't stand it!

I hope you had a good week, and got out on the river again (if it wasn't too hot!).

Hello! I did not write yesterday because I inadvisedly combined wine and my new gummies on Friday night, and I was wiped out until about 2:00 yesterday afternoon. I am learning as I go along about how to properly use them!

Two weeks of school down. Cases increasing, but they are being as hush-hush as possible. The only people they notify besides the teacher are kids who sit within a six foot radius, and I think that is only for the cafeteria when they are all unmasked. In the classroom, since they are all allegedly masked, they don't tell anyone else from the class, or other staff (like me) who go in the room. I know when there is a case in one of my rooms because the teachers tell me. Of course, it's a bit of a clue when one room has 12 kids absent and one has 11 absent (though each room was only half COVID and half other illness). I think it's really wrong to not alert every family from that classroom, since about a third of kids never have their mask on right, plus kids are working in pairs or doing other activities where they are close to others besides kids they sit with. Oh well. I saw that boosters are coming out soon, and I would be eligible in October so hopefully I can get one! My KN95s are a little too big for my face and don't seal all the way at the cheek. I bought some child ones that fit my face but the ear loops are too small, so I'm trying to stretch one out and see if I can make a well fitting mask!

My meals and exercise have been good during the week and bad on weekends. My weight loss has of course slowed down. I dropped and then gained back the same pound a couple of times. I am four pounds from my initial goal! I got my shopping and cooking done yesterday, plus plans for a couple of quick meals on other days, so I am set for the week's meals.

I hope that your shoulder has eased off some so that you could get some rest! Your shifts lengths are amazing. My sister who is a vet does long shifts like that. I am so tired at the end of the school day, and it is nowhere near as long as your day! I'm glad you got in some walks and especially that you got to the beach! I visited York River State Park a few years ago and really liked it. There is a fossil beach that was fun to look around on. It had started to rain just before I got to it, so I had it to myself!

You should definitely take a night off regularly. They should not just assume you will always be the one covering shifts. You need and deserve the breaks, especially now that you are dealing with your shoulder. No one should blame you for wanting to slow down. I say do it!!

I think we are talking about the same exercise guy - Daniel from Body Project? I also really like that he has normal to heavy people in his videos. I also like that in the more recent ones, they are low impact as the main exercise, rather than the instructor doing high impact and someone in the back doing "modifications." I have to modify a lot on most videos, and it is nice to sometimes do a video where the instructor is doing a level that I can do!

I hope you did get some rest this week. You sounded very tired! I hope you do start taking some days off too! Have a good week!

Hello, this was a bit of a challenging week for me mentally. I started having some physical issues and wondered if they might be side effects from my gummies, so I switched back to melatonin. So now I'm not sleeping as well plus I am groggy half the morning. I didn't do much exercise, though I kept my meals pretty good. I was exhausted all week, which I think is also partly from my period, and it all combined to make me feel kind of depressed. Still feeling down today. I have not had a walk in a while, so maybe I can squeeze one in this weekend. I had to cover some classrooms for part of the day this week, and trying to project my voice through a mask across a loud classroom was rough on my throat. I spent all the rest of my time doing some one-on-one math testing of kids, which I really enjoyed, but it meant I talked pretty much nonstop all week, and my throat was really sore. I am drinking lemon ginger tea right now to try and soothe it. Yesterday when I got home from work, I felt so angry and frustrated. I just wanted to be left alone, but my husband just had to confront me, so it ended up being a huge screaming match. I feel terrible that I made him feel really distressed. That was not my intention at all, but he just wouldn't leave me alone to stew which is what I needed. I would have been better by today. That's about it for me. Sorry to be such a downer :-( Hopefully things will improve this week. I hope you had a better week than I did!!

I had to LOL about the last comment you made about the anger/yelling match with your husband I am Feeling the EXACT same way. I think we are all suffering from the natural progression of everything right now. The first year of the pandemic, we sort of rolled up our sleeves, decided to make the best of it and sometimes even found new fun things to do - but now - we're tired of it and the "novelty" has worn off. Our resiliance bowl is about empty and we are sick and tired of being sick and tired.Then there's all the other bad news, Virus uptick, hospitals overwhelmed, more sick and dying kids, Afghanistan, and now another hurricaine. It is a lot. Work last weekend was totally off the chart. Chiropractor helped some, but still night waking up in pain is just the pits. My sleep is like gold. I think I have to take another step with ortho soon.

I've felt the routine just getting so old and I believe i'm tired about 80% of the time, and depression sneaks up.
What rocked my attention was this: Last week I was aching from my shoulder ( off and on pretty bad) and exhausted and hot and fiance said " I think you should lie down and rest" On the tip of my tongue was " I think you should not tell me what to do".I had to go in another room and say it out loud, but out of earshot, just to get it out. I knew he meant well so i forced myself to not say something that was not nice, but i know my tone is not nice sometimes anyway. So we are again in the same boat.

We did take a road trip to Palmyra and picked peaches from the orchard. Supposedly, there was a park nearby but it wasnt much of a park. Rachael still cant get to the pool ( closed from a fire) and no boat for her, and too hot to hike so it was the only thing I could come up with to do with her. She loves to ride and we took the back roads which was better than nothing as a diversioin.

School has to be such a challenge. I hope you do get to work with the kids, since that is about the only positive thing that can come of being there with all the inconsistancy with Admin. I agree - parents should know when their child has been potentially exposed. I'm sorry for what they have to go through - I'd be going crazy by now. I hope you find a good mask. We are all wearing eye protection and N95 fitted again. COVID admissions went from 5 to 60 in 3 weeks. Its not novel anymore. This weekend work has been easier and I have some soothing music in the background.

I think my meals at work are so-so, and late nights when have to be busy are the worst for snacking. home is better and Rachael and I have gotten up early for walks. You just do the best you can to stay on course, and I know you will get the right balance of wine/gummies . My CBD/ melatonin does help me until my shoulder kicks in -otherwise I'd stay asleep.

Next week, i'm working OT monday day shift, and having lunch with a friend Tuesday ( shes the one who "gets" me). Then the following week, my birthday, we are going to Kitty Hawk for one night. My sister has a timeshare and she comes up from The Villages. They have all week, but i can only be gone a night. One of fiance's clean out house jobs came with a beautiful lamp that I wanted to give my other sister for her b-day who also lives in FL near her. So since her husband is driving, he can take it back and I don't have to try to ship it. It has a heavy iron ornate base, and tiffany style shade with colorful butterflies. That sister was in Panama with her ex ( Green Beret) and she collected butterfies from the jungle and now she raises monarchs. It was something umique that I think she will love.

I say a prayer for you to feel better.. but i'm here even if you don't. I'm collecting some items to drop for the Afghan refugees coming to Fort Lee. Helping others that are so much worse off makes it a bit easier to live with myself.

Hello,

I am doing better this week. Still not sleeping well, so I am going to start taking the gummies again. My other problems did not resolve, so I think it is safe to say the gummies did not cause them. The knot in my neck will not go away, though I keep massaging it and using bengay, and now my jaw is knotted up again. I hope the gummies will help to reverse that a little. I continued to eat well, and did what little exercise I had the time and energy for. Yesterday I was off, and took a walk at the park. It was not long or challenging since it was flat, but I walked down to the river and sat there for over an hour with a snack and a book. There were few people there, which is why I decided to go down there, and it was very pleasant!

How is your shoulder doing? I have been neglecting my shoulder exercises, but hope to do them today. You sound just like me - sometimes when I am really angry, I just need to be left the heck alone to get over it! My husband wants to always talk through it, but I can't be rational when I'm really upset, so then I end up yelling and it escalates. If he would leave me alone, then I'd be ok later and the fight would never happen! I think you and I are both old enough to know ourselves and what we need, so why can't they figure that out?!

Your trip sounds so nice! I have not been to Palmyra. I grew up in a rural area that had a lot of small family orchards, and we picked fruit a lot because it was cheap back then and fun! I bet those peaches were delicious! How did Rachael like it? Sorry to hear your pool is closed due to fire! I hope they can get it repaired and opened soon. I like taking rides on scenic back roads too. I like to look at scenery and even houses.

School is still a bit of a challenge. There is just no getting around being close to kids, touching their hands, masks often not in place correctly. I think our school is fabricating numbers too. The count for last week was 3 positive cases, and 2 kids quarantined. So they are claiming that 3 positive kids had a total of 2 close contacts between them. Such BS.

I am glad you can have some background music sometimes at work. I like music a lot. I play it in the kitchen anytime I am in there cleaning up or cooking. I play it in the car unless I am listening to a book.

How did your lunch with your friend go? It's good to have somebody who gets you! I don't really have anybody like that. Really you are probably the one who gets me the most since we are so similar! I'm glad you got to do that and I hope it was fun! I hope you got some nice walks in too. The last two days were so nice! I am so excited for your trip! I wish you could go for more than one night, you deserve it even if it weren't your birthday, but I am glad you get to do something special!

The lamp sounds really pretty. My mom had a fake Tiffany type lamp like that when I was little. I still remember how pretty it was. She had it on a pretty little round table. I vaguely remember the table got knocked into (probably us kids) and I think one of the colorful glass panes of the lamp shade got broken. That is so cool that your sister raises monarchs! They are so pretty and such important pollinators. I imagine it would be very enjoyable to raise them. The lamp sounds like a perfect gift for her!

Thank you for your prayers! I am mentally better this week despite my continuing physical challenges, so that is an improvement for sure!

I hope you had a great week!

Happy birthday to you!!

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful birthday trip! I hope that your shoulder did not interfere too much with having a good time. You so deserve a nice break!

You are so amazing, still working at 68 at such a high stress job, and taking so many extra shifts! They are going to miss you when you finally do retire. I hope very much to retire at 65. A lot of people I know here who work on the Navy base, retire at 55. I don't know how they can afford it, plus health insurance too! My full retirement age is actually 67, but if I can, I will retire at 65 anyway.

Is your ortho appt coming up this week? Good luck!!

I am jealous of your figs! We have two trees, but have not had figs in years. My husband actually took care of them this year and did what he thought would help them produce, but they did not. I had a few at my mom's when I visited her this summer, and they were delicious! I love that you have such great memories of your grandma's preserves. She sounds like she was very special to you and important in your life! My mom used to make a ton strawberry jam in the summer and we used it in our PBJ lunches all year.

I have not been feeling great this week, physically or mentally, so I am headed outside to walk up and down my driveway to get a little exercise and a little sun!

Happy birthday week! :-)

Hi -- thanks for taking some time to write even though you don't feel great. Me too. It hurts my shoulder to even hold my arm on the desk to type - but that;s jusy one thing. It hurts ALL the time. I hope the walk in the sunshine helped you feel a bit better.
The 2 days at OBX were beautiful, and i wasn't in as much pain as I feared. We didn't do anything except walk on the beach ( red flags - waves were up, no swimming) but i waded out some. We had a nice seafood dinner with my sister and BIL, she treated me for my birthday. She is so sweet and easy to get along with. The rest of the time was relaxing. I even saw a mamma sea turtle at least 4 ft long loggerhead - coming out of the surf to lay eggs. She was having trouble, the turtle rescus gals were there to help if she needed it and we left before she actually got out. They were shooing onlookers back, but i did get a couple of pics and short videos. it was amazing to see her big head come up. The weather was pretty 'Carolina blue" skies both days and the hotel was more than accomodating. We were right across the Wright Memorial which I have been to a few times - but i was there for the sand and the sunset.

Back at work my full 40 hrs this week-end. I will work some OT days in Oct. and I think i can do it if they get my arm feeling better somehow. I see Ortho next week,none too soon. Daughter and BF went to Cancun and she is hoping for the bling he is overdue for. Her birthday too. They asked about all the safety features and it seems like they will be as OK there as anywhere.
Still more figs - we didn't do anything special they just came like crazy. I will try for some more preserves if I can get some relief. I know this is a hard day for everyone, 9/11 is a tragedy, and now we have more tragedy to deal with. God help us and epecially eveyone grieving or still sick or just stupid not getting vaccinated. Till next time, we keep going, you and me.

Hello, I am feeling better this week. I am still struggling with a few things, but they let up some this week. I inched closer to my weight goal! A couple of days I was within a pound, though I went back up a little each time. I am less fit than I was before at the same weight - my stomach is still a lot bigger and many of my pants don't fit, so I am still more fat and less muscle than in the past, even after losing almost 20 pounds. So, once I reach this goal, I will set another and keep going! I did exercise a little each day - some days I only have 20 minutes but I use them! I got one walk after work this week, and hope to walk sometime this weekend.

I need to get hay today to fill up my barn for the winter. It holds 50 bales, but I plan to get 25 this weekend. I still have 8 from before - I am using it more slowly with one less goat - so I don't want to fill the other half of my shed until those are gone. My pickup truck holds about 12 at a time, so it will take me two trips, and I may get half today and half tomorrow. I am worried about messing my shoulder up again with all that heavy lifting. The man usually helps me load them, but he won't be there today, so I'll have to load and unload myself which is hard for me. Normally I consider it good exercise and muscle building, which it is, but I just hope my shoulder can take it. It's so much better than it was before, but not normal, so I don't want to regress!

How is your shoulder? Did you get to the ortho? PT definitely helped mine improve, so maybe that will be something that helps you too. Maybe a cortisone shot to get you going. Fingers crossed that the doctor was able to help you get started on the right path!

I am so glad you had such a good trip, and that the pain didn't interfere too much! Walking on the beach and wading sounds really lovely! I'm also glad you had a good visit with your sister. That is so nice. I loved my time with my sisters this summer, and will see them next month for mom's birthday. I love sea turtles!! How amazing that you got to see one come out to lay her eggs. What a wonderful birthday gift!! I visited the Wright Memorial once, years ago before my boys were even born. I only remember it a little.

Any news from your daughter? I am wondering whether she got a ring!

Did you make more fig preserves? I haven't had that in years - my mom made some maybe 10 years ago and I still remember how delicious it was! We still have tomatoes coming like that, though they are slowing down. If I can get a decent eggplant at the farm stand this weekend, I am going to make something my husband came up with years ago with eggplant and green tomatoes, using Cavender's Greek spice. It has more salt than I usually use, plus MSG, but it has a good flavor so we picked some up last weekend.

I hope you have gotten a little relief for your shoulder, and a plan to start healing. Have a good week my friend!

Frozen shoulder. I don't know why they call it that, its not "frozen", just stiff and painful and inflamed-adhesive capsulitis. Bu at least i know. Ortho doc was efficient and i'm confident he has seen a hundred or more shoulders like mine. so, good news is surgery is not generally indicated, but some people get it anyway. It just takes a l o n g time to get better. He did give me a cortisone shot which has helped, and I'll start PT next week, hopefully. Actually, next Friday, our new* Lead Tech * is calling a staff meeting which is way more than she needs to do - she is just OCD. I'm pretty sure I'll have an" appt" at that time. I hate meetings anyway, needless ones even more so. She is driving everyone on day shift- crazy. Fortunately I don't have to have her on my shift getting into every move or I would be quitting early.

My Gosh, you are getting in 20 minute exercise every day- that is fabulous. We don't always see the results we would like, but exercise is good for its own sake, so GOOD for you, rah rah. How much do those bales weigh? They look heavy. I can't lift my arm very high so I wouldn't be any help. Coworkers on my shift are helping me. Honestly, the most helpful thing is not as much pain at night and I can take the Advil II combo and ice . I hope YOUR shoulder is OK after all the lifting.

Daughter and BF coming back tomorrow. Fiance is meeting them at the airport 11:30, I hope to be nearly asleep by then. no ring that i know of, unless she is saving it for a surprise, but she is not very good at that normally. Might have to have a talk with that boy!

Still at work now for 9 more hours. I worked 2 extra shifts this week - coworker's mother died. Good for the bills, but i'm so tired. More stupid people coming in to ICU. I just took care of a woman 66, extremely bad COVID, vaccine resistant of course and her husband is sick too. Her son, 33, just came to visit and he also is not vaccinated . So he had to sit outside the glass door and just watch her, on a vent, and do nothing. Sad and so unnecessary.

Another busy week coming up for both of us - hang in there and we will chat soon.

Hello! Sorry that I missed a week. Nothing much special went on, and the weekend just got away from me.

I am glad you have more information about your shoulder now. A cortisone shot helped mine as well. I'm glad you were able to get some relief that way, and hopefully PT will bring you a lot farther! Have you had a few sessions this week?

I feel you about pointless meetings. I don't have to go to many at all luckily. The teachers have planning meetings by grade level, planning meetings by subjects, full staff meetings, and are also on committees. I don't have to do ANY of that, thank goodness.

I am not sure about the hay bale weight. The new ones are always heavier because they haven't dried out so much. I can carry them, but it's not easy for me any more. I also used to be able to pile them to the roof of the shed by making stairs out of other bales and then lifting the last level above me, but I was not able to lift any that high this time around.

I love my morning exercise, and with the gummies I am taking, I am able to sleep well, wake up and get to it without being groggy, since time is short in the mornings. Last week on a couple of days, I did finally hit my initial goal weight, so I am officially down 20 pounds! I am having terrible constipation problems, which I blame on the gummies but I don't really know, so some days my weight is higher just from not being able to go properly. I have had to resort to a laxative or enema once a week for the last 3 weeks when it gets bad. I am going to try to go back to drinking citrucel every day, though I am worried that my problem is actually from too much fiber already and nothing to do with the gummies. I just don't know. Meanwhile, I am going to try to lose more weight, maybe 5 pounds, since even after 20 pounds down I still can't fit into most of my work clothes. I am not a fan of dresses or skirts, but I do have 3 long flowery skirts that I like, and was able to wear when I started this job 7 years ago, so I hope to fit back into those too!

I hope you didn't have to work extra shifts this week and were able to get some rest! You are amazing, keeping up with your demanding work schedule, plus everything else you do! I just can't understand the unvaccinated people. I keep seeing graphics from hospitals showing that the vast majority of COVID patients are now unvaccinated. Surely watching your loved ones die needlessly should worry people.

I have one more piece of news, not good unfortunately. I probably wrote to you in early August about my husband being in the ER because of a toe infection. The back story is that he has those thick old people toenails, and he can't cut them himself, and I can't do a good job of it with plain clippers, so he used to have regular appointments with VA podiatry, but then he was unable to get appointments. One got bad and he cut it himself and butchered up his toe. He still couldn't get an appt w podiatry, and ended up at the ER with an open sore and infection. A non-VA podiatrist has been taking care of him since, cutting off dead flesh, but nothing has improved. She wanted an MRI which took 6 weeks to get, but he got it last week and there is a bone infection, and his toe has to be amputated. This surgeon is going to do it Oct 12. We are waiting on paperwork from the VA to allow a non-VA surgery to be covered. He is also likely diabetic though his bloodwork is borderline. This is the third time in 3 years that the VA's failure to get him timely care has resulted in a problem becoming an emergency. The only good thing I can say about Trump is that he got on the VA and we had no problems during that time period. They have already reverted back to how they were before him. A VA nurse even noted that to my husband this week. I am stressed about the surgery and recovery, but even more worried that he will lose his foot eventually. If that happens, I don't know what we will do. Our house would need major modification to accommodate a wheelchair, something we can't afford, and he would need an oversize one because he is over 400 pounds. He already can hardly walk between his arthritis, neuropathy, pain, weight, etc. so I doubt he could do crutches.

We got carryout last night from our favorite Indian restaurant, so I have some yummy chai tea waiting for my breakfast. I am phasing back in foods that I tested as possibly mildly allergic to this summer, so last weekend I made myself hot oat brain cereal for the first time in months (oats being on my list) and it was so delicious! I had no ill effects that I could tell, so I am going to make more this morning and have that with my tea. A lovely sit-down hot breakfast is a nice weekend treat for me!

I hope your week went well. I know this message was long with lots of complaining. Thank you for being there on the receiving end of it!

I hope that you have had some initial relief for your shoulder from the shot and PT, and that you are sleeping better with less pain. Have a good week my friend!