General topics.

Gershun, Happy New Year to you too! Just wanted to say thank you again for starting this new thread, where we are free to be ourselves, say whatever topic we want. Your participation on t

Luckylu, Your kind heart, your perseverence in the face of difficult struggles, and your friendship to me and so many others on AC has meant so very much to me too!

Happy New Year 2017 to all the caregivers, past caregivers, and their parents or other loved ones under their care.!
Today is already January 2nd, and I am already tired, but happily so.

( From Wiki:)
Holidays celebrated on the winter solstice

Blue Christmas (holiday)
Brumalia (Ancient Rome)
Dongzhi Festival (Asia)
Korochun (Slavic)
Sanghamitta Day (Theravada Buddhism)
Shalako (Zuni)
Yaldā (Iran)
Yule in the Northern Hemisphere (Neopagan)
Ziemassvētki (ancient Latvia)

Happy Saturnalia - the ancient Roman festival that xmas is based on [look it up]

Merry Christmas y'all! And Happy Hanukkah too!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, and a very happy new year to everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for being MY friend!!!!

As I count my blessings,you wonderful people on Agingcare are at the top of my list.Thank you to all of you for your caring support,especially since the loss of my Mother this past year.It has meant the world to me.

stew7428, ouch regarding your broken arm. That happened to me last year, never had so much pain in my life. Slept with bags of ice. No cast, had to use a sling. Then after a month or two of the sling, my arm froze up, my muscles went on hiatus. Then I needed 3 days a week physical therapy for 3 months.

Is the break on your primary use arm? Mine was. My dining manners was that of a toddler. My handwriting that of a 5 year old. Trying to get dress was a real challenge, especially bras and socks. It was messy trying to brush my teeth. And I gave up trying to comb my hair. Learning to use a Mouse left handed was frustrating.

Oh, I couldn't drive because I wasn't able to put the key in the starter, nor move the gear shift. The plus side, I didn't have to drive my very aging parents anywhere.... even though my Dad called me a week after I fell asking for me to drive him to the barber :P

Merry Christmas Send!

Welcome, Stew. I pray every night for people on AC. I will add you to my prayers.

Merry Christmas to those who can receive my greeting.

Happy holidays for the other 49 religious practices in the U.S. A.

And for you who have had losses, and are sad, or in pain yourselves, my condolences go out to you, right now.

My, it's hot here tonight. We have our air on and it's almost Christmas
Eve. Strange weather, even for Mississippi. It was 39 degrees here last night. I took a pain pill earlier for this arm and even the mildest of makes me itch. Then I take benadryl---bet I sleep tonight. My broken arm seems to be getting worse. I am so frustrated with it. The bone growth stimulator that I am wearing 24/7 doesn't seem to be doing much. I guess I'll know more on January 6. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I am trying to line up another opinion for after that visit. I definitely can sympathize with these elders, lol, and I will soon turn just 61. What's next? I hope that I won't start about my b&b. I've had a lot of practice on all ailments, being a retired nurse, lol, (A geriactric psyc nurse for the last 8). I had loads of interesting patients and lots of fun! Seriously---I sure miss those days.

Renee I sympathize. It's always hard when an elderly person feels they are losing control of their life. I think eventually they figure it out for themselves when everything starts getting hard. When the simplest tasks become a problem. But I think they have to figure it out for themselves. I know my Mom stubbornly held on to her independence as long as she could but eventually realized she had to relinquish control.

Renee, I don't know that you can ever give her the assurance she's looking for. Is it an option, instead, to ask mom's docs to treat her growing anxiety? It's common for elders to experience anxiety as they lose ability to control their own lives.

Very frustrated with my elderly mom, Im the target for her rage, and its heart breaking. How do you get someone to understand your not going to take their whole world away, but they dont see it that way.

Pam, I love a good cleaning. My neighbor cleans for extra money. I think I'll ask her to come over and help me get my dad's bedroom and bathroom cleaned now that he's staying at bro's. Poor dad... he's so very messy. His bedroom still smells of some kind of food residue or something, and he's not been in there for nearly 5 months. I don't even like to go in his bathroom. :-( It helps to have someone else to help out... and wear gloves, mask, whatever needed...

Anyway, love a good clean, and glad your house is clean and ready for holidays!

I call this house the "nature preserve." It's a suburban setting, houses close together, but there is a plethora of bug and small critter activity. In the summer, I always have spiders making webs in and on my car. My favorite ("least favorite") part is when I'm already off and driving in the car down the road, and there's the spider crawling across the inside of my front window. You can't exactly freak out at that point... I just have to watch where it goes and try to find a place to stop and get it out of the car. lol

FF, I appreciate the sense in investing in a good pair of shoes/boots. I knew the best shoe-guy when I lived in Las Vegas. It was a hole in the wall shop, but they did a fantastic job of restoring any kind of shoe issue for average of $10. I've never found anyone close to that shop's craftsmanship and attention to detail. They restored a metallic leather finish that had worn through... I still don't know how they did it.

Sounds like your cobbler person is a good one, too. Haven't found my good one in this area yet, but haven't needed it.

Pam, I am jealous... I can write my name in dust, especially on the wood floors. I find so many other things to do, instead.

Heck, I even found a cobweb in my vehicle, first time ever :P

Well I am pretty happy that my house is clean! Mom worries that she can;t do it anymore very well, and I have been unable to do it.. so we hired a friends DIL to do it over 2 days.. the gal even dusted the ceilings!! It is so nice not to have to worry about it.. like spring cleaning is done! got some gifts under the tree, and all the packages have arrived. I may find my Christmas Spirit now..

Ah, happiness is having a 30 year old pair of boots be able to be repaired again :)

It is so hard for me to find shoes/boots that fit me, so I keep having the cobbler fix the shoes/boots I already have. The boots are so comfortable, easy to walk in, snow worthy, and worth $25 to have the soles glued back onto the boot itself. The cobbler even buffed them up to take out some of the scratches in the leather.

I got a great fortune in a Chinese fortune cookie that I think of when there is turmoil in my life: "the stars come out at night, all is well."

This puts things into perspective. If I look up at the stars it does remind me too, how this all will pass and there were people going through care giving and all kinds of things for thousands of years, and I am just one of them in a much bigger scheme of things. Humbling and calming.

Peace is...

-gazing at the stars with the knowledge that you know their Creator

-closing your eyes at night without fear of tomorrow

-the stillness in your heart when trouble swirls around you

-a quiet mind in a raging world

I've also wondered how Cap is doing. Maybe I'll send him a private message.

I've been wondering about Cap too and how the hunt for answers in his son's death is going. The problem is, he is a little too often Mr Hyde and too seldom Dr Jekyll.

Aww, Pam, I've been wondering about cap, too. His account seems to be active, not deleted or anything, and as you said, there is no update since early October (that I can see) on his son's murder. I'm sure it's a difficult time for him. :/

Ok, at the risk of opening a can of whoop arse.. has anyone heard from captian? I just keep thinking of him and his son as the holidays approach. when I do a search there seems to be no more info about the shooting, and I think how terrible this must be for him, and hoping his other son is there for him at this time.

Send.......no liking yourself, not allowed. Low self-esteem at all times. Others may like you but if you like yourself, others will not like you. LOL

So when I jokingly said there should be a feature on the website to "like this" on our own posts, it was then I was deleted. Lol.

conniption fit ‎(plural conniption fits)

Anger or panic expressed verbally loudly and with overt bodily gestures.

In the southeastern part of the United States, the difference between a hissy fit and a conniption fit is usually associated with overt physical gestures.

Mine was more of a hissy fit, with no physical gestures, except laughter.