Hey folks, welcome to the new whine/general topic thread. Feel free to use this thread to discuss anything that is on your mind. Caregiving- related stuff, life after a loved one's death, your own emotional wellbeing. Whatever..........anything on your mind.
Ah, this is in Italian so I cannot read it:
Le luci di Natale cominciano a vedersi in Novembre, dissolvendo una crescente oscurità. E’ solo consumismo e laicità, o in qualche modo le luci di Natale sono legate al vero significato dell’Avvento e del Natale?
Thank you all for the generous thoughts, I especially like the candy canes in the hot chocolate, heated up with a blow torch, maybe.
Just wondering where exactly my family of origin got their traditions. Dh does not celebrate advent. Me? I am going to study Advent more now, and put up some more twinkle lights.....a movie quote, dont'cha know?
I bet the Viking will know......
Don't worry about me though, I do have some little tchotchke snow bears pulling a candle on their sleighs.....
And Tweety can fly around with the tinsel in his beak, looking for the Christmas tree we also are not gonna have.
All love and respect to all traditions, making light (pun intended) of only my own.
Would if we could Send, would if we could. :)
Cheer up,
If Tweety had hands I know he would help you.
Countrymouse, I think if I held a flame thrower in front of Hub's Dad he would still natter on. He is going deaf now too so he's pretty much oblivious. My Hub's brother in law takes his phone out and tunes him out and doesn't care if he notices. It's kind of sad but at the same time who wants to keep listening. It was boring the first twelve times i heard it................I doubt that it will become more interesting with time.
Have the hot chocolate anyway, buy some candy canes to stir it with.
No cookies and hot chocolate, no fun at all.
Disappointed that I am not strong enough to do it myself.
Later maybe.
"She will not take a hint but once she's made a start
I can yawn or belch or bleed or faint or fart
She'll not drop a syllable
I could stand in front of her grimly sharpening up an axe
I could sprinkle her with paraffin and ask her for a match -
She'd just go on again on again on again even more
The hind leg off a donkey is peanuts for her!
She could bore
The balls off a buffalo..."
Anyway, if you look it up and learn to hum it it'll give you something to take your mind off the family stories.
I did once literally cry from boredom. The man was my mother's friend's husband, and I couldn't get up and leave, but when I thought he was getting to the end and then oh God he revved up again and started down a new topic I could no longer help myself - I gulped, sobbed, and the tears ran down my face.
It can genuinely be torment. I'd say filing your nails is a comparatively gentle way to express "make him stop!!!"
A two hour one-sided conversation, and you have heard it before?
That is socially just wrong, so very wrong.
Going in the shed, cannot find the box of lights.
(They are LED) new from last year.
Buying new decorations.
Returning same decorations.
All that I am left with are the over-priced s n o w f l a k e s .
Why does hubs get an 8 x 10 shed to himself? Even though I did go into the shed, there is no way I am going to Walmart alone to buy lights.
Politics and LED lights???? : o)
It is getting harder to do when he can't get the Christmas decorations out of the shed. The day after Thanksgiving, neighbors had their lights up. He may not want to decorate, but I still do. I realize it is not a competition, and lights are not the real reason for the season. Thinking, thinking, not willing to go dark without lights, as there is a light in my heart....I'm still standing, after all these years!
Um. Are you sure you would recommend it for caregivers who are trying to persuade their beloved parents to move into more practical accommodation - ?!
Still Mine
true story set in NB
This fiancé has grown on me a lot, he's a good boy; but in this context - he is an architect. He thinks living in a building site is normal, and he's used to spending other people's money 🤔
Lol "they'll be lucky if the Shakers don't sue for libel" cracked me up. Realtors get quite creative in some of their descriptions, that's for sure.
I guess it's better than letting them see your eyes glaze over and your neck tipping cause you are starting to nod off I suppose. Mind you, I've had years of practice. My Hubs and everyone in his family barely pause to take a breathe when they talk. My F I L has been known to tell two hour stories. By the end no one is really listening. One time he was telling a story I'd heard several times before. I think 45 min. in i got up to retrieve my emery board thinking I might as well be doing something useful while he was droning on. He actually paused to wait for me.................then M I L said "are we boring you?" I was so tempted to say yeah, actually, you are.
I've been finding it harder and harder every day to pretend interest in things that don't interest me. I guess it's a sign I'm becoming old and intolerant. I'm sure next thing you know I'll be shouting "you young whipper snappers!" to my neighbors. God help me!
Whether it's an engagement to someone questionable (as it was where I read it) or an offer to purchase a money pit it acknowledges their feelings without revealing your own.
Not really! I'm hardly 17 any more, after all. But every one of those kids has rung to say 'can I call you on...' and then there's been not a peep out of them otherwise. It's not the not ringing, it's the volunteering and not doing it that makes me grind my teeth.
D1 I really don't mind so much she hasn't called, though. She and her fiancé have just had an offer accepted on a house they want to buy, and she's very excited, and she sent me the brochure with a little ❤️on the email.
Oh lordy. What do you say when you have been racking your brains for two days and can't think of a single nice comment to make?
That bathroom will be FREEZING in the winter, and it's on the ground floor, beyond the kitchen, and it'll drive them mad. They'll have to redecorate throughout. The tiny yard is a complete tip. There are stains on the front wall which means the guttering is dodgy. And it's *eye-wateringly* expensive, and she's all happy because they got a chunk knocked off the asking price. "Shaker-style" kitchen my arse! - they'll be lucky if the Shakers don't sue them for libel.
I'm just hoping to goodness it all falls through. Can't very well say that to her, though, can I.
So I turned to Auntie Google for advice, and this came up on a very nice lady's blog about coping with adult children but I couldn't find her name to accredit it:
********
Notes to Self: Daily Reminders
Overlook it. If you can't overlook it, forgive it.
It's their life.
If they want advice, they'll ask for it.
Keep up your own interests.
Be enthusiastic. It beats being critical.
It's better to be liked than right.
Let them treat you to something.
Keep good-housekeeping tips to yourself
********
Which all seemed eerily relevant.
a couple of months ago, a friend's dh had aspirated and she made the tough decision to allow a feeding tube - he's been improving and able to handle purée enough that it is looking like the tube will be removed
It won't hurt near as bad when running the car over "it".
Does the snow sculpture have a black top hat, a corncob pipe, and a button nose?
And let it melt. The first light snow always melts. Doesn't it? lol
We had a small amount of snow yesterday morning here. Today it's all gone.
You are in my prayers. It is such a devastating thing these fires. I use to live there too and it was horrible practically year after year of fires.
Anyway, I am very sorry for what you all are experiencing.
So sad for those who lost their loved ones, and whose homes are destroyed, Being homeless around the holidays is horrible. And the homeless pets, the dead wild animals...it's just very sad.
California really needs a plan to avoid wild fires like these from happening again. If not, more people will die, more houses will be destroyed, more dead animals and pets.
And MsMadge, for the coffee and donut!