March chitchat

[agate]

If it's March, it must be nearly spring. Spring would be very welcome.

What's going on with you? How is life treating you?

So many people haven't been heard from much at all. Maybe they're just busy but maybe they're not doing well and aren't up to posting here. It would be nice to have updates from everyone here.

This will be a busy week for me because I stupidly scheduled two appointments in one week, something I try not to do. Today it will be the ENT doctor, and Friday it will be the podiatrist. At least they're both routine appointments.

The laundry room in this building is still all torn up but with plastic sheeting cunningly draped around, we are able to do laundry on some days, and today they just might be starting in on replacing the walls and ceiling.

That's what's going on here.

I'm reading a book called "A Bookshop in Berlin" by Francoise Frenkel. It was published originally in 1945 but forgotten about for 60 years, and then it was rediscovered in an attic and republished. Quite an amazing story by a Polish Jewish woman who ran a French bookstore in Berlin--and then had to keep trying to escape the advancing Nazis.

And I've been watching seasons of "Brokenwood Mysteries," which takes place in New Zealand. I'm on season 5 now.

[Virginia]

Thanks Agate for once again getting us started for the month.

Not much going on around my house. Our weather is already Spring like for this week. I do not like to have many appointments in one week. I have one on Friday, but it is one of my own doing. I am going to talk to someone about new kitchen counters and backsplash. If any of you recall I had my kitchen painted and upstairs painted and it coincided with my coming home from rehab. I had hired them before I got sick and that is when they came. They were highly recommended, but did a very sloppy job while they were here. Eric still has to do some touch up in the kitchen. He was going to call them back and I told him I didn't want them in my house again. I am trying to do a little updating. If I get to stay here I can hopefully enjoy it and if I have to go into independent living the house will sell for more (I hope).

I am keeping an eye on the news and doing wordle and my exercises. I washed sheets today and have to put clean sheets on the bed today. It is March and that means the end of the month my car will turn 15 years old. It only has 37,000 miles on it so when I take it in for the annual inspection I hope they don't find anything major.

Wish I had some really good and exciting news to share, but that is not the case.

I hope everyone a really good March and like Agate I hope some of our missing people check in.

[agate]

Any news is still news even if it's just about your shopping list.

Virginia, I think you're wise not to let the painters try to redo the sloppy job. They might just mess it up even worse than before. What a shame that they couldn't have done it right the first time!

I once moved into an apartment sight unseen and asked the owner what kind of condition it was in. "It's been freshly painted," she said.

Yes indeed. They dripped paint in two colors on the bathtub, washbowl and toilet. That takes talent. You have to be almost trying to goof up to do that badly.

Well, I sent Howie a PM some time ago with no reply. A few days back I sent an e-mail. No reply. I hope that his sister would contact someone here if something is seriously wrong. Maybe he's had a computer problem or a connecting problem.

[agate]

Here's some more "news." Today I had a routine appointment with the ENT doctor. This will be happening every 6 months in connection with the hearing aids. There was a need for ear cleaning.

He had a med student with him, looking on. So he was talking to her sometimes. They began by offering me a pillow as they made the chair recline. As they did that, he said to her, "This person's spine has seen better days."

Hmm. I didn't realize that my posture was so obvious but it must be.

[Virginia]

Agate, I doubt your posture is that bad, he probably felt some little something as he helped you lay back. You just got new hearing aids recently it seems. So, you have to go back every six months. I am surprised. Many years ago I had a head cold and I felt like I had an earache as it was getting better. So someone suggested that I see an ENT. I asked if my ears needed cleaning and he kind of acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. I haven't seen an ENT doctor since.

[agate]

WHAT kind of ENT doctor was that, Virginia? Every ENT doctor I've had anything to do with would know exactly what you meant when you asked if your ears needed cleaning.

I have to go back to him every 6 months because they think I'm inclined to need frequent ear cleanings, and my hearing is always very noticeably better every time I get these cleanings. I have to go back to the audiologist periodically too to get the aids checked. I'll be seeing her in May.

Another thing happened while I was there. When the van arrived and we entered the building I noticed a large blanket-like mound along with several smaller tote bags clustered together under the overhang that partly shelters the building entrance. It's a building containing various offices including the hearing center and a medical equipment place. I couldn't think why all of those items were out in front, and when I came out an hour later the same things were still there.

I said to the driver that I hoped there wasn't a person under that blanket. He said, "I'm afraid there is."

So this was a homeless person trying to stay warm and dry. It was windy and rainy and not so very warm. Homeless people are very common here. Often they are in encampments, and whether the city has the right to patrol them or even to insist that they move on is a huge issue.

I told the driver that I was glad not to be that person.

Some people object to the appearance of a tent city in their neighborhood. Others are concerned about the hygiene and welfare of people who have no bathrooms, no running water, no easy access to food.

In any case, it's a shame when landlords have got away with the practice of making housing unaffordable. I've watched this happen over the last 50 years or more. They've tacked on this fee and that fee, and they now charge "first and last month's rent" and a security deposit, cleaning deposit, pet deposit, etc., etc., and the typical apartment rental can't even be had for less than at least $1,000 paid up front (and quite possibly never returned to the tenant). They've got away with it because they can, and yet people blame the homeless people for being homeless.

A few may be at fault but I understand that most homeless people have just had very bad luck.

[Virginia]

No one should be without shelter in this country if they want it. That is just my opinion. I am sure there are many homeless people that have just had some very bad luck. Back when I was young there were rooming houses where a person could just rent a room or boarding houses like my Grandmother ran. A person could get a room and two meals a day. She had a number of people who lived with her for several years. Sometime she would have a husband and wife who would stay at her house until they could get back on their feet.

Things have changed a lot and not all for the good.

[Howie]

Here she comes to save the day,
Mighty Sam is here to stay!

I've been without TV and the computer forever it seems. Money troubles. I can pay tomorrow, payday, so I called today, and the computer I talked to said okay, we will restore your service now. So where is the 1st place I go? Home sweet home.

I hope everyone had a good month. It's good to be back!

[agate]

Here she comes to save the day,
Mighty Sam is here to stay!

I've been without TV and the computer forever it seems. Money troubles. I can pay tomorrow, payday, so I called today, and the computer I talked to said okay, we will restore your service now. So where is the 1st place I go? Home sweet home.

I hope everyone had a good month. It's good to be back!

Too bad, Howie! I sent a PM and then an e-mail and was seriously thinking about calling. I wasn't keen on calling because that cat Sam usually answers and I don't understand her very well.

I believe she's stated sometimes that nobody understands her.

[Virginia]

Howie, so sorry about your problems. It is really good to see you. I am glad you missed us because we did you. I have to admit we missed that cat,

Sam almost as much. She keeps everyone in line. Is she doing alright?

[Howie]

She's sitting on my lap where she pretty much stays. But she does keep my lap nice and warm.

[Virginia]

Agate, Medpage Today has several articles about MS. I just got an e-mail. I wish I knew how to post it here but I do not. I thought maybe you might also get this or could possibly pull it up. You do so well posting links to things. There might be something that some of our people might be interested in.

[agate]

Thanks for the suggestion, Virginia. I don't know if this is what you received, but it is a fairly recent MedPage Today page about MS:

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

I subscribe to quite a few e-mail lists with news articles about MS and I post some of them on my little Website that is the one we can go to if this board isn't here for some reason. But I hardly ever bring those articles over here because I was under the impression that people's eyes glaze over easily after just a little of that kind of thing. But the MedPage format gives people an assortment of material to choose from, and that is more interesting than just an abstract of a research paper or an article from a medical journal about oligodendrocytes and T cells and what-not.

[Virginia]

I thought this particular medpagetoday had more about MS than is usual. There is the stem cell article and also the Cladribine article and a couple of others. Thanks for posting it. I didn't think about just going in and posting it the way you did. I was thinking of getting it from my e-mail to here.

[agate]

Just now places like MedPage Today are picking up some of the presentations at the recent ACTRIMS conference (February 24-26). There is a vast sea of abstracts at those conferences (ACTRIMS, ECTRIMS, and AAN), and going through them all takes time. MedPage Today probably has people on board who know what is important and newsworthy in that long long list of abstracts and they call attention to the important parts by giving a more understandable summary. I find what they're doing to be very helpful.