OT December Chit Chat

[Virginia]

Agate, my heart goes out to you. I can't think of anything I had rather "not" do than try to get a messed up computer straightened out. I hope all is resolved soon. I have windows 10 and Edge. Microsoft is pushing both. I was mad at first, but now I use it most all the time. I can still have Chrome, and I have another one I use on occasion. Can't remember the name of it, but it is still on my computer and I had a fit when Microsoft just arbitrarily came on and opened windows 10 and kind of forced Edge. Now I am use to it and satisfied with it. I wonder how long it will be before they change me again.

Ann, thanks for the link. However, you still have to get them somewhere to be weighed I guess. Otherwise how could you fill out the shipping slip they provide?

My bedroom feels lighter. No kidding, when I walk in I get a different feel. I have some other places to do, such as the closet here in my office, but I think I will put all of that off and try to read today and tomorrow.

[Howie]

I had Window's 10 for a few days, and hated it. I was able to go back to 8.1, and that's where I'll stay. I plan to buy another computer that's refurbished, and is an 8.1. I have a site that carries MANY of all kinds.

I know 8.1 the best, and don't want to learn a new OS.

[Jeanie Z]

:) Andy came this morning and helped me put the stockings together. He also set up the table for us to have pie and egg nog.

Jim, Carla and Matt will meet Andy and me at Longhorn around 4 PM. Then we will come back here for stockings and pie and egg nog.

We kept the charger on Peggy's Hoveround on for two days and it won't move and the lights on the arm do not come on, so the batteries are shot. They are probably about $200. I won't get them until I know she can have the chair. I was so hoping she could have it before Christmas. I need to go see the DON again and push for her.

Jim is bringing my small house scooter back after having the rear end reduced to 18 inches like my old one. I am looking forward to it as this one spare one does not have enough room for your knees to pass through and the seat does not turn. It will be my only spare now. My knees are bruised from getting them past the front part. I do have rolling walker with a seat and brakes if all else fails.

We are back to summerish weather and will be through next week. Christmas will be 85. When we moved here in 1964 that was what Christmas was and I missed the brown leaves and fall weather we had in Jacksonville. Now I am used to hot Christmases. I hope all of you are having good weather and travel safe if traveling. Jeanie :)

[Virginia]

Jeanie, you are the busiest lady I know. You do so much. I know you and the boys have a big Christmas planned and you are getting an early start today.

[stillstANNding]

Virginia, this is how I weigh packages: I set them on the scale. Sometimes that works. Or, I weigh myself w and w/o the package in my arms and subtract the difference.

I just got back from getting my hair done. I have also been packing and am almost done. I fly to Mom's tomorrow afternoon alone. Peter will fly down early Christmas morning.

Jeanne, is their a saint for mechanical equipment who could intercede?
ANN

[Virginia]

Ann, be careful. I would think airports will be packed, but maybe most people are already where they are going.

If you could see the stacks of clothes I have now. In smaller closet I found 3 coats, one I love but it is too small. I found two suits and some other things that almost look new. I have a black Garfield Marks suit that I remember wearing the black skirt with slit up the side of the leg with a white Garfield Marks blazer and a silk blouse to friends high school reunion. I loved that suit and wore it with black top and white, with sweaters and blouses. But as I said, I am having no mercy. I have a love seat in my office and it is so stacked up with clothes they are about to fall on the floor. Almost all, except sweaters, are on hangers. Everything is clean.

[Virginia]

I hope Ann does well on the flight this afternoon. Maybe she will get a wheelchair at her layover since Peter is not with her.

[agate]

I hope Ann does well on the flight this afternoon. Maybe she will get a wheelchair at her layover since Peter is not with her.

--Unless she's the sort who decides she's feeling fine and can manage without the wheelchair. I hope she isn't that sort.

[Howie]

She could tell a flight attendant to radio ahead and have a chair ready at the unloading ramp, then the only walking would be getting on and off the plane. Just walking through the terminal to get to the boarding, and exiting ramps to the plane, would wear me out. Some terminals are huge!

[agate]

And if they aren't huge they'll seem that way by the time a person goes the wrong way a few times, as I tend to do, and has to go back to wherever that map is and start over.

But I forget that airports have probably changed beyond all recognition since I was last in one (some time in the early 1990s).

My guess is that they're bigger and more complex than ever. The last time I was in O'Hare, for instance (1988), they were busily adding things to it, and person had to go over and around various barriers and construction blockades.

[Howie]

At my age, I have never flown. I've been in airports to pick up or drop off someone, but never to fly myself. I'm not afraid of flying, I've just never had anywhere to fly to.

[Virginia]

Neighbor brought cookies she had made today and banana nut bread. While she was here another brought A bag of chocolate covered peanuts and a bag of regular golden roasted peanuts. It was really nice of them to stop by. I hope I get some vegetables tomorrow night at our Christmas gathering.

I read for awhile this afternoon and then I watched a movie that I had seen before, The Big Sick. That, to me, is such a warm, funny and sweet movie.

[agate]

You hope you get some VEGETABLES at your Christmas gathering, Virginia?

It sounds as if you're really observing Festivus, where people dine on meatloaf on a bed of lettuce.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia.

[Lazarus]

--Unless she's the sort who decides she's feeling fine and can manage without the wheelchair. I hope she isn't that sort.

I do not know about Ann but expect she has a solid sense of self preservation!

However, your comment set me to thinking about MS friends who are the sort who ignore the reality and love to push around saying they are fine and “can do it” .... this ‘type’ is often the person who makes the lives of those around them miserable. When this person insists on doing things in public situations it ends up that others have to run and fetch the wheelchair when it is needed. Or the others have to reconfigure everything so the One with the disability can bull their way around pretending that nothing is wrong.

Do I sound unkind? I just feel we have a responsibility not to be so focused on ourselves that we make the lives of those around us harder. Planning ahead for what is likely to be a problem or just noticing what your requests create for others is not too much to expect. It is an act of love/respect that we should always have for others.

[stillstANNding]

My mom is the kind you are talking about, Linda. She still won't even use a walker. Once, I was sure she was going to drop dead in the frozen food section of A big Giant Eagle, she was so short of breath.

My trip would have been 1 hour and 25 minutes w no connection but Boston was iced up and socked in w fog. Fortunately, it cleared by the time for my flight. We were about 90 minutes late which was good considering over 110 Boston flights were cancelled.

Love my overdoing mom glad to be here.
ANN