OT March Chit Chat

[Virginia]

Jeanie, so sorry about your Uncle. I do hope he and his wife are alright, but certainly someone should be checking on them on a regular basis.

Howie, I feel your pain as far as the electric bill. That was the month that my heat pump went on the blink in a snow storm and I had to buy two space heaters. They burn 1500 watts each, so that was 3000 watts constantly from Tuesday until Friday afternoon. In addition I used a lot of propane in the gas logs which is expensive, so it was not a good financial month. Of course I had to buy the space heaters and pay for the heat pump to be fixed. We all do the best we can I guess. I couldn't go to a hotel because I wasn't totally sure when the man would be back to replace the part in the heat pump. Even if I had that would have cost a lot and I would have had to eat every meal out which I didn't feel like doing. So, I still think I did the best thing. Most I have paid for heat in the 25 years (next month) that I have lived here.

Cherie, glad you are safe at the Condo. I think that would have been a scary ride for me. I do not like it when the wind is strong enough that a car has to be man handled on the road.

Having said that when I was young, in my mid to late 20s, my husband and I had just come back from living in Europe. While there I bought me a little French car and we shipped it home and sold the car we normally drove over there. We got my husband another one here in the States and for quite awhile I continued to drive the French car. One time I went from Alexandria, Va where we were living to Fredericksburg, Va to meet a friend and have dinner. I was late going home and afraid my husband would be worried (no cell phones back then). Anyway, it was kind of windy and I got that tiny little car up to 85 or 90 miles per hour on I95 going North around Richmond, and a strong gust of wind came along and just simply picked the car up and moved it to an outer lane. I was in the center lane. Fortunately, no other vehicle was close enough to have a wreck. Believe me it scared the heck out of me and I slowed to a reasonable speed. My husband went to his grave not knowing that. I never confessed. I remember it was a work night and I guess I figured I didn't need to get a dressing down, and though it stayed with me I never told him. I eventually gave that little car to my youngest brother, and told him he just had to be careful in it. He later said he could have gotten killed in it and he gave it to my middle brother who also said that it scared him. Naturally, I just told them that they didn't know how to drive it.

[Howie]

Wow Virginia! Don't offer me a free car, I wouldn't take it!!!

[Parsi]

we try to make it fun up here at the farm for the kids,,, they do help us,, like wrapping beef,, Eleanore sealed the beef {food saver machine} all by herself,, Thain, helped make patties,, we made it right with them,, took them shopping for helping us,,

grandma always has cookies/chips, and a brownie, for them,,

That brings back memories. My parents would buy butchered meat (half a cow???) annually. They'd set up tables in the basement. We had rolls of butcher paper and string and tape. We'd tightly wrap the roasts, the steaks (separated with more butcher paper), stew meat and ground meat. Then into the large chest freezer the packages would go.

[agate]

That sounds like a project that took a while, Parsi! But that would have meant a meat supply for quite a long time.

I recall a locker where my family went periodically to get meat out or to put it in. Refrigerators way back in my childhood didn't have freezers to speak of. If you were lucky you had a tiny compartment that might keep ice cream for half a day. That must have been why we traveled to a storage locker for meat in a freezer.

In fact I vaguely recall ice boxes and huge trucks delivering huge blocks of ice that fit in the back of a person's ice box. I don't remember what happened to the melting ice for surely it must have slowly melted. I'm still apt to call a refrigerator an icebox even now because that's what most people called it then, even if they had a more modern electric fridge.

[Howie]

Don't we have it made in modern America? We take things like having a refrigerator and a freezer we just go in the kitchen and get what we want. But think how many in the world don't have that, and wonder what and where the next meal is coming from. No wonder the world see's us as fat and lazy. We are!

[Jeanie Z]

:) This shows our age. I remember the iceman coming up the stairs with a big block of ice held with huge tongs and putting it on the top part of our icebox. There was a pan to catch the water from the melted ice under the icebox that had to be emptied often so it did not get too heavy.

We lived in a garage apartment on an alley until I was 8 years old. My older brother and I slept in bunk beds in an alcove between the bathroom and the sleeping porch. My parents slept out on the porch and I'm sure in the Winter they were cold. My younger brother had a crib in the living room. I do not recall where he slept when he outgrew the crib. The porch was partially enclosed but the rest only had canvas to pull up to close off the air.

When we moved to the house my brothers shared a bedroom and had the bunk beds. I got my own room. My father was often out of work and I don't know how my Mother managed it but we never went hungry. Jeanie :)

[nuthatch]

When we were first married, we went to Wisconsin to live on a non-working farm that was owned by my in-laws. We lived in an old farmhouse on 80 acres, but across the creek from our place was the original family homestead, which included a falling down house, barn, ect. on 200 acres. Story goes that when my hubby's great grandmother died, his uncle Bill just locked up the doors and left to work on the ore boats on the Great Lakes.

We explored the old original farmhouse and found the roof caving and floor collapsing. There were still some things inside, some of which we rescued. In the kitchen was a small oak ice box. My husband managed to lasso it and drag it across the floor that was collapsing into the root cellar below. We took it home, refinished it, and still have it 47 years later. Originally, the ice block went in the top, food in a compartment below. As the ice melted in the top, it drained down a tube which emptied into a pan under the icebox, which had to be emptied regularly.

Different times for sure. We also have a larger icebox that we rescued from another abandoned house which we loaded into a little row boat and paddled across a lake. Lucky we didn't sink, but sure came close! The forest had grown up all around the abandoned house so it was the only way to rescue anything. Oh the things that were in that house! Vandals had broken nearly everything many years before, including beautiful antique furniture, dishes, even a beautiful cast iron kitchen stove! Sad.
To this day, we have never gotten around to refinishing that icebox but still have that icebox and the crazy memory of the "rescue".

Seems abandoned houses were not uncommon 50 years ago. People just closed the doors and left everything behind . . . strange . . . almost like an episode of Twilight Zone!
Birds took over the empty houses!

Love reading all your stories. Wish more people felt like sharing a little piece of their lives. Beats any TV shows IMHO.

[agate]

Some of those iceboxes were elegant pieces of furniture! Many people still had them when I was a kid. There was a later campaign for people to remove their doors because kids were apt to crawl into them and get trapped in there, very tragically.

The small town I lived in had many old abandoned houses, and I routinely prowled around in them. Some of them were filled with very old musty furniture. They might have been left over from the Depression era--maybe people fled their houses because they could no longer pay for them?

If I'd known anything about antiques, I might have been able to spot some treasures but at the time antiques bored me to tears. I was fascinated by some of the mysterious notes people had left lying around though. You had to wonder what was going on in their lives.

--I have to be all ready to receive the management here today at 8:30 AM, which is now, for the inspection they were going to do in January, then again in February, and now they're finally doing it. Bed mattress exposed, everything at least 6 inches from any heat source, emergency cords accessible, plumbing pipes accessible, nothing on top of the stove, 3 GFCI outlets accessible, windows and light bulbs all in working order, everything all clean and no hazards anywhere.

Now I wait for them to come, and it could be any time today.

[Cherie]

The sun just came out! It is the first I have seen in 6 days. David's off skiing and I put the finishing touches for my presentation for tomorrow night (8PM ET, 5PM PT). The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation is sponsoring it. Title: "Patient Centered Care and Advocating for it in your Community". if you plan to join go to ReadyTalk.com and click join a meeting. The access code is 77866805. You can either get sound from your computer or dial in at 1-855-355-4218.

Leaving the condo in the morning to drive the 220 miles home so I have reliable Internet to do this. Also so wiped lately (last 3-4 weeks) that I have moved my Rituxan infusion up to this Thursday.

[agate]

I saw a writeup about you in the latest issue of MS Focus magazine, Cherie! I've registered for the presentation tomorrow.

[Sunshine]

That’s great!

Scheduled for IVIG tomorrow but there is a Hospital wide computer attack on two big hospitals and all their “owned” doctors, including mine, since Sunday. They hope to be up tonight. If not, the IVIG will be cancelled and rescheduled when it’s fixed.

It reminds me of th cyber attack on Britain’s system.

[SuzE-Q]

Jeannie, I hope all is well with your uncle and a wellness check was done.

I'm glad he has family like you willing to make that effort to look out for him.

[nuthatch]

Computers . . . mine's acting weird too. Everything is becoming too reliant on them IMHO.

Well, my hand dexterity is awful, but I managed to learn how to do a little peyote beading, plus how to make a few seed bead bracelets for my granddaughter even though she's not really old enough for them yet. By the time she is, I may not be capable any more. I hate that this disease has taken abilities from me that gave me so much enjoyment in the past. Everything takes much more effort now, but I keep trying anyway. I love to learn new crafts and You Tube is such a great resource. Sometimes it's just so frustrating!
Here is a picture of my efforts. Believe me, there were plenty of fails!

[Sunshine]

Beautiful!

Hospital computer system appears back up. Infusion should be a go in an hour

[Cherie]

I saw a writeup about you in the latest issue of MS Focus magazine, Cherie! I've registered for the presentation tomorrow.

Thank you. I understand there were about 90 people logged in. I felt like I was losing my words at times and had to talk around to find them. I had been on the road for 5 hours to get to reliable Internet and home then unpacked and did laundry and fixed dinner. Hope the message was clear. Tomorrow night another MS Certified nurse talks about "the unmentionable symptoms of MS" at 8PM ET (5PM PT).

Anyone in the Oaklawn, IL area? I am doing a program there on Thursday, March 29 at the Hilton. It is sponsored by the MS Foundation. I understand the venue is about 15 minutes from Midway airport in the Chicago area.