Hey!

Active Folks Over 50 is a place to talk about fitness and healthy eating information as it relates to weight loss and/or maintenance--and also about any work, fun, hobby, or volunteer activites you're engaged in. In other words, the active part of your life!

Just a few guidelines for this thread:

- Raves about grandkids or ranting about your kids is out of bounds.

- Lengthy discussion of your illnesses, conditions, treatments, and medical procedures in general is also out of bounds on this thread. So is whining about old age!

- Positive stories of vacations taken, volunteer work, or achievements at work or elsewhere are highly encouraged! As are recommendations for books, movies, discussions of weight related issues, etc.

Join in!
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Well, the "rat men" are here, screening off the foundation... Man, you couldn't pay me enough to do their job. It's hot and humid, and they're down there on the ground wrestling 1/4 inch mesh into place and drilling holes into the brickwork. Ye gods. And it's been going on since 8 a.m. Should be interesting to see if it works... I feel sorry for the rats, though. Maybe with all the noise, they'll vacate and then not be able to get back in. I hope that's how it goes.

I'm off to the gym now. I missed yesterday because of a work crunch, but NOT TODAY!

Jay

As long as you don't feel so sorry that you try to turn them into house-pets.

Hey meowee! I think our cat would love to have some rats as house pets... He is very large and would love the fun.

Jay

JAY . . . I know we all like to spoil our furry friends . . . BUT.

Nothing new around here -- still pretty cool and overcast again today. Since we missed our normal mall-crawl last Thursday because of my stupid cold, we are definitely doing one today.

Hope everybody else has a great day planned . . .

meowee, I think we're talking to ourselves again...

The rat was very noisy last night--probably because it couldn't get out through the wire mesh. I'm hoping it managed to wiggle its way out somewhere and then couldn't get back in. I haven't heard any noise at all tonight... so maybe it's gone to another home. Or, it may have gotten killed in the trap. If so, I hope that its next life is a better one!

The man will be back to check the trap this weekend, and I guess we'll find out then.

Jay

Hi everyone. Been off the site for a while. Saw CD pictures and got a great message from her. Feeling pretty hopeless these days but trying hard to pull it togethere. Way to overwhelmed with life. Health is going down the drain from this weight.
I have had rats too. I moved. hahahaha!! Had a pool and they are always near water.

hijude! Where you been? Glad to see you!

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. Anything we can do? Stick around!

Florida is the land of water, and there's no getting away from it. Creeks, bays, retention ponds...

Didn't hear much last night... fingers crossed...

Jay

As much as I wouldn't want him under my house, I really do hope your buddy the rat found a new, but still earthly, home, JAY.

Glad to have you back JUDE. Do stick around, it really does help.

Well . . . the shopping outing was extremely enjoyable but the lunch that we had first was . . . hmmmm . . . shall we just say it included carrot cake and too many garlic breadsticks. Today will be better.

See you later . . .

Another gloriously sunny day and I'm going out to play . . .

Actually ate clean yesterday, too . . .

Hey meowee! Gosh, was it something I said?? Where are all our friends?

The good news: One rat was caught in the trap the exterminator set. A big one.

The bad news: It's not the only one. I've heard more noises.

I had a big breakfast, really more of a brunch, and I always feel happy when I have a big breakfast. I had a really great workout at the gym yesterday--upper body stuff. For months my right shoulder was so sore that I couldn't use anything but light weights. Now, magically, it's no longer sore. Go figure! I haven't changed anything...

Jay

Thanks for the welcome back everyone. I was off to an OA marathon today. Got some good ideas. One was just start eliminating one thing at a time. So there is some positive reinforcement in having success over one binge food. I will just keep going to the meetings. I need some friends with positive attitude. I need to get my attitude a little more positive.
I am just finding it hard to change my ways. The lousier I feel the worse I do. So tomorrow I am going to commit to some exercise whether it be the gym or a walk. The walk might be the best. Or a walk to the gym lol.
You know you get yourself in a down mood and it goes from bad to worse. I have to say though that CD's story is sure a success story. There are lots out there and I would like to be one of them. So I am trying a fresh start and look ahead instead of back.
Cheers...Jude

It is the pits having rats. I am sure the exterminator will do the job. It just takes a while. I had them in the crawl space of the house I lived in. They used to live next door but he scared them away and they came to my house. The house was pretty old so it was hard to seal up their entry. I used to throw down rat poison but that is only good if nothing else can get in there. It kills them off but they just keep coming back. I live close to the ocean here. They say if you see rats in the daytime you have an epidemic. So what kills the rats?? I think we need more natural predators. Gives me the willies. I live in a strata now and they have a pest guy come once a month. Seems to work as there are none here. We do live right beside a forest too so that is pretty good. I think they had a problem here before I moved in but it is cleared up. Thank goodness.

By the way this is a great thread because it really flows. It is nice to have you all here. Where is CD these days? Does she still drop by?

Another sunny, but pretty cool day . . . nothing exciting planned for the day though.

hijude! I hope your marathon of meetings was good.

I think CD is off on a trip of some kind... usually she checks in about every day, otherwise.

Hello to Spinymouse, flowingair, the slim me, gailr42, and all the others missing in action!

The rats are coming in from under our house, which is essentially open to the outdoors but with an open concrete brick "lattice" around the bottom. Poison is absolutely not the thing to use because they will crawl into the house and die, plus anything else that gets into the poison will die, too--including rabbits, cats, etc. So the first step is to put up an exclusion barrier, which in our case is wire cloth over the brickwork around the bottom of the house. It's a 1/4-inch mesh, which is small enough to exclude mice, too.

Once that is in place, and everything that shouldn't be under the house has been chased out (except the rats, which are inside the floor space), the exterminators set traps. These are like the snap-type mousetraps only much bigger and they work the same. Since nothing else can get under, and the rats can't get out either, eventually they get whacked in the trap. So far one has been killed, and since I didn't hear any noise last night, I think the other one has been also. We'll find out the next time the guy comes to check.

Until we have no more noise in the walls and no more rats in the traps, the company will keep coming back. It's guaranteed for a year.

I think we had a male/female pair looking for a nice, permanent home. So sorry, but can't be here.

Work work work for me today...

Jay