Morning all. Not going to post much right now because I'll start bawling (again). We put Coal to sleep yesterday. It was his time and we are certain we did the right thing for him. Here come the tears again. I'll just get this posted.

AW LAURA...I am so sorry to hear of COAL...Hugs my sweet sister. Hope you find comfort in doing the right thing. Love you!

Laura... :cry: :hug: Coal will be your child forever :bb: with the wonderful memories that your family made together.:hug:

Thank you Dear Jesus for bringing Coal into such a wonderful family with their 'unconditional Love' :angel:

Your heart's guided you both to give your sweet Coal the most Loving gift he needed yesterday. You're both in my prayers from his passing. :hug:

Please share some of Coal's antics when they come into your thoughts, sharing memories help you to heal :)

With my Love & I share your heartbreak, Dee

Laura
:hug: I'm sure you did the right thing for Coal. He will be missed.

Annie
Wow must be nice to have the house cleaned up while you are at work.

Dee
Hope you get the insurance stuff straightened out. And yea for the Doctor taking up for you.

Happy
Think you need to have some me time. Wow that must have been a storm to blow off the siding.

------
Still working on retirement and moving stuff. Didn't realize what all this entailed. But as a friend told me baby steps toward that giant leap in August. I stopped by the Human Resource office yesterday for her to sign off on my retirement plan. She faxed that off to them for me. That was my major concern for yesterday. My neighbor kept coming over yesterday. Not that I mind but either my hearing is going or she doesn't speak more than a mumble.
I thought I could get by with rabbit ears for t.v. watching but the stations are becoming scrambled. I may invest an antenna for outside use to see how that goes. My Roku works well. I use Wi-Fi for this. My tv carrier is going to a different set up and I haven't broke open the box for the receivers. I haven't gotten cable in Missouri yet, but may once I get there. My security system is scheduled to be disconnected on the 26th. I haven't been using that except for the camera's. Trying to get used to being with out it. I probably need to call my ISP an see if that needs to be schedule a month in advance.
I'm going to pack my cd and dvd's today and clean house.

Hello fine ladies,

Laura - my heart goes out to you today :hug: I am so sorry about Coal - that is the worst thing about being a pet parent - having to make that decision. Yes we know you did the right thing, yes, he is not suffering any more but dang, dang, dang - that does not do anything to help the sadness in your heart. Good thoughts and hugs are with you today. :cry:

Annie - thanks for the review on the recipe. I'm sorry it did not turn out as flavorful as it looked like it should have been. I will have to think about adding more components if I make it. Maybe if it had chicken or some protein in it - definitely more seasonings too. Are you getting prepared for surgery? Bummer that you didn't make the 10 pound goal but anything you can do will help, including not stress eating and making things worse. Don't be beating yourself up please young lady :nono: Focus on the fact that you will feel better (in a couple of months) - I'm sure with bone work it will take more time to heal than soft tissue but at least you won't have to worry about slipping in winter and causing more pain to that already sore ankle. :hug: Nice that S cleaned the house for you - are you getting used to a more crowded house? Sorry C was a mean texter the other day - there are times I want to put a bucket on DH's head and bang it with a wooden spoon. :rollpin: He's just lucky I can't get to his head without him noticing first :^: - men complain about women but guys have their moments too.

Shad - sounds like the corporate world is getting to you :hug: I know what you mean about not being able to come up with the answers. People are hoping there is someone who has a shred of truth in all this mess but you have to keep the party tag line. :( I don't hear much of you exploring like you used to - is it just work, work, work all the time that wears a body and mind down? I'm really glad to see that you are planning on taking a much needed break for yourself after you wrap up this phase of the contract. There comes a time when you just have no more gas in the tank to keep plugging away.

Dee - I loved the advice the doctor gave to DH. If only they would listen :rolleyes: I think there is a certain crankiness that comes with age - I see it in myself and try not to lash out to DH when I am frustrated with everything in the world around me. I think at times he does the same. But that is wonderful advice. Will you have to be leaving this wonderful doctor when you move to your new home? :( Bummer on DH's hours getting cut. I hear you about giving away some things at the garage sale. I would be a softy too - I just hate it when people try to give you a sad story to cut the price only because they are going to turn around and resell it and want things for pennies on the dollar. That happens at our thrift shop alot. When people ask me to cut the price at the shop I point to our story board with the animal pictures and ask them to pick out which animals won't get fed today because I had to take less money by giving you a discount? :s: Anyways... When will you be moving? DH occasionally brings up the idea of getting chickens but we are already tied to the house (no vacations) because of the cats - at least with the cats we can take an overnight jaunt. Also with chickens, we have alot of predators around here - I would be horrified if anything got to the birds. But if you want to be our "shepard" on the commune, I'm a-ok with that!!!! :D I think we'd have great fun all together on the commune. There is certainly enough to keep us busy but it's a much more relaxed lifestyle. I love it here as I hope you will love your new home. Some day I will write a book - I float the idea through my head every once in a while...

Ceejay - yikes on getting lost in the new town :eek: Glad you were able to find your way back. I have a very lousy sense of direction and moving up here sort of scared me because most everything is miles and miles of roads and trees and bends in the road and more curves and trees :lol: Not like in the city at all! I'm glad you could smile through it. I also subscribed to the local paper so I could get a feel for what is going on in the community and find important things like shopping! Are you getting excited???

Susie - I am so glad to hear that you got a wonderful review. I hope they follow it up with the cash!!! Were you able to unload all your extra work so you can focus on the new boss?

Sorry that I haven't posted in a few days. It's been nuts around here. The door is rubbing and clunking really badly. It's our only entrance at the moment and yesterday DH had a hard time locking the door. We are going to have to find a new door but we can't schedule installation because we don't know what's going on with the deck. They are working on the house now and will build us a new back entrance this week so we will be able to use that to get in and out of the house. They didn't come yesterday because we got alot of rain but today is nice and sunny and I have a yard full of newly delivered decking but no workers :dizzy: I went for a blood draw yesterday for B12 and Vit D levels and my veins were having no part of it - they kept rolling away. I got the good plebotomist and even he had to stab me 4 times because my hand would give up some juice. We went to the eye doctor - a new one - very nice lady - and the difference in the prescription the cataract doctor gave me and what Dr. Tracy found was UNBELIEVABLE. You know how they put that machine to your eyes and say what's better - 1 or 2? I hate that test. But anyway when done she showed me what I tested and then flipped to my existing prescription. No wonder I can't see. She also said it's baloney what the doctor said about them not being able to prescribe progressive lens for cataract patients. So I am back to glasses full time again - I don't mind, actually I missed them and I always have cheaters on my head so I'm wearing them about half the time anyway. The only bad thing is that her glasses are very pricey. I need regular progressives for distance and close up, sun glasses, and computer glasses because otherwise I strain my neck looking up at the computer through the bifocal part of the progressives. Glasses for me (with discounts) were almost $1200. DH's glasses were over $500 - he said he's never paid that much in his life. Last year I had glasses made at the discount eye place and had to have them remade 3 times - probably because the doctor didn't give me a correct prescription. So I hope the pricey glasses will work better. I have about a dozen pairs of glasses to give to the Lions Club. :^:

My knees are still killing me. I am in so much bloody pain it's hard to deal with. I am trying to not be on my feet so much. I am going full tilt on the diet come Monday - working things out for an eating plan, getting rid of stuff in the house that I don't want around, etc. I also see my regular doctor on Monday - will be interested in her opinion at this point. I am still torn about getting another orthopedist's opinion - I do feel in my heart that the other doctor was right - I need to lose some serious weight before surgery but I wish they'd give me something (and I am NOT a pill taker) that would ease the continuous relenting pain. I am doing PT stretches and exercises, I need to make a point of getting on the bike again. And I am chewing Motrin like it's no ones business. I will get my knees fixed and then find out I shot my liver all to hades with the Motrin. :dizzy:

Monday is our next Humane Society fundraiser. I can't wait for it to be over. I got the list of volunteers from my co-chair. I will be calling 48 people over the next 2 days to remind them of their shifts. I also contacted some of the local businesses and got their ok to "beg" in front of their shops, wrote copy for a Public Service Announcement for the 3 local radio stations and wrote an article for the local newspaper and all my words were quoted to the president of the Humane Society which is ok. :^: I also picked up another box of peaches on Monday - these are really big and are beauties. I am waiting for them to ripen - they smell so delicious. This time I will keep a closer eye on them - I lost about 1/4 of a box because they ripened quickly and started to get soft spots on them. This is also fruit fly time so I try to stay on top of that too. I also got a box of Michigan blueberries. Some of them are as big as 25 cent coins. No lie. The big ones are sweet and the small ones are tart. DH and I are snacking on them. I think I will separate them and make a pie or crumble out of the small ones and we'll just eat the rest. We have had an excessive amount of rain the last few days. No boating and the mosquito population is awful. They are in the house and I am constantly killing them and a few have managed to bite both of us. I am upstairs in the loft area and I can hear Meadow snoring rather loudly as she is curled up on the couch with one paw covering her eyes. :lol: DH is outside tearing off more of the siding - he said anything he can do will be less hours we are billed for the construction work. I just hope he does not over do it. He gets vasculitis - his legs above the sock line get bright red like he's got a 3rd degree burn but it's blood vessels. He needs to wear his compression socks but should not be on his feet for 8 to 10 hours constantly. Always so much to do. He talked about a 3 day get away in the fall up north but around here people book a year ahead of time for the fall colors and you can't even be sure when they will peak. Anyway... that's it for my blathering. Have a good day all and again Laura - special hugs to you today :hug:

Hey HAPPY...I just heard someone on the elevator say he has a cyst on his knee and is having surgery next week. I didn't know him or I would of quizzed him...small, strange world.

Laura - so sorry to hear about Coal. It's a hard thing to have to do, but you recognised the time was now and you did it. Hugs to you my friend. I hope that sometime soon you will be able to give another lost pet some time in your life to share what you shared with Coal.

Hugs

Quick post right now. I hope to come back later today or tomorrow and read on all the things I missed.

I just saw Laura's post about Coal. :hug::hug::hug::hug: my dear friend. It is the hardest and yet kindest thing we can do for our fur babies when it is time. It just breaks your heart and I'm sure you feel like you lost your best friend---because you did. :(

My heart breaks for you.

Good morning ladies,

Yesterday I made a decision that I just need to walk away from day to day stuff at the thrift shop. Last weekend I reworked a front display that had Christmas stuff. It was piled so haphazard in the front that you could not access breakable items on the upper shelves. In rearranging the area, I moved a set up of logo coffee mugs and coffee that didn't belong there in the first place. The coffee belongs to the "dragon lady" a psychotic (truly - I'm not lying) nutbag that has been at the shop for years. She is very protective of her stuff and bullies anyone who touches her stuff. She is taking over the entire upper level of the shop. It looks like a glass emporium now - the only thing we have up there is glasses, glass bowls, glass dishes and cheap silverplated stuff that people have donated to us because they don't want to clean it themselves. I have tried to feature other things in the front and windows because customers have commented that they were hesitant to come into the shop because they thought it was a glass giftware shop and if they did come in, they were surprised at all we carried. So I explained why I redid the Christmas display and the reasoning behind it and politely asked that they leave it be. Yesterday I was at bingo and my partner (who is the pseudo manager at the shop) said the "coven" went and put everything back to the way it was. I'm just tired of this. So tired of it. Nothing will ever change. I could be just as childish as this witch and we could enter a game of push me pull you and each of us keep moving things back and forth but instead I give up. And I don't need the aggravation any more. So I am walking away from cashiering. I will do some things behind the scenes for support work and fundraisers but I am going to greatly cut back my involvement. I do the sales figures and sales are starting to go down this year. We did thousands less last month than the same time this year and it looks like July will be the same. There is a core group of bullies who want to control everything and have no business sense or experience and they squash any idea that is not their own. People who can do something about this don't want to deal with conflict and just hope everyone will just all hold hands and sing kumbaya and it ain't gonna happen. So once again, the bullies win and push out another strong one. DH will be happy because I won't be bringing home extra thrift stuff on a regular basis :D

Bingo last night was scary. 2 of the regulars could not make it so it was my partner D who runs the show and T who volunteers once a month and has been helping for years and me, the new kid filling in for D#2. The regular bingo caller was absent so T filled in for him. He was rather rusty as it had been a while since he did this. I thought calling bingo numbers was easy but yikes, like the other jobs I have learned - this bingo stuff is work! You pull a ball like the lottery machine - air pushes a ball up with the next bingo number. You announce the ball number and put it in a tray of slots in the appropriate space. The ball makes contact with some wires and that lights up the number on the bingo board for everyone in the room to see. It gets complicated because each of the games played has a different pattern to win. For example - one game you have to get 4 corners, one game a regular diagonal, one game you make symbols like a cat, a square, a crazy V, etc. There are 5 series of patterns which we rotate every week. So the bingo caller has to be very aware of what pattern is being played for that game. In some cases like making a diamond in the middle of the card you don't use certain columns like B and O. Obviously the bingo machine will push up balls with B or O for that game but if that happens, you just announce that is a dead ball. So calling bingo numbers is pretty complicated. Getting back to the story... poor T was having issues with calling a number and then putting it in the wrong slot which of course made the wrong light light up on the board. The first 2 times the bingo players were polite about calling his mistake but the more mistakes he made, the more angry they became. :mad: The more mistakes he made, the more unnerved he got. Then he called out an incorrect number and one lady called BINGO. Trouble was, she got bingo on the incorrect number he called - he called 43 and it was really 28. T called one more number and it turned out another lady had bingo. Technically the lady with the wrong number didn't win and she was sooooooo mad :rollpin: D decided to try and appease her and gave her half the money for the game (which is what would typically happen if there were 2 winners for one game). She told him to shut up and get out of her face and go sit down. She took the money and threw it across the table at her purse and sat with a pouty face for the rest of the night. We had several more incidents of T making mistakes and the crowd was getting restless. :frypan: I told D I was afraid of the bingo people :eek: We also had a couple of incidents where people thought they had bingo and they really didn't. This could have been due to the confusion of calling numbers incorrectly. I learned that bingo as a whole is a very difficult job. I was glad to see the night end and turn off the lights and lock up!

I will spend the day today calling and sending email reminders to 48 people who are working our fundraiser on Monday. We are going to be out on the streets of town and it looks like the weather went from hot and sunny to afternoon thunderstorms :( And it looks like my peaches will be ready to be processed by the weekend at the latest so I'll be busy with that. DH just said we haven't used the boat but twice since we bought it so we are going to try and go out on Sunday. Either just us or maybe fishing with friends from a trip we had to postpone earlier because of weather. The weather has been crazy. It's warm and clouds appear and you don't know if there is going to be pop up storms. Last night was clear - good for watching the starry skies and the upcoming Perseids meteor shower. But it got down to 45 degrees last night! And a high of 82 degrees today - what a swing - not so good for the garden.

Annie - regarding the guy with the cyst on his knee. Sometimes that is caused by a tear in the cartilage and they will do surgery to repair the tear. If the cyst is caused by osteoarthritis - like me - the aggravated joint just naturally produces too much lubricating fluid causing the cyst - not much they can do except drain the cyst, give you a cortisone shot to help reduce the inflammation or hope it heals on it's own. Not much hope for hopeless me. My other knee was getting tight in the back - was hoping that wasn't developing a cyst too. I saw your note on FB today - are you having a rough day? :hug: I hope you can find something to lift your spirits - I wish you could come and work a shift at the thrift shop with me - we would have a grand time telling stories about the items and funning with the customers. Hang in there and don't forget to count the blessings and the good things in life because there are some.

Laura - I hope you are doing ok too. :hug: How long did you have Coal? I like Dee's suggestion of telling us a warm or funny story to share the memories of him.

I guess I need to get busy here - things don't take care of themselves. Will check back with you all later.

Good Morning All....

Dental appt at 2, hair cut at 4:30. Yee, going to the dentist sucks as much as chin whiskers. bleh. It is just my 6 mo cleaning so shouldn't be too awful, hopefully no issues to be found. Just hobbled 5 blocks to do my weekly banking. 5/3rd, Chase, Forum. No TCU this week. All that is done for the week/weekend. Sis, the boys and I are going to Shiloh, IL this weekend for Maddie's 6th birthday party. This is my great niece, I told her she can call me great for short. We are staying over at Holiday Inn Express, as much as I do not like to stay at motels, we will. bleh.

The boys are both sick now. Feverish, coughing, and Royce said his "froat" hurt last night. Sam is taking them to the doc at 4pm today. Hopefully we can get them started on something. She has been doing breathing treatments on both of them for the past couple of days, but they are still thick. Bless their hearts. Royce asked last evening if he could snuggle with me. Of course, but was also thinking I sure don't want this crud.

HAPPY...well of course you have the type of cyst that sucks and cannot be surgically removed. Should of known with OUR luck. :( Hmmm, today's FB post, I have struggles every day, some days are just worse than others. My heart always aches about something. I don't know how to have a happy heart anymore. It is getting better but still struggling. At least I have moments of happy heart rather than none at all. Boy that dang Thrift shop sure causes you a headache. I am glad you have decided to cut way back for your own health. Hugs sister knees. lol

LAURA...I know you are missing Coal, hope it gets easier each day. Major hugs my sister friend.

SUSIE...take you time, I know you are a busy lady with work and all. Post when you can.

Make it a great one!

Morning all. Glad it’s Friday. Been a rough week, to say the least.

Thank you all so much for your hugs and comments yesterday re Coal. I do appreciate them. :) Bf and I are hanging in there, but it’s really hard not having Coal around the house after nearly 13.5 years. Many happy memories, though. This morning bf said "You have to look at this!" It was several of Coal's puppy teeth I'd wrapped in plastic wrap. Bf had found it in a drawer with a lot of Coal's stuff. I don't remember specifically keeping them, but I do recall how happy the two of us were when Coal started losing his sharp little puppy teeth - our arms were always scratched up from him teething on us. :D

===
Shad – I can’t keep track of where you are, you seem to be traveling around quite a bit these days. Sorry to hear your training sessions aren’t going as well as you’d like (to put it mildly). You sound particularly frustrated this time around. I hope you get to take that break before extending your contract. It would be good to spend some time at home with family and put all that work stuff out of your mind for a bit. Safe travels!!

Susie – Congrats on getting a good manager statement for your 15-16 goals! I hope things are coming together now. So did you say you might be moving your workspace?=== The ice cream party last week was easy to deal with because it wasn’t some elaborate thing – basically just a big cooler with individual ice cream treats, one per person. It might have been a spontaneous sort of thing our office did since we were in the middle of such a heat wave. Our building management usually has its own ice cream social in the lobby and that’s very elaborate and you can really go to town making your own ice cream dessert. Maybe next month…

Annie – How nice you get fresh eggs to eat. I hope everyone likes them – you could get creative with frittatas, etc. I also like a boiled egg as a filling snack at work.== How is Royce doing with the new teeth coming in? === Don’t be so hard on yourself about not meeting your original WL goal. Adjust it and keep at it! --- What a treat to come home to – clean house!! --- Nice you were able to doctor up the asparagus/pasta to everyone’s liking.

Dee – I’m sure you and your DH will find a way to get past the cut in his hours and the dreaded tax payment (I’m paying our property tax bill today, it’s due on Monday. Bleh.) At least with the garage sale, you got rid of a lot of items you will no longer need and/or have room for in your new downsized life. When do you think you’ll be able to put your house on the market? --- Great news for your DH re the oncology appointment, and good for you enlisting the help of his doctor to deal with his “attitude issues”!!

Ceejay – I’m glad you had a successful trip to MO. Bummer you ended up lost, but it’s great your sister got you back!! You’ll learn your way around soon enough once you’re living there full time. Do you have the Google Maps app on your phone? That’s the one I use and it’s alright. Sometimes it seems to be slow and takes time to catch up, but I don’t know if that’s the app itself or just bad connectivity with my phone. --- There’s so much involved in the retirement process, but it’s the move that’s really keeping you busy….which may be a good thing, because this is a huge change for you and it’ll be good for you to be busy with something instead of going from your long workdays to having entire days and weeks stretched out in front of you with nothing specific planned.

Happy – People sure are nervy about wanting to negotiate lower prices at the thrift shop whose mission is to raise funds for a charitable organization! Good for you reminding them of that!! === Did you say you’re going to have to get another door to replace the one that it took so long to finally install??!! What a mess. And you’ll also be getting a new back entrance as well?? Never a dull moment at your place! I hope DH is not overdoing it! You both have to keep yourself well enough to be able to enjoy that new boat of yours! ---I’m glad your eyeglass prescription seems to be correct now. But what a whopper of a bill – I thought my eyeglass lenses were expensive! But they’ll be worth every penny if your vision is what it should be with them. :yes:

==
I actually did remember to weigh myself yesterday morning. I was down two pounds. We'll see if I can keep it off.

Bf’s mom move to a different rehab facility yesterday. Hopefully she’ll be able to get to where she needs to be in about 3 weeks. It would be great if she's able to live independently once again, but we’ll have to be prepared if she’s not.

Nothing going on this weekend. We’ll be visiting bf’s mom, I know that. No social plans, thankfully. Bf and I will be gathering all of Coal’s stuff (there's a lot of it) and check with the lab rescue to see what they can use. There will definitely be some items we’ll be keeping in a memory box. Happy – do you happen to know if organizations like yours (humane societies, rescues, etc.) will actually accept unused meds? We have some prescriptions meds, as well as heartworm and flea/tick stuff.

Oh, forgot - I rescheduled my hair appointment and it's tomorrow at 8 am. :yikes: But I didn't want to put it off. Who knows how much longer my very preggo stylist will still be working!

That’s about it for me. Back to work. Everyone have a wonderful weekend.;)

ok..I had sometime at lunch to read posts and catch up, so posting twice in one day.

Anne: I hope you have a nice trip this weekend and that the grandbabies got some meds at the doctor and you don't end up with what they have.

Why don't you like to stay in hotels?

Happy: I think you made a good choice about the Thrift Shop. You don't need that kind of person to deal with doing a volunteer job.

Yikes about the bingo stuff! I love to play bingo but just for fun or little prizes. I know people get serious about it....most likely for the money.

Laura: I have a 10 a.m. hair appointment tomorrow; not as early as 8 a.m. Look at it this way, your hair will be all done for the day. I just get up and take a shower, through on some sunglasses and go. After she does my hair I got into the bath room and put some make up on. Then I am ready for the day.

I loved the story about Coal's baby teeth. Very nice idea to make a memory box for some of his thing; we did that for Huddabudda.

Ceejay: We have friends who live in Mt Vernon, Missouri. We visit from time to time..if we do, I think a day trip into Branson would be fun to meet up with you!

Shad: You should be back at the apartment by now? I hope you get some rest and relaxation.

Dee: Sorry to hear that your DH is taking a temporary cut in hours. At least it is only for the month but of course it is the month when you have a big expense. Sister, you know that is God saying "trust me".

I am glad to hear that DH had a good report at the oncologist. I was chuckling to myself about the doctor and how she told him what's what. I like that idea of him writing it down until he gets it out and not spewing it at you. My DH seems to do that too when he is upset, even if it isn't at me. I think I might try that technique with him the next time he starts that behavior.

I didn't have a loss at TOPS last night. I stayed the same. I finally got my ticker fixed on here as well.

Time to get back to work. I'll see you all tomorrow.

SUSIE...hotels/motels are like food buffets to me. Too many people with their dirties in/on/around them. Plus too many horror stories about bed bugs. Enough to gag a maggot.

Happy - Good for you deciding to drop the thrift shop work! It's difficult to be in a struggle like that with people like that! And there's plenty of other non-shop/HS work for you to do to support that organization anyway. == Wow, bingo got scary last night! That's nuts. I hope you never have to call the bingo numbers!!!===Fingers :crossed: you can get out in the boat on Sunday!

Annie - Safe travels to you this weekend! Ewww, don't bring home any bed bugs!! :eek: Enjoy the birthday party and family time. == I hope the meds start helping the boys feel better.

Susie - Unless I have plans to go out on the day of my hair appointment, I usually don't bother having my hair blow dried/styled. No point having it look so nice (and paying for that) just to go home and weed the garden, LOL. But tomorrow will be different - they squeezed me in, and my girl won't have time to dry or style it (no plans, so that's fine with me), and she'll cut my hair first, then do the touch up. It's usually the reverse - dye first, cut last. That'll work.

Just lost my post so I'll try again later. Need to get ready for work tomorrow.