Hi everyone on a beautiful crisp Monday morning.  We do expect to reach the low 80s this afternoon.  There is lots of activity at the new house across the street as this is the last day they have to work before the closing, that according to the builder, is to occur tomorrow.  I know they still have to build the back yard wooden fence that all of these houses have and they are now painting the columns on the front porch.  It should be a busy day over there. 

I looked at my receipt from when I bought the laptop for Pat and found I have two years of warranty coverage as COSTCO provides the second year.  I will be calling them today to see what needs to be done to get Pat's laptop fixed.  I hope they will authorize repair locally but that is probably too much to ask for and I will have to send it off.  At least I still have the box it came in.

Today I will attend my noon meeting and then plan on stopping at COSTCO to fill the gas tank on the car and then get two or three items from the store.  At 4 pm Pat has another Chiropractic appointment.  That will be plenty for today along with the normal chores here at home and getting the evening meal. 

Mary Ann, the viruses attack an individual computer and as long as you don't copy the infected software over to the new computer you should be OK.  If you got the virus via an email and were to reopen it and click on the infected link then it could be brought over to a new computer, but that is highly unlikely.  I just now, on my Windows 10 computer, clicked on the Start button and in the search box I typed Notepad and it showed me the link in the popup box above to the Notepad App.  Just click on it and it should open Notepad for you.  Notepad or Wordpad has worked on several iterations of the Windows software. 

Patricia, I remember when we lived in Anchorage you could buy Alaska King Crab for 75 cents a pound but we seldom had it as that was too expensive.  Pat and I had a fish tacos for the first time when we ate at Tin Lizzy's last week and found them very tasty.  It is strange that the fast food and chain restaurants don't do will in your city with all the young people in the military. 

deAngel, I think cats like to play in the toilet bowl water.  I know the cat we had would do that.  That is sure a good price for the senior day meals at JR's.  We used to eat at a JR's bar-b-que but it was a locally owned place.  In fact the owners attended the church we did and I had an occasion to attend a committee meeting in their home.   

MarsGal, it must be something to see a Bald Eagle.  The last time I went by the bakery section at Walmart they had a lot of pumpkin cookies and breads and cakes for sale.   

Marsgal, I envy you being able to see a bald eagle and the river sight was different too.  When/if I'm in a car, my travels don't take me near the river.  All I can see in the morning are the Canada geese who spent the night on our pond.  Unless he's on the deck, Kendrick ignores them, although he can see and hear them from our living room.

I have several phone calls to make this morning and that's the extent of my "must" activities for the morning, at least.  We'll see what turns up.

Mary Ann

Larry, I am back from the grocery store. I picked up pumpkin pie, Ginger Snaps and Apple Pie Snaps (never had those before) along with a few things I was short on.

MarsGal - what  did you mean, that the Susquehanna had turned as red as you had ever seen it?  Sounds like it must be something in the soil?  Now I must take another look at my Atlas map of PA, and see how the river flows toward Mary Page, in Annapolis.

In my lifetime, I've never seen a bald eagle.  We do have them in CA, but I've never been so fortunate as to spot one.  Also, I've seen only one owl. It was in my back yard, on the fence,  I remember being surprised at how BIG it was! This was a summer evening way back in the 1970's, and I recall running around trying to find my youngest daughter, so she could see it, but by the time we returned to the yard, it was gone.  I understand there are lots of barn owls here in CA, but I haven't seen any of those either.  Maybe I haven't been in enough barns?

The Susquehanna flows into the Chesapeake and provides a very great deal of our water, and thus on into the Atlantic Ocean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susquehanna_River

I wish I could gather all of you and flash fly you here. The Golden Eagles are a familiar site here as are owls. The Bald Eagles rarely show up here but are known as a carrion bird in southeast Alaska.

You might put it on your bucket list to take a trip at Thanksgiving to Homer Alaska where thousands over winter. The fish are a huge draw for them. You can Google Homer, Alaska and Bald Eagles to find dates, info, and photos.

Well, after just about killing myself getting ready, they aren't spraying today. Evidently, there are others not ready. A maintenance man is coming sometime today to give us the particulars.

The one apartment four doors down has four stages of the bugs, eggs, larvae, young and adults, so it is said we all have them.

I have yet to see any, but I'm beginning to think I will be totally infested before something is done. Then there is the separate spraying, once a week for three weeks. That means why to bother to do more than vacuum or wipe down for a month. The majority of items I own are bagged and crated on the balcony, and it looks like they will be there for awhile.

Farrah has regressed with my anxiety and lugging everything hither and yon. She alternates between running and hiding or wanting to be scratched and petted. She's anxious too. Farrah is licking the plastic bags and my shower curtain

. The vets tell me that dogs will do it too and both cats and dogs will sometimes lick walls. The reason for all of the above is dried, or powdered milk is used as a stabilizer in paint, plastic, and other items and some animals will pick up on this. So now I have another issue while I wait and wait some more!

One piece of good news is my rent is going down, and I will have a credit because it should have gone down in July, with my receiving Medicare.

I did see a bald eagle (at least that is what I was told) in SE Alaska (as you said, Patricia) when we were on the water south from Valdez.  I got a picture of it but when I want to see the eagle, I have to blow up the picture.

Patricia, odd things that cats do - we bought Kendrick a sloping scratch pad and it is near the slider to the deck.  The high part is by the slider.  I let Kendrick go out on the deck instead of letting him out the front door and when he comes in, he hops on the scratch pad backwards.  When he goes into the living area, he heads for that scratch pad, but then he goes at it the right way.

Farrah can tell when you're upset, can't she!

Mary Ann

Farrah is very attuned to me and her surroundings. I supposed she had to be in her past. I am becoming convinced that she was taken from her mother way to early as she often doesn't sound or behave as we think of a cat. it took awhile for her to learn she could attack to play with my fingers with impunity.

If I used my fingers and "crawled" towards her, she would become concerned and leave. Now she rolls to her side and jabs at my fingers with claws fully sheathed. When you make a play movement or she wants to induce play, she puts her rear up like a dog and scratches the rug with her front claws.

I think Kendrick, like Farrah, has made his own routines.

Marilyne, it could have been a trick of the morning light, but the river did look red rather than muddy brown. Others must have been concerned about it because the news (forget if it was PennLive or the morning newcast on Channel 21) mentioned it and said that the powers that keep an eye on such things said it was turbidity, the water companies are working to remove it and that the water is safe to drink. I don't know about up north, but south of me in York County the soil is red clay.

We got a green light and they will start spraying our floor tomorrow morning early! Its a good thing as my across the hall neighbor saw one in her bedroom by the baseboards. They will spray tomorrow and then the next two consecutive Tuesday to make sure they have them all. Then it will be down to the third floor and so on. So my paintings and everything except my food which is in the freezer and fridge is on my balcony, including all flour, rice, salt, beans.

Hi everyone on another beautiful day.  It is 62 degrees outside now but only suppose to go up to 72 degrees later this afternoon.  The big activity today is our Adult Fellowship luncheon at 11:30.  This is the day my neighbor will be speaking on the assassination of JKF, having been an eye witness to the event.  Pat also has a chiropractic appointment at 4:30 today.  Today is also our son's 53rd birthday but because of my commitment at lunch time and his having to work this evening we will celebrate tomorrow with a trip to one of his favorite eating places, the Chop House, which is a very nice restaurant with very good food. 

They are working furiously across the street with the last minute preparations for the closing on the new home across the street.  They are doing the outside plantings and spreading the pine straw and it appears all will be ready.  Hopefully this will be the last day for all the workmen and vehicles on our street. 

I did call on the warranty on Pat's computer.  What a farce.  At the moment I called the internet was working on it as it does intermittently and they said there was nothing they could do and I would have to call when it wasn't working.  They also said that if they sent a repairman out and he found it working that would be it he wouldn't try to do anything.  I am going to try an external wireless adapter on it as have several of them not in use that worked on other computers.

MarsGal, I have never heard of Apple Pie Snaps but they sure sound good. 

Patricia, what an up and down situation with the spraying.  Was glad to see they are doing the first spraying today for you.  I expect Farrah is upset because she senses your upset as well as having things not where she was used to them.  Cat's don't like change.  Good news on your rent. 

Hello from an icy, snowless Interior. They arrived to spray this morning at nine am. Most of us adjoined to the fifth floor common room and settled in for coffee and gossip. We were to remain off the floor until one pm. However, most of us stayed until two. When I returned, there was a chemical smell, similar to me as an industrial carpet cleaner. You could smell it as the elevator reached the floor.

Farrah surprised me today, other than a whine or two if I suddenly picked up her soft side carrier, she laid down and quietly observed events and people. It is the first cat I've ever had that didn't continually protest, loudly about a carrier. Baby Boy who is a miniature Dobie, at first growled and lunged at Farrah's carrier. Farrah did not even rise to her feet.

She only lay and watched as Linda had to forcibly drag her dog to the other side of the room. Another woman said Farrah seemed very blase about the whole experience!   
Then after returning home, I spread a blanket on the couch to take a nap and my supposedly scared little cat, laid down beside me and slept too. Right now she is napping in her carrier I am so proud of this cat!

Now, they will respray the next three Tuesday for four weeks total, and they believe they caught all of the bugs on this floor. Tomorrow they begin on the third floor. In any case, all my belongings will remain bagged, crated or elsewhere until those four weeks are up.There have been no fifth-floor sightings but that floor was sprayed first as they make their way down.

Now perhaps I will be able to sleep more than three hours a night!

It is 8:11 pm now and there have been no postings since Larry's five am post. I hope everyone is okay?

Such a stressful and strenuous ordeal, Patricia.  And to think it has just begun.  Well, Farrah's behavior is indeed a blessing!  But I cannot help but feel so grateful I am not having to go through a situation like this, and then harbor the dread that it might happen here, as well.  I do hope this will continue without any hitches in the plan, and in a few weeks be behind you for once and for ALL!

Stressful is right.believe I would have tried to find a nearby "vacation spot" for the entire time. Even though some of these pesticides are supposed to be "safe", I have an inherent distrust of those claims with only a few exceptions.

Larry, I had never heard of Apple Pie Snaps either. I haven't opened the bag yet, but when I do I will let you know how they taste.

I have an early appointment today to see about my ears. They have been doing the ear pressure thing since June or July a lot more often than before and a lot stronger. My regular Dr. thought I hah ear infections, but anti-biotics aren't helping. I have suspected all along that it is an allergy thing. Hopefully the ENT will have some suggestions to alleviate the problem. I am not one to take a lot of pills, so I haven't regularly tried to treat this unless my ears get real itchy or my nose gets too stuffy. I hope their solution is not taking allergy medicines on a regular basis. BTW, I don't think the allergy meds have much of an effect on the ears either.

Hi everyone on this Wednesday morning.  We are suppose to only get into the mid-70's this afternoon.  This should be a very enjoyable day as we will go out to celebrate Scott's 53rd birthday with a nice lunch at the Chop House Restaurant.  Even though he has to work tonight he wanted to go ahead with lunch and he said he just wanted to spend some time with us, which is appreciated. 

I haven't decided whether I will go to the evening meal at the church or not.   I also plan on a quick trip to the pharmacy at Walmart to pick up a prescription and will do that as soon as they open.  My neighbor's talk on the JFK matter was very well received by the lunch group yesterday and a number of the folks came up to him to discuss it further.  So it will be a full time.

They apparently didn't get closed on the new house across the street yesterday and I have seen the builder over there this morning and now the painters have returned.  There must have been some delay. 

Patricia, nice that you could spend the time away from your apartment with others as sure that made the time go by more quickly.  You at least now know what to expect about the spraying. I had to chuckle at Farrah always surprising you with her actions.  Perhaps she felt safe in the confines of her carrier while out of the apartment as other people or the dog couldn't get to her.

MarsGal, are the cookies a National brand?  I hope your doctor's appointment today will give you some answers and some relief for your ears. 

Good morning everyone!

Yes, it is and will be stressful as everything is either on my balcony or pressed together in the middle f my rooms. I just shut the door in the bedroom and leave it for the remainder of the time. I always thought a spray was for one day, so this is very new to me. The multiple sprayings must means bedbugs are hard to eradicate

It was nice to see all those on my floor and settle in for a good gossip. Although some had to either work or simply left for those hours. We had birds, even an African Gray, one or two dogs and several cats who were very vocal about their displeasure.

Baby Boy is well known as he growls if he hears you outside his door. He is very friendly if he knows you, his tail will be going like  helicopters blades, around and around. He is excitable, to say the least. Farrah was very calm. She even hung out in her carrier at home, no fear or anxiety at all! I wonder if she at first, thought she was leaving to go somewhere else at first?

After the spraying, I am thinking about paying someone to clean before I go putting some things back and discarding others. There is one man who is well recommended for cleaning apartments you are moving out of. I think his rates sound reasonable. It is a good time to get all the wiping and dusting done that I cannot do on a regular basis. I know I have too much stuff, but it is my stuff!

Yes, there have been a lot of articles in just the past few years about how we are suffering from a sudden proliferation of bed bugs, and how hard they are to get rid of.  Really scary stuff.  I've never seen a bed bug, though my dad always used to say that rhyme just about every night when I was a child.  You know, "Goodnight, Sleep tight, Don't let the bed bugs bite!"  Gives me total creeps.  Not the jingle, but the THOUGHT!  Eeeeek!

MaryPage, have you seen our new Story Line game?

http://www.seniorsandfriends.org/index.php?topic=266.msg56328#msg56328

With your talent for description I think you might like to join us

Good afternoon, again very windy, and cool.

Patricia, you are so lucky with Farrar, if it had been Taffy, I am sure everyone would have known she was there. I know this is very stressful for you.

MaryPage, I remember that saying.

Now did anyone watch that TV show last night. What is the name of it. "This is us" or something like that. I have tried 3 times but don't think I will bother seeing it again. To me its Awful.  Not only that it has more commercials in the hour show than any I have ever watched. I started counting. Was over 20 commercials. Then I times it was 8 min. of show then 5 to 7 min. for commercials. I finely did figure the story line at the end showing where some of them came from. Even that was crazy. Had the mother and father and the male twin skinny and the daughter weight at about 350 lbs. Never happen in a twin.

Thanks for pointing that out to me, Bubble.  It looks like a lot of fun, and I remember doing something like that around the dining room table when I was a kid.  But after checking it out, I realize that one of the biggest difficulties in my life now is just not enough hours in the day.  I keep giving up things to try to make more room.  For instance, have given up SeniorLearn altogether, as well as dropping other things by the side of the road to make the journey easier.  Your game would just devour bunches of time I flat out don't have.  Again, thanks.
Had a doctor's appointment this morning that I fully expected to go by swiftly and easily, with just one of those brand new pneumonia shots as a little addition.  Well, I got the shot alright, but also found out I have C.O.P.D.  The doctor listened to my breathing/chest, and then had their pulmonary specialist give me tests, and then a treatment, and then more tests.  I thought I was going to be there FOREVER!  They finally let me go with a kit of a 7 day supply of inhalers and a prescription for a month's supply, and then I go back again.  Bummer!
Oh well.  Another day, another disorder!  That seems to be the way of it at my age.

MaryPage, I know exactly what you mean. Which is why I say these are not the golden years, but the slowly rusting out years! I have had more stuff pop up in the last five years than I ever had  before!

Either that or calamities! After a three hour nap this morning, my new as from August laptop wouldn't work, my keyboard was dead. I used the onscreen keyboard and went to Dell chat. He fixed it by going into Bios and fiddling around. If it isn't one thing, it is six or more of the other! 


My older sister and three friends have COPD.

Patricia, I'm with you in having things happen in our later years.  I think everything that is physically wrong with me has started since I was 80.  A couple things came and went but most are here to stay until the end.  I really feel OK, but I don't move like I used to, I don't see or hear like I used to.  I'm not giving up, but I sure hate to face all of my aches and pains and pills etc every day.  I really am thankful I feel as good as I do.

Mary Ann

I know what you mean, I used to walk all over the place, easily ten or more miles daily and my hearing was excellent. That was then. Now my arms sound like matchsticks when I try to raise up and I wear a button for falls! You are lucky and healthy, or should I say, wise in taking care of yourself? I am only 65.

Angelface - I consider myself in pretty good shape for my age (78), but a lot has changed since I was 65! I don't think I ever could have walked 10 miles.  I used to think I did well when I walked 4 miles in my 40s. 

Mary Ann - My sight (MD) and hearing are two of my worst problems, also my stamina.

MaryPage - Hope the inhalers make a difference in how you feel.

Larry - I know how nice it is to have the vacant building lots filled. When we first moved here our street had only three houses, including ours. I watched them all go up and was so happy to finally have no more dirt blowing around. (And no more porta-potties lining the street!  ) This entire area was new.

We've been having beautiful weather.....Cool nights and days in the 80s.

Larry, the Snaps are made by Stauffer's.  Stauffer's begin life right here in York, PA. I think they originated the Animal Crackers. The company is now a division of a Japanese company called Meiji Co. Ltd. of Japan.

Has anyone noticed just how many of our major companies are being/have been bought up by foreign companies?
http://americawakeup.net/  This extensive list includes not only whole companies, but divisions and subsidiaries of large companies that were sold off piece-meal. I tried to Google a list of US companies that are buying foreign companies, but so far I've com up with nothing.

Hi everyone on an overcast morning but no rain predicted.  I have a very light day planned today with only a quick stop at the Credit Union to cash a check and then will pick up my friend and we will go to coffee.  I won't be returning back downtown to attend the normal Wisdom group as the pastor is having some shoulder surgery this morning.  I have a couple of tasks I plan on doing in the kitchen and hopefully can take the rest of the day quietly and restfully.  Yesterday was as busy as I want.  We did take Scott out to a nice lunch, which we all enjoyed and then I did go to the Wednesday night dinner but ate very lightly as had finished a big lunch no too many hours before. 

Patricia, perhaps the shared hardship involved with the spraying will bring the folks at least on your floor together more.  I guess you could think of the four weeks as an extended camping trip since many of your things are probably inaccessible to you. 

MaryPage, I have also heard that expression about not letting the bed bugs bite all of my life.  To my knowledge we never experienced them as I was growing up or in my adult life and I hope it stays that way.  So sorry to learn that you now have to deal with the COPD.  Stacey was dealing with that the last year or so of her life but refused to go on the oxygen as she knew it wasn't safe to go on oxygen and to smoke and she didn't want to give up the smoking.  Pat was recently diagnosed with asthma and has to use an inhaler a couple of times a day.   

JeanneP, I mentioned that show to Pat but then we forgot to set the DVR to record it.  It sounds like we didn't really miss anything. 

Mary Ann, even though I have a couple of very serious health problems I feel blessed in not having arthritis and still having good hearing and eyesight.  I know many of our folks here suffer daily with aches and pains as my wife does and has for all of our married life. 

Beverly, I didn't realize what an eyesore the vacant lot across the street was until it is gone and I see how nice it looks with the home basically completed, and the yard and yard plantings in place. 

MarsGal, not surprised that you can't find American companies buying up companies from other countries.  It seems daily we learn of another company being purchased by Chinese or other foreign countries companies.  It is indeed sad as so many jobs have been lost. 

Larry, when I hear of others health problems, I know I am lucky to have the ones I have, not nearly so serious as some that others have.  You've heard the piece about everyone putting their ills in a pile then given the choice to make a choice and they end up picking their own ills - at least they're familiar with them (not worded right, but you get the idea).

I think the foreign involvement in our US companies contributes to our unemployment too.  And, as has been said, try to buy anything made in the US anymore. 

Mary Ann

In the many instances I have seen, that is to say, of people from other nations buying up businesses here, it has not resulted in jobs being lost.  For instance, I remember well when the company I was working for as comptroller was using a large bank here in Maryland, a bank everyone here was well aware of, and along about 1980 it was bought up by some Saudi princes.  And there were a couple of them, according to the tellers and a number of the general public and the bank officer I dealt with, seen walking around the lobby from time to time in their thawbs and keffiyehs.  At the time, most of us living here kind of felt our minds being bent in new and different molds, because we were not accustomed to even thinking of this happening, let alone seeing it.  But it did happen, and it happened all over the place, as the distance between the very rich and the middle classes grew into a madly raging torrent, with the middle classes winding up swamped.  All of that extra money in the coffers of such a few had to be spent Somewhere!  So they bought and sold and bought and merged and engaged in all sorts of Big Money highjinks to make more and more money.  That's what you do when you are loaded.  But the folks here who worked for that bank, and for the even bigger one it merged into, and for the one at the end of the line of changes today that was that bank back then, kept their jobs and did not really notice any difference.  So what I am saying, from my end of the telescope, as it were, the very rich are exchanging humongous amounts of cash and buying and selling whole corporations, but the hum drum life goes on for the rest of us.  Now that is in the finance industry, and the same is true of the service industry.  The manufacturing industry is another matter.  We have lost a whole lot of that to lower wages.  To countries where, even though the workers are living pitiful lives of desperation, they are better off than their parents and grandparents.  When their children's and grandchildren's lives improve due to their demonstrating for a higher standard of living, those jobs will eventually move elsewhere around the globe.  Big money is always calculating how to keep the maximum profits coming into their vaults.  Nations like ours, that lose those manufacturing jobs, have to retrain for the worlds of finance, health, services, technology and such.  What is real on the ground is real, and bemoaning Change is a huge waste of time that could be more advantageously spent exploring different venues from which to earn our way through life. 

MarsGal - Speaking of companies leaving the US, and since you live in PA, maybe you can tell me what happened to the Hershey company?  I heard that they sold out to another country - I think it was Mexico?  If that's true, what has happened to the Hershey theme park, in that city?  It must   still be in operation, but the candy is being manufactured somewhere else?

Larry - Yes, we all seem to have major health issues, by the time we reach these "golden years".  I guess that's the price we pay for living much longer than generations in the past.  Well worth it, I say . . . but still, there are times when I wonder?