HOT HOT HOT

 

Oregon is usually a moderate weather area.  Not too hot and rarely too cold.  Until climate change really showed it's ugly results ... ten years ago or so.  Remember when I returned from Maui in December 2016 and was iced in at the PDX airport and slept (?) on the floor?

Forecasters are saying THREE triple digit days in a row and the week after in the high 90's.  Luckily we have portable air conditioners in each room.  We do get a few triple digit days most summers but rarely in June!  Our condo is on the ground floor so it stays cooler than most but we get the afternoon sun.

Our pool is not open and our City has not turned on our water/splash features because of Covid.  Dad takes the boys to the river (with life jackets and inner tubes) almost every day which they just love.  I keep my room at 72 during the day, 66 at night.  Totally spoiled, yes?

I remember wearing sweat shirts on the 4th of July!  Bundling young Kate in a blanket as well.  The above png is for July 2021.  Oh my goodness!  It does cool off at night, though.  

Thank goodness our pool IS opening on 4th.  (I should be in bikini shape by then if I start tomorrow!!!)

LIKE AN OLD CAR

Golden years?  Really?

I used to laugh at Mr. Ralph when he came up with that phrase ... hub caps falling off, tires needing replaced, headlights that aren't bright enough.  For now, just minor inconveniences.

Last weekend I broke off the side of a molar.  No pain so I thought I'd put it off until my sister and family left as I would probably need a crown.  On Tuesday as I was flossing my teeth, a crown on the other side of my mouth popped off.  I carefully wrapped it in a tissue and put it in my purse as it could probably just be glued back in.

Lost it but luckily my dentist saved both the molds so I have a temporary crown on each side for a month.

Then I had dinner for one of the first ladies I met when I moved to Portland.  We worked together for a real estate developer in downtown.  I joined her Bunco team off and on but people kept moving further and further away.  Working and having a little one I really preferred time off to be spent with them.

Sherri is two years older than me but her car is almost totally deteriorated.  She had a knee replaced and a hip replaced.  She's had two major strokes.  She took a bad fall while relearning to walk and damaged her shoulder.  After the second stroke they discovered an operable brain tumor.

By golly, she is NOT giving up!  She came into the restaurant using a walker and was able to eat and drink on her own.  It was a surprise party and she was truly touched.  Her nephew is her live-in care giver and it was nice to meet him.  What a saint he is.

In between all of this, I successfully fought off a UTI.  My mom used to get them all the time and I'm hoping someone out there has an effective way to PREVENT them.  My Dr wrote a refillable prescription for an antibiotic (as a last resort).  Google friends suggest D Mannose on a daily basis.  I discovered an AZO product that I took for a week .... the combination did the trick.

D-mannose is a kind of sugar that is related to glucose. D-mannose is used for preventing urinary tract infections (UTIs).  D-mannose seemed to have had a significant positive effect on UTIs' resolution and QoL improvement (p = 0.0001). As prophylactic agent administered for 6 months, it showed promising results (4.5% vs. 33.3% recurrences in treated and untreated patients respectively).

D-mannose seemed to have had a significant positive effect on UTIs' resolution and QoL improvement (p = 0.0001). As prophylactic agent administered for 6 months, it showed promising results (4.5% vs. 33.3% recurrences in treated and untreated patients respectively).

(I need to check with my dr about taking this since I do have Type II diabetes)

My gyno from a few years ago (she left medicine!) suggested AZO.  There are so many kinds of their products now.

And then there is my lichen scleroses.  It wasn't bothering me so I stopped the twice a week cortisone cream.  After a couple of weeks of doing the right thing, I'm discovering using Desitine or Eucerine cream daily (for baby diaper rash areas) is working well and just once a week the harsh stuff.

What next, my friends???

BIRDS, BEES and PLANTS

Summer is spectacular in Oregon.

Birds were the focus for a few years.  There are 6-7 bird feeders and Kate makes her own suet.  She also feeds them meal worms during nesting season.  Yes, when they are away, I'm that little old lady sitting on her beautiful patio hand feeding the worms.  Two sizes of worms, one for the little guys and large for the crows.  When I got out to check the mail without giving them a treat, I sure do hear about it. 

We have five kinds of bees, more swallow tail butterflies than ever before and dragon flies galore.  We took down the hummingbird feeders and have just as many buzzing visitors getting their treats from all the blooms.

As you know, I drink coffee and red wine every day!  Needless to say, my teeth surely show it.  One of my luxuries in widowhood (and I'm getting many!) is to have my teeth cleaned three times a year.  Now I am going to have them whitened once a year as well.

It's a glamorous procedure!

MORPHING from AWKWARD WIDOW

I decided to start another blog!  Loving Intergenerational Living (LIL for short).  Newer viewers probably wonder why I call this blog "Awkward Widow" ... as it sure has changed over the past eight years.  I would have just kept Awkward Widow but I met a new friend who designs blogs and does all the technical stuff and I just couldn't resist!  (Thanks Misadventures of Widowhood). (https://www.myfairyblogmother.com/)(don't worry ... I played around with the background,etc on Awkward Widow blog ... she did the GOOD job on LIL)

I may continue to blog here once a week ...we'll just see how it goes.  Blogging is so much more affordable than weekly therapy!  I was blogging almost every day for the first two years.  So I've blathered plenty on all the trials and tribulations and tears.

Come follow the adventures of LIL at

 https://lovingintergenerationalliving.blogspot.com/#