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Question:
Has anyone seen SP around? I am missing her or she isn't around? Today a bunch of old February and April messages that I had already erased started to appear in my private message mailbox; they were from when her sister was so ill. Reminded me I haven't seen her of late and so went to leave private message and her messaging is off.
Thanks all--hoping someone knows her and communicates off grid.
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Got it, cwillie. Do you have neighbors? A walking buddy maybe? Solitary pursuits are great but a girlfriend in the neighborhood is priceless. I had to drive 15 minutes to get to my #1 walking buddy but that time was worth it. And yes, organizations have a way of swallowing you before you know it. Book club maybe?

Margaret, I have family in Sydney. I don’t dare call them - I fear I am that stupid person you speak of!

Nacy, Fun! Well, OW first, and then fun. What made you choose a lizard? I’m not a tattoo person but my DD has 2 and they are beautifully done. I am not dyslexic but I always used my wedding ring to remind me…first marriage anyway. 2nd marriage I don’t wear one.

Alva, math makes me cry. I wonder if it’s the way they teach (or taught) it in the Bay Area. I grew up in Redwood City.
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I can tell you right now that I love the idea of the lizard tattoo for ANY reason, and that it is to remember left from right is delightful. I had so much trouble with that one as a kid. Anything spatial or mathmatics always drove me insane.

To all who are bored, I think some of us have more restless minds? I feel I have never caught up with all I have to do, tho some of that is taking on stuff such as fostering a dog. Otherwise, at 82 it is the garden, walking, shopping, cooking, the library, reading, an episode of Survivor, podcast by the bedside, and falling asleep like a baby. Oh, yeah, AC as well. That and FB good for a couple of hours in the a.m.

While I adore the "fantasy" of a coffee klatch I am not having one. I do the internet so I don't have to deal with real people! I can turn y'all off (and I am sure I DO) anytime I want. And you are easily rid of ME.
I am not reclusive in that I don't go "out" as I do the museums and such. I am reclusive in that I am a loner. It's just me and my busy brain and it is often too busy to fit people in. Next life I come back as "social". For now, the computer takes care of those needs very well.
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Small town living has it's perks but opportunities for classes or volunteering aren't among them. I'd be willing to volunteer in a way I could be a little cog in the organization but the reality is organizations have so few members the work becomes much more than I am willing/able to give. Or yeah, sitting at a counter/desk alone as Margaret mentioned.
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Thanks Peasuep, you are yesterday for me, I am tomorrow for you. As I write, it's 5.30 pm on my Monday night. Working out timing is even more of a trial just now, as last weekend South Australia (ie our farm) and the eastern states adopted daylight saving for our summer coming up, while we didn't in the Northern Territory, and the eastern states (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania) are always half an hour different from South Australia anyway. It could confuse a stupid person!

The time around the world finally made sense to me on the night of the Millenium. January 1st 2000 started more or less in New Zealand, then us in Oz, then all of Asia, then Europe, and more or less finished in the USA. Those fireworks remain a good memory to make sense of it all.

Now I'll have a genuine glass of red wine, but I appreciate your imaginary coffee!
Yours, Margaret
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Margaret, I’d have you over for coffee today if wasn't already yesterday there…..or tomorrow, I never get that right.
: )
Anyway, I know I’ve been supremely lucky to have landed in the right places at the right times with the right opportunities after having been somewhat of a stray myself.
I was just throwing out things I have found engaging over the years in case any would spark cw’s interest.
I also love to be alone but I’m pretty sure I’m going to get more of that than I want before too long.
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Peasuep, well done for organising such a full life, and it’s good that you feel so happy about it. For many reasons, some of us started later and haven’t done quite so well. I hope that you manage to spare a smile and a word for some of us ‘strays’.
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Cwillie, I have your ‘lonely’ problem after ‘retiring’ to a completely new small city 1500 kms away, where I knew no-one and hadn’t much in common with the people in DH’s car club. If going out to ‘make friends’ involves breaking into groups of people who have known each other for years, it doesn’t work very well.

I’m finding that joining two seniors classes has been particularly good, one exercise and the other aqua-aerobics. It helps if the person running the class knows and accepts that part of ‘good for you’ is the social stuff, because seniors can get very isolated – like you when a partner dies. Volunteering can be good, as long as you aren't sitting at a counter by yourself. At a regular weekly class you get to know the other people with no pressure or expectations, and can gradually have more to talk about, perhaps a coffee afterwards. Then if you run into them shopping, or at the library, you can stop and chat for a few minutes. It’s like an old shampoo ad, “It WON’T happen overnight, but it WILL happen”.
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cwillie, I’ve been retired for 20 years. I can honestly say I haven’t been bored for a minute. I took classes through the community college, parks and rec., the local hospital (interior design, landscape design, yoga). I took garden tours; volunteered at the library; made friends and walked, hiked, cooked, ate and drank wine and coffee with them; laughed and cried and sat in hospitals with them. I cleaned (and cleaned and cleaned); gardened, tried photography, acrylic painting, collage, pine needle baskets, bee’s wax candles, hypertufa, wrapped wire jewelry; loved on my grand daughter; painted dozens of walls; moved hundreds of boulders; studied bees and birds and banana slugs. Moved and made a bunch of new friends!
But as I said, I’ve been at it for 20 years and have had a lot of practice. I’d say start slow. Maybe sign up for a class in something you’re interested in. The most important components of my retirement (besides DH and our families) have been my dear and diverse girlfriends. Many of them are neighbors and women I’ve met in the classes I’ve taken. Sharing interests has led to sharing lives.
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Cwillie and Nacy: Before a guy destroyed my auto on 7/30, I enjoyed going to the local food pantries daily. Good luck.
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What do people do all day after retirement? It's probably just the season but I've hit a low point, my days are too long and my life too much a hamster wheel of mindlessness - get up, check the internet, eat breakfast, play a game or two on the computer, do some exercise, more coffee, go outside, more internet, lunch, more internet and games, maybe more walking and exercise, maybe another coffee, think about supper, eat, more time online, give a sigh of relief that it's almost time I can put my PJ's on and crawl into bed to read, sleep. Rinse and repeat. Occasionally throw in some cleaning, cooking, shopping or other necessary tasks. I've read all those blogs telling you to travel! volunteer! or the best one - find your passion! (oh please 🙄).
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Eva; So relieved to hear from you. Prayers for you and your DH.
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Nacy: You're welcome.
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Thanks Golden!
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Oh Eva. This must be so hard on you and hubby. I expect you are right that the long weekend is not a time you will get any answers. Do look after you. (((((hugs)))) and prayers.
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Thanks Nacy!
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Alva and Golden,
Basically they have no answers. Total mystery.
Drs are busy, shortages etc, so spent five minutes talking to her this week and as this is long weekend not much will be done.
I am guessing they will decide on Tuesday what to do?
I am lost and really have no idea.
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Oh, Eva, thanks for the update. Thinking of you so much.
I can't imagine how frustrating this all is.
What answers ARE they giving you? They have to be saying SOMETHING here?
I am so sorry this is still but to be honest it is good they are keeping him in this long; they must be concerned as well because no one gets to stay in hospital anymore.
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Hi Eva - so good to hear from you. Glad the painkillers are working for your hubby but sorry to hear that they are not willing to look further into the causes of the pain. Hope you are getting some rest and breaks for yourself. Any idea when he will be going back home?
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Eva - thinking of you and praying for you and DH. Let us know how you both are when you can.

Alva - I believe it was send who wrote about real estate appreciating.

Send - not going there is a good idea.

Hi Anche. Hope you are doing OK.

Hothouse - sounds like you have good new owners for your parents' place. I too hope the new owners get along well with the neighbours we knew. They are a nice older couple.

jlynn - sounds like the good, the bad and the ugly. For me I really don't want to know about the changes that will be made.

Way - that must have been a pretty unpleasant experience. I am glad I was able to be out of the house while it was being sold.
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Thanks everybody.
Hubby still in hospital, less or no pain after all the painkillers.
Few tests done, all good.
Frustrated as it seems to me they are not willing to investigate further what causes all of this.
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Yes, Nacy, it is Evamar who was in the ER for days with hubby in an awful lot of pain. About three or four days we haven't heard from her which makes me worry. I hope things are OK for her, and am thinking of her.
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Nacy: I believe that was Evamar.
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Golden:
My bro's San Francisco two flat with cottage in back was purchased in 1960 for 74,000.00. Today it is valued at 4.5MILLION. So this happens. Especially in San Francisco. Just saw a home like my parents, bought for under 5,000 in 1942, and it has not quite appreciated that much, but is 400,000.00 so not nothing. I love to watch real estate stuff. My brother's last little home was in a historic trailer park In Palm Springs with wonderful redone trailers from the 60s and 70s for the most part. He purchased for 30,000 and put in about 15,000 in 2018. Sold for 100,000 in 2019.
Real estate is a fascination. It is my personal opinion that without buying real estate we really cannot appreciably save over the course of our lives. I guess some folks are good at stocks. I never personally was. I mean we SHORTED Starbuck if you need an example. Back to real estate, it DOES appreciate. I remember our buying our home, a two flat in SF, back about 35 years ago. What it has done in appreciation (yes with a lot of work put in as well) is amazing; SF is perhaps a outlier in terms of how things work (or don't) but I think real estate is the answer. Now......what was the question?
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Anche: Good to see you posting.
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Thinking about former homes I have sold.
One home on Zillow valued at over a million dollars in today's market, after new owners have remodeled.

Factoid:
That has absolutely nothing to do with me.
Nothing to do with the value of my current home.

So many neighbors move in and attempt to gain some kind of social status by saying how much they had b e f o r e ....

OK, that's it! I am not going to go there. Cannot look at photos of the inside of my Condo I owned online/not for sale, but double the value of when I sold it.
Not a good feeling at all. Brings up memories of living alone.

Things are better now.

You cannot, and don't need to go back to the past. imo.
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Hello Anche
So good to hear from you. I am not in Florida but thanking you for thinking of those who are. Wishing you well there in Italy.
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We closed on my parents home two weeks ago. A lovely family bought it, new immigrants I think from India. They were shocked to learn my parents owned the house since 1962. I left all the appliance manuals. We had the gardener come in to mow the BBQ lawn and clean up dead leaves to make it look nice.

The wife asked for a picture of my sisters and me with her after the closing. I thought that was very sweet. I hope they are as happy in that house as my parents were.

Im hoping they have a decent relationship with the neighbors. The lady next door has three adult sons and one of them continually blocks the driveway. He is a real piece of work. But that’s no longer my problem.
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I had to smile over the 'moving not mine' comments regarding former homes. Slightly different situation here. First house, dearly loved, trying to get everything out and here comes new owner with paint bucket in hand....sooooo eager. I felt like kicking the can over, but didn't. Can't you give me 30 minutes to finish up before you barge in here?? The lovely garden spot we had - soon covered over with gravel. (yes I know, not mine, don't go down that road). Sister's house - oh my, Alzheimer's, so you can imagine. Cleared it out best I could, all the while thinking I'd love to clear up a bit more but have to move on. Somewhat relieved to learn new owners are actually fixing it up quite nicely. And then parents' home - researched stacks of papers to give the new owners everything I could remember about it - blueprints, major changes, major updates, etc., had plumbing and elec systems serviced and gave them the detailed reports., and even list of the landscape plants so they know what they had - then their choice to keep or change. Introduced them to neighbors. Close to one neighbor so I would occasionally stop by to visit with her but cannot do that now and it hurts - new owners have trashed the place. So sad, and that decreases property value of those next door.
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