DECLUTTERING DIARY: DAY 93

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NEW BLOG; NEW CHALLENGE

Since I've reached the limit on the number of blogs I can post on EightyGo, I've started a new blog called LIVING WELL AFTER 80  @  livingwellafter80.com

It's been a wild ride, trying to learn how to do all this at my age.  I'm grateful to techies at the Vigo County Public Library, and Ivy Tech Community college for generously helping me get started on building my own blog. Love you guys!


I learned so much from Blogger.  They did everything for me.  Now, I've had to find out about widgets, plugins, dashboards, web hosts, Word Press and it just goes on forever.  In my defense, even the young people who helped me through the process were puzzled at times.  They make WordPress sound easy, but these folks had a tough time with it, too.

They say that the best way to keep your mind sharp at this age is to learn a new language.  I haven't mastered Spanish or German, but I feel that I've learned a new language.

Last, I will be forever grateful to my supportive husband who has seen me disappear  into my computer for hours and days at a time. I hope you will continue to follow me on Living Well After80 @ livingwellafter80.com

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11TH

There are a few days in your lifetime that you remember forever, in great detail.  Where you were, who you were with, and how you felt.

For me, that first huge memory was Nov. 22, 1963, when Kennedy was shot.  My firstborn was one month old, and I can remember the sun shining in our apartment window in Evanston, Illinois. My husband was at work in downtown Chicago.  I know I was wearing a black sweater, and my son had on a little white sleeper.   For about an hour, I simply sat and listened and watched, too stunned to move.  Suddenly, the stay-at-home moms  came out of their apartments and onto the sidewalk, and finally gathered in my apartment because it was the largest and could hold the most people.  And we talked and watched TV,  and no one had any thing to eat or drink for hours.

On 9/11, it was a different story.  My husband was able to take walks then, and he had a radio plugged into his ear.   It was a warm , sunny day and we were both wearing sleeveless shirts.   He heard it right away, of course, but when he told me what had happened, I thought at first it was a hoax, or he was mistaken.  Even then, we had no idea how extensive the damage, or how many people had been killed.  Finally, we passed a house where a young man whom we had never met came out from his doorway, and asked us if we had heard what happened.  So it was true.  We shook our heads, and mutely turned away, too stunned to reply.

Looking back, it seems strange that we were at war, but war was never declared (how did that differ from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?)  and life went on pretty much the same for those who lived far from New York & DC. 

DOCTORS WHO DON'T LISTEN

A visit to a  doctor can be a dehumanizing experience, which is why I usually try to avoid them. But lately, I had an issue with vertigo, and called for an appointment with a specialist affiliated with a teaching hospital.

Upon making my first appointment, I was coldly informed I would  have to wait three months before I could be worked into his busy schedule.  That should have told me something, but I thought it best to wait, rather than going to one of those walk in clinics where a twenty something, just out of med school, would misdiagnose my problem.

The doctor introduced himself, and asked about my symptoms.  I began to describe them in detail,  but after about 15 seconds he seemed to lose interest.  When I stopped talking, he ordered some  tests.  After they were done, I waited about half an hour before my doctor returned, accompanied by a young intern.  That was when I began feeling like a guinea pig, as he calmly informed me I should probably have an MRI of my head just to rule out something very ominous. Being somewhat claustrophobic & loud noise averse, I didn’t like that idea, so he prescribed some OTC meds and said to come back next month..

The medication was helpful, but I was still having some symptoms .  On the second visit,  I waited a full hour in a freezing cold room until he showed up. This time, he had another intern who stood mutely at attention as the doctor tried to find me on the computer and determine  just exactly why I was there.  I wondered if my case would be interesting enough for a case study—probably not.  But I definitely felt less like a human being than a “patient,”  He asked how I’d been getting along, but when I tried to ask him some questions and carry on a conversation about my symptoms, he lost interest.  The poker faced intern stared at me as if I were a specimen under a microscope.  There was no mention of an MRI, so perhaps the doctor decided not to waste  any more time  with a person who balked at having an expensive, unpleasant test.  Okay, I get it. He doesn’t do simple.  At any rate, he told me to continue with the meds, and suggested I come back in six months.

Finally,  I got on the internet and found some simple ways to alleviate my problem.  The internet cares about you! Key in a word or a question, and you’ll get a whole list of links that tell you everything you want to know and answers all your questions.  

In defense of physicians, and especially surgeons: psychologists say that doctors gradually become less empathetic as a defense mechanism against the painful procedures they must perform.  And, too much empathy could make a doctor less objective when making a diagnosis.   Last but not least, if they got too emotionally involved with each and every patient, they’d be worn out. And so, at the end of the day, patients are seen not as persons, but as part of an overall system.

see my new blog @ livingwellafter80.com

STUFFED PEPPERS ARE COMFORT FOOD

Have you seen the size of green peppers this season?  This hot, humid summer has produced the largest, shiniest peppers we’ve seen for a long time.  And their superabundance this time of year means they are bargain priced.  So what are you waiting for?  This is one of the most people pleasing entrees you can imagine.  Yes, it’s going to take some extra pans and a little more time than usual, so pick an afternoon when you’ve plenty of  time to spend in the kitchen.  And if you know someone who’s having a tough time, you  might make an extra batch and bring them this farm fresh comfort food.

Most recipes don’t itemize the pans and dishes you’ll use, but you will need:

One or two large pans for steaming the peppers.

A smaller sauce pan to cook the rice.

A 10 inch skillet.

An 8X8X2 in. baking dish  

This is going to take up a lot of room in your kitchen, but it’s a labor of love, so clear the counters, and go for it!

STUFFED PEPPERS

6 large green peppers

1 pound lean ground beef

2 tablespoons chopped onion

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 cup cooked rice (see package directions)

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

¾ cup grated cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon salt (cut this in half if you watch  your sodium intake)

Cut a slice from the stem end of each pepper. Remove seeds and membrane. Cook peppers in enough boiling water to cover for 5 minutes; drain.

Cook and stir the crumbled ground beef, onion and garlic in skillet until beef is light brown. Stir in rice, salt,  ½  the tomato sauce and grated cheese. Pour remaining sauce over peppers. Cover dish and bake in 350 oven 45 minutes. 

Uncover; bake 15 minutes longer. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  6 servings: 290 calories per serving.

Enjoy!

SHOULD GIRLS WEAR SHORTIES THAT SHOW THEIR UNDIES?

The security guard at a mall  the other day kicked out a young girl who was wearing shorts so high on her legs that he could see her underwear.  Most people my age would probably support that action.

I suppose I might have agreed, until yesterday. My husband and I have Sunday brunch at a college hangout, and since school just started, we got to see what current styles are popular these days.  I think I wrote last spring about nose rings, but this new crop of college girls seem to be going minimalist.  No nose rings, sometimes not even earrings.  And yes, they’re wearing those shortie shorts that look like they have on  nothing but underpants beneath those long tee shirts. 

First, I’m really glad that wasn’t the style when I was in college.  I have skinny legs and knobby knees, and I think that would not have been a good look for me.  And they definitely are not flattering to women who are overweight.  But when you’re in college, you want to dress like everyone else in order to fit in.  That’s why you see so many girls on the beaches during spring break wearing bikinis that do absolutely nothing to cover up their less attractive features.  Oddly, I don’t find this new look particularly sexy.  It’s sort of a little girl look, like kids emerging from a sleepover. If they were on a beach, they would appear normal, and no one would be shocked. 

Times change, attitudes change.  A couple of hundred years ago, a lady showing her ankles was thought to be indecent.  They even built houses with separate his and hers stairways , so that a gentleman would not follow a lady up the steps and get a glimpse of her ankles.

So I’m thinking, if that’s the look this year, it really won’t hurt anyone, and short shorts are a pretty cheap wardrobe item.  See, they’re saving money to pay off their student loans!

See my new blog @ livingwellafter80.com

HALLELUJAH! JOHN MC CAIN UNITES US TODAY

During the past few days, Senator McCain has given this nation a gift, even after he passed away.
We have been united in our grief, admiration, and gratitude for this great man , a decorated war hero who suffered 5 1/2 years in  captivity in a North Vietnam prison camp, then went on to serve his country as a Senator.  He endured a disappointing presidential bid, but kept his dignity, and went on to fight the good fight.

Just for a little while, we didn't have to see and hear so much about what is wrong with the President of our country.  Whether you're a Trump supporter or not, it gets depressing to hear about every little thing he says or does wrong.  No matter who has been president of the USA in my lifetime, I always wanted them to do a good job.  It's a sad day when the leader of the free world is forced to resign, or is impeached, and it certainly doesn't help the mood of ordinary Americans.

So here's to  Senator John McCain--a true statesman and American hero, beloved by people in both political parties.  Thanks for making us proud to be Americans on this day before your funeral.

WOMEN, BEAUTY & EYEBROW THREADING

 Beautiful eyebrows used to be a simple matter.  Young women plucked their bushy eyebrows, and older women penciled in their thinning/grey eyebrows.  But now, this is the decade of eyebrow threading.

Walk through any metro mall, and you will see at least one kiosk where you can have your eyebrows threaded.  This, by the way, is an ancient practice originating in Asia centuries ago. In the past few years, women  from India have been brought to the US by some enterprising businessmen in their country to perform this procedure.   A cotton thread is used to twist the eyebrow hairs, removing the strays and shaping the brows.  Yikes!  It hurts.  But once a person  has their eyebrows threaded, they are supposedly so hooked on the way they look now that they keep going back for more every five or six weeks.  It only costs about $15, so I guess if you are willing to spend the time and around $150 a year, it may be worth it, if it makes you feel better about yourself.

If you haven’t seen anyone getting eyebrows threaded, you probably imagine that the clients would be young, good looking women who want to look even more beautiful.  Not true.  I’m always amazed at the ordinary women of all ages, sizes, shapes, and skin color enduring this painful process. I’m guessing that  if you don’t like your looks very much, you think this will help.   And will females suddenly find they’re attracting more male attention after they’ve shaped up their eyebrows?  If not, you can always add eye extensions, but that gets a lot more pricey—around $40 to $80 every three weeks or so.  Wow, now we’re getting in to expensive territory—a minimum of $700 a year.

It seems to me that the whole fad is placing entirely too much emphasis on a woman’s appearance, and means that if you want to keep up with the competition out there, it’s going to cost you plenty.  Obviously ,at my age,  I will never spend the time and money on any of these  procedures.  And I’d hate to think a younger woman couldn’t find a boyfriend or get a good job unless she threaded her eyebrows. 

WILL OUR CIVILIZATION BECOME EXTINCT?

Do you care about what happens to your grandkids' grandkids? Most of us never really think that far ahead.  Just getting your children raised and educated is about as far as your worries go during middle age.  All of a sudden, the kids are grown, and now you have grandchildren, and the worry cycle starts all over again. Will they get through childhood illnesses, bullying, bad SAT scores and finally become happy successful adults?

But what about your descendants thousands of years from now? Lately, I've been reading about lost civilizations and wondering if that's what's going to happen to us.  Global Warming, terrorism, oceans full of plastic, for starters.  With most extinct animals and lost civilizations, scientists really can't figure out what happened.  Since I'm not an educated environmentalist, I can only report on the scary things I saw in my own backyard this year.

For thirty years, we've had sun patients (flowers) that grew and blossomed all summer long.  Geraniums were a no-brainer.  Stick them in the ground, water every so often, and there you go. Beautiful, robust flowers until Thanksgiving. This year, in the middle of July, they simply shriveled up and either rotted or burned.  They say farmers are seeing half as much soy bean and corn yields this year.  I hope it's an anomaly, but what if it's not.  What if this earth is going to get so hot that  we can't produce enough food for this overpopulated world?  And what if Earth ends up like Venus, where the temperature on a typical day is 900 degrees?

My thought is that there will be pockets of survival scattered throughout the globe.  Maybe those natives spotted by a drone in Brazil, who've been living millions of years without any contact with the outside world will make it.  There may be some remote islands where natives will survive.  And maybe those people will progress to the point where they discover electricity and invent the internet. And eventually, they may find traces of lost civilizations in Germany and Indiana.  And they will scratch their heads and wonder what happened, and how all of these people became extinct.

For the sake of future generations, let's start getting serious about climate change.

WHAT CONSTITUTES CHILD NEGLECT?

Last night, it was reported on the news that a woman who allowed her daughter to walk around the block with her dog was accused of child neglect.

My first thought was, who is the person who has nothing better to do than monitor the mothering practices of her neighbor?  And if she was really concerned, why not speak with the mom, herself, rather than calling the police?  This person obviously has some serious emotional issues.

The times have changed a lot in the last 50 years or so, and I'm not sure why.  My husband and I both walked home from grade school unaccompanied by an adult every single day of our young lives.  My children walked home from their elementary school two blocks away and no one thought of that as child neglect.  Now, when you drive by an elementary school at 3 o'clock, you are caught in a traffic jam of cars, and people picking up their children.  If a young child cannot walk around the block by themselves in a pleasant, middle class neighborhood until they are 14 years old, I don't know how the parents can deal with that.  I wonder, too, what single mothers do.  Do they give up their jobs and go on public assistance in order to walk their kids back and forth to school until puberty?

Why do we over protect our children?  How will they develop any self confidence and feeling of independence if they must stay indoors unless a busy parent has time to accompany them on a bicycle ride or walk?  Most kids today have smart phones, and if anything is amiss, they can easily call a parent or 911.  We didn't even have that protection when we were children, and yet most of us did survive.

It's getting tougher and tougher to be a parent all the time.  It's no wonder that some people choose not to have children at all.

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS THAT MAKE YOU CRY

Decluttering can be heartbreaking when you see those old photos from happier times.

Here are just a few examples:

Your first wedding (which ended in divorce).

Happy family pictures before the divorce changed everything.

The last holiday gathering with all of your children before the family feud

Your parents 50^th wedding anniversary when your siblings were still alive.

The last time your children and stepchildren were all together.

The last time you were with your grandchildren before their parents divorced or  moved far away.

The last Christmas you spent with your first cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

You and your best friend, before she died of cancer.

I can think of many other pictures  that would bring even more tears.   A  beloved family member who later died a tragic death.  A loved one before she was diagnosed with dementia.  That list could go on and on.  The gut wrenching  thing about those before and after pictures, is that you had no idea  this would be the “last time,” when those photographs were taken.

After about an hour, we had to stop.  There was way too much  joy, love, heartbreak  and nostalgia  packed into those old albums.  Photographs that catch those last moments  of happiness before things went South take a lot out of  you.  Right now, I’m going for a walk in the park.  And yes, we saved all of those photos. 

PEOPLE WHO DRIVE IN RAIN WITHOUT HEADLIGHTS

Just left the supermarket, drove home in a blinding rain, and came pretty close to an accident.  Car in front of me suddenly stops, does a U turn on a curving exit road, and I almost don’t see him because his headlights are off.  About every fifth car coming toward me on a winding, two lane road  on the way home has no headlights.  What is wrong with these people?  Okay, I know, some cars don’t have automatic headlights the way mine does, but if that’s the case, you surely are aware of the need to turn on your lights when it’s dark.

Some people make the excuse that because their dashboard is always lit, they can’t tell if their lights aren’t on.  So, you didn’t notice that you were driving in the dark?  Maybe they’re leaving their lights off to save money.  Back when I was a kid,  my Dad knew he had to turn on his headlights if it was dark or raining.  But headlights wore out quickly and were expensive to replace, so the idea of automatic headlights would have seemed like an unnecessary extravagance.  Every penny counted in those days. So maybe it’s part of living a frugal life, in the minds of these dim drivers.  They’re saving their battery,  or preserving the life of their headlights?  

Just for the record, here is the law regarding the use of  headlights in most states:

Headlights are required to be used 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunrise, when windshield wipers are being used, when visibility is less than 1000 feet, or when there is insufficient light or adverse weather. 

But how many times have you seen a car ticketed for breaking this law? I guess the cops are too busy chasing speeders, but people who drive without headlights in the rain or dark are just as apt to cause an accident, and they shouldn’t get by with it.                                       😡

WARNING! DANGER OF ILLEGAL PARKING IN A HANDICAPPED PLACE

I guess we all feel annoyed when we see a non-handicapped person parked illegally in a handicapped space.  Since my husband IS handicapped, it’s especially irritating to find the only available  spot taken by an able bodied person.

But, let’s face it.  Most of us who aren’t handicapped have been guilty of it once or twice.  As an example, you go to the post office on a rainy day and all the spots are empty.  Realistically speaking, you probably aren’t depriving someone of their rightful parking place if you’re just popping in to mail a letter.   On the other hand, parking in that space at a busy supermarket on a hot day shows selfishness and a lack of caring for disabled people.  It also could be hazardous to your health, if someone who has  never heard of anger management decides to take you out.

The parking lot shooting in Florida last week was an alarming explosion of road rage, but not surprising, in this era of volatile emotions gone wild.  The media and POTUS routinely participate in ugly name calling contests.  Civility is an old fashioned word that younger people can’t even understand.  Comedians and celebrities use four letter words to describe the president’s family on national television.  Peter Fonda called for someone to murder the young Trump boy.  The president himself calls a woman a dog if she criticizes him.  Where will it all end?  What has happened to our core values of respect, responsibility, honesty and caring?

WARNING! TRY NEW RESTAURANTS AT YOUR OWN RISK

In the small town where I live, the opening of a new restaurant is sometimes front page news. Especially if they’re hard up for news that day.  This owner must have known someone at the newspaper, because he got a great write-up, indicating he was a gourmet chef  just doing this town a favor to open a place here.

We fell for the story, and looked forward to going out for our usual Sunday Brunch.  There are a couple of restaurants  here in town who do a great job, but we decided to give this new one a try.  Big mistake. The place was filled to capacity, thanks to all the free publicity.  We arrived at ll:35.  The people at the table behind us kept turning around and looking toward the kitchen and complaining that they hadn’t yet been served. We figured they were simply the impatient type.  Not us, we had plenty of time.

Ten minutes later, a waitress came to take our drink orders,  and we had our coffee and tea within 5 minutes. She then took our food order—poached eggs and a bowl of cheese grits for me; bacon, eggs, toast and hash browns for my husband.  A few minutes later, a man emerged from the kitchen and left the restaurant. Ten minutes later, he came back with a bag full of egg cartons.  Apparently, they had run out of eggs.  This meant another fifteen minute wait while they prepared our order. My hard poached eggs came,  served on a large white plate.  There isn’t anything very appetizing about a couple of rubbery eggs on a cold plate.  The cheese grits were dry, with the consistency of rice.  Cheddar cheese had been sprinkled over the top of the grits. One bite was enough for me.  My husband’s bacon was not crisp, it was soggy and fatty. The hash browns were pale brown.  He tried to finish most of it, but the food simply  didn’t go down very well.  By 12:30, we were ready to leave.

 We didn’t feel it was the fault of the waitress, so we left her a good tip, but  thought it only fair to voice our complaints.  She explained that actually, we had come late for breakfast at 11:30, when they were actually only expecting to serve lunch, so they weren’t prepared for us.  Funny, all the other restaurants in town have no problem serving Sunday breakfast around noon.  

It’s sad, really.  This place has been open six weeks, and they still don’t have it together.  No wonder new restaurants fail at such an alarming rate.  

DON'T CARE ABOUT FOOTBALL OR IF NFL PLAYERS KNEEL

This is going to scandalize some football fans, but I will have to admit that I have never, once, watched an entire football game from beginning to end.  Not even when I was in high school or college.  It may sound unbelievable, but it was never my thing, and it became even less appealing to me when we started hearing about all the dangerous concussions that damage the brains of football players.

When I attend my entertainment venues of choice ---theater, movies, or concerts-- I don’t expect to see the entire orchestra or cast come out before the show and put their hands on their hearts while listening to the national anthem.  It would seem absurd to mix politics with entertainment.   And, in defense or those players who chose to kneel—I can’t say I blame them for taking advantage of this unique opportunity to express their support for their less fortunate brother, uncles, cousins, and fathers.

My opinion will not affect attendance at the football games whatsoever, because my husband and I will never attend one in person.  He may watch a few games on television, but it won’t matter whether the players stand or kneel. Would I refuse to watch  a play or movie starring George Clooney or Clint Eastwood just because I disagree with their political viewpoints? No way!  Why would we expect an entire team to have the same political opinions?  You can go into any workplace or neighborhood, and you will seldom find everyone in agreement about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. 

So, I would suggest that we discontinue playing the national anthem at football games.   After all, it’s just a game, not a political rally.

TOP FIVE MOST HATED TASKS

This post is not intended for rich people with housekeepers or folks living in retirement homes or hotels.  But there are still unavoidable  tasks that ordinary seniors must undertake every day if they want to remain independent in their own homes, and lead a sanitary, healthy  life.

 My top five "hates"

Loading the dishwasher
Unloading the dishwasher
Taking out the trash
Cleaning toilets
Scrubbing the kitchen floor

 I could go on with this list, but think it best if I limit it to the top five. Most of them involve dirty, stinky stuff. Unloading clean dishes and putting them away, day after day, is boring and repetitious. The trash is depressing because there's so much of it for just two people.  Also, I'm concerned there are so many plastic containers, which is bad for the environment.

Conversely, there are household chores that I enjoy.

Top five "likes"


Shopping
Cooking
Watering plants
Laundry
Vacuuming

The top five likes are more controversial, because if you compare notes with others, not everyone would agree.  Cooking is creative and has a delicious outcome. And those who love to cook usually like to shop. The produce section is my favorite, with all the colorful, healthy fruits and vegetables.

Since I’m allergic to cats and dogs, we don’t have animals in our house.  And grandkids live far away.  So, the only nurturing things this mother/grandmother has left is her plants.  I love to see them grow and flourish under my care.  New green leaves and shoots from spider plants hanging in the windows give me a feeling of joy, especially on dreary days.

Laundry?  I can see some eyebrows go up.  But it has such a good outcome.  Fresh fragrant sheets on the bed, clean towels in the bathroom, and a closet full of clean clothes is so refreshing..  Same for vacuuming.  It’s easy, and when I’m through, I get the same feeling as when  I see freshly mowed grass.

But no matter what tasks you like or dislike, housework is a great way to exercise and burn up some calories.
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PIGGY POP CORN @ INDIANA STATE FAIR.

The winner in Sunday’s World Ice Cream  Eating Championship at the Indiana State Fair consumed 15.5 pints  in the time allotted.  I won’t tell you his name, because he doesn’t need any encouragement.  Worse yet, he ate 30 hot dogs with buns in 20 minutes for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2015.

You have to wonder why the Indiana State Fair officials would sponsor eating contests, when  faced with the dreary statistics regarding Hoosier Health.   Indiana ranks a low 39^th out of 50 states in overall health rankings. Worse yet, they rank 40^th in obesity and 37^th in diabetes.  Health rankings measure how long healthy people  in all 50 states  live,  and how they  feel.  The ideal ranking would be #1 (Massachusetts).

Not only that, they brag about Fair food such as Dirty Hippie Tots (fried Brussel sprouts) Deep-fried Cheese Curds, and a Double Barrel Burger with three doughnuts, two burgers, bacon and cheese. Yikes! They'd better have some EMT's close by.

American Heart  Association guidelines for a normal individual on a 2000 calorie diet would be 16 grams of saturated fat, maximum.  The winner of Sunday’s ice cream eating contest consumed 2,466 calories in one sitting and 81 grams of saturated fat.  As everyone knows, too much saturated fat can raise blood cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart  diseases.

But ice cream is a piker in unhealthy food choices, compared to hot dogs. The individual who ate 30 hot dogs with buns in 2015,  consumed  11,390  calories, and 360  grams of saturated fat.  Worse yet, hot dogs contain nitrates that are linked to cancer.  A  study published in the May 2010 issue of the journal "Circulation" found that consuming processed meats, such as sausage or hot dogs, may increase your chances of developing diabetes or coronary heart disease.

I’m assuming this champion of unhealthy eating is relatively young.  Wonder how long his strong stomach and good health will hold out?  And when will Indiana State Fair officials stop promoting  Deep Fried Sugar Cream Pie and Deep Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches, and start providing a list of healthy foods available at the fair, like they do in Iowa?

WARNING! CLIMATE CHANGE SCORCHES FLOWERS

Living in the heartland, I've never been too concerned about global warming.  Yes, I know it's melting ice in Antarctica and causing forest fires in California, but it's always seemed like something we don't have to worry so much about in the middle of the country.

Until this year.  Here's what happened to our flowers:  We've had a large bed of impatiens blooming beside our house for over 25 years.  Whether we planted the old fashioned kind or the new fangled "sunpatiens," by the end of the summer we would have a beautiful showing of colorful impatiens that seemed to thrive on nothing more than regular watering.  Then, this year, around the middle of July, I noticed they had stopped blooming, altogether.  A couple of weeks later, they were just little, rotting stems poking out from the dirt.  My lawn person said it happened to a lot of flowers this year:  They simple shriveled up and died because of the extreme heat and humidity.

To compensate, we decided to plant some of those sturdy, pink and yellow  black eyed Susans you see thriving at this time of the year.  Bought the flowers at the nursery;  planted, mulched , watered them.  Within two weeks, they had dried up, leaving nothing but black stems.

On to the roses.  Have had  two red and white, variegated climbing roses out by the garage for over 20 years.  First one of them died, but it looked like the other one was struggling to make it.  And yet, the same week we lost our impatiens, the climbing roses lost their leaves.  Ditto for the rose garden next to the house.  Out of nine rosebushes still alive last fall, only one sturdy soldier is still standing right now.  We bought and planted 9 new ones, only 5 of which are struggling to stay green.

Okay, those are just flowers.  Their loss is aesthetic, but not life changing.  What about the farmers in Indiana and elsewhere? Scientists predict wheat and soybean crops will be reduced by 50% by the end of the century!  Now, I'm really getting worried, because I've seen first hand the effects of global warming, and I hate to think my descendants will be struggling to survive in the next century.

Here in flyover country, it looks like we're going to have to start doing something about Global Warming. 

IS LINKEDIN FOR DUMMIES?

 I didn’t even know how to spell it until last week.  For some reason, I had a blog post go viral a few days ago  (  https://eightygo.blogspot.com/2018/07/decluttering-dairy-day-one.html  ) and all of a sudden I was asked to sign up for LinkedIn because people were searching for me.  Out of curiosity, I signed up, and found that supposedly, some lawyers and CEOs and other important sounding people wanted to know more about me.

My age and other personal information is all over the internet if you key in my name, so I don’t know why they thought Linkedin was a good place to find out about me.  If you see the title of my blog (EightyGo) it obvious that I’m not looking for a job.  And yet, Linkedin has alerted me to numerous jobs that I might qualify for.  The  majority of the job titles are “Recruiting Coordinator,” which apparently pays less than I was making when I retired 18 years ago as the Director of Nutrition Services at an acute care hospital.  Realistically speaking, I don’t think a lady of eighty from Indiana is going to be hired for one of these jobs in New York or LA.  But it’s kind of intriguing to think that seems to be where Linkedin thinks my aptitude lies.  I don’t know what I would have studied in college if that’s what I aspired to be.

Also, they have suggested I “link up” with other people I barely know.  Why would I bother these people by asking someone like me to be their Linkedin buddy? 

Now, I’ve seen that there are several u-tube videos about how to use Linkedin, but I find those how--to videos tedious to watch, especially if they’re done by someone with a foreign accent that you can’t understand.  I guess it shows that even though I thought I was pretty savvy about social media, it’s obvious that I’m not.  Almost everything I do online (including this blog) is pretty much trial and error.  As my husband says, “you just start punching buttons until something happens.”  Honestly, I don’t even know how to design a template for my blog, which is why you see only my picture and the title, EightyGo.  I’d like to change it, but I’m afraid I’ll mess things up, so I’m leaving it for now.

Right now, I'm wondering who else is searching for me on Linkedin. 😁

3 DRUG FREE WAYS TO LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE

Remember when everyone thought it was okay if your blood pressure increased with age?   Well, that’s all changed now.  Here’s what the American Heart Association has to say:

“High blood pressure should be treated earlier with lifestyle changes and in some patients with medication – at 130/80 mm Hg rather than 140/90 – based on new American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for the detection, prevention, management and treatment of high blood pressure .Nov 13, 2017”

Notice they’re recommending lifestyle changes as the best way to treat high blood pressure.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been on blood pressure meds a couple of times, and the side effects started dragging me down within a few days.    So here’s the good news about that.  Recent studies  at UCLA have shown that you can lower your blood pressure in as little as three days to three weeks by doing three things:

1 Exercise
2. Decrease sodium intake
3. Increase potassium intake by consuming more fruits and vegetables

Apparently, you don’t need to exercise all that much—maybe a fifteen minute walk. The important thing is to do these things every day, and make them a part of your permanent lifestyle.

At lunchtime, try substituting a high sodium soup and sandwich with a high potassium fruit/yogurt smoothie

 Here’s an easy recipe, but you can use different high potassium fruits like oranges, apricots or mangoes. Mix in fresh and frozen fruits for an icy texture. And don’t forget, yogurt is also a great source of potassium

                                        Fantastic Fruit Smoothie

1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 banana
Handful of blueberries
10 seedless grapes
1/3 cup fresh pineapple chunks

Put all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth.  Potassium: 600 mg.  Calories: 175