What did you do today?

[BlueSkyHigh]

I got around to ginning up enough courage and enthusiasm to pull the old Moen 1222 and replace it with a 1222HD that I got from an Amazon supplier. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have the strength to pull the old one out. So I had to trundle off to Home Depot to purchase the correct tool to replace it and also as a nod to the axiom "He who dies with the most tools wins". I am an avid pack rat and, true to form, a nice shiny new Moen metal handle caught my eye, so I had to purchase it to replace that tired old plastic OEM knob that is some 26 years old.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Sadly, I am preparing to fall back to daylight standard time which is most disturbing and probably the only reason I would consider moving to those states that don't observe it.

 

[Ludington]

Mom's toenails weren't hurting her, but her sense of feeling in her feet is weird due to diabetic polyneuropathy. She has hammer toes because she didn't go to a doctor when her toes started curling up from high arches. It runs in the family. Her oldest sister got hammertoes as well and went through surgery to straighten them but then stubbed one of the toes and broke it so it was stuck sticking straight up. Doctors had to amputate it. Mom is not a candidate for foot surgery due to the diabetes issues. My brother started to develop it but got to a podiatrist in time and now wears orthopedic shoes. I have high arches as well but I regularly stretch my toes and do toe exercises. Mom does walk around but not much. Her back usually hurts her when she walks and she refuses to go to physical therapy.

I have two black cats. But I live out in the middle of nowhere and it rained all day on Halloween. No Trick-or-Treating in town either because the mayor banned it. Back when I was a teenager the mayor allowed it, but the city ordinances limited it to kids 13 and under. I remember one of my classmates saying that she was 14 and had been taking her younger siblings trick-or-treating but she wore a costume too and the cops who knew her and her family arrested her and kept her in jail overnight. She didn't say what happened with her younger siblings.

The weather here decided it isn't ready for autumn and its been in the upper 80s. Past couple days its been raining AND in the 80s. Since the AC isn't working it's been even hotter inside the house. Even Mom is using fans and she normally complains about it being too cold. I've been sweating a ton. My cats have been sleeping on surfaces that aren't as warm.

It's interfered with my plans to paint the doors-- too much humidity-- and install new locksets. The back door popped open twice yesterday and rain blew into the house and onto the floor. I was going to install the new strikeplate but the wind kept blowing the rain in every time the door was open. My friends and I have been commiserating about how much the weather sucks. Best friend has been sick the past week. First kidney stones and then some kind of stomach bug.

Diabetic polyneuropathy , terrible words that I am familiar with. Been to neurologists. And specialist neurologist... they just shrug thier shoulders and say, nothing we can do, here have some gabapenton (NOT)....
Two suppliments I take that actually help are R-lipoic acid, (has to be just plain R, not plain lipoic acid) and benfotiamine. They help take the sting out, makes life livable.

 

[Doug Mildram]

Movie recommendation "The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn"
(from me/doug in Maine, knowledge of plumbing low, but a retired DIY type with time to burn...)

Y'all, I'm not the type to post day to day details of my life, but having read this forum for a year or so, feeling more and more like you're kinduv'an extended family to me now (my sweetie's a 2 hr drive from me, so it's just me and my wild/5yo golden retriever in a 2006 home I've had 4-5 yrs). This movie: I think it started on Netflix in 1999, which may explain why I never heard of it until I got a hint from my endless utube shorts-surfing....)

If you have Amazon Prime it's FREE streaming at least now (and probably still on netflix?), so check out the 90min movie "The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn". Sidney Poitier plays a young-ish 90+ old man (in a house with no electricity, and they don't mention plumbing or show a toilet,sink?) with very little to say (socially recluse, so what few words he does say, are just perfect). Watch with your sweetie(s) and even kids, nothing more than a kiss on the neck for romance-on-screen, nothing more violent than a punch in the face for violence, a blessed mix of sad-then-uplifting that brought tears to my eyes.