The Kvetch Thread

I've got simple needs....warmth and as much sunlight as possible. These things make me smile.
When it's too hot (frequently here) during the day, I retreat to immersing part of my body in water or keep myself indoors with a/c on low... and/or copious use of fans.

Like I've always said - you don't have to shovel the heat.

I've never been a fan of heat, sun, or summer. However, as I age, I find the cold harder to deal with. Mostly, it feels colder. And hobbling around in the snow has become impossible. However, I can't imagine myself anywhere but Noo Yawk, which is an expensive place to be.

I'm more hit by heat than I used to be, which figures, and more hit by cold than I used to be, which figures. I probably like cold slightly better, as I can move around and flap. Winter is a time of war in my mind, turn the heat on or not, mostly not. I'm getting seriously tired of my old bathrobe, but I suppose it's my favorite thing.

I could easily imagine you here in Albuquerque with all us women of a certain age. I can also imagine the raucous hilarity we'd all have together.

You'd get your warm sun and your occasional inch of snow here too.

Butrfly, bubbele. There's one very serious problem with Albuquerque (aside from the fact that it's not Noo Yawk). The elevation! I can't breathe at such elevations.

But we would have fun. That's for sure.

It's always odd that I fail to realize how high up Albuquerque is. Not sure why this happens, probably a combination of factors. Most of my trips into there were done on Greyhound Bus and the land seemed fairly flat as we went through Oklahoma, into the Texas panhandle and then entered New Mexico. The other thing that would throw me, is I usually went from there on another (localizer) bus up to Santa Fe which is even further up in the sky.

You are quite right though Roberta, it'd likely be a wonderful time for you, both visually (it is stunning) and people wise (found them to be friendly for the most part), and with osso there as well as a few others you've interacted with here at a2k, you'd not be alone or getting lost.
(can almost hear the snarl as you mutter that you 'ain't one to get lost').
We need to find a way to lower the elevation of certain cities.

I am about 25 miles north of you, and originally was glad to get out of the ice and snow of New York. Lately, I am finding the heat and humidity of central Florida abominable.

Oh well. It is nice to be wearing shorts almost year 'round. I suppose that I ought to be grateful for what I have.

For a number of years, my husband and I would drive out west to Colorado, Utah , New Mexico and Arizona. I love that area of the country.

The first time that we went, he did most of the driving. We were in Colorado, on a very flat, smooth road, when my husband said that he was tired.

I took over the wheel. After about a mile, we reached the highway. All of a sudden, we were on a road that, to me, was like a roller coaster. I was scared out of my wits. I had never driven on such a road before, and thought that we were going to crash. I pulled over, and Mr. P. took the wheel.

All he said was, "Why didn't you put the car in 2nd gear? I had never, in my entire life, used 2nd gear. Well, you live and learn.

I accept the tradeoff (heat vs snow and ice and cold), especially when I'm walking on that ultra fine quartz sand, I smile.

However, when I'm not down at the beach and I'm running errands or simply walking across the blacktop, I could just platz from the heat and waves like a blast furnace. When the weather reports indicated daily Dew Points consistently above 73 deg, that is oppressive. The good thing is long term forecasts are that drier and cooler weather is coming at the end of the month.

Plus, I'm near my family as they moved down here ahead of me.

I have an out-of-the-box kvetch. It's a bit heavy, so my apologies:

After 11 yrs of dealing with disability through my cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia issues (managed with meds and defib/pacemaker), I thought I was done with medical mishigas for a while. WRONG!

I have an odd health circumstance going on right now. I'm about to hear (after a biopsy and several other CT/ otr tests over the last 3 weeks) whether or not my swollen neck and other lymph glands of the last 6 weeks is lymphoma or some sort of cancer. Blood work and X-rays are good, luckily. Just call me Lumpy Rutherford (Leave It to Beaver).

I've got good support of friend and family, good efficient (mostly) docs at VA, and good advise on the outside of VA through private doctor (2nd opinion simultaneously in parallel). If by some stroke of bad luck that it's some form of Lymphoma, it's highly treatable, I'm told.

It's a little daunting and surprising. Waiting...doo dee dum! I'm supposed to be hearig the 'word' at 1pm (now) and I've left a call in to them...as was advised to do if I don't hear from them at 1pm.

Wish me luck. Frankly, I don't feel bad physically. Gawd bless those handy Xanax.

Good luck buddy. Eat the whole pie when you can. It has 6 doses of Xanax (one for each slice):

Tnx. That apple pie is looking good!

Xanax sort of takes the edge off of worry but it leaves you a little spacy. I like my usual predictably spacy feeling though. I'll let my newly inherited 5-yr-old toy poodle (Jelly Bean) to soothe me with her smart/silly antics.

Oy gevalt. (Not an ay abruch yet.) Wishing you well. Waiting for the results with you. (Been there.)

Please let us know what's going on.

Throwing in an oy vey on general principle.

Thanks! You're kind. I'm always rooting for you, as well.

Sure wish they'd respond with an answer...but Pathology in this hospital is very thorough but has large workload with many VA patients regional center with many tissues samples. When you think of your strained tax dollars, remember some of that revenue goes to good sources.

One of my dad's brothers has had something similar on his neck for a good 30 years that I know of, and probably longer. He's had it removed 3 times and has outlived all five of his brothers and is still going strong at 90+ years young.

I want you to have a similarly long life, so take good care of yourself.

Oh Ragman....wishing you well!

From me too - good luck, I hope all will go well for you.

Thoughts are with you Ragman, hope all goes well. Keep us informed as results come in and in the meantime, perhaps enjoy a nice fresh baked noodle kugel. Kugel makes nearly everything better (as can latkes).

Thinking of you, Ragman, with hopes for a positive outlook, regardless of the test results.

As a lifelong poodle owner, I can attest to their great ability to distract and comfort in times of stress. We nearly named one of our poodles Prozac because she was such a wonderful anti-depressant. Just think of Jelly Bean wearing a little nurse's hat.

I hope you get a report soon, waiting for these things is awful.