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Carboncat

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Posts posted by Carboncat

  1. On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2020 at 3:34 AM, Pepper Mostly said:

    Right? People say that to me too--"Oh wow, you're from here? But you don't have an accent!" Well, I do. I just don't talk like a knuckle dragging petty criminal who dropped out of South Boston High. What 's seen in the movies is a heavy, blue collar accent. Plenty of people have a softer "r" or a a broader "a" but don't sound like "I'm goin to Dunks, kid, for a fucken donut, ya wanna cawfee?"

    I work at MIT, right across the river!

    Sure, in the 60's Boston's reputation was of refined, blue blooded Beacon Hill types. College professors and educated people. Old ladies who "had their hats". And the Kennedys--cut glass Irish with "Harvard" accents. Then Dennis Lehane, "Good Will Hunting". The busing crisis in the 70's showed the ugly side of Boston--racist housewives in Southie throwing rocks at black kids in school buses. 

    There is a lot of aluminum and vinyl siding used here, but plenty of wood clapboard and shingles too. I have vinyl siding on my house. It is easier to maintain. The weather is also not as bad as people think! It rarely goes into the teens in winter, for instance. Sometimes its snowy, sometimes it's not. We have the gamut of weather, but I think lots of places have more severe winters. 

    Thanks for that. Our starter house here in San Leandro (which we can  never leave) has wood siding under (ugh) aluminum.  I peeked under and declared "Nope".

    I know this probably belongs in Small Talk", but I really appreciate the interchange.

    The local weather channel has been warning for days that temps starting Sunday won't climb out of the the 50's and with wind chill might FEEL like 50 degrees.  I'm breaking out the fleece and fuzzy boots for this..

    My husband  is chomping at the bit so we can retire to Nevada, where they don't have weather, except hot, power lines are underground, and few earthquakes.  I still need to keep on working.

    My high school best friend went to an East Coast school (I forget which).  She lived in an apartment in Waltham, Mass.  She wrote me how freezing cold it was, all the time, and how she slipped on the sidewalks.  I cant't navigate ice either!

    • Love 1
  2. On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2020 at 9:43 AM, nokat said:

    I've said this before here, that I use toddler sized bowls to limit my portions. If I must have my potato chips it's only a handful at the most. It has been working for me, after the menopause "what the hell happened." 
     

    Small bowls (thus serving sizes) really do help.  As for getting older, yeah, what the hell happened?  Getting old sucks, but (let's say it together,now)  it sure beats the alternative.

    • Love 4
  3. 6 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

    New Jersey is lovely in plenty of spots. People always either think of the shore (and Jersey Shore, now, unfortunately, thanks to MTV...most of them weren't even from NJ, from what I understand), or they think of the northern part, NYC suburbs which are much more urban and industrial (and maybe Philly 'burbs which are similar). There's plenty of other stuff in between. Even the "garden" bits that the state is nicknamed for. (We even have wineries and at least one alpaca farm!)

    LOL...I have at least six Dunkin Donuts that I can easily stop at on my way to work. I take a couple different routes and the way I went this morning there are three that are directly on my way (plus a fourth that's on the wrong side of the highway); my other route has one on the way and two others that require just a slight detour). Tuesday's This Is Us, which I watched last night, enticed me to go get a couple glazed this morning.

     

    The way she phrased it at first did sound like she had done it before but then she clarified that she had been turned down.

    My husband's family is from Morristown, NJ.  It is really nice there, and the Dunkin' coffee was good, but the ordering system is weird.  Last time there was summer at the height of a California drought. Green grass!  Rain!  OMG!

    The freeways are really confusing, like a luge course with cloverleafs.  I was designated driver,and we passed our destinations many times while I tried to figure it out.

    It didn't help that our rent-a -car had Kentucky plates.  It screamed "rube".  What I found out was if you are upfront and real, people there respect that. 

    • Love 1
  4. 18 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

    Yes, she tried to get it and was denied.

    I guess I stand corrected.  I thought they said she had prior WLS, but maybe not.

    I can't imagine any doctor would have approved her, and Dr. Now didn't investigate any complications

    • Love 1
  5. 11 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

    I feel your pain. Try being from Boston! We get portrayed as beer swilling, semi literate, racist, thuggish petty criminals and gangsters with Nawth Shoah accents so thick you can barely understand us, who are always yelling about some fucken sports ball team, ked, going to Dunkin Donuts or fucken Santahpio's pizza, and listening to the Dropkick Murphys, singing "Sweet Caroline", and watching "Mystic River".

     

    For what it's worth, as a child growing up in California in the 60's I thought  of Boston as a cultured "New England" place, with its Revolutionary heritage, colleges, brick buildings, and in the countryside, white clapboard farmhouses.  And snow.  We don't get snow.  It is so picturesque on Christmas cards. 

    I never understood what you mean until the 90's when I read Dennis Lehane novels.

    I actually LIKE New Jersey!  We've probably got more in common than we really know, or want to admit...

    They are even bringing Dunkin' Donuts out here.  Naw, it's not that good. OK, but not great.

    Also the Kennedys.  I associated them with Massachusetts, New England, et. al.

    "Because it is haaahhd", going to the Moon, that is.  And "Cuber"!.  Am I showing my age?

    Anyway, my love to Boston and its 3 story Victorian flats, like in San Francisco. 

    Question:  All the siding in photos look like aluminum.  Is that because wood can't survive freezing weather?

    • Love 4
  6. 12 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

    So she's nothing but a liar, and I bet her entire backstory about the bathing, and everything else was a lie, just like her immobility was.     I'm wondering if she thinks she'll be the next Twitney, the big girl star?    We've been had.    

    She never intended to lose weight, and if the producers continue with her, then I'll be very upset.  

     I think everything we were told by her family, and Gina and Beth was a lie that they made up.   I'm also questioning her entire back story too.          

    After thinking about it this morning, then my suspicion is that was a two hour long audition, and she thought she would get her own follow up series.    I bet the dancing videos would have been the "I'm doing so well, and I'm a star" when she claimed to be doing better.       

    I feel very used.      I bet the entire family was in on it, and I am not believing anything that I saw, or was shown.   The Dr. Now parts were legit, but nothing by Beth or Gina is believable to me now.  

    To me, looking back on this episode, which flew by lightning fast after my hiatus, it seemed flat, fake and unsatisfying.

    I got no sense that Gina wanted to really lose weight, had any sense of her disorder or despair at weighing 600lbs.. any self-awareness at all.

    Plus, she previously had WLS which failed.

    Everybody on camera--wife Beth, family, friends, everybody looked like they were inflated by helium.  It was surreal That sad, almost sordid wedding of the bloated, sorry I just don't have words.  I am so sad for these folks.

    (Sorry peeps,  I've been away awhile.)  Where is the passion, the despair, the fight against a pernicious addiction to food, the fight to self-awareness and the strength to lose weight, get healthy, and use your past as timber for your bridge to a better tomorrow?

    Instead we get infantile whiners like Gina, with her stashes of cheese (for "salads") and her bitching and abuse.  Can't even stand sitting on a chair at wedding rehersal.

    "I don't think that I can make it, 'cause it took so long to bake it....."

    I don't know why M600lb life even wasted time with her.

    At least Dr. Now canceled surgery; but the bar is slipping. As much as I want to hate her, she's not evil like Anjie J.  she's just clueless.

     

    I

     

    • Love 8
  7. 1 minute ago, Hellga said:

    At least they made it 4 hours in the first day.  Not the worst we have seen on the show...  I wonder if she will fit into the hotel shower?  They tend to be huge especially if you get disabled room?  Then she won't have an excuse not to shower...

    I am almost surprized she gets her fat ass to the toilet instead of asking for a bucket to be brought to her chair/couch...

    I don't remember any pounticipants complaing about the shower.  Toilet and bed, and WTF hardwood floors.  But most of these folks, if they can get takeout and flop down are good.  They already showered in Scene 1.

    • LOL 2
    • Love 1
  8. On ‎11‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 9:38 AM, pdlinda said:

    I just saw a rerun of Brittani Fulfer's "where are they now" episode and I believe there was another subsequent episode where she got the skin removal for her legs??? (Not sure but THINK so).  The big DRAWBACK of watching these episodes on TLC GO is those endless ad breaks that seem to go on FOREVER!!  Does anyone know how to watch the "Where are they now" episodes without such "torture,"  (Yes, I'd be willing to pay to avoid the ads).

    At this point, where there is still no beloved Live Chat, I record and skip the ads that way.

    • Love 1
  9. On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 7:20 PM, aliya said:

    This is so scary. I live alone and don't normally have bad lows, but I have had 3 in the past year or so that have freaked me out. I had to come in late to work because I was afraid to go to sleep until I was sure of my readings.  I'm keeping the tablets & Capri Sun in my nightstand. My doctor has said no more night time insulin for me, which I don't always abide by, 'cause my blood sugars would be sky high, so I feel it's a bit of a tight rope. Fortunately, the lower carb I eat, the better off I am, with less or even no insulin needed many days. My mother is also Type 2 and wound up in the hospital after a fall in the house. We thought it was age, but it was low blood sugar. 

    I haven't been around a lot since the season ended - how y'all are? (best Justin Wilson voice)

    I'm glad you keep juice and tablets by the bed.  I always worry about choking even with the tablets. As a non-diabetic I recognize certain signs in the middle of the night:  twitching of the legs and arms, and sweating.  Also sleep-talking that's incoherent, like "Where's the remote?" when there's no TV in the bedroom.

    My husband reports a feeling of "falling".  Please take care; I understand the need for medication to control damaging highs and the risk of a plummet.

    Love to you and fellow Pounders!

    • Love 1
  10. 6 hours ago, nokat said:

    I get scratches from the thorns on the bougainvillea and roses. Has leather gloves, but those thorns will poke through. I once accidentally stepped on a bougainvillea branch and it went  through my shoe and into my foot. I put up with them though because the hummingbirds like them.

    Roof rats, ick, I keep trees trimmed and away from the house. I do see opossums in the yard after dark. I put out bird food and water so that's going to attract critters.

    Roses are  fierce, and I have many.  I planted bougainvillea--purple and pink all along the back fences.  In 2005 they were overgrown, and doubling back on themselves.  One July day when it was 105 degrees in the kitchen (I was reading the paper) I heard a groan and crash from the back yard..  The prickypear cactus in the corner of the yard had collapsed in the heat and took all the vines on the fences with it. Bouganvillea disaster!  The whole yard was filled waist-high with sharp, sharp sharp bougainvillea.  Took weeks to get rid of, plus had to ferry cactus paddles and trunk out to street yard waste on a furniture dolly after whacking it apart with a framing hammer.  Cactus is heavy!

    Unfortunately, a few years later we had a cold snap in December--it was 22 degrees.  I went outside that night and watched 2 of my 3 vines literally turn black and die.

    We garden at our own risk.

    • Love 2
  11. 7 minutes ago, nokat said:

    I am one, because we have so much fruit!
     

    Yes, year round fruit and fruit in the yard, in our case plums oranges and lemons.  We found out a few years ago that the number-one fruit for roof rats are lemons!  Also opposums!

    By the way, lemon trees are mean, with 2' spiky thorns like a medieval weapon.  The way to prune is to hook, snap and bring down branches while they're young. And wear gloves.  Sure smells good, though.

    My grandpa, who I was very close to, like the son he never had.  "Let's open the barn in the morning!!"  (At that point it was basically a garage with no room for a car...)

    He was one of 13 children, and used to tell me fond stories of stealing watermelons with brothers at night in Fresno.  They would crack them open and eat them in the field.  When they were caught, they were already full.  I enjoyed this stuff over donuts at Winchell's with his retired Teamster buddies. The streusel was the best.

    The "older" folks even back then used to complain that : peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc... don't taste like they used to.

    Maybe so.

    • Love 1
  12. 12 hours ago, nokat said:

    Sorry for your loss. Type 2 runs in the family, and we don't tend to be obese. Every time it's checked, my blood sugar is up at the pre diabetes level. But it hasn't changed in years. I don't drink soda, but I do eat a lot of fruit, and eat pasta and bread. I have to eat a lot of protein, though, because I'll feel very sick with too many carbs.
     

    Thanks, this is a really unfortunate reality for many.  My husband is practically the only one of his 10 (then) sibling that is not overweight.  He still developed type-2 at 33.  I remember the constant peeing, the weight loss (!), the burning feet.  

    He is doing better since the eliminated glipizide and cut back on the other meds.

    He is a total fruit-a-holic, always has been, and here in the fruit paradise of California it is difficult.  I find peaches, plums whole melons hidden in th e meat drawer.

    I'm tongue in check of course (me? it's SUGAR-FREE jam!) Oh!  I forgot grapes.  But add that to wine for a diabetic it spells trouble, and because he often won't eat to compensate for the calories, it's not good.

    All the time we were raising kids we hardly drank at all;  it was hard enough to get up in the morning.

    I'm reminded tonight of one of those "commodity" commercials they played on TV in the mid-70's set to music  "Peaches.... Plums.. California fruuuiittt… deeelicious!!!!!..…..(bump-pa bum...).but not filllliiinnngg!....Calififornia fruuuuiiittt! Maybe 1977.

    So hokey, but cute!

    Thanks for the concern; I know we digress from show topics, but this diabetes affects so many of us.  Please take care.

    • Love 3
  13. 1 hour ago, ProTourist said:

    One other option -- a shot of glucagon. That is, if you'd feel comfortable giving him an injection, and if he'd let you close enough for the jab. Just curious -- what do firemen do for a hypoglycemic episode?

    They have given him injections.  Usually they stabilize him and have me make a peanut butter sandwich.  I've inquired about that, but was given no real answer, like that wasn't possible.  I should inquire again.

    Most of the time these episodes can be solved in10 minutes with juice and sheepishness "I did WHAT?"  Without the drama, trauma and expense of 911.

    It is so concerning, though.  You always wonder, what if I don't call and he's in real trouble, or even dies?  His sugar has been as low as 24.

    • Love 3
  14. 9 hours ago, AZChristian said:

    My brother recently died.  He was obese, but not in the 600-pound category.  

    He was a hypochondriac who LOVED going to doctors.  But he was only happy with the outcome if they gave him pills or surgery. 

    I visited doctors with him on occasion, and saw for myself that when they sent him to a nutritionist, he was mentally "checked out" as far as being willing to be involved in improving his health.  Before referring him to the nutritionist in his practice, the doctor told him he needed to lose a significant amount of weight to help his circulatory and kidney problems.  Brother's first question was, "Oh, good.  Will YOU approve me for weight loss surgery . . . because none of my other doctors will."  The doctor said there was no need for him to have surgery - he just needed to improve his eating habits. 

    Needless to say, the visit to the nutritionist was a waste of everyone's time.  She gave him simple instructions - with diagrams - to show how much of each food group was appropriate for him to lose weight and improve his health without medications or surgery.  He totally ignored her in the office, and changed nothing.

    After he died, I had to clean up the mess (physical and organizational) in his apartment.  As a hypochondriac, he had not thrown away ANY medical records for the last 10 years - they were strewn all over the place.  I felt obligated to go through them to make sure nothing important was being discarded/shredded.  I noticed that over this last year there were several references (including reports from blood work) to his having diabetes (which runs rampant throughout our family).  

    Two weeks before he died, his son came to visit, and took him to the grocery store (brother hasn't driven in a couple of years) so he could stock up on groceries.  When I had dinner with his son a couple of days later, he told me that brother had bought FIVE 12-packs of regular Pepsi, and when nephew visited him a day and a half after the grocery trip, brother had already drank a whole 12-pack and part of another.  

    We found brother's body while doing a welfare check on him about 3-4 days after he died (he wasn't answering his phone, and there had been no activity on his bank account).  While there is no proof (no autopsy), I will forever suspect that the amount of sugar he was ingesting with all that Pepsi threw him into a diabetic state.  He got up in the middle of the night (probably to go to the bathroom), and collapsed.  Maybe it was a heart attack.  Maybe it was a diabetic coma.  It was - I am sure - something that didn't need to have killed him if he had made even minimal efforts to listen to the doctors about making better choices and eating better.

    I see a lot of the 600-pounders as similar in mindset.  All that matters to them is what they want, and as much of it as they want.  How many times have they said, "Dr. Now is my only hope"?  All of these people have smart phones and can figure out how to utilize housing and other financial programs to get them what they want.  Those same smart phones can show them what they need to do to lose weight and improve their health.

    We see that Dr. Now gives them their food lists on the first visit.  He tells them how many calories to ingest.  If these people refuse to even make that MINOR adjustment as part of their own choice - and they are NOT paying for Dr. Now's services - why should he foot the bill for anything else when it seems obvious that they will also not heed additional nutritional or mental health counseling?

    Sorry for the long post, but I see so much of their behaviors which were similar to my brother's . . . it's always somebody else's job to make their life better.

    I am sorry about you brother.  Diabetes is horrendous..  My husband's mother, father and all 10 siblings had it..  My husband is about the only one who is not overweight, but even so this has affected us greatly.  It started when he was an Eagle Scout dad and he burned his shins at campfires (and didn't notice) to the point of gangrene.

    Wounds that don't heal, neuropathy where I'm afraid he'll slip in the shower, and he's blind in one eye and can't see well out the other (from diabetes-related macular degeneration).

    He does stringently watch his diet EXCEPT FOR WINE, which he steadfastly refuses to accept that it's no good.  He's like an anorexic saying 90 lbs is good!.....80 even better....

    So we regularly have 3:00 am crises  where his sugar drops into the 20's and I have to call firemen. He sweats, rolls on the floor and babbles, or worst of all one night burst out into choruses of "Raindrops are fallin' on my head"...

    "YOU take the goddam juice!"  "YOU take the damn glucose pill...! He weighs 165, I weigh 105. What can I really do if he won't take the juice or pill?

    I'd love to see these cute firemen fully clothed with makeup and teeth in.

    I was with a dear co-worker when he had to call for  welfare check on a diabetic sister in distant Merced (we work in Oakland).  Unfortunaely she passed away from diabetes and never pressed the alert button her brothers gave her.  I was in the company truck when he got the news;  so sad.

    We are all getting older, we do the best we can for ourselves and our loved ones.  We can only try our best, pray and scary as it is know there's an end of the line for all of us.

    • Love 6
  15. Hi to everyone!  My heart goes out to anyone in the Dallas area impacted by the tornadoes.  I can't imagine how frightening a screaming tornado is in the middle of the night, and how devastating the destruction.

    My husband is going on a business trip to Las Vegas tomorrow and is taking the laptop.  So no live (rerun) chat for me Wednesday, but I look forward to unfettered housecleaning, and no Thursday Night Football.

    Thursday is supposed to be in the mid-90's.  Whatever happened to the "nip" of fall?  Why is Christmas stuff in the aisles at Walmart? When can I wear long sleeves, or even (gasp!) a sweater?  Why do I have to be tan and do my feet for sandals into Thanksgiving?

    No politics intended at all folks, but I think the climate is changing, regardless why.

    Just on the riff of road hazards dating back to Vianey's mattress flying off their pickup:

    Today on commute radio I was warned of a "medium sized" propane tank on the freeway, 

    A small tank would be better if you hit it?

    Driving back to work from Hayward at 3:00 traffic was delayed by a violent overturn for no apparent reason but driving too fast. WTH? How the heck do you DO that?

    And 680 freeway was delayed not only by major grassfire, but also overturned boxtruck that spewed nails and screws all over 4 lanes, AND a motorcycle accident.

    This is the 3rd nails accident in 3 months.  What gives?

    In 1998 I was caught in a nails spill on the way to Carpenter Apprentice school;  flat tires all around, cars running out of gas, flat tires all around.  I turned off my engine and busted out the cinnamon Pop-Tarts. Everyone else was going to be late, including the instructors.

    You've just got to love it or you'll go crazy.

    I can't wait to retire!  

    • Love 3
  16. 10 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

    Some of the big grocery stores in Texas have cooking demonstrations, delivery options, ready to cook food already prepped.   The Poundticipants who claim there are no health options are lying.   

    Even 7-Elevens offer salads ,so I totally get you. And it's always possible to order the simple hamburger from fast food places instead of the triple-patty glop-burger (or two).

    And no thanks I don't want fries with that.

    • Love 1
  17. On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 1:09 AM, Barbara Please said:

    I was astounded by the amount of food Holly could eat. That isn’t normal. Since she was this way since childhood it Is possible there’s more going on medically. I don’t think it’s entirely a psychological issue. 

    Also, Holly facial expressions, and childlike demeanor reminded me of the snotty nosed kid in Bad Santa. All she needed was blonde curly hair!

    B9885D06-2CA9-43DD-B454-80C074630E01.jpeg

    Did you see the ginormous slices of bread Ray used for his sandwich? He has a problem with food too. He’s just not eating nearly as much of it as Holly was. 

    Yes I noticed the huge slices of bread.  If he wanted to help he could fix open-faced, un-mayonnaised  sandwiches.  Like many family members/enablers on this show they are overweight too, just not as much as the pounticipant.  They could all stand to do the diet and get healthier.

    When 300-400 pounder family members sit with their pounticipant in the exam room (usually #5) on the initial intake I wish Dr Now would jam them up more.

    You are all overweight and the whole household needs to change your eating habits.

    It's sometimes painful to watch the "normal" family members who are clearly obese scold and ration the pounticipant.  Family counselling would help a lot, as well as info about food and nutrition  So many seem truly clueless.

    I agree that Ray is probably a "feeder".

    • Love 1
  18. On ‎10‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 1:32 PM, OoogleEyes said:

    Hello Pounders! I hope you all in the Bay area are ok. I can't even imagine what life would be like with no electricity for an entire week. What do businesses do? I work from home and would be SOL, I guess. 

    It's drizzling and cool here. I needed something comforting to eat, so I made......A TATERTOT CASSEROLE! 

    Thinking of yinz guys, and looking forward to our live chats once again 

    My retired husband has discovered "beyond" burgers and sausage.  He fries them every day, with peppers and onions.  I wish he wouldn't, but it's tasty.  Cats won't leave me in peace when I eat, but I don't think veggie burgers are good for them.

    Mac and cheese is my comfort food and I'm making it now. Don't want to touch tater tot casserole right now.  Have lost pesky pounds that made my jeans uncomfortable and want  to leave room for beer and wine, my weekend essentials.

    Thanks for the kind thoughts about our dysfunctional planned power outage here.  So much unclarity and stress.  We Americans endure hurricanes, blizzards, floods, earthquakes, etc...

    I feel for you all fellow Pounders (Americans) with this.

    We just past the 30'th anniversary of Loma Prieta Earthquake in northern Californina.  It is one of those things where people ask "Where were you?" like when JFK was shot.

    BTW when Kennedy was shot I was in Ohlbergs Market in Fresno with my mom in Fresno, CA.

    The day of the earthquake in 1989 I resigned frim my job (had another lined up) and left work at 2;00.  Was a weird, hot, dusty day with tension in the air.  Otherwise at 5:04 I would have been on 880 freeway leaving Berkeley.  Later spoke to a colleague driving a box truck who was literally the last one off as the freeway collapsed in his rearview mirror.

    I dove under a table as the World Series browned out on the 3rd floor of a wood Victorian.  It swung and swayed, but held up just fine except for the  brick chimney.

    We were without electric, gas, or water for 4 days.

    They had a shaking re-enactment exibit at the DeYoung museum in SF.  I used to take my young son to this science museum a lot when he was young, but I never wanted to go on the "re-experience Loma Prieta"ride,  No thanks, once is enough.

    I feel like I can share some of this local color with you because I feel I have internet friends across the country with a common interest as Pounders. Thanks for the fellowship in these hiatus times.

    Looking forward to Live chats!

    • Love 6
  19. On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 8:51 AM, libgirl2 said:

    We always used to talk kindly to the patient. Let them know it would just be a pinch. If they were afraid we were taking too much blood, we would say each tube was only about a teaspoon. And we always were warm, friendly and smiling. 

    Yes, it seemed she was cold and dismissive of his fears.  She could have smiled, patted his hand and winked "just don't look".

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