I love.Love.LOVE! your thoughts on senior living (as opposed to senior dead😬) Thanks for continuing to remain pertinent and relevant in the lives of so many of us. I look forward to keeping up with you through your writing, since the pool water fitness schedule doesn’t suit me at all these days. If they schedule an evening class, that’s where you’ll find me. I get the impression that the 8or9am class is likely extinct 🫤 Let me know if I can be of any help as you tread the path toward your future. I’d sure love to share your company in person now and then❣️
Can hardly wait for the next step in your downsizing journey. My daughter is looking for a house with a granny unit. "Mom, I may have found one." It has an attached studio about the size of my current bedroom, with a tiny bathroom. Downsize? or Obliterate? Or stay where I am, hope not to fall down the stairs, and thank the landlords for not raising the rent--yet.
The mantra for all of us is, "Do it now!" Whatever it is. But an attached granny flat the size of your bedroom? Uhhh, "attached" may be a bit close and a whole apartment crammed into a bedroom might be somewhat oppressive? I'd say look into permits and financing to build a nice, big addition!
Actually, someone somewhere used “quire” this past week. I had to look it up, as to me, ‘quire’ means 20 sheets of paper. Quire is an archaic spelling for the row of choirstalls in (mostly) ancient churches, not many past 15th c., and not humans singing.
It’s clear that medieval church architecture was never one of my passions, or I too might have known that word as Abigail uses it here.
There’s also the immense psychological burden of facing two sets of downsizing in a large chaotic cramming of poorly labeled (someone else’s work) boxes, which may or may not have the contents—and only those—within.
Ask for thorough & accurate packing & labelling—NOT speed, lest you rue at not-really-leisure-no. Get women/someone with library training to run things. The one time I did this, I could find things.
Try to avoid moving while caring for someone in dementia, lest you need a 72-hour hold aka Baker-Acted aka 5150, which will not improve things in the least. There were three of us, one of whom would be with my belle-mère at all times, but we had to stay for 10 days at a residence hotel before we could finish the chaos of the move. Two moves within a month, in higher heat than I tolerate. This place is built for taller people, and I am not one.
I once worked in a building whose address number was 5150. Took me months to connect the dots, because it’s not anywhere near the front of my mind.
The name of the street was the name of the nearest hospital with a locked ward for 72-hour holds. At one point one third of the staff were on the bipolar axis. I don’t think C needed 5150 while I was there, and the guy turned out to be using & dealing.
If the places you’re looking at offer different levels of care needs, consider how you might feel about orchestrating another move should illness/injury or mobility become an issue.
Nearby fun spots, of your definition, are in your priorities list, right?
Maybe avoid living at 5150 addresses? I can imagine urban planners just skipping over it the way hotels skip the 13th floor. And of course, an elaborate system is in place for the moment I break my neck ziplining or succumb to an obscure, untreatable disease. Meanwhile, yes, fun requirements - library, heated pool with aerobics 5 days/week, parks with bike/pedestrian paths and COFFEE SHOPS! - are all close.
Library in walking distance, Asian tea shop around the corner, pools (heated one for laps) & spa in the complex, with diverse residents & many dogs, a city park within walking distance, sushi within walking distance—we live on the edge of San José’s Japantown. May-November two blocks away is a small Sunday morning farmer’s market, May-August a food truck roundup in the same lot Thursday evening.
Two blocks away a bus stop which can connect to light rail, which connects to east bay BART and to the CalTrain, Amtrak, & Greyhound.
Senior apartment buildings & center nearby in Japantown, which hosts festivals several times a year. Blocks of Mexican restaurants 4 blocks away.
No real coffee shops, drugstores, or grocery stores in walking distance, but I can walk to my current optometrist.
Ten miles away where we used to live, and before that in Campbell, grocery stores, ethnic restaurants & groceries, coffee shops, one general grocery, a post office, nice parks in each area with paths, one along a creek.
My husband would like an actual dx for his not-MS, not Devic’s, neural decline.
He’s certainly dealing with dysautonomia since losing weight down to scrawny, and I will not recommend Ozempic, which leaves him so nauseated he can’t eat much at all.
Hotter than 75, I’m not outside much—heat wimp, same as son. We love the cold & rain, except for the barometric pressure sinus migraines the come before the storms.
Thanks for your truthful humour, Abigail. Identified with so much, even the ceilings, thus cupboards, being too high. Ageing must be treated with hilarity—if we’re lucky enough to last the distance to reach its foibles. Part of life’s adventure, always springing surprises to ensure we don’t slip into the belief everything is under control. Best to deal with each issue as it appears.
I love.Love.LOVE! your thoughts on senior living (as opposed to senior dead😬) Thanks for continuing to remain pertinent and relevant in the lives of so many of us. I look forward to keeping up with you through your writing, since the pool water fitness schedule doesn’t suit me at all these days. If they schedule an evening class, that’s where you’ll find me. I get the impression that the 8or9am class is likely extinct 🫤 Let me know if I can be of any help as you tread the path toward your future. I’d sure love to share your company in person now and then❣️
Can hardly wait for the next step in your downsizing journey. My daughter is looking for a house with a granny unit. "Mom, I may have found one." It has an attached studio about the size of my current bedroom, with a tiny bathroom. Downsize? or Obliterate? Or stay where I am, hope not to fall down the stairs, and thank the landlords for not raising the rent--yet.
The mantra for all of us is, "Do it now!" Whatever it is. But an attached granny flat the size of your bedroom? Uhhh, "attached" may be a bit close and a whole apartment crammed into a bedroom might be somewhat oppressive? I'd say look into permits and financing to build a nice, big addition!
Even though I will never have the pleasure of a meeting, you are dear to me, by virtue of your wit and humor.
Actually, someone somewhere used “quire” this past week. I had to look it up, as to me, ‘quire’ means 20 sheets of paper. Quire is an archaic spelling for the row of choirstalls in (mostly) ancient churches, not many past 15th c., and not humans singing.
It’s clear that medieval church architecture was never one of my passions, or I too might have known that word as Abigail uses it here.
There’s also the immense psychological burden of facing two sets of downsizing in a large chaotic cramming of poorly labeled (someone else’s work) boxes, which may or may not have the contents—and only those—within.
Ask for thorough & accurate packing & labelling—NOT speed, lest you rue at not-really-leisure-no. Get women/someone with library training to run things. The one time I did this, I could find things.
Try to avoid moving while caring for someone in dementia, lest you need a 72-hour hold aka Baker-Acted aka 5150, which will not improve things in the least. There were three of us, one of whom would be with my belle-mère at all times, but we had to stay for 10 days at a residence hotel before we could finish the chaos of the move. Two moves within a month, in higher heat than I tolerate. This place is built for taller people, and I am not one.
I once worked in a building whose address number was 5150. Took me months to connect the dots, because it’s not anywhere near the front of my mind.
The name of the street was the name of the nearest hospital with a locked ward for 72-hour holds. At one point one third of the staff were on the bipolar axis. I don’t think C needed 5150 while I was there, and the guy turned out to be using & dealing.
If the places you’re looking at offer different levels of care needs, consider how you might feel about orchestrating another move should illness/injury or mobility become an issue.
Nearby fun spots, of your definition, are in your priorities list, right?
Maybe avoid living at 5150 addresses? I can imagine urban planners just skipping over it the way hotels skip the 13th floor. And of course, an elaborate system is in place for the moment I break my neck ziplining or succumb to an obscure, untreatable disease. Meanwhile, yes, fun requirements - library, heated pool with aerobics 5 days/week, parks with bike/pedestrian paths and COFFEE SHOPS! - are all close.
Only worked there!
Library in walking distance, Asian tea shop around the corner, pools (heated one for laps) & spa in the complex, with diverse residents & many dogs, a city park within walking distance, sushi within walking distance—we live on the edge of San José’s Japantown. May-November two blocks away is a small Sunday morning farmer’s market, May-August a food truck roundup in the same lot Thursday evening.
Two blocks away a bus stop which can connect to light rail, which connects to east bay BART and to the CalTrain, Amtrak, & Greyhound.
Senior apartment buildings & center nearby in Japantown, which hosts festivals several times a year. Blocks of Mexican restaurants 4 blocks away.
No real coffee shops, drugstores, or grocery stores in walking distance, but I can walk to my current optometrist.
Ten miles away where we used to live, and before that in Campbell, grocery stores, ethnic restaurants & groceries, coffee shops, one general grocery, a post office, nice parks in each area with paths, one along a creek.
My husband would like an actual dx for his not-MS, not Devic’s, neural decline.
He’s certainly dealing with dysautonomia since losing weight down to scrawny, and I will not recommend Ozempic, which leaves him so nauseated he can’t eat much at all.
Hotter than 75, I’m not outside much—heat wimp, same as son. We love the cold & rain, except for the barometric pressure sinus migraines the come before the storms.
Thanks, DeeDee!
Thanks for your truthful humour, Abigail. Identified with so much, even the ceilings, thus cupboards, being too high. Ageing must be treated with hilarity—if we’re lucky enough to last the distance to reach its foibles. Part of life’s adventure, always springing surprises to ensure we don’t slip into the belief everything is under control. Best to deal with each issue as it appears.
Very good, dear cousin! But surely we are not this old!! LOL
'fraid so, but at least it's interesting!