What can I say--I feel you pain. My MIL has been with us for a little over a year now. I have recently quit my job of 9 years to stay home with her. She is 85 and her mobility is not good, confused on a daily basis, short term memory is bad and right now trying to keep her dressed seems to be the new thing with her. All in all she is a joy--pleasant and loveable but a real handfull sometimes. She stayed alone while my DH and I worked for nearly a year. I lived in fear that she would fall or get hurt while we were gone. We came home and found the house full of smoke and we knew we were really pushing our luck with this. She (for some reason) filled a skillet full of oil, placed it on the stove, turned it on and walked into the other room and forgot it. She didn't even see the smoke. She apparently fell asleep cause she said a loud noise woke her up--smoke alarms. And she still didn't notice the smoke. We came in just in the nick of time. I didn't go back to work. The first week I was home with her I was amazed at how good she was at "hiding" her confusion. Somedays she shines like a little star but others not so good and we are having a lot more not so good right now. I'm really suprised she didn't get hurt--we were so lucky. I REALLY miss going to dinner and running to the store or just going somewhere. It seems like my life revolves around how she is today. I miss doing things with just my husband or daughter. We sort of do shifts--one of us stays with her so the other can get out for a while. Like you we couldn't get any straight answers about the legalitys of leaving her home alone--and still can't . I guess we just have to go with our judgment with this. I keep telling myself how wonderful she's been to me through the years and how I"ll be in that shape one day. It's not easy.

I have to disagree with your doctor, Glenda. If you think you could be having a stroke, you should ALWAYS head to the ER because time is of the essence. You probably shouldn't drive yourself, but definitely get there somehow. Wonder why he said that to you? Anyway, I'm so sorry that you are feeling low and hope your trip helps with that. Have a wonderful time, Glenda. Every time my daughter sees pictures of England/Scotland, she sighs, wishing she could go back.

Johnny, What bothers me even more than the lack of water is that their ground is subsiding due to all the groundwater being pulled out of the ground. I don't believe the ground rises again when or if the aquifers ever get to recharge again adequately. I believe I read that somewhere. It would bother me if the ground I live on was sinking. I wonder what the folks in California think? Maybe at this point, in their 4th year of drought and with horrific wildfires and severe economic issues facing their agricultural industry, right now all they can focus on is survival and getting through the current crisis. At some point, though, they will have to deal with the issues of groundwater depletion and land subsidence. If they don't get great snowpack this year, then what happens to them next year? It is scary to think about. It doesn't really matter how much rain falls because rain isn't where the majority of their water comes from. It is snowpack. Did I not just learn that rainfall alone is not enough after making it into Severe Drought a mere two months after catastrophic flooding resulting from incredibly heavily May-June rainfall? All that rain that fell in huge amounts ran off more so than it soaked in so that we didn't have nearly enough deep moisture to get us through two months in which almost no rain fell. I'd hate to see Cali get only rain relief this winter when what they really need is snow. I have changed so much about the way I garden here, all in an effort to garden in a more sustainable way. I used to bring in bags of purchased soil amendments, but I am mindful of the fact that it is better to create your own amendments so your own property is self-sustaining.], so now I try to do it myself without buying bags of amendments. It is a lot harder if you are relying only on what you find, make or grow on your own property, but at least I know I am not bringing in peat moss (not sustainable and is transported great distances) or herbicide residue-contaminated manure. Mulching and compost still are important to me, but I also have to grow compost crops in order to be able to make enough compost and I grow cover crops/green manure crops to add more organic matter. It is a challenge every year to put enough nutrition and organic matter back into the soil to make up for what my plants take out of it, but I'm up for the challenge. I haven't even brought in any old spoiled hay since 2010. I miss having the hay, but I no longer have to worry about whether one of my neighbors sprayed one of those persistent herbicides on their hay. Trying to be self-sustaining is a lot more work than just hauling stuff in. Carol, Thanks for confirming my gut feeling that maybe SVBs don't make it that far north. Or, at least they didn't then. With warmer temperatures creeping steadily northward over the last decade or so, it may eventually get warm enough there for SVBs to become a problem. I hope not. I love Hubbard squashed but they are the #1 favorite of SVBs in my garden, so the only way I grow them nowadays is in their own little raised bed far away from the garden in order to use them as a trap crop to find and kill the SVBs when they first show up. That buys me a little more time for other winter squash varieties, or at least warns me to get floating row covers/netting firmly in place to thwart the SVBs. Dawn

think of something you love and make it a theme. you said this is a lake house. are there any beautiful photos from around that area? lake, trees, clouds, birds, etc? quaint photos of old buildings in the nearby town or anything like that? (like maybe by a local artist or something.) or like I said, you could choose some favorite family photos and have them reprinted to the right size, possibly in black and white. if the images are not clear enough to blow up, choose really wide matting. I love the look of a smaller pic with wide matting.