Are there any Buffistas babies in the 18-24lb range (or who need a size lg, if that is meaningful) who could use a fleece sleeper?

A slew of us largely-single females have joked about this block turning into a defacto functional retirement community if we all stay put and stick to our habits.

A NORC! (Naturally-occuring retirement community) It's what happens when people age in place.

That sounds like a fantastic outfit, Burrell.

When my Mom's mom finally was in a nursing home it was such a good thing. She should have been in one a lot sooner because of her dementia but there was a split my aunt who was her caretaker and Mom were pro nursing home. My uncle and other aunt were against it. Finally the caretaker aunt started having health problems her doctor said were directly related to the stress she was under and she got G'ma in a nursing home.

And even though her dementia was fairly well advanced there were some improvements in her attitude and personality. She was happier.

Personally I think my Grandma E needs to be in assisted living, she lives with my aunt but it's far away and there's no good elder services where she is. So Grandma E is stuck at home most days by herself - and she such an extrovert! And she can't call people and talk on the phone much because her hearing is bad. I think she'd have fun living near more people and having a community to be involved with, but I don't think it will happen until the issue is forced.

The parental stuff is super difficult for us right now. All four of our parents have some variant of health issues, and on the one side just got through the difficult process of nursing homes, etc. with the grandparents, so I don't see them opting for that choice for themselves anytime soon. On the other side, they did a lot in building a good accessible house, but they will be super resistant even to getting in home help.

It's stuff that we would totally help with if we were there, but we're not. The SO's siblings are there, but have kids and do what they can, but more is likely needed. My sister is in Dallas and her husband is a VP of a company his family helped found, so I don't see her seeing her way clear to becoming a fulltime caregiver.

There's lots of other issues at play, but really it's just hard.

That sounds like a fantastic outfit, Burrell.

Thanks, Jesse. It certainly fit the day. It was fun to see all those women dressed up and wearing hats.

I think it would be hard to make the move into assisted living, although having seen the toll long term care takes on family, I hope I'll be willing to make that move when the time comes. But in-home help? I don't understand resisting that if you can afford it.

I know! And they're totally set up for it. They won't even consider just someone from the church coming over to sit with dad for a few hours so mom can get out and about.

She has something of a martyr complex, too. She quit her teaching job to care for us kids. Then when we were out of the house, my grandma became blind and they moved her in and mom was he primary caregiver for seven years until her death. Then they moved back to Hawaii and had a few happy years there tending the coffee farm. Then dad got sick, and as his illness progressed it became clear they would need more care than they could get on the islands. So they came back to the mainland, built an accessible home in a community with good church and medical support and...won't use it. I dunno!

My parents made pretty good arrangements for end of life care, and then Dad was too proud to use most of them. I was pissed at the time, because I thought he experienced more pain than he needed to. But he was of sound mind, pretty much, and I didn't feel I could override him. What with the cancer, the difference in life expectancy was probably not more than weeks, if that. And not the most enjoyable weeks. It was hard to watch, though.

I recently compared living in my neighborhood to living in the dorms, just we have whole houses to ourselves and an adult sense of space.

That's a lot like my apartment complex.

Re: sleep. I get really cold when I'm sleepy, unless the temperature's unreasonably high. So I sleep under a sheet and down comforter, and a thermal blanket in the winter. I like nightgowns, cotton flannel in winter and light woven cotton in the summer. I drift off on my left side and roll over to my right side before completely falling asleep. (I'm deaf in my right ear so sleeping on my right side blocks out most random night noise.) When I wake up I'm usually overly warm. I guess my metabolism has some pretty set rhythms.

I'm so grateful that my Mom went into assisted living so that she got the care she needed to stay independent as long as possible. Best thing she did for us was clearing out her house of 50+ years occupancy (with a FULL attic and cellar) so that while her estate has been a bear to deal with, it wasn't at least cave-bear size.

Hoarding: Buried Alive did an interesting episode recently where it was the children of a hoarder dealing with the post-mortem hoard -- usually the focus is on the hoarder dealing with the problem aided (or hampered) by family. This was all about the process the grieving children went through when they had to deal with the capital-M Mess left behind.

Time to get the household stoned stain and freeze my ass off with all the windows and doors open in the basement!

Ugh. Sleep last night was bad. I was so cold when I went to sleep and put on pants and a hoodie. And turned on the heat. And then didn't wake up in the night and turn OFF the heat until I woke up this morning feeling like crap, because it was boiling hot in the room. Oops.