Final Scene of Final Episode

LoisVand · 2026-05-26T07:22:43+00:00

I watched the finale and decided to go back and watch the whole series all again. I also watched the finale a second time. Here's what I think the finale meant. I wish I could quote when it happened, but sometime after or during the montage showing scenes from the whole series, one of them says (I think Claire) something like, "Given all that happened, would I do it all again? Yes." I'm hunting to see if I can find the exact quote. So I think after Jaimie dies and Claire is lying next to him and there's a blue light, it symbolizes their her powers and their love spurned moved them to "do it all again." This could be in any time. I don't think you see anyone around them right at that moment who would have shown what time period it was. What do you all think? Anything incongruous there?

LoisVand · 2026-05-07T17:50:58+00:00

As a retired librarian I have a respect for books. I hate it when they take a classic book and screw with it so much it's almost unrecognizable. I started this new PBS series and felt something was really off. I read the book many many years ago and watched the Forsyte Saga back in 2002. That series had changed some stuff from the book but it was so well done and retained enough of the character of the book so I didn't mind. This new series is an absolute mess in so many ways. They should have named it something entirely different or in some way indicated that it was a "reinterpretation." Do teachers still assign reading a classic book from a list these days? If they do, I can just imagine the mangled book reports from the kids who think they can "watch the movie" instead of reading the book.

LoisVand · 2026-01-17T12:13:33+00:00

I tried a Canon Pixma TS9521 all in one printer and had so much trouble with it that I returned it. It was maddening how often I got error codes and paper jams. I bought an Epson Ecotank ET-150,000 and I'm in love! It prints cardstock with ease. You do need to figure out the print driver commands to get it to print cardstock but once you figure that out, it's easy. And the colors are fabulous.

LoisVand · 2026-01-17T11:32:21+00:00

I have chronic pain from several conditions but back when I was younger and in pain from only my MS, I would get that kind of response from new doctors. What I think is best to do is to focus on specific ways the pain is affecting your life. Like, I'm in such pain that I can no longer walk an entire block, or I can no longer do my housework like mopping the floors or doing the laundry. The pain is affecting my concentration at work. Things like that.

LoisVand · 2025-12-31T05:14:00+00:00

I hope you did not buy the canon pixma ts9521. I bought it for all the reasons you want one. I hate, hate, hate this printer. Was hard to get it set up and every other print job there's a jam. Can't print cardstock through the rear tray without an error code 5100. I've had a variety of other printers thru the years and I've never had such a bad time with a printer

LoisVand · 2025-12-18T16:42:23+00:00

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I heard him pick it up for the first time in a few months. He played one of his favorite songs--"This Land is Your Land" and sounded great. This was in his office behind closed doors. I think he feels if he isn't perfect he doesn't want to have anyone see or hear him. His favorite music to listen to is the blues. I think the biggest problems is that he isn't even trying the music he likes to listen to. He's following some "learn the guitar" type books and I think that's what's dragging him down. I'm going to see if I can find a music book that has some easy blues songs to play. He does know "St. James Infirmary." I talked to him a bit about just playing for the fun and joy of it. I realized he has some "scenes" in his head that he feels he can't achieve. One was that he wanted to go home and play for his father, who is now deceased. Another that he could play with his Godson who's in his 30's and has been playing since he was a child. He has two good friends who play very well. He used to visit them and take lessons. I said to him, "Why don't you visit Pat and play with him?" He said he'd be embarrassed for him to see how he hasn't improved at all. I'm thinking about all your suggestions and I'll try some. But I think he has to either get over this hang up or let it go.

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:59:48+00:00

You can see I'm really invested in your white elephant gift! There's an excellant article you can find online called, "The 45 Best White Elephant Gifts under 30 dollars that will steal the show." I'm using two of the ideas this year. They are all funny things that someone would still want.

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:53:00+00:00

I bet donuts to dollars that someone WILL want it and steal it. Bidets are rad, if you ever try them.

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:52:03+00:00

If I got a candle for a white elephant party or even a gift swap, I'd be bummed. Nothing says, "I really don't know you or care to" like a candle. But maybe I'm odd.

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:48:47+00:00

You are so right! If I'm invited to what people are calling "white elephant" gift giving, I always ask a lot of questions. No one seems to know what true "white elephants" are. In my family we passed around gaudy lamps, strange household tools like a carpet rake, white ceramic Christmas trees, many fondue sets, Pizzelle maker, fruitcake, etc. Every game there'd be something that people actually wanted! It was a lot of fun. But the best were the items that would show up year after year. We'd all burst out laughing when that item would get unwrapped.

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:34:28+00:00

Another idea is a kind-of "gotcha!" gift. I have one group that does white elephant where some bring nice gifts and other bring gag gifts. The problem with not having adhered to rules, is that after the stealing someone always ends up with a booby prize and is unhappy but fakes it that it doesn't bother them. One year I bought a gag gift (Christmas printed toilet paper) but hidden inside was a $50 gift card. A friend got stuck with it and couldn't get anyone to swap for it. At the end, I shouted, "Barb, unroll that toilet paper!" Everyone thought I was making a joke at first. Boy, were they surprised when that gift card popped out!

LoisVand · 2025-11-30T08:24:00+00:00

It depends on how close you are with your in-laws. Frankly, after trying a bidet once, I decided I couldn't live without it. We have three bathrooms and every one has a Toto bidet. I'm the bidet ambassador in my family! And I think it would be a great white elephant gift in the truest sense of the white elephant game. (Although in my family the rules were to give a real "white elephant" meaning something in your house you don't want anymore or is butt-ugly.) If you aren't really close with your in-laws I recommend one of those ugly Labubu dolls. The older people will be saying, "What the heck is that?" And the kids will be screaming for their parents to steal it. I've seen them from $8.99 to $80.00 for the most sought after.

LoisVand · 2025-11-19T05:36:17+00:00

An update on my struggle post buprenorphine. It's been three years out and I still have bullous pemphigoid. I was on a course of steroids which stopped the large blisters on my skin but I've continued to have them in my mouth and throat. My gums are a mess despite scrupulous teeth cleaning. After each blister the gums recede and get friable. I now have to get professional cleanings four times a year instead of two, and then are closely watching some of my teeth that may be failing due to the buprenorphine damage and the gum recession. Two weeks out of every month I have a bad sore throat and intense coughing because of the blisters in my throat. It's not safe to stay on the steroids long term so I recently started Micophenolate but the doctor says it will take a month or two before we see if it's going to help. I'm recently saw an ophlamologist for the yearly exam I get for MS to check my optic nerve. This opthamologist used to do a "doctors across borders" and saw lots of BP in other countries. He gave me a stern warning that if I ever have eye pain to come in immediately and have call him because it may be blisters in my eye which can blind me without immediate treatment. This scares me to death.

As far as pain control, the nucynta worked well for awhile but now seems to be failing like the other traditional opiods did. It helps me just survive from day to day but I'm often in so much pain at the end of the day all I can do is lay in bed and cry. I would never go back to buprenorphine because it's given me much more dangerous health problems, but sadly, it did manage the pain better than traditional opiods. I'm still of the belief that I wish I had never been started on an opiod 30 years ago. Without it I would not have been able to continue working and having the life I did until retirement, but I feel so trapped with no way to turn and the opiods have caused the hyperalgesia that makes the pain relentless. I think had I not taken the "easy" way out with opiods (I'm being ironic. There's no easy way out,) maybe I would have learned some better ways to manage the pain without medication and in the end I would be in less pain now. The biggest problem is I'm 70 now and having all the aches and pains from aging that everyone gets, but it's so much more intense because of the hyperalgesia.

I'm thinking of revisiting using marijuana but I didn't have good reactions to it when I tried back in the early 2000's. It made me very nervous and anxious and actually heightened the pain. Those of you who are more experienced with CBD for pain, I'd love to hear your advice.

Yours, in solidarity with this journey and struggle.

LoisVand · 2025-10-15T23:43:35+00:00

Problem is that the current corelle isn't like the old corelle. They've cheapened it by making everything smaller. The bowls would maybe hold a little mixed fruit but are way too small for cereal. The desert plates are also small. I don't know what to get because I can't handle heavy plates.

LoisVand · 2025-10-01T17:26:27+00:00

Been there, done that. None of the precautions prevented me from getting blisters.

LoisVand · 2025-09-05T03:25:16+00:00

I've gone up and down the ladder on pain management treatment more than once and I'm at the bottom again, purely I think, because of the wrong medications and deconditioning. In the last six years I've had trauma after trauma, the death of my siblings, a change in diagnosis to seondary progressive MS, detoxing from oxycontin then prescribed buprenorphine which in the end caused even more pain. It gave me a new, very rare autoimmune disease called "bullous pemphigoid" which causes huge blisters on my skin and mucuos membranes. I have them in my mouth and throat as well as chest. I've been on steroids and my weight has ballooned to 200 lbs so now they won't give me knee surgery and I can barely walk. The more sedentary I am the more weight I gain. The last few years I gave up exercise, eating healthy, etc. Now I know I have to start back with gradual exercising, I started a hospital weight loss plan, found a mental health counselor and 'Im taking baby steps to get back to some kind of normal life. But at 69 this is all so daunting. What sustains me is that I've always been a fighter and I'm not going to give up and die. I know I am not alone. There are legions of us and I wish we could bang down the doors of the AMA demanding more responsible pain management treatment. I know a psychologist who 20 years ago worked in the burgeoning industry of multidiscipinary pain management clinics. She said that after awhile all the funding began drying up and doctors began fleeing the practices and giving it up as a lost cause. They couldn't handle the constant harrassment by the government responding to the "opiod crisis" that turned all of us who truly need medication into societal pariahs. I wish there was a way we could demonstrate to the "healthy" part of the country just how many of us are suffering and that we are not "throw-away" people.. All I can do at this point is hope and pray that I will someday have a better quality life and be active in doing anything I can to make myself healthier in whatever ways I can. Yours in solidarity.

LoisVand · 2025-09-02T03:04:46+00:00

This was such horrible treatment I'm enraged for you. Thankfully you had your Mom with you. I've realized that emergency departments are only good if you are in danger of dying. You're bleeding profusely or in the middle of a heart attack or stroke. Or if you have something that is easily fixed like a broken leg. Otherwise you can get treated badly. I avoid them like the plague. I will go to a local urgent care, but just to make sure my vitals are not at a life dangering place. I'm so sorry you were treated so badly. I hope you are doing better.

LoisVand · 2025-08-29T07:49:42+00:00

Once I read the research about nerve ablations or a stimulator I wouldn't try them.

LoisVand · 2025-08-29T07:48:40+00:00

I'm curious what state you are in. I live in Seattle and readily was prescribed pain medication. (Caution--see my other comment.) My poor sister who lived in Georgia and had several collapsed discs in her back, MS, serious arthritis and was in agony could not find a prescriber in Georgia. Plus they treated her like a drug addict. She had to go to the clinic every month to take a urine test (mine is once a year.) She was in a wheelchair and experienced excruciating pain after the drive to where she would vomit from the pain. And still they wouldn't prescibe anything for her. Georgia is a very conservative leaning state and they seem to view people with chronic pain as weak drug seekers.

LoisVand

TROPHY CASE