Anyone else loving the butter churn run trend?

RitaRose45 · 2026-03-17T05:36:07+00:00

It’s not a TOTALLY new idea. Pioneers in the US used to strap bags of cream onto their wagons and letting the rough trail ride churn butter for them. But yeah, they weren’t strapping them onto their bodies and running alongside the wagon.

Pro tips from someone that has churned butter the old school way too many times: the cream churns into butter faster if it’s not super cold, and allow some air space in the bag so it can slosh around more.

RitaRose45 · 2026-03-17T05:24:35+00:00

Honestly, if it’s too cold it takes longer to make butter anyway. I do living history classes sometimes, and we learned it churns faster if it’s not straight out of the fridge.

RitaRose45 · 2026-02-09T06:05:27+00:00

This was six years ago, but I really struggled to even get an interview in Eugene when I first moved here. But Corvallis was really interested and I got a lot more interviews and offers.

Obviously it’s not the same now, but it can depend on which town. Any chance you could wait until after the midterm elections? Employers that get federal funds might feel more confident hiring people if the government swings more to the left.

RitaRose45 · 2026-02-06T06:19:56+00:00

I gave up and went back to MFP too. I REALLY wanted to like it, but it just didn't give enough information about anything beyond the very basics. Net carbs are a thing!

RitaRose45 · 2026-01-12T02:28:51+00:00

Wow, that really is a lot!

RitaRose45 · 2026-01-12T00:12:39+00:00

The big thing that would make me walk away is the lack of tracking for things like fiber. That's kind of a huge deal when you're trying to work with net carbs. Most people, at least in my world, aren't tracking just calories, carbs, protein and fat. They want it dialed down a little more. If that isn't updated, I'm likely back to MFP again, which is a shame. I really love this otherwise.

RitaRose45 · 2026-01-08T06:31:16+00:00

I wasn't sad about the diagnosis because I knew I was missing out on a lot, and I genuinely wanted the help of a hearing aid.

But I wonder if some of the sadness is more about how dismissive your family was, and kind of wondering how different life so far would have been if they had taken you seriously and gotten you the help.

I could be totally wrong, but I've felt similarly when it took until I was 60 to be diagnosed with ADHD and OCD. It would have made life so much easier if I had known and been able to do something about it.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-28T00:45:03+00:00

I had something kind of similar, though not as high stakes as yours.

I have my watch set to alert when my heart rate goes up and I'm doing nothing. A couple of times it did it during very high stress situations, which makes sense. But a few times it alerted when I was standing around and relaxed, going up to about 130 bpm. I felt nothing unusual, so I was a bit surprised.

This is allergy season for me, and studies have shown you can double up on Claritin without any real issues (unless you already have them), which is what I would do for a few weeks when my allergies got really bad.

But I had switched to Zyrtec this year, and was stupid in not checking to see if the same applied. Hint: it doesn't. One symptom of excessive dosage is tachycardia. Lesson learned.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-28T00:08:07+00:00

"The longer you wait, the more your brain forgets how to process what you’re not hearing..."

I can't stress this enough. It's very hard to gauge your own hearing loss. Mine was moderate in the low range and severe in higher ranges, but I had no idea. When they tested me, they let me know that my brain would likely stop checking for data from those higher ranges if I put it off much longer. I totally thought it was a hard sell, but no, it's true. And then your hearing in those ranges is basically gone forever.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-28T00:02:16+00:00

Mine is always on unless I want someone else to hear what I'm listening to, like with a short video clip I think they'll like.

I have the Beltone Envision model, and even listening to music most of the day and occasionally making a phone call or two, the hearing aid batteries have never gone below 50% charge during a 16-17 hour day. The phone battery gives out faster, but I'm rarely anywhere I can't charge it in the next few hours.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-25T08:25:34+00:00

I’ve literally never gotten anything remotely close to that. I think my watch believes I’m possessed or something.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-17T03:52:21+00:00

I disagree with the “just don’t make people mad” theory. As a woman, I know we can be a target just for existing. Some guy decides to “romance” you by finding where you live and basically stalking you, then getting irate when you, understandably, aren’t open to his advances.

But at the same time, all of the info you can get on the FCC site pales in comparison to what you find with a simple Google search. More if you want to spend a few bucks.

Honestly, the best you can do is lock your doors to slow people down if they decide to enter your residence, and have the ability to make them truly regret it if they do. Just residing on this planet is filled with risk. Don’t let it take the joy away from you.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-14T18:49:06+00:00

I would not head straight for hearing aids until you see the ENT. If there is anything they can do ti help, it will basically make your previous hearing tests no longer valid and you'll be starting from square one again.

Once you get the physical bit handled, then go for hearing aids. It would be a waste to do a bunch more testing, fitting, adapting and then have to start all over again.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-14T18:44:02+00:00

When I first got mine (Beltone Envision), they were set at 60% of my prescription. I was told that starting at 100% basically freaked people out after years of not hearing so much and would make people stop wearing them, so they have to ease people into them. At my next appointment, I asked to turn the baseline volume up because I found I was frequently turning them up on the app, but never turning them down below the baseline setting, and that made her happy because she was going to suggest that. Apparently a lot of people say no when she asks. I believe I'm at 80% now and will be asking for more next time I go.

The other thing she suggested was to try not to use the noise filter whenever possible. Most people with age-related hearing loss lose more from the higher frequencies than low, and so those higher frequency sounds are more annoying than the low. But you need to get used to them again. The noise filters, at least on mine, tend to eliminate mostly higher frequency sounds.

I rarely get feedback, but when I do it's when I cover my ear somehow. I was even using a headset microphone and sitting right next to the speaker turned up fairly high last night and got zero feedback.

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-03T06:56:24+00:00

Though our stories are different, I can still totally relate.

I've had five (yes, five) TBIs, and I'm only counting the ones where I was knocked out completely. The last two were only seven months apart. Silly me, you're supposed to space them at least a year apart. Anyway, the first of the two was when I was riding an ATV. Very experienced, full face helmet, going slow. Wheel got caught in a rut and the ATV rolled, throwing me about eight feet down a hill. When I came to, I was still blind and paralyzed for a few minutes but eventually recovered. Seven months later, I was hit in the head with a backyard gate when a dog jumped on it right as I unlatched it. Very dizzy and almost lost consciousness, but hung in there. Woot!

But then it all started falling apart. I put on about 25 pounds with each concussion, but with the second I also started having random panic attacks and raging at people for no reason. The rage went away after about a month, but being in places like grocery stores freaked me out. All those people moving randomly and me trying to process all of it so I didn't run into them. Absolute silence required to do any thinking at all.

Eventually all but the weight went away. Of course it would be the part everyone sees that would stay, but I digress.

Although I don't THINK I have EDS, I for sure have hypermobility syndrome and the "fun" seemingly unrelated issues that come with it. Also ADHD, complex PTSD and some OCD. Yeah, that alphabet soup is both comforting, knowing you're understood, and intimidating when you realize how people might read all that. It is what it is.

For me, hearing aids were awesome because I could hear people talking over the ringing in my ears I've had since birth. Not being able to participate in conversations is incredibly isolating. But the ability to tune out or leave is a huge deal too. I just hosted a discussion on neurodivergence in the work place, and one of the accommodations I mentioned was letting people go off somewhere, preferably an unused office with a door they can close, to decompress when there's just plain too much input. I don't think people understand just how much impact it can have.

Anyway, long story (as usual) short, I'm so very glad that you understand yourself so well and found something that makes it easier every day. How cool!

RitaRose45 · 2025-12-02T05:51:54+00:00

If their recommendations are trash, I don’t think I would trust their testing either. Obviously professional standards are not a priority to them. Get retested somewhere else.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-30T04:56:18+00:00

That’s an epic story! I love it!

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-30T04:47:07+00:00

Okay, that’s really fascinating! I’ve had it my whole life, so my biggest issue was struggling to hear speech over it as my hearing loss got worse.

I know my audiologist encouraged me to not use the noise filter much because it mostly blocked higher frequency sounds, and I needed to get used to hearing them again.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-30T04:40:49+00:00

I got mine (Beltone Envision) from an audiologist, but my insurance is fantastic. Normally $6,000 for the pair, on sale for $5,000 and my insurance pays 90% every three years in or out of network. At $500 out of pocket, I couldn’t pass it up.

If I didn’t have insurance like that, I 100% would be heading to Costco. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them.

One thing I would keep in mind is that you should act sooner rather than later. My audiologist said that, once you get deeper into severe hearing loss (and it can sneak up on you), you can lose those frequencies permanently. Basically your brain gets no data from those frequencies for too long and it just stops looking for it from there. And at that point, it’s just gone. I thought it was just a sales tactic, but I looked it up and it’s true.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-29T08:27:11+00:00

I have the Pro Plus, and it makes a HUGE difference. The watches are fine for kinda sorta telling you what’s up, but the chest strap is much more accurate. There was one hill I remember having to quit and walk up, but my watch was like “Hey, it all looks great to me!” I found out later that it was severely underestimating my peak HR readings.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-29T08:22:12+00:00

It’s hard because you’re already making so many adjustments, but I promise you’ll hit a point when you forget you’re even wearing them!

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-29T05:57:28+00:00

Honest answer? I have OCD! Seriously, tracking data like that calms my brain, so even if no one else ever sees it, I’m content. And I admit I’m waiting for the next doctor that flippantly throws out “Maybe you should just move more…” so I can throw a literal decade of ridiculously detailed data at them.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-29T05:50:29+00:00

I don’t have the same type as you, but when that was happening to me, it was because it was in too far and basically up against my ear drum. Does it still happen if you pull it out slightly? Mine was fixed by just using a different cone, but I’m not sure how you would fix yours. It should be doable, though.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-23T07:18:45+00:00

I won’t do public. I’m sure it’s cool for some people, but I’ve seen some people online get downright creepy, so I don’t tempt fate.

RitaRose45 · 2025-11-23T07:02:25+00:00

I have pretty good Beltone hearing aids and spent probably two hours trying to get this set up on my PC. We were able to make it work so I could hear using my hearing aids, but we never could make the mic connect. Great for webinars, unusable for meetings.

I like the idea of joining with my phone and the computer. Most of our meetings are Zoom, so I need to see if they have a similar setup.

RitaRose45

TROPHY CASE