u/flying-unicorn-17

I feel dumb asking this question, but I am taking care of my first Newfie and I’ve noticed he is almost always breathing so loud and fast and not just after walks. Is this just a thing with them? It’s pretty pleasant in the house plus I’ve got an AC directly on him so I don’t think he’s hot. He’s acting normal and fine otherwise.

I will say he is a very big boy and I think he’s carrying around some extra weight right now. He was restricted on exercise due to eye issues until recently.

Am I worried over nothing?

Not sure if I’m the only one that struggles with this but for long sits that are going according to plan I run out of things to say. In the beginning or for short sits it’s easy as I can update the HO on how the dogs are adjusting but I’m on a month + sit right now that is going 100% normal so I’m running out of updates to share without just saying some version of “all good, here’s another cute picture of your dogs” everyday.

Sitters, do you ever feel this too? What are some things you share when you get to this point? HOs, once it’s established that things are going consistently well, what would you want to know? Do you always prefer to continue daily updates or every couple of days?

Hi all. My family and I are running up at a loss as to what to do next. My grandmother is 95 and in poor health (can barely get around house to make food, take care of herself, and an array of chronic diseases that require regular monitoring). My grandpa passed about a decade ago and she lives alone. There have been numerous issues over the years where either she, we, or a neighbor has had to call emergency services to take her to the hospital.

My mom moved into a bigger house so that my grandma could move in with her but now she said she doesn’t want to move to a new town (my mom is an hour away). We have the financial means for assisted living or nursing home but she absolutely refuses. We have gotten her numerous different home health people who ultimately quit because my grandma is rude or refuses care. Now she is refusing to go to her regular doctors visits because she says they never help her and I’m 99% sure she has an abscess tooth.

She is very combative and refuses help but also says no one will help her. We’re at a loss and have tried all we can think of. I’m genuinely concerned about her being alone and with zero medical support. Is there anything else we could do that I haven’t mentioned? When does this become a legal issue, if ever? Has anyone else been through this and had success with anything? For context, though she has her moments, I don’t think there’s any world where she would be deemed not mentally competent. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or advice.

Bonjour, I’m traveling around for a while and trying to stay light. I have a hardback book I’m about to finish and wondering if Annecy has any community libraries or book swap events where I could trade my book? I’ll be here until August. Merci!

Wondering if this is a bad idea that’s setting me up for confusion and failure? I have pretty equal amounts of Portugal and Brazil travel coming up (maybe a tiny bit more Portugal heavy) so I’m having a hard time deciding. I’ve already read a lot of threads about learning one vs another so I’m interested in input about learning both. Fwiw, I love learning languages and am pretty good with accents. Some additional context…

I speak Spanish and was recently in Brazil and able to understand a lot of what was going on. I naturally started to pick up some Portuguese there and feel like I kind of already speak with a Carioca accent because of my Brazilian friends.

On the flip side, I’m going to be in a lot of much smaller towns in Portugal where I’m guessing English is less prevalent (and regardless, I just want to speak in Portuguese if I’m in Portugal).

SO. Is it worth my time to try to learn both? Or do I pick one and accept I’ll be better at communicating in one country than another?

This might be a silly topic, but I walked it almost 20 years ago when I was 19 and have been considering doing it again. I’m just so curious how it’s changed and what everyone’s personal experience feels like now with technology and how busy it is with more people traveling in general. And also the perspectives of those who walked in it their late 30s/40s as I’m sure it feels very different walking it during that phase of life than as a 19 year old.

When I walked it international cell service and wifi weren’t really available and I was carrying around a guide book to find the next stop. We would just show up wherever we could make it to, give our donativo, and post up for the night, but I’ve seen things about people reserving albergues ahead of time. We never got to one that was full until SdC. We also hardly ever saw other pilgrims on the actual route during the day. I went alone but ended up with a small eclectic group of people from all over and all ages. We unofficially decided to stick together the whole way. Minus an mp3 player that could hold like 20 songs there was no other entertainment so we pretty much talked the whole way. And stayed in touch afterwards (even to this day!) A couple of times while walking through more rural areas locals would just show up along the Camino with homemade snacks.

Is this a silly question because this is still mostly the experience or has it changed a lot? Tell me all about it.