Pop music class

I was so puzzled this semester about which Renaissance class would be the most appealing that I signed up for three - humor, music, and movies.  The first class of humor was not the least bit funny.  The second class (my first) of music was both funny and interesting.  So I never got to check out the movie class.

The coordinator of our music class presents top hits from various time periods, gives some background information, plays the tune/song and maybe discusses the lyrics.  The performers are also discussed - their history, success, other interesting facts.  He also plans to show videos but we haven't had enough time in the classes yet.

One of the items I found interesting was the development of records and sheet music.  Where would you expect to purchase sheet music in 1900?  Answer: your upscale furniture store!  At that time a piano was a common if not expected piece of furniture for the middle class household.  But it couldn't sustain a market and stores of its own.  To aid in the sale of pianos was sheet music sold in the same music store.  Records were often used to demonstrate what the piano could sound like.  As the 1900's progressed, record players became more affordable, and methods were developed to mass produce records, records became the dominant force in the market.

Entertainment Book disappointments

My previous post indicated that Mel's Diner wasn't our original destination.  We had been heading to Baker's Square restaurant because we had coupons from our Entertainment Book.  But Baker's Square is no longer in business at the location mentioned on the coupon.

Feeling a mite misled, I wrote to Customer Service at Entertainment Book and received the following courteous letter:

Dear Mr. Loveridge,

Thank you for contacting Entertainment Publications.

Due to our publication schedules, merchants that were signed into the program go out of business before the book expires - in many cases a book may expire 18 months after the contract is signed. Entertainment will investigate this matter and try to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Entertainment posts a hotline containing updated information on merchants that advertise in our books. You may access hotline information on our website: www.entertainment.com/hotline Among other things this hotline advises when merchants are not honoring, have been newly signed, have changed their offers or have closed.

If you need further assistance please let us know.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to respond to this e-mail, or contact us at 888-231-SAVE (7283).  Thank you for contacting Entertainment Publications.

Sincerely,

Amy H. 

Your Customer Service Specialist

Of course I checked out the link www.entertainment.com/hotline but unfortunately Baker's Square does not appear on what is a surprisingly short list. I think we have an example of a corporate procedure put in place to appease customers which neither works nor appeases customers.  But it looks good on paper.

Mel's Diner

Mel's may be the "original" diner as advertised in neon lights around the building but it wasn't our original destination.  We were in fact headed for Baker's Square restaurant because we had Entertainment Book coupons for that restaurant.  We drove around the block 3 times before calling the phone number on  the coupons.  "This number is no longer in service," was the response.

Our alternate destination was Fresh Choice but we had to pass Mel's Diner on the way and I guess it was nostalgia for the 50's diners and the late 70's TV show "Alice" which took place in Mel's Diner that made me want to try it out.

This man's opinion:  The food was good and 3 specials of the day indicated the chef was somewhat imaginative.  The service was prompt and friendly which we attributed to a nearly empty place.  However, as the evening wore on the restaurant 

filled  up and the service was still good.  We'll be coming back.

Spaghetti Dinner

Spaghetti seems to be the meal of choice when you need to feed a large group on a small budget.  Such was the case this week when we attended the traditional "Blue and Gold" dinner for cub scout pack 55, the pack that includes two of our grandsons Tim and Jake.  The spaghetti was less than wonderful although it did have meat and some flavorings.  And it inspired the man sitting across the table to tell his most memorable spaghetti tale:

"I had dated this girl 3 or 4 times when she invited me to her home for a family spaghetti dinner.  This meant a lot to me as my family were big spaghetti cooks, often simmering our sauces for two days to get the right flavor.  So imagine my shock, not to say loss of appetite, when my girlfriend put a bowl of cold spaghetti pasta on the table in front of me then opened a can of tomato sauce and poured the can into another bowl on the table.  Without further ado, she called out 'dinner's ready'!  After that meal even Blue and Gold style spaghetti tastes good."

This family's spaghetti recipe will NOT be appearing in the Loveridge Family Receipe Book.

Testing - the hard part

Now that I have a power chair for a month it's up to me to try it out in different situations to see what is and is not going to work for me.  And sometimes it's the little things that sort of tip the scale one way or the other.  For example, it's possible to power the chair right up to the dinner table or a computer desk but when you're as close as you can get you're still 6 to 10 inches further away than you'd be in your usual chair.  That makes for awkward eating or strained keyboarding.

The picture in my mind was that it would be as easy to load the power chair in the van or SUV as it is to load the walker but it turns out to be a much more formidable task.  This afternoon I loaded and unloaded the chair 5 times for practice and then a couple more times for real.  The neighbors must have really wondered.  I am slowly getting better and faster at the  process.  And I found out, for instance, that it is much easier to back this particular chair down a ramp rather than going forward.  That actually saves a turnaround maneuver in the van so it's a good thing.

Taking the chair on a little longer trip like down to the mailbox gave me a good feel for why scooters are more popular for longer trips.  Joysticks and dual electric motors make for tighter turns but also much jerkier steering than the direct drive wheels of a scooter.   That should be obvious but until you actually enjoy such a ride, it may not seem that important.

Stay tuned for more evaluation notes.

Time for a new phone?

When my phone starting announcing mid-conversation "signal faded" I was irked but when the battery started draining without a reason every couple of days I suggested to Carolyn that maybe it was time to get a new phone. They've continued to get better since we got this one and I was really tempted to get an iPhone or a Droid for all the bells and whistles.  The cost of the phone wasn't exorbitant but the monthly cost would have gone up 150% from our current plan!!  We decided to get a second or third opinion.

We found a Wireless "Toy Store" where a knowledgeable store manager was able to find out what we really wanted in a phone and match that to what they had.  Our monthly charges won't change and I'll be able to carry around one less gadget.

Student Driver

I'm getting shakier and shakier on my walkers. So Carolyn and I decided that after all the helpful information we had received from family members, friends, and salesmen, it was time to actually try out some equipment to see if I would feel more safe from falling and more capable of geetting around both in and out of the house. We're still not ready to make a commitment of several thousand dollars without more information.  Fortunately, we found a friendly, knowledgeable, helpful medical supply store that was willing to help us find the power chair we thought would fit best and then rent it to us for a month.  If we decide we like it, they apply the rental to the purchase price.  

We got a 6 foot ramp to load and unload the chair from our van.  It looks like the Highlander SUV is just too high to comfortable load with a ramp.  They do have lifts which may be our solution.

It's going to take some practice to feel comfortable wheeling this machine up or down this narrow ramp.  But then again it's going to take some time to learn to drive around the house without knocking the place down.

New shelves

Encouraged perhaps by the successful installation of safety bars in our bathroom Carolyn decided to install shelves in our garage and kitchen spice cabinet.  In both places the smaller items tend to get lost among the larger ones.  We already had most of the material needed.  Carolyn did have to buy 4 large shelve braces.

And the spice cabinet used all leftover parts.

Family Recipe Book

Having received a couple of requests for the family recipe book or individual recipes therefrom, I am in the process of cleaning it up, incorporating marginal notes into the text, and putting it in a little more natural order.  I will also include something like the following as a Introduction to the book.
Initially, this book was designed as both a recipe book and meal planner.  Carolyn had gone back to school to work on her Master's degree and the rest of  us had to pitch in and share her previous chores. I am totally non-creative when it comes to planning a menu.  Having worked as a hospital manager I was familiar with dietitians' meal planning and felt we could adopt some of the basic principles.  We wanted to spread out main entrees so that we didn't have hamburgers every night one week and then no hamburgers for 3 months.  For the cookbook to serve this dual purpose meant that some recipes read like "Pizza - order out".  We also wanted some flexibility so that even if pizza was on the top of the list but we really wanted spaghetti we could make the substitution without messing up the system.  All the kids were expected to participate in the cooking so we tried to have simple recipes for me and more complex ones for the kids.  We also decided that every dish should have a recipe even if extremely or obvious like "follow instructions on the package."


Have I missed anything, kids?

13 Things That Don't Make Sense - book review

In his book "13 Things That Don't Make Sense" Michael Brooks has certainly given us something to think about.  And something to say the next time someone asks you to name something that scientists are still working on.  By it's nature, every time science makes a discovery, the boundary of knowledge increases and simultaneously the interface area between known and unknown must increase.  So we shouldn't be surprised that there are still significant mysteries of the universe.  I can't describe all of them that Brooks covers of this review would be the size of his book.  The list is as follows:

1. The missing universe - dark matter & dark energy
2. The pioneer anomaly
3. Varying constraints - natural constants
4. Cold fusion - more than PR
5. Life - what is it
6. Viking - life on Mars
7. Signal from space
8. A giant virus
9. Death & evolution
10. Sex & evolution
11. Free will
12. The placebo effect
13. Homeopathy

To start with Brooks picks a high profile puzzle - where is 94% of the universe?  We all learned in high school or college that the universe is made of electrons, protons, and neutrons.  If we took higher physics or chemistry classes we learned about several more particles.  But it turns out that all those particles don't account for the mass of the universe that has recently been calculated.  It turns out we have to mess with the force of gravity or define some "dark=unseen yet" mass.  Same problem with energy.  And scientists are having a field day trying to define and reconcile the various theories and calculations.

In other sections Brooks is on shakier ground.  The last chapter, for example, discusses homeopathy, the idea that water could retain an imprint of molecules that once were there but have been diluted out of the mix.  He makes the intriguing statement that we know little about water in the liquid state such as what molecular structures and substructures might exist and for how long.  It seems impossible that liquid water has a memory or does it?

And in-between Brooks covers topics such as life on Mars and whether we found it before we lost it or at least the funding to resolve the issue.  He hints big that not all of these 13 items need remain mysteries for long if we but have the will and the budget.  Others, such as universal constants may require a visit to an alternative universe to resolve - something that won't be in our budget soon.

I found the book interesting and readable.  If a piece got too deep or complex you just skip to the end of that section without losing much.  I'd like to see a follow-up book in 20 to 25 years and maybe even a "pre-quel" of what "didn't make sense" 50 or 100 years ago.  To see science changing is to see science living.

Rebuilding Together Sacramento

When I expressed to Janine Perry, my Kaiser physical therapist, that there were places in our house where I felt somewhat vulnerable to falls, she suggested I contact a non-profit agency in town called Rebuilding Together Sacramento.  Before calling them I checked out their impressive web site. Carolyn heard who I was checking out and mentioned that they had been very helpful in Long Beach upgrading the physical facilities used by Young Horizons.

I made a call to their main number and within two days I had met David Grantham, he had toured our house, and we had put together an estimate of what equipment we agreed I needed.  Two days later David and another installer had installed 5 grab bars and moved one.

They also installed a 4 inch toilet seat riser (with arms) that Kaiser had declared "not necessary".  Carolyn and I were both impressed with their work.

A 50's Valentine dance

The feedback we were getting on our ward activities was that they were all family affairs.  We needed some adult activities or at least some where we didn't have a million kids running underfoot.  So when the idea arose for a Valentine dinner/dance it seemed the perfect time for an adult/teen event. I'm not sure how the idea of a 50's dance at the same time arose but it was too much a part of the plans before anyone questioned it.

We had an excellent DJ available who just happens to be the son of one of the bishopric members.  We also had access to many of the same decorations we used two years ago.  We changed our serving method and found out that family style is a great way to serve a lot of people fast.

The Valentine card that was designed and decorated by the Activities Committee was used to take photo remembrances.  I ended up doing them by default and found out that I needed better fill-in lighting if I ever do this again.

Sleep Test

You've heard of the fellow who was going into the laboratory for a blood test and wondered what he should study?  Well, I went in for a sleep test and I guess I failed miserably.  That really surprised me because if anyone knew how to sleep it was me.  I could sit down to read a book and fall asleep; watch TV and fall asleep even with action thrillers; stop too long at a stop light and fall asleep; you get the idea.

Somehow that was a clue for my primary physician to request a sleep test for me.

I arrived at the sleep center which is in the Neurology department at the Roseville facility at about 7:30 pm.  This is a brand new building but the sleep center beds already look a little used.  As usual I was given a clip board and some questionnaires (what problem brings you here today?  Did you drink any caffeine today?  Etc.  About the time I finished, a lovely technician by the name of Brook opened a "staff only" door and invited me in and ushered me into one of the small bedrooms.

Seeing that I had a small duffel bag with me, Brook invited me to change into my sleeping clothes before we proceed any further.  She then left while I changed into a fresh set of pajamas and Depends (just in case).

When Brook returned I was wired up like someone in the ICU.  She claimed there were only 30 wires but I would have sworn there were twice that many.  I thought, I'm going to sleep wire up like that???  Fortunately, all the wires went from my head or body and ended in one of two boxes that were hooked together with a loop of shoelace that could easily be hung around my neck in case I needed to leave the room.  Which I did.  I needed one final trip to pee before I could relax enough to fall asleep.

I lay down on the bed under Brook's supervision trying not to damage or dislodge the wires.  The Brook goes into her control and observation room, wherever it is, and gives me an eery demonstration of just how good their telemonitoring is.  With the room lights out, I'm asked to move an arm, a leg, and then close my eyes, open them, blink 5 times, look from left to right & back several times.  She can track all this and do so in the dark.

Finally, I am ready for sleep.  It is 9:00 pm and I'm looking forward to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  The wires are a bit of a   problem but soon I'm thinking "that's not my problem").  And in what seems like only a couple of minutes, my watch reads 11:00,  the room lights are coming up and Brook is saying, "Time to start your therapy."  I'm like "WHAT?  Tonight?  Are you sure I need therapy?"  When Brook responds, "Oh, yeah" I get the dreadful feeling that this night is going to be longer than I thought.

Brook then introduces me to a couple of masks, one that fits  pretty much over my nose and requires a chin strap to keep the mouth closed.  Another covers my whole face from the top of my nose to under my chin.  None of them feel comfortable but I select the one that feels least worst.  I ask again what this is for and if it's absolutely necessary.  Brook says its for "CPAP - Continuous positive airway pressure" and yes it's necessary.  She pulls the mask a little tighter on me. 


This time when I'm left alone I don't fall asleep.  Every time I think I'm relaxing enough to drift away, I get a panicky feeeling like claustrophobia or even suffocation.  After 45 minutes and no sleep I suggest this mask isn't going to work.  Brook comes into my room to discuss the alternatives.  The only alternative I'm really interested in is getting some sleep.  But she tries on the nose mask again. I shake my head again.  She says there are two more full mask styles which she then brings in.  I choose what I think will bother me the least.


This time for some reason I don't feel as panicky.  It's still more than I want on my face but I somehow drift off to sleep.  Much too soon the room light is coming on.  It is 5:00 am and with a smiling face Brook is disconnecting my oxygen tube and wiring harness.  There are still two more forms to fill out and my Sleep Test uh... Sleep Ordeal is over.  

Home network file sharing

Have you ever tried sharing files between computers on a home network?  I haven't tried all the combinations of operating systems and I've had the most experience between XP systems and between XP and Vista.  My experience is that it works quite well.  I've had few problems.

But (there's always a "but" , isn't there?) I'm having a heck of a time trying to STOP sharing!  We're in the middle of migrating our operations from an old desktop (approximately 7 years old) to a new laptop.  Sharing files seemed to be a good way to get  used to the new computer without a traumatic cutoff.  By sharing our most active files we could access them from either computer until we felt comfortable just using the new computer.  Then we would move the files to the new computer and stop sharing, right?  Wrong

Getting comfortable with the new computer - no problem.  Moving the files to the new computer - no problem.  Leaving a copy of the files on the old computer as backup but renaming and relocating them - no problem.  Cutting the strings between the new computer and these old files - no go.  I guess I'll have to delete the old files as I've tried everything else.  At one point as I was trying to stop the sharing I got the wonderful message "You can't stop sharing these files.  Reason: You are still sharing some of these files."!!!!

Well, it turns out I know nothing about how file sharing works.  I thought a shared file remained on the host computer while users logged onto other computers on the network accessed the file through the host computer.  But when I deleted files on the host computer it didn't affect the "shared files".  The system must copy the shared  files onto the file system of the guest computer. So I'm not sharing those files anymore and I didn't need to make my own copy.

Another drop

One of the places I have enjoyed in Sacramento for the past 8 years has been the close proximity of a nice gym. Up until a couple of years ago it was really convenient for Carolyn and I to drop in and exercise an hour or so.  It has been more difficult for me since she stopped going.

For the first couple of years since my Parkinson's Disease diagnosis I still made it to the gym 2 or 3 times a week for a half hour workout on the treadmill or the stationary bicycle followed by a 1/2 hour exercise with the strength machines.  For the past 6 months I have made it to the gym 3 to 4 times a month.  So I cut back my membership to that of a "senior connection" status which restricts me to MWF 1 to 4.  The past two weeks have shown me that I won't be using even this restrictive schedule so I've decided to drop my gym membership.

This now joins Meals on Wheels as things I no longer do.

Billboard of the decade

No.  Why do you ask?

Banana Oatmeal cookies

Yesterday we tried another recipe from Martha Stewart's "Cookies".  As we were putting the ingredients together I was struck with how similar the recipe appeared to our traditional family recipe.  So I decided to line them up together so you could see them both and compare.

Loveridge Family Recipe	Martha Stewart Cookies	Ingredient
3/4 C.	3/4 C	shortening/butter
1 C.	1/2 C	brown sugar (packed)
1/2 C.	1/2 C	granulated sugar
1	1	egg
1 C.	1/2 C	overripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp.	1 1/2 tsp	vanilla
1/2 tsp.	1 tsp	salt (omit if use marg.)
1 tsp	-	baking powder
1/2 tsp	1/2 tsp	baking soda
1 tsp.	-	cinnamon
1/2 tsp.	-	cloves
1.5-2 C.	1 1/2 C	flour
3 C.	1 C	rolled oats
1 C.	1 C	chocolate chips
1 C.	1 C	chopped nuts

There were other, subtle differences such as Martha Stewart specifying 1 C  of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and using chocolate CHUNKS instead of CHIPS.  But we didn't think such changes were meaningful.  As for instructions, the Loveridge recipe calls for adding everything in order and mixing as you go.  The MS Cookie book calls for mixing the flours, salt and soda together and set it aside.  Then mix butter, sugars thoroughly.  Add egg, vanilla, banana, flour mixture.  Then add oats, chocolate, and nuts.  The Loveridge recipe calls for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  The Stewart recipe calls for 12-13 minutes at 375.  Both caution against overcooking.  The bottom of the cookie should be only slightly darker than the top.

The major difference between the cookies is all the spices.  And it makes the difference for the cookies to taste like banana-nut bread or nut-spice bread.  Personally, I find the banana cookies delicious but I  prefer the spiciness of the Loveridge Family recipe.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a psychological term meaning joy in the misfortune of others.  Naturally, as I sit here in my comfortable house, looking out the window at a perfectly blue sky and a comfortable 58 degrees, I wonder.  According to all the media the East Coast is suffering the worst snowstorm in decades and Southern California has had so much rain that houses are literally sliding down mountains.  I wonder.  Do I have schadenfreude?

And I've decided the answer is a clear NO.  I don't enjoy the misfortune of others but since there's not a thing I can do about the snow on the East Coast or the mudslides in Southern California, I might as well enjoy what I have.  There should be a psychological term for joy in spite of the misfortune of others.

Browser wars

I switched from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's Firefox several years ago and have never regretted the move.  The few times that I have had IE forced upon me because some software installation required it, I have not been impressed.  And, of course, I keep IE available on my machine for those rare websites which insist on using it.

But a few days ago Google whose search engine I don't think I could do without and whose iGoogle is my home page advertised a free download of their browser Chrome.  They advertised a significant increase in speed and total compatibility with IE and Firefox.  In just the few days I have used it I can't verify its compatibility but I can certainly vouch for the speed.  If IE goes 20 mph and Firefox goes 30 mph, I would guess that Chrome goes 90 to 100 mph.  I don't know how they do it with third party gizmos and add-ins but they do.  Has anyone else had experience with Chrome?

Another browser that looks interesting is Apple's Safari.  So far speed is not it's forte.  The interface is supposed to be graphical like iPhone and iTunes and it is supposed to evaluate your most frequent or favorite sites so they are presented for easiest access.  With the speed of Chrome I'm not sure I'll ever find out just how good Safari is.

Preparedness

No amount of preparedness will make up for a relatively small amount of unpreparedness.

Today was the first day of the Spring semester for the Renaissance Society at Sac State.  I attended a class on the topic of humor.  Although it appeared that the class coordinator (not teacher as we are all expected to share that duty) had put in some time putting together a beginning bibliography and potential class outline, he had not done his homework regarding using the physical facilities in the classroom..

We must have wasted 20 minuteness trying to get his laptop to communicate with the classroom projector until someone suggested finding a student who might know something about it.  A student was found and problem solved in less than a minute.  Half an hour later when the coordinator wanted to  use sound he discovered again that his laptop wasn't communicating sound to the classroom speaker system.

Even when the problem wasn't connecting to the classroom equipment unpreparedness seemed the order of the day.  Rather than using Powerpoint to highlight his lecture points, he had simply entered them on separate pages of a Word document.  As a result, some of them filled the screen and overflowed while others were so small they couldn't be read,

I finally got so frustrated that I left the class during the break and there's a good chance I won't be back.

Random Activities Committee meeting

 

  

I'm finding that I'm not the only person who has to deal with Carolyn as a Random Event Generator.  This evening was our ward's Activity Committee meeting.  Carolyn is, of course, the chair of the committee and therefore the chair of the meeting.  The supposed purpose of the meeting was to iron out the final details of the Adult/Teen Valentine's Dinner Dance which is to occur on the 12th.  But actually more time was spent working on some of the decorations for the event.  We had people sewing lace, hot gluing lace, preparing the photo op sign.  People were on the computer, the sewing machine, the floor.  It certainly looked more like a craft event than a committee meeting but everyone also seemed to have a good time.

 

  

  

  

The large board is what couples will stand behind to get a remembrance picture of the evening.

Welcome, Jessica

I'd like to welcome my older daughter Jessica to our family of bloggers.  I think we now have 5 of our 6 children or their spouses blogging on a fairly regular basis which helps us keep in touch with what is going on in their lives.  We especially enjoy the pictures and projects and, yes, even the bunnies.

Jessica is a stay at home, working mother who has the energy and creativity we all wish for.  She also has a writing talent that could make her the Erma Bombeck of our time if we could just get her to publish.  The work she has done on her house and yard (with Jon's consent and assistance of course) is  just amazing and probably qualifies it for the designation "The Brimley Museum of Ecology and Modern Independent Living."  Hopefully, we'll see a lot about it on her blog.

So visit her blog and add it to your favorite places to visit.  The address is

	http://whenmomgetsbored.blogspot.com/

e-mail - withdrawal pains

Today I woke up our computer to find that we didn't have e-mail service. Our email service provider Surewest reminds me of the IT department of a mid-sized company.  They're innovative and usually rapidly responsive to reported problems.  But they can be eavily overwhelmed by complex problems. 

It would have nice to get an email saying they're having problems but, of course, they can't do that with the system problems.  I at first thought it was our computer or somebody messing with our email password.  Then I finally got smart enough to call Surewest technical support.  Their answering machine said they were aware of an email problem and they were working on it.

You know you're a real e-mail user when you go into shock when you lose your email.  I can't count how many times I've gone to write an email then remembered I can't.  It's just too much of my life now.

Friends of the library

Today, at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library, I was reelected treasurer of the organization.  Pictured above is Joanne Murphy, the 3rd president I have served under in this position.  This will be the 6th year on the board and 6th year as treasurer.  You'd think that by now I'd have learned my lesson.  Actually we are working on replacing me but it won't be easy.  The woman has some health issues but then so do I.