Brian's memorial & Writer's overload

Several people have mentioned to me lately that they miss my blog and wonder what had happened to me.  Can I still use a keyboard?  Do I still have an Internet connection?  What's up?

Well, the simple answer is that I am now responsible for so many publications that this one (Too Old to Know Better) gets short shrift.  Let's see...

I coordinate and maintain the blog for the company I retired from and still consult

www.altaregional.org  

I co-produce the newsletter for our local Mormon ward

http://thelasierralink.blogspot.com/

and, most recently I volunteered to put together a Memorial Website for my nephew Brian Russell who dies April 12. I really like the idea of having a single place, accessible 24-7 from anywhere in the world where people  can write their condolences or memories of the deceased. I first learned of such Memorials when a friend of mine from my mission died.  Brian's memorial is located at

http://brian-russell.last-memories.com/

I felt honored that Brian's parents have allowed me to do this and grateful that Last Memories has the tools and templates to make my product look good.  I've had to learn or relearn a lot of small things such as cropping photos and uploading video files.  This hosting site encourages the usse of YouTube so I've uploaded files to YouTube now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bnCpsz1DkQ

So if you don't see as much happening on this blog as usual, it may be because I have too many blogs on the fire.

Beautiful Surroundings, Ugly Memories

This was the second Parkinson's Support Group Facilitator's Conference I have attended.  As was the first, this one was held in the beautiful facilities of the Sierra Health Foundation's office building on Garden Highway.  What's not to love about this place?  The large meeting room easily accommodates 50 or 60 people seated around tables but doesn't feel overly large for the group of 25 that we had today.
Buffet facilities are just outside the meeting room so you can get your food and come back in or, on beautiful days like today, move out onto the patio to enjoy the sunshine, river breeze, and the lush spring riparian foliage like we did today.
Looks good enough to be computer wallpaper, doesn't it?  This is the view from the patio.
Another view from the patio shows how wide the river is at this point and also shows how high the water level is.  The usual riverside walkway is covered by several inches of water along much of the trail.  If you want to take a walk today, you'll need to wear waders.

Besides the beautiful setting, the conference was well planned and carried out.  So what's wrong? It was at this facility that my career took a decidedly unexpected turn when my boss was fired by the board of directors and I was asked to take over as acting CEO.  With a board that trusted me only slightly more than my boss, my tenure as CEO was luckily short-lived.  But the memories linger on and it may still be some time before I can fully enjoy the Sierra Health Foundation campus.