The day after Thanksgiving

We've had several traditions in our family for the day after Thanksgiving so it's really hard to nail one down as a family "tradition". One of my favorites has always been when my kids and their families would gather at our house for the Thanksgiving dinner (and therefore be in town for the day or two days following). We would use the free labor to clean around the house and yard; retrieve the Christmas decorations from storage and put them all in place around the house; paint the house, fence, neighbor's fence; get an extended family photo taken; etc.

Well, this year since the focal point of the family gathering was Jessica and Jon's house as well as Libby's baptism/birthday and Colin's blessing, we couldn't do anything that was particularly centered on us. But that didn't slow us down in keeping busy the whole day.

The day started at 5:30 am with Carolyn and Tiffany taking advantage of the day after Thanksgiving sales. I'm hopeful that what Carolyn bought was for other people since there certainly isn't that much that we need.

Those of us who didn't get up early to shop, arose at a more leisurely time, ate breakfast, and then met at the Seal Beach Community Center where the kids mostly played in the sand and the play structure while the adults most played tennis or watched the others.

Although it was small, the play area allowed for lots of creative play -- for those who were interested. As shown here, Tim wasn't about to be seduced by fun.

It didn't take long before Tim was enjoying the place as well as the others. Meanwhile,

the tennis courts were being kept busy by players as young as Sage,

as adept as Staci,
as powerful as Jon, and
as anxious as the rest of the group who were waiting their turn.



Lunch was back at Jessica's house. She's really trying to get rid of 25 pounds of cooked turkey that didn't get eaten on Thanksgiving.

During the afternoon, we descended on a bowling center where 19 people commandeered 4 lanes for a couple of hours. I really like how user friendly bowling centers have become with many more light balls that are color coded for ease of finding one children and even adults can handle; gutter bumpers to eliminate gutter balls for those prone to bowl a lot of those; ball release ramps so that even the smallest bowlers can get a well aimed ball down the lane and actually consistently get strikes and spares; and of course in California a smoke-free environment with bright lights and music.


Michael showed Jill some of his best moves.


Jake was the master of body english.


Jillian had some pretty good moves of her own, helping her dad and grandma as well as bowling in her own lane.
Tim showed off some of the techniques he had learned from a professional bowler and thereby
tying with his cousin Ben.


Some of the younger bowlers tried the release ramps which are designed to allow anyone who can push a ball off the top of a ramp to get it down to the end of the lane. Brooke tried it but preferred the normal throw.

I tried at least three ways to bowl including holding onto my walker for support and stabilization;
sitting on my walker and pitching the ball from between my legs; and (the one that worked the best) walking carefully up to the lane and from a dead stop tossing the ball down the lane. I was able to break 100 with the gutter blockers.

Dinner at Ruby's Diner was next on the list. Who couldn't enjoy something on Ruby's menu and our waitress was especially patient with the kids who made up more than half of our crowd of approximately 30. Grandma seemed to enjoy footing the bill for this and the bowling.







Now most families would consider that enough for a day but Jake and Tim wanted everyone to come over and swim in "their" pool and enjoy "their" spa - meaning the Marriott Residence Inn, of course. The addition of our family to the half dozen guests already enjoying pool and spa pretty much filled both to capacity. After an hour or so of that, everyone agreed that we probably could call it a day. Tomorrow would be another big day.

Black Friday (or is it green?)

Black Friday?? Where was I when the day after Thanksgiving was name Black Friday? Black in the context of calendars has usually meant dire events such as Black Monday which was the designation given to October 28, 1929 when stock markets around the world dropped severely causing huge economic losses. Black Friday might make some sense if it marked the day when most retail businesses finally break even so that they are finally "in the black" for the year but I don't think anyone defends that idea.

A Red Letter Day denotes both positive and negative days so Red Friday would be just as ambiguous.

My recommendation would be to call it Green Friday. Everyone, except perhaps hard core conservatives, wants to be thought of as Green. Merchants might feel a little singled out as if Green Friday marks the beginning of the most lucrative period of the year but I think that is already one of the worst kept secrets in the world.

This year, of course, it is too late to make a difference. Let's work on next year.

Traditional taffy pull

Mormons hold family home evening, a family-based worship and fun activity time, almost sacred and they hold it usually on Mondaya evening, making Monday evening almost as sacred as the Sabbath Day. So Carolyn and I felt especially honored to be invited by the Pinnegars to share in their Monday evening dinner and festivities following.

While some of the family were picking up and washing the dishes, David was putting the finishing touches on "Flat Stanley" a visitor from out of state who, like us, was visiting the family for the evening. For reasons which shall soon be obvious, Flat Stanley was mostly an observer.

Carolyn contributed her skill, experience, and recipes to help make the evening a success. The temperature of the sugar mixtures is critical for the candy to set up correctly.

While most of us washed our hands and spread them with margarine, others of the group like Travis were skeptical. OK, he said, show me what's going on but don't about think about getting get my hands wet or messy!

Justin finds that it isn't as easy as he expected buy it does start coming together.


Victoria and her mother
Karen
demonstrated the pinch and pull technique to get air into the sugar mixture while not burning yourself.
Senni picked up the technique almost automatically,

although she was a bit melodramatic when showing the technique to her aunt Ryann and Flat Stanley. As you can see, a fun time was had by all.

Number 14

You know there's something really special about a newborn baby. And if they're being especially well behaved you might even have some time to talk to him and tell him what a wonderful world he's coming into.

As I held my 14th grandchild in my arms today, I marveled at his perfect body and at the technology that allowed his doctor to monitor his progress in his mother's womb. As his placenta kept getting in the way, it was nip and tuck for Colin to have a normal delivery. But as many as 13% of American babies can't use this technology because they don't have adequate insurance.


It almost seemed like little Colin looked up at me with a concerned look, wondering how his world will compare to mine. How do I tell him that he is right to be concerned but not to be panicky. There is so much for him to be thankful for. And we can be thankful for such a beautiful new generation.

Robert McClintock - Ward Chorister

"Magnify your calling" is a phrase I believe unique to Christian congregations. It doesn't mean so much "kingdom building" as it does "make the most of the opportunities of that position, and in fact go out of your way to create opportunities." One of the people I automatically think about in connection with "magnify your calling" is our (immediate past) ward chorister Bob McClintock.

The minimum job performance in this job is to show up most of the time and coordinate the speed of the hymns between the organist and the congregation. If there are enough chorister candidates in the ward, one can even show up as little as 50% of the time and still give the appearance of filling your calling, if not magnifying it.

For the past several years Bob has contacted the appropriate meeting supervisor to determine what the meeting's theme is and if there are special numbers being requested. Bob then selects appropriate hymns for the meeting and notifies all appropriate leaders, program specialists, etc.

But in my mind, what really put Bob over the top was his way of directing a congregation like it was a choir - a 200 person choir. He directed the organ player not the other way around. A couple of times, he has stopped the hymn in mid-stride and instructed the organist as to what tempo or dynamic he was looking for. He would indicate to the congregation speed up, slow down, soft, loud, etc. rather than accepting the whole hymn with as little variation as
possible.

For example, a favorite is "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel." Bob would start each chorus with "put ....... ...... your ..... ..... shoulder .... ......... to ....... ............ the wheel..... push .... a long. Do ... your ... duty ... with ... a heart.. .... ......full of zeal..... We all .. have.. work.. let no one
shirk, put your shoulder to the wheel. " He would mime pushing a wagon wheel slowly at first then faster, faster, and faster.

Bob has not departed from this world. I suspect he's just taking a little break to recharge his batteries. Until he returns to this calling I don't envy his replacement.

Lumberjack's Redwood One Full Pounder HB

Some things just call out to be tried. So when Tiffany said she'd like to order the "One Pounder" but she couldn't do it on her own, I gallantly stepped forward and said I'd share. Turns out I didn't do very well with my share, only eating about half and half the fries as well. We sent the last quarter home with Ed and Camdan polished off the fries early in the evening. I will have to say that the hamburger was about the best biggest burger I've ever had the chance to share.



The service was a little spotty tonight. I think when they shoved two tables together for our group they must have taken a table from two different waitresses so each of them thought the other was taking care of our needs. Wrong!

Checking out Santa Cruz

Steve and Lisa have had a couple of wonderful things happen in their lives recently including their moving into a really nice rental house and Steven being accepted into UC Santa Cruz's Master's program in Chemistry. I don't want to steal any of their thunder but did want to show by way of this small photo essay what we thought of their recent move.

As you can see from the above picture, they have a back yard - not huge but bigger than many $1 million houses have.

During our recent visit there Steve and Lisa shared with us some of the planting they have been doing to get the most out of their space. Here Steven was explaining that their citrus is a dwarf that they have transplanted from a 1 gallon to a 5 gallon pot by the deck.

Other than some very pretty flowers, this potted plant has some very sharp needles - on BOTH sides of the leaves. Steve also showed me how, once the leave and dried up the needles look even more threatening.


Inside, we got a tour of how much more space they have in their living room and entertainment center. And this is in spite of the bunny condominium between the couch and the stairway:
The condos are even more luxurious than they appear as many of them are actually two-storied affairs. Steve and Lisa have laid down laminate flooring outside the condos to make cleaning up a little easier.
Upstairs we saw that they have even more space available so they don't have to put away Lisa's hobby in order for Steve or work on his or vice versa. We were impressed with all the storage and their usage thereof.
Our final treat for the day (lunch at Hula's was an earlier treat) was a demonstration of the Wii guitar and drum playing game. I couldn't picture how playing musical instruments could be part of a game. They almost has us convinced to get a Wii set.

Thanks, Lisa and Steve for setting aside one of your Sundays to entertain and visit with us and give us such a good introduction to your new home.

Walker Hugo

Introducing the latest member in a growing family of assistive devices around our house is Walker Hugo (not to be confused with his distant cousin Victor Hugo). After weeks of trying to get by with the two-wheeled, brakeless walker that my cousin graciously lent us, we decided that with my particular handicap that walker was probably more dangerous than nothing at all.


This time, with a little more time to check out more possibilities, and with the experience we had gotten from Walking Matilda, we bought Hugo. Although he doesn't have the fancy design lines of Matilda, he has the following improvements:

1. The seat is padded and contoured for comfort
2. There is a padded backrest
3. The handlebar handles are contoured for comfort
4. The under-seat basket does not allow everyone to see what's inside
   

On the other hand Hugo is not as adjustable either in the handlebars or the seat and so far seems a little more difficult to fold for transport. Because of that Hugo is likely to be used more around our house while Matilda gets to go on the field trips.

A "Friend"-ly audit

When you're the treasurer for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library you can't have anything but a "friend" -ly audit, right? Although I'm wrapping up my 5th year as the treasurer, this is the first time I've been audited so I was a little nervous. With any luck it will be my last. The auditor is a retired accountant and our board president assisted.

We decided to have the audit at my house since some of the information might be on the computer and it would be world's easier to get the data from the computer in place rather than try to haul it to someone else's house. In preparation, I set out a pitcher of ice water, tumblers, and a plate of cookies. I had also retrieved the box of records for this year and last.

Since this was basically an internal audit, it was informal and low key. And although it took a little over an hour, it went exactly as I would have planned it. Actually, I did plan it. Two or three years ago I was asked to develop an audit protocol for an internal audit. I had forgotten about it until I saw the checklist that they were using. With the audit protocal mirroring my accounting procedures, it was no surprise that my accounting records mirrored the audit protocol.

Happy Birthday, Tiffany!

We won't quantify how many birthdays that makes for her but she's not next to her mid-life crisis. However, she and Ed have had more than their share of stress the last few months so after a nice birthday dinner at the Outback and dessert back at our place, we offered to watch the older two sons at our house while Ed and Tiff took advantage of the midnight sale at Toys 'R' Us and then celebrated appropriately until late this morning.

Tim & Jake were very well behaved, waiting until after 8:00 to make any living sounds at all. Then they were happy sounds. They helped Carolyn fix breakfast and when Edward came over, they pitched in with mowing and edging the lawn. Carolyn had already recruited them for vacuuming the carpet and mopping or polishing the kitchen floor. I think we could stand to have them overnight a couple more times.

Heritage Dinner

Probably the most important and enjoyable part of the Heritage Dinner is that the Activities Committee didn't have to plan it or put it on. I probably should stop right there but since when have I learned to stop.

Since the dinner was to be held on Veteran's Day, choosing a theme of USO entertainment for the troops was a terrific idea. And the decorations pretty much followed the theme. But nothing else did. I suspect only a small portion of the senior crowd even knew much about the USO or had ever seen a USO performance. It's not like they stopped with WWII, either. The recent antics of Steven Colbert were sponsored by the USO, for example. And the USO is involved with equipping and supporting dayrooms in thousands of military units.

So I was somewhat disappointed that the USO theme stopped with the decor. None of the young men and women even attempted to mime singing or dancing or comedy routines. I emphasize mime because that's probably the MOST they could be persuaded to do. I think the YM leaders could have watched an old Bob Hope routine and tried that for the group.

Another good part of the evening was sitting 1 or 2 young men or women at each table sort of forcing some interaction between those over 60 and under 20. But both groups need some instruction on how to talk with the other. They need to have a list of 40 0r 50 questions to ask to keep the conversation going when the answer to the first 10 questions is yup or noooo.

The food was good. The program short. The company delightful. Fine evening.

Martha Stewart Cookies

I decided it was about time that I started working my way through the Martha Stewart's Cookies recipe book that we purchased after first checking it out of our local library. Just like Martha herself, I found the cookie pictured on the cover to be so compelling that I had to try it first.

Martha may have used her jail time to study up on copyright law as so many prisoners do use their time to study law. From the way the ingredients are listed and the method for mixing so precise, I have to think she's done it to make copyright infringement easier to prove or she's trying to get her recipes around the copyright. So I'm a little hesitant to copy the recipes wholly from the book. Can anyone tell me what is legal and what isn't about copying recipes?


An example of messing with my mind is the ingredient listing for flour is: "1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour". I don't know of a real-life kitchen where 1 tablespoon is not within the precision error deviation for measuring 1 1/2 cups. (Some estimate the error rate for measuring flour to be as high as 20%. 1 tablespoon is about 4%.)

The sequence of mixing various ingredients together, the length of time, and use of submixtures also makes me wonder whose alchemy class the originator of this recipe graduated from. Nevertheless, I followed the instructions to the letter in the hope of getting cookies that looked like the book cover. Unfortunately, I didn't use the same photographer. But with a little photoshopping I came close.

Results: I love gingerbread cookies and chocolate chip cookies. So you'd think a gingerbread chocolate chip cookie would be heaven, right? Need I use the example of dill pickles and bananas? Actually, this combination isn't that bad but it is a little disappointing. Maybe they'll grow on me. We find that many of our cookies are actually better a few days after cooking and this may be the case with these. They're certainly soft and moist and taste especially good warmed up. They're not too sweet or messy.

You can take it with you!

You can take it with you! Your medical information that is.

Long ago and far away in a place few would recognize now, I was a Director of Computer Applications (what we'd now call a Chief Information Officer or CIO. One of our dreams then was a portable device that patients of the hospital and medical staff could carry with them out into the big wide world that would allow doctors anywhere to access the patient's basic medical information and thus provide better, faster medical care. Microchips (the film kind) were the best technology we could come up with or a gigantic centralized database that a doctor with proper authorization could access. But a real-time, inexpensive, updateable system was always just a bit out of reach.

Thus, you might imagine my excitement when I was walking recently down the hallway of a Kaiser-Permanente facility and saw this sign
You can click on the picture to get an enlarged, readable version. The headline is "Take your medical information anywhere" and the first subhead reads "Kaiser-Permanente is happy to introduce the Portable Electronic Medical Record" Yes!! I thought. Someone has finally done it!

Not wasting any time, I walked the 30 feet to Member Services and paid my $5 to get my very own Portable Electronic Medical Record (PEMR?? - you would have thought they could have spent some time on a better acronym). Here it is. Looks just like the one in the poster.


So how well have they achieved the dream? Not bad. Not all I'd like to see but they're really minor adjustments from here.

What you get for $5 is a 1 gagabyte flash drive with at least 2 files - an html (browser readable) file identifying the patient and how to get hold of Kaiser worldwide. It also explains that there is a PDF (Adobe Acrobat readable) file with the patient's medical information. However, a password is necessary to access the PDF file.

Given the patient rights that exist today, it is easy to have a file readable by anyone with the password including the patient. In fact, Kaiser makes the whole medical record available on the website to patients and those authorized.

My chart was the most recent 12 months treatments as well as diagnoses, medications, lab and radiology results. They claimed to have some graphics for x-ray, EKG, etc. but on my chart said, "these were not available at the time this record was created." Very little information older than 12 months was listed. It would be wise to update your flashdrive every year. I failed to ask if there was a charge for that since you wouldn't need a new flashdrive. As it is, my medical record occupied 80 kilobytes of a possible 1 million kilobytes or 0.00008% of the drive's capacity. I give credit for KP's not crippling the flash drive with paranoia driven security software. This flash drive can actually be used for day to day data transfer as well as keeping your medical record in your pocket.

Congratulations KP and thank you. Now keep going until you've got it all on there.

New Hearing Aids

It's amazing how helpful Kaiser-Permanente staff are when you are enrolled in the Medicare Advantage program instead of the usual working person's Kaiser coverage. Almost three years ago I had my ears tested and found that i needed hearing aids. However, at that time my benefit was $500 per ear per 3 years. Although we would have liked to get the high end of aids, our budget just wouldn't stretch that far. Besides, I was still hearing most sounds and most people.

This year with my hearing a little worse and my coverage a little better I was able to get a much better (more expensive, too) hearing aid for both ears. In the picture above, the aid on the left is my old hearing aid and the one on the right is my new aid. In the old one all the electronics are in the pink enclosure. The semi-transparent plastic part allows for an amplified sound tunnel from the electronical hearing aid and an unamplified tunnel from the outside world. And it helps hold the entire aid in place.

With the new aid, the electronics are split with the digital sound amplification in the brown and gold piece and the silver cylinder as the speaker. The tube from the amplifier into the ear now carries a wire, not just a tube. Surrounding the silver speaker is a clear speaker baffle which keeps the ear from damping the speaker and also lets live sounds through from the outside world. Placing non-active aids in the ear produces no noticable decrease in sound volume. The last part of the aid is a tiny nylon string that is curled up along the bottom inside of the ear to provide the small amount of tension needed to keep the aid in place.

I wonder what will be available 3 years from now (probably what is now available in Kansas!).

Veterans Day

What does Veteran's Day mean to you? I know for many people it is just one more holiday that happens to fall a month and a half from Christmas making it a good day to get started on your Christmas shopping. Fortunately, for others it is really a time to contemplate what we owe to our veterans.

I proudly wore the uniform of a U. S. Army officer for eight years so I consider myself a veteran but I'm glad I wasn't called upon to serve active duty. My duty was served in the Calilfornia Army National Guard 40th Infantry Brigade (mech). Unlike today's deployment, during the Viet Nam war the National Guard was seldom called up to active duty. We knew the chance was there so we performed readiness training one weekend a month and for two weeks in the summer. Try keeping up your job skills on that sort of schedule.

I think there ought to be a better way for our veterans to give us feedback about the wars they fight. I''m not advocating a change from the current civil leadership of the armed services but the people who actually are meeting and dealing with enemy soldiers. They also meet and talk with civilians on both sides of the struggle. We often hear from the generals, the top leaders but I want to hear from the little guys. What would they do if they ran the show? Just asking.

Sesame Street

"Can you tell me how, how to get to Sesame Street?"

Those words have been coming through the speakers of our TV's now for 40 years - twice as long as the Berlin Wall has been taken down. I would be hard pressed to weigh the importance of one over the other. While the destruction of the Berlin wall represents increased freedom and democracy in the world, especially eastern Europe, Sesame Street represents a standard in children's television programming for almost 2 generations.

Child supervision by television is a fact of life for many families if only for a couple hours per day. Having a program that is interesting, entertaining and educational was sufficient justification for Mom having a mid-day nap .

Thanks, Sesame Street, and Happy Birthday

How to make a splash

Talk about good intentions going wrong. As partial payment for all the hours that my bookbinding guru has put in trying to give me some practical experience in the field, I had purchased a gallon of the special glue that we use for almost all our applications. It goes by many names but the one I bought is called Jade 403. I received it from UPS last Wednesday so I was going to take it down to Pat on Thursday evening. Unfortunately, he had gotten his flu shot earlier that day so wasn't feeling up to working with me.

This evening was the next opportunity. I pulled up to his house right at 6:00 pm, parking funny because it is garbage day for Pat tomorrow and the streets were lined with trash cans. I got out and carefully pulled my walker from the back of my Highlander. Then just as carefully I placed a bag of books needing work on the walker and followed the bag with the gallon of glue. Everything we well until I started pushing the walker up the front walkway. The plastic container slid neatly off the seat and onto the sidewalk. Upon the bottle's impact, the lid popped off and glue began pouring out. I immediately reached down and pulled the bottle upright. There was about half a gallon still in the bottle thanks to the glue's viscosity. Then I went as fast as I could to alert Pat since he would know where cleanup materials would be.


Interestingly, Pat began by scooping up and returning to the bottle as much glue as he could. That was possible only because 99% of the spill was on smooth concrete. Once he was satisfied he couldn't effectively get any more, he drug the garden hose out front and began spraying the glue across the sidewalk and into the drainage gutter. My guess is that we finished with about 3/4 of a gallon. Pat was running really low on glue so he appreciated the glue. He just wasn't expecting sidewalk delivery.

The pressure's off

Every year I try to put off turning off the air conditioning and turning on the heating. My rather artificial target is Halloween or the end of October. Some years we've had a much colder October and we've ended up walking around the house with our heavy coats. In the Spring I try turning off the heat on Easter but if Easter is early or the spring is a cold one, I'll leave the heat on until the end of April.

We try to remember to change the air filter each fall and spring. The HVAC people recommend changing the filter every three months. I feel bad enough changing them every 6 months because they just aren't that dirty. We feel really lucky to live in such a clean environment.

So now the pressure's off, the heat is on (sometimes), and we're once again (or still) breathing clean, filtered air in our house.

WD-40 saves the day

I'm sure you've heard the old joke that the only tools you need in your garage is a can of WD-40 and a roll of duct tape. If something moves and it shouldn't, use the duct tape to secure it. If something doesn't move when it should, use the WD-40.

Our post box has been getting more and more difficult to open because it was almost impossible to put the key all the way in. Recently we squirted some powdered graphite into the lock and worked it around with the key. No better. I decided in the tried and true. I pushed the little red WD-40 tube into the key slot and squirted. The key slid in better than it would have slid into a cube of warm butter.

I tried the key again today with the same happy result. We shouldn't have to worry about getting our mail any more.

Dumpchair - part 2

When I first posted about my dumping chair I noted that it was missing a vital part of the control system, namely the label which identifies which button does what. In fact, there is no way to identify the buttons on the control, no numbers, letters or instructions.

I've been puzzling about that since we installed the chair in our family room but it wasn't until I was moving things around on our patio that I saw the answer. There on the box the chair came in, was a picture of the chair and the controller. Using a handy dandy pocket knife I easily pried off the picture of what a label would look like if we had one.



Quickly scanning the little picture then enlarging it slightly and cleaning it up after inverting the color/ shade. For some reason it's easier for me to use someone else's drawing rather than draw my own. Probably doesn't save a bit of time.

Genesis of a party

When Carolyn and I were called to be on the ward activities committee I thought it would be a perfect calling for her and a horrible one for me. I am not a party animal! From planning, organizing, executing, and even enjoying a party I rank last. But from time to time I can assist Carolyn or the committee on some task so it isn't a total waste that I'm on the committee. Since I work with my bookbinder mentor on Thursday evenings and Carolyn tends to hold the committee meetings on Thursday evening I don't make it to many meetings.

Tonight my mentor wasn't feeling well so I attended an Activities Committee meeting that was primarily for the purpose of planning and organizing our ward Christmas party. There had been some brainstorming before but this was the meeting where ideas were fleshed out or discarded. I was fascinated to watch the six women on the committee (including one who had just happened to stop by to bring back a pan) work together to bring "pie in the sky" ideas into actual plans and potential assignments. Many of these women had worked together before and can almost make decisions for each other based on how they act or what kinds of things they like.

I was also impressed how Carolyn ran the meeting from encouraging participation and ideas even when she didn't think that much of the ideas. She made everyone feel welcome and free to make suggestions with the understanding that there will be competing suggestions and you're won't always be the one eventually chosen. Carolyn kept the committee on task and closed promptly 2 hours after the meeting began.

Things are really going to be wild around here in December with the ward family Christmas party on 12/12, the choir party at our house on 12/5, and an Activities Committee dinner/planning party on 12/27. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

We Are All Welcome Here - book review

In the forward to "We Are All Welcome Here" by Elizabeth Berg, the author makes the unusual admission that the idea for the novel was proposed to her by a woman who wanted her mother's story to be told. Naturally, Ms. Berg told the woman that she didn't work that way and that the woman should write her own story. In the end Berg was convinced the woman would not or could not write the story and was also convinced that there was really a story to be told. Berg then concludes with the assurance that the book is a complete work of fiction, none of the characters are real, any similarity blah, blah, blah. For me this forward sounded too much like a politician promising he won't raise taxes and the more he talks the more worried you should be.

The story's main characters are Mrs. Paige Dunn who contracted polio while pregnant and actually delivered her daughter while in an iron lung, and the daughter Diana, and the black housekeeper/substitute mother Peacie. The daughter is pretty much the narrator so the action is all from her point of view. She is a responsible young lady on the verge of puberty but not yet boy crazy. The action takes place in the late 1950's and early 1960's and is very real for those of us who remember the polio scare, the freedom marches for school integration in the south, and even the early years of Elvis Presley. Berg is able to weave all of these very real historical stories into a personal quest of a young mother, abandoned by her equally young husband, to raise her daughter "right" in spite of horrendous handicaps.

Berg develops each character so that you're sure you would recognize them on the street or in the corner grocery store. Like a good writer and observer of humanity, she also shows the warts and wrinkles, sometimes to our shock and disappointment. And the "evil" social worker is defended as really only wanting what's best for the mother and the daughter.

There are no fairy tale answers for the problems that arise in this "truer than life" novel. But the answers are acceptable, realistic, and probably the best that could have been done. Only those of us who saw some of the film clips of the freedom marches or walked arm in arm with blacks who had only a brutal beating to look forward to can really read into this story what awaits Peacie's husband LaRue in Mississippi. And only those who have known and loved a person chained to an iron lung or even its more portable successor can appreciate the helplessness of Mrs. Dunn. But Berg does an excellent job of reminding us all of the genuine work of humanity. I say if this story isn't true, it ought to be.

Whoa there! Not so fast with that blog.

I have always had a little trouble speaking or writing about something without giving adequate background information. My point is then entirely obscure except to those people who happen to have the same background. Of course, too much background and a blog would begin to look like a novel by James Michener so one tries to strike a balance.

When a good friend asked me today to explain orthotics to her, I realized I had not done a good job of preparing the subject background. Then when I went back to look at the actual post I found the first paragraph to be meaningless without more background. If you understood it all you can skip to the end of this post.

Kaiser is the name of a health care organization that operates a lot like an HMO but they don't like to use that description for themselves. In California and several other states it is a major player in hospital and medical care while there are other areas of the country where saying the word Kaiser brings up only the mental image of an early 20th century German ruler. Kaiser is literally the German word for Caesar.

Being a major player, Kaiser can set the lead in how medicine is practiced in an area or they can drag their feet. We have seen examples of both. For example, their integrated online medical record system is marvelous. Their podiatry service is not.

Podiatry, a specialty limited to care of feet, is sort of like chiropractic, if your family uses them, you find them a vital part of medical care. If not, you don't. There is a long-standing tension between othopedists and podiatrists where the dividing line is drawn somewhere around the ankle. Podiatrists rarely venture above while orthopedists are always "helping out" below.

Orthotics is the name given to a combination of plastic, leather, and cloth which has been individually designed and manufactured for a patient. Each pair is unique. The purpose of the orthotic is to support, align, prevent, or correct deformities of the feet. By definition they may be used to assist a child's feet to grow properly and they may be used to maintain proper alignment after growth.

If you think that a support insert for your running shoes costing $20 is outrageous, be prepared to be really outraged at orthotics which can run from $300 to $500 per pair. Most of that cost is for the skill and labor of measuring and fitting the device to a patient's feet and indeed knowing what problems need to be addressed by the orthotic in the first place. Thus, additional pairs of orthotics are considerably less expensive.

To complete the background info here are a couple photos of my orthotics. Using orthotics is as simple as pulling out the shoe lining and replacing it with the orthotic.




Questions?

Feet make a lot of difference

One of the benefits that Kaiser does not provide is prescription and fitting of orthotics. Kaiser does have podiatrists on staff but they won't provide orthotics. Just won't happen through Kaiser. But having had two of my sons rave about how good orthotics have been for them, I wasn't content to let Kaiser have the last word.

For some arcane reason I still had to notify Kaiser that I wanted/needed orthotics or I stood in danger of losing my Medicare Advantage coverage which I certainly don't want. And it was good that my primary care physician knew about it so that he could recommend one that he has worked with before. Besides, this podiatrist gives Kaiser patients a 20% discount (and they check your Kaiser membership card to make sure.)

I went in today to pick up my new orthotics devices and already I'm convinced. They help stabilize my feet making it easier to work with or without a walker. I don't know that I can get along without a walker on a long term basis but I could do so in the limited confines of his office. Wouldn't it be nice to push back that necessity for even a few months.

The Podiatrist, Dr. Kirby, wants to see me in 3 weeks so I'll probably report back to this blog at that time as well.

Richard Haines, extraordinary volunteer

I recently described a volunteer recognition luncheon that I was invited to by one of the honorees. Seems like it should have been the other way around but, as you'll soon see, that is just one of the many things that sets Richard off as special.

Richard was being honored in the category of "Service to Seniors" but he could just as easily received his accolades in

• Supporting Health Care
• Helping Those Less Fortunate
• Volunteer Coordinator of the Year
• Heart of Gold
• Problem Solver
• Ray of Light

Six years ago Richard applied to be one of the Sacramento Area's drivers for Meals on Wheels. Right away he was recognized for doing things far above the call of duty such as fixing minor appliances and lamps or even installing doorbells. He wasn't just a driver to the people on his route. He was a friend, a handyman, human contact of the best kind.

Richard also noticed that while some drivers seemed to feel comfortable finding their own replacements for temporary absences, other drivers did not. And work loads being what they are, paid staff often were not able to find coverage. With an engineer's precision and a scientist's curiosity and a computer geek's programming talent, Richard attacked the problem. He designed coverage reporting sheets that highlighted exactly where potential gaps existed then began calling drivers who had indicated they could cover other days where necessary. When that ran dry, Richard would often fill in himself. He filled in intentionally on every route every couple of months so that he could keep in touch with recipients and they could see him as the embodiment of program continuity.

Some drivers took umbrage at Richard's system but he never acted as if he had any more authority than he did. His calls were always courteous and polite. His suggestions clearly just suggestions. He took on the scheduling for more and more routes until he covered the entire east side of the county.

Not content with just putting in his time, Richard doesn't appear to have any time limits and many weeks works (make that volunteers) over 40 hours. But that doesn't mean that he is pushing himself for political or any other aim. He just wants to make sure that he does whatever he can to make the Meals on Wheels in Sacramento be the best program he can make it.

If they had a category of Volunteer IDOL, I would nominate Richard

Recognizing Volunteers

One of the distinct advantages of retirement is the opportunity to volunteer at more places doing more things. Of course retirement is also the age when you have more opportunities for health problems which interfere with volunteer assignments so it probably all evens out. I've also discovered that many volunteer assignments fall under several "authorities" or volunteer organizations. For example, in my assignment as a Meals on Wheels driver, I was directly responsible to Senior Nutrition Services of Sacramento County. This is a government entity but probably has more volunteers than paid positions. My position was also overseen by Retired Seniors Volunteer Program of Sacramento County which is under the Human Resources Department of the county. It is almost entirely volunteer staffing.

Lastly, this position falls under the general oversight of the Volunteer Center of Sacramento, which appears to be a completely independent, private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is "to strengthen and support the Sacramento Community by connecting volunteers with opportunities to serve."

This past week I had the opportunity of attending a luncheon honoring a couple dozen volunteers in our community. I was there as a guest of an honoree rather than being honored myself. I will have another blog describing why my host had been nominated for Volunteer of the Year in the category Service to Senior.

Almost like the Academy Awards, the Volunteer of the Year award was given for

• Service to Seniors
• Service to Children and Youth
• Supporting Arts and Recreation
• Supporting Healthcare
• Supporting Animals
• Helping Those Less Fortunate
• Group Commitment to Volunteering
• Youth Volunteer of the Year
• Volunteer Coordinator of the Year
• Volunteer Board Member of the Year
• Civic Organization of the Yeare
• Corporate Volunteerism
• Heart of Gold
• Problem Solver
• Salt of the Earth
• Ray of Light
• Lifetime Achievement
• Overall Volunteer of the Year

You might think that a program that needed to honor so many categories with 3 to 5 nominees in each category would be unbearably long but it wasn't. The speaker started her part while dinner was still going on and she kept her speech short. The MC's kept the program moving at the same time giving enough extra detail about the winners you didn't feel like they were just reading the program for you.

Even the pictures on the patio of those who won went fast. On the way out non-winning honorees received their plaque.

Thanks, Richard, for inviting me to such an event.

Bookbinding for fun and family

During our latest session at Pat's bookbinding workshop, after he showed me something for the umpteenth time, he got a little exasperated and told me that all books are made essentially the same. Each book has a text block, covers, spine assembly, and miscellaneous.) So, in fixing a book you look at the hinge which you can either replace or reinforce. You can look at the text block and either straighten it or replace certain pages. And finally you look at the covers and either replace, repair, or reinforce them. It seems to obvious to me now but it wasn't last week.

I decided to take on as a project a book that Ed & Tiff's family bought recently - a collection of Disney stories. It is a delightful little book except that the inside of the book (the text) is upside down with respect to the covers (and vice versa). I had thought about taking it to Pat's to work on it but was afraid Pat would take it over.



But with my new insight I figured I could easily take on the project.

Since the cover was on upside down, the first step logically is to take the cover off. The trick is to take it off the right way so that it will be easy to replace.



Here you see the result of the first step.

The text block that is removed has a lot of junk on it that has to be scraped away. To make this easier, the pages are put into a press which in this case is simply two boards held together by four bolts and tightened with wingnuts.

The old glue and cardboard has been scraped away and a layer of new glue has been laid down to hold the hinge cloth or mesh.


Here the mesh has been trimmed and a piece of folded paper called the hollow has been glued to the mesh. This allows the paper and the spine to act independently.


Finally, everything is put back together such that the new binding is at least as strong as the original and doesn't show ugly joints. And, of course, the cover and the text should agree.

Happy Birthday to Colin!

Colin Loveridge, 2nd son of Philip and Jenny Loveridge was born this evening about 5:30 pm. He measured 7 lb 3 oz and was 20.5 inches in length. Looks like he's starting out to be a big kid. He's going to have to work hard to keep up with his older brother in size at least. I have no doubt he'll be up to it. Philip said Colin's Apgar test was high enough that he shouldn't have to stay extra days in the hospital like his older brother did.

This is our 14th grandchild. We love them all. Thanks to Eric Bushman for the picture of Jenny and Colin.

Money is going away (boo hoo) or is it?

No, not that stuff in your wallet, purse, or pocket. Microsoft Money.

I was doing a little research on which banks have the online service which interacts with my financial management package - Microsoft Money - when I came upon this startling announcement:

	Important notice: Microsoft Money Plus is no longer available for purchase. All purchased Money Plus products must be activated prior to Jan. 31, 2011.

I was actually giving some thought to upgrading my Money software because people giggle at my version 2002. (I hate naming the software version after the year it is sold.) And now I CAN'T upgrade it! What is going on.

Well, the view from the sidelines is that Microsoft has been caught short again. With all their visionaries, they were busily improving a great product while the market was slipping another direction. At least a lot of people think that's what's happening. Intuit, the makers of Money's cheif competition, thought to themselves (literally, they don't talk at Inuit, they just think) "If the purpose of a money management program is to track bank accounts, investment accounts, loans, assets, even profits and losses of a side business, shouldn't it be as portable as possible? And what is more portable than web access?" So suddenly programs and data that used to reside on your home computer now resides in some great vault in the sky as a part of the Internet.

Microsoft will be making future announcements and will undoubtedly be back in the market soon but the word is: Don't upgrade your Money right now. Or your Quicken for that matter. And you might have to actually write one or two checks before this settles down. Things should be sorted out within a year.

Helping the handicapped

I suppose this is something that will change through time as almost everything does in my world of Parkinson's Disease but I have been struck lately with the impression of just how poor most of us are equipped to handle or help people who are "differently abled". (I think that's the politically correct term for handicapped nowadays.)

For example, I virtually always use my 4-wheeled walker to walk anywhere outside our house. I guess it virtually shouts "handicapped! watch out! handicapped!" Some people seeing me coming their way will hurry to a door we're both planning to use. They hurry so they can hold it open for me or (rarely, but it does happen) so they can hurry through fast enough that they "didn't even see me". Worst of all, of course, is the "helpful person" who pushes or pulls the door out of my hand throwing me off balance.

Fast food places like Taco Bell, In-and-Out Burger, who normally just call your number to come and get your food will bring it out to me without even asking. They just assume I need the help. It is patronizing but nice as well. Today at Taco Bell, one of the patrons jumped up from his food to help bring my tray over to a table. I thought maybe he was going to insist I eat with him but he didn't even make the suggestion.

But the most surprising reaction to my disability came at the health club/gym that I still attend. I like to use the stationary bicycle since walking is painful. I had left my towel on one of the two stationary bikes in the equipment room to "reserve it" while I went to get a glass of water. A man coming into the room just as I was leaving the machine shouted, "You left your towel!" It isn't noisy in there so he must have thought that my leg problem affects my ears, too. I explained that I was just reserving that machine, then, realizing he wanted to use that machine, said I'd be just as happy using the second machine.

When I got back with my water he was using the first machine. I mounted with some (the usual) difficulty and he hopped off insisting I use his bike. I told him I was just fine and when he saw I wasn't going to change bikes, he walked off in disappointment. We've seen each other around the gym for years and he's never acted like that to anyone, let alone to me.

Handicap makes people act funny.

Integrity of the e-Mail System

There's an old army story about a 2nd Lieutenant who had just been promoted to 1st Lieutenant and was getting frustrated that his buddies, all 2Lt's, weren't showing the proper respect that his rank demanded. A captain came alone, sized up the situation, and throwing his arm around the lieutenant's shoulder, said, "Ease up, Lieutenant. Haven't they told you yet that rank among lieutenants is like virginity among whores?"

I'm beginning to feel that way about integrity among email systems. A phone call from my youngest daughter alerted me to the latest email problem when an email supposedly sent to all six of our kids only made it to 4 of them. A second email sent to the same list apparently had the same results.

A month ago, it was a message I sent to the former treasurer of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. When she didn't reply to successively more urgent messages, I finally called her and was told that she had received none of my messages. And what really aggravated me is that neither of us received any notice of the failure to communicate.

Every once in a while we actually get a "failure to deliver" notice. I used to hate those but I changed my mind after getting a failure to send notice in time to correct the problem and fixing it. She checked the system trash bin as well as physical trash cans.

I think there's hope. Years ago if you had forgotten an assignment, and for some reason needed an excuse, you could with a straight face explain that it must have gotten lost in the mail. But that isn't a credible excuse any more. Will we ever get to the point where we know that our email has or hasn't reached it's destination?

Software insurance

Just a minute. Bear with me. I need to adjust this box a little. There. Can everyone hear me?

You know how we're always complaining about how creative the government is in figuring out new ways to tax us? Well, my ire this evening is directed at businesses and the way they have of selling us something that should really be part of the thing we're buying in the first place.

For example, don't you hate it when you buy a gadget of some kind, say a remote control toy helicopter for your child (who's kidding who?) You take it home all excited to try it out and find that it needs a AAA battery. Yeah, now you see it on the package but really, would it have priced the toy out of range to include the battery? Especially if you plastered all over the package, "Battery included" "nothing additional needed". You get the idea.

Now it is in software. I went to buy a piece of software that cost $19.99 and I could download it so I didn't even have to worry about shipping charges. But there were two optional charges: software replacement insurance for $6.98 and upgrade insurance for $4.99. Each of these was well explained, as well they may be. What do I need insurance for?

Software replacement insurance, it turns out, will take care of you if you lose your computer through loss, theft or destruction. Or you buy a new replacement computer but don't have a disk to reinstall that program. All it takes is just a call or email, the company will look up your purchase and allow you to download the program again to your replacement computer at no cost. I haven't looked lately but I thought that was covered under home owner's insurance. Even if not, it seems to me that a software company shouldn't charge anything to replace the software. They've sold it and gotten their money How do they justify selling it again. And the incremental cost of looking up the purchase is so minimal I think it makes more sense to scream all over the product "product replaced if ever lost at any time, in any way." Them's selling words.

Upgrade insurance, I found out, says that if a product is upgraded during a certain period (although sometimes its forever) You get the new product for a fixed price which may be as low as nothing. This one is a little trickier as you would never get a car dealer to update your car to the latest model unless that premium was awfully high. But what the insurance tells me in so many words is that we're ready to issue a new release. So unless you buy this insurance, you won't be able to really take the world as it comes at you. But put "never out of date" all over the packaging and send a complimentary copy. That instantly puts your product at the top of the desirable pile.

I've said my piece. I'll now take my leave (and my soapbox).