Elders

Dragon Mood? -- aspiring to agile aging!

Our good friends, J & J, invited us over for Saturday evening dinner. Jeanne's dad, Dobie, was visiting. Dobie, believe it or not, is 101 years old. He's in remarkably good health, enjoys visiting with company and sometimes even likes to have a glass of beer with his meal.

Dobie and I visited for awhile after supper. I told him about my being unemployed. That was the cue he needed to begin reminiscing about people losing their jobs back in the 30's after the "crash" of 1929. Dobie would have been in his mid-to-late 20s at that time, by my reckoning.

From there, our conversation segued to banking, Dobie's day job for over 40 years. I asked him about credit unions, but Jeanne, who was cleaning up in the kitchen, stage-whispered, "He's a Republican; he doesn't believe in credit unions," or something to that effect. And sure enough, Dobie didn't really have much to say about credit unions. I didn't realize that I banked at such socialist organizations(!)

I noticed how difficult it is to have a conversation with Dobie. He's quite hard of hearing, making the normal rhythm of conversation difficult. I found myself having to repeat things frequently. Plus, with Dobie's hearing loss, he's also become quite soft-spoken, so that many times I had a hard time hearing him! All in all, hearing loss is extremely isolating, as if old age weren't isolating enough. And, just in the past several years, Dobie has developed quite a stooped-over appearance, with his head perpetually tucked down. Joanne attributed his spine "freezing" in this position due to his frequent sleeping while sitting in a chair.

Reflecting later on our time with Dobie, I realized that S and I have several quite "elder" people in our lives right now. We have Dobie at 101 years of age. We also have Grandma, aka Alice, Steph's 90-year-old grandma, who we see fairly regularly throughout the year. Grandma's hearing is fine, but we notice that she is becoming more and more dependent on others for care. She needs occasional help with shoes or reminders on medications. This last visit, Sally was giving her eyedrops several times a day because Grandma has recently had cataract surgery. She really needs help putting on some support hose to prevent clots(?); S literally had to don rubber gloves in order to have enough "traction" to get the damn hose pulled up on Grandma's calves.

The other elder person in our lives is our neighbor, Bill. S has lived in this house for 13 years, but Bill is someone she has only gotten to know in the past year. Bill is right around 80. He is a Korean War vet, like my dad. Bill has emphysema and can't walk much without beginning to wheeze. What he still does like a champ, though, is mow grass. After learning last spring that S was scheduled to have a hysterectomy, Bill offered to mow our almost-one-acre yard with his riding mower. S gratefully accepted. He not only mows the grass but catches all the clippings and has even put down fertilizer and weedkiller. S refers lovingly to him as our 80-year-old lawn boy. Bill and S enjoy drinking a beer together, talking about trees and plants and other neighbors. Sometimes I join their visiting. Many times, I leave them alone to enjoy each other's company.

But I do think it's somewhat unusual to have at least three people, 80 and older who we see and interact with on a regular basis. I wonder if other aging boomers are experiencing the same?

And it gives me a window-peek into the future, when I become one of the elderly old, past the "young" 60-year age, through the "middle" 70s and into the four-score-plus group. Imagine that!

New cell phone

Dragon Mood? -- grouchy

PROS: Love the red metallic color! SO dragon-like! And I really like the screen on the inside; lots more lines of text.

CONS: It has very limited number of ringtones. Waaaaahh! I want my old Westminster chimes and my Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" ringtones BAAAAACK!

DaVinci opens today!

Dragon Mood? -- mirthful at the thought of a flying meringue pie!

Here's a wonderful quote from Salon:

"The Da Vinci Code," a blend of pseudo-facty information and mischievous, provocative invention, is a flying meringue pie headed straight for the church's kisser.

(laughing) Love it!

Spokes together in a wheel

Dragon Mood? -- this dragon enjoys musing on mystical readings

I found this at Flickr of all places and immediately loved the translation:

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 11
translated by Stephen Mitchell

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
~~~~~

A pretty cool thing to think about over the weekend, eh?

appreciating how Noah may have felt

Dragon Mood? -- drying her scales, wanting to dance in the sun!

Oh, my GOD! The SUN has finally come out!

After six -- yes, I said SIX -- days of almost constant rain, the sun is out and shining.

Thank you, God, for all the wonderful, nourishing rain you provided.

And now, God ... thanks for reminding us that the sun is still there in the sky where you put it.

Grace, Will and you???

Dragon Mood? -- I like some gay people too!

From Deb Price's column at the Detroit News:

University of Arizona researchers found that simply liking a gay-friendly TV character can make heterosexuals unacquainted with real gay people feel friendlier. Or, as communication professor Jake Harwood summarizes, "I like Grace. Grace likes Will. Therefore, I like gay people."

so-o-oooo sleeepy!

Dragon Mood? -- recalling memories, holding the sleepiness at bay

Yes, in fact, I'm so sleepy I added an extra 'e' to sleep and I'm not correcting it! Hmmph!

It's Monday, it's rainy, it's a bit on the coldish side ... and I'm in post-Mother's Day sleepy mode. Whew!

What a busy Mother's Day S had! -- and I watched. But don't get me wrong; that was fine with me! We negotiated earlier in the week that she would do all the party & food preparation for yesterday. As a mother, I'm at a point in my motherhood where I was ready to kick back and have people wait on me for a day, instead of the other way around. S was pretty determined to wait on the kids. Have at it, honey!

Actually, I must say (and I did say to her), "S, you did an excellent job!" The party was jumpin' and the food was good. Everybody showed up around 1 yesterday afternoon. S had made a big pot of chili the night before. She also prepared sweet 'n sour cukes-and-onions, jalapeno cornbread and a big batch of brownies. Of course, Tim dug into the brownies first. That was the first break in the chow-food dam. Then, everybody had to have a brownie, followed by chili, of course. Of course!

The house was literally filled with people -- every room had two, three, four or more. Preston, at a now totally mobile 14 months, was everywhere. S and I kept saying, "Sorry, the house isn't baby-proofed," as we moved this piece of pottery or snatched up those stray thumbtacks sitting on the coffee table(!) Thankfully, baby Preston was way-outnumbered by adults who can still reach places he can't reach! We kept one step ahead of him (barely) and kept him safe!

Of course, after the food gorging, there was a brief period of time while everyone lurched around, trying not to fall asleep as their blood sugar dropped. Then, suddenly, the dining room table was magically cleared and the call went out for "Euchre!" Six people showed up for a four-person game, while several others played the piano, played with the baby or played with their thumbs!

S's younger, somewhat estranged sister, Andrea, called unexpectedly from California, certainly a highlight of the day for S and her mom, Sally. They each got to talk with her for some healthy, "reconnecting" time.

And certainly a highlight for me was my unexpected nap with the baby. He and I got sleepy about the same time so I offered to lay down with him. He fought his sleepiness for a while, but warm milk in his tummy and a heavy head prevailed and he eventually conked out, his head on my arm. I listened to the sound and the feel of his breath on my face. Completely and utterly sweet! I couldn't think of a more timely gift than getting to nap with baby Preston on Mother's Day. It reminded me of all the times I watched my own children sleep their sweet sleep and rue that I didn't take even more time to watch them. Sleeping babies: peaceful, reposed, with such beautiful cheeks, delicate eyelashes and pouty pink- red lips. They are definitely one of God's most precious gifts to us unseeing, presumptuous humans.

I did get to talk with each of my now-grown babies, Lina in the morning with a clearly-intuited call while I was at Soldans and Josh while I drove to the pied-a-terre late last night. Talking with each of them definitely made my day complete. I felt special!

Colossal historical DISGRACE

Dragon Mood? -- despair and disbelief as she witnesses this cataclysmic disgracefulness!

I never would have found this article if it weren't for checking in at Blurbomat, husband and sidekick to dooce. Check it out. Here's an excerpt:

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

From time to time, after hours, I kick back with my colleagues at Princeton to argue idly about which president really was the worst of them all. ... Was the lousiest James Buchanan, who, confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that, as his most recent biographer has said, probably amounted to disloyalty -- and who handed to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, a nation already torn asunder? Was it Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction? What about the amiably incompetent Warren G. Harding, whose administration was fabulously corrupt? Or, though he has his defenders, Herbert Hoover, who tried some reforms but remained imprisoned in his own outmoded individualist ethic and collapsed under the weight of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression's onset? The younger historians always put in a word for Richard M. Nixon, the only American president forced to resign from office.

Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure."

And ... I bet they haven't even asked Bill Maher or better yet, Steven Colbert!

First bicycle ride of spring

Dragon Mood? -- a glorious feeling

Last Saturday, I pumped up the air in my bicycle tires and I went for my first ride of this year.

Wheeee-ee-eeeeee!

I LOVE riding my bicycle. I love the feeling of freedom, the wind blowing through my hair, the speed of flying through neighborhood streets after all the winter trudging through snowy streets. What a feeling!

I tied Cisco up so she wouldn't follow me on my maiden trip. Ohh, the whimpers, the cries, as my trusty bicycle and I flew out of the driveway! I felt only a little bit of guilt at leaving her behind. Finally, I returned to our house, untied the poor dog and then we took another turn around the "big" block of the subdivision. Oh, she was happy ... but not as happy as I was on my first bicycle ride of the spring!

Who says a fifty-something with achey joints and south-bound body parts can't feel like an eight year-old again?

Izzo to Kuwait

Dragon Mood? -- love our Coach Izzo!

From the Associated Press:

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo will make a return trip to Kuwait this month.

Izzo is one of several coaches headed back to the region for Operation Hardwood II from May 23-29, Michigan State's athletic department announced Thursday. Others going for a second time are Alabama's Mark Gottfried, South Carolina's Dave Odom, Charlotte's Bobby Lutz, Indiana's Kelvin Sampson and ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas.

They will be joined by Texas' Rick Barnes, Army's Jim Crews, Navy's Billy Lange, Kentucky's Tubby Smith, Maryland's Gary Williams and former Air Force coach Reggie Minton.

"Last year's trip to Kuwait was such an unbelievable experience that I'm very excited to have the opportunity to return," Izzo said in a statement.

The Spartans coach has described the first Kuwait trip to visit and coach U.S. troops in a tournament as a "life-changing experience."

Hurray for Coach Izzo!

Scary numbers regarding heart disease

Dragon Mood? -- dragon heart thumping a little faster now!

In an article from WebMD, a study done in Sweden evidently demonstrates that the risk of coronary heart disease passed from mothers is greater than the risk from fathers. Here's an excerpt:

Sons had a 41% greater risk of developing heart disease if their dads had heart disease and a 55% greater risk if their moms did, the study shows. Daughters had a 17% increased risk of developing heart disease if their dads had a history of heart disease and a 43% increased risk if their moms did.

Children with two parents with heart disease had an 82% increased risk of developing it themselves, the study shows. What's more, children whose parents developed heart disease at an early age (before they turned 55) had a 300% greater risk of developing the disease.

For my sister, Ruth, and I, those numbers quantify what we've been hearing from our respective family physicians. Ruth is being treated for hypertension; I'm being treated for high cholesterol and hyperlipidemia, which is too much "fat" in the blood.

Our mother had her first heart attack at the age of 52. (Ruth is 51 while I'm 53.) Mom died at the age of 63 from her second myocardial infarction. Her father, our Grandpa Rebsch, died at the age of 49 also from a heart attack. I never knew him.

Sometimes, in my more despairing moods (call me an Eeyore!), I have the sensation of tiptoeing through an age-related minefield of heart attacks and strokes waiting to go off. It's a scary sensation to say the least!

Thankfully -- this is focusing on the cup as HALF FULL -- Ruth and I are very close and provide lots of moral support and fervent health cheerleading for one another! We speak often of growing old together as sisters, sitting on a porch somewhere, overlooking a lake.

Friday morning update II

Dragon Mood? -- ???

You know, I really hate it when I write gloom-and-doom posts. Disregard that darn post down there.

Life is good! I've got money in the bank to pay my bills, I have a partner who loves me and my painting skills, it's spring for crying out loud and the cup is way past HALF FULL!

Yup, that's my mantra for today: "Life IS good!"

... muttering to herself, "Life IS good, life IS good."

Friday morning update

Dragon Mood? -- tense dragon muscles

Usually Fridays evoke the upcoming weekend and gleeful, happy feelings.

For some reason, today I'm not feeling gleeful, not even happy. I suspect it has something to do with the lack of activity on the job-front. I've been a real slacker this week, concentrating instead on painting the dining room.

Methinks I must quit the painting scene and get back to full-time job hunting. Yup, I think that's what I need to do! That and my XHTML tutorials!

But first .... er, I have to run to Home Depot and buy another quart of Pale Sunshine. I have less than a cup of paint from the original gallon and I can't finish the job with that. ArrrghhhH!

And did I mention that I'm feeling a bit stressed about money? My "flush-ness" with money is eroding as the temporary job fades further and further into the past. I've paid my taxes, just paid two medical bills this morning (each in the $90 range) and have an unemployment check coming in the next couple of days. But I hate to see my checking account doing nothing but going down, down, down. You know, sometimes I think money (or the lack of it) just sucks. I wonder what it was like when people resorted to barter?

Evisceration / Monologue

Dragon Mood? -- wow!

Frederick at Daily Kos has a transcript of Stephen Colbert's brilliant monologue/evisceration at the White House Correspondents Dinner. An excerpt:

Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

So, Mr. President, please, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass -- it's important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash. . .

. . . So don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he's not doing? Think about it. I haven't.

I watched the video in its entirety. So did S. We were both moved by its power and painful "truthiness."

Kudos to Stephen Colbert for his courage to speak the truth.

!TRUMPS!

Dragon Mood? -- this tending-to-be-on-the-couch dragon needs to get out and MOVE!

I get these email newsletters from WebMD. One of their headlines caught my eye:

Exercise Trumps Diet for Weight Loss

Here's the rest of the article:

Active Monkeys Stay Lean, Sedentary Ones Get Fat -- No Matter What They Eat
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Ann Edmundson, MD
on Friday, April 14, 2006

April 14, 2006 -- Active monkeys stay lean, while couch-potato monkeys get fat -- no matter how much they eat.

The findings come from a research team led by Judy Cameron, PhD, senior scientist at Oregon National Primate Research Center and professor of behavioral neuroscience and obstetrics/gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University.

"Far and away the biggest predictor of weight gain was how active the monkeys were -- that overrode how much food they were eating," Cameron tells WebMD.

The study may explain why people who try to lose weight by dieting alone rarely succeed.

"These findings were surprising to us as scientists," Cameron says. "We always assumed food intake was the main control of body weight and that dieting was the best way to control this. From these results, you are forced to think how active you are is more important than how much you eat."

Cameron and colleagues report their findings in the early online edition of the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Exercise Trumps Calories

Cameron studied 18 middle-aged, female rhesus monkeys. All of the animals had their ovaries removed to simulate human menopause. Earlier studies show that such monkeys tend to gain weight, as do middle-aged women.

The researchers put the monkeys on a high-fat diet -- that is, the 35%-fat diet of most women in the Western world. They let the animals eat as much or as little as they liked. And they let them exercise in their cages as much or as little as they wanted.

Over a nine-month period, the researchers measured the monkeys' activity level using a measuring device they wore around their necks. They also kept careful track of the animals' weight, food intake, and metabolic rate.

Some animals ate a lot. Some did not. It didn't make any difference in the monkeys' weight.

Some animals were very active. Some weren't. The difference was remarkable: The most active monkeys were eight times more active than the most sedentary monkeys. It made a huge difference in how much the monkeys weighed.

"We suspected if you ate a lot of food you would be more likely to gain weight. But we did not find that," Cameron says. "Some individual monkeys that ate a large amount did gain a lot of weight, but others who ate a lot gained virtually no weight. Very active monkeys did not gain weight over time. Very sedentary monkeys did gain weight, even if they were not eating a lot of food."

In a new study that hasn't been published, Cameron's team put overweight, inactive monkeys on a strict diet. They didn't lose much weight.

"I don't think most people who try to diet will be surprised," Cameron says. "The body immediately tries to compensate for calories you are not taking in by dropping your metabolic rate and lowering your activity level. There was no way to get around the fact that activity matters a great deal. Altogether, our feeling is that activity is very, very important in controlling body weight."

Can Obese Humans Become Active?

A lot of studies show that obese people aren't as active as lean people are. Cameron's study now suggests that it isn't obesity that turns people into couch potatoes -- it's inactivity that makes people obese.

However, it may not be a simple thing for overweight or obese people to become more active. Cameron says it's possible to predict how active monkeys will be when they're only 1 week old.

"Why are some monkeys more active? You would think it was what situation they were living in," Cameron says. "But we looked at monkeys with acres to run around in and many playmates. You would expect them to be very active. And if you move them indoors with fewer playmates, they should not be as active. But that was not true. A sedentary monkey was just as sedentary, and an active monkey was just as active no matter the setting. And we find this remains true over time."

It remains to be seen whether human couch potatoes can switch to an active lifestyle. But Cameron's work may have put one myth to rest: It's not your metabolism.

People who gain or don't gain weight often point to their inherent metabolic rate as the culprit. For monkeys, at least, this isn't so. Monkeys' metabolic rates didn't vary much. And those with the highest metabolic rate were no more likely to gain or lose weight than those with the lowest metabolic rate.