LSJ Blogs: The New Age

Cat Parks, Sodium, and Movies

January 9, 2008

LuLu

LuLu had a great week up until today. Today she went to the pet groomer for her quarterly bath and pedicure. She has been enjoying the festive activity at the bird feeder. We are even having woodpeckers visit our house and try to find some bugs. Hershey, our grand dog, is having a new experience with the East Lansing Dog Park. Hershey’s first visit left him perplexed. He was so used to being on a leash in public. He did not know how to act. But now her loves it. The dog parks are a great idea. Cat Parks however would not be. They would have to have a large bird cemetery in the middle and a large ER for all the catfights.

Taking care of yourself

There has been a recent movement to encourage the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) to limit the sodium in food. My husband, Alan, and I try to be very conscious of the sodium in food that we eat. However, every package must be checked. Some brands are making an effort to reduce sodium in soups but why is there sodium in fresh poultry products? I recently wanted to purchase some frozen raw turkey. Most of the turkey had a lot of sodium added. Older persons should eat less that 2000-mg of sodium per day. I found the Freezer to the Table Turkey, which had about 300 mg per serving. This is still too much for a raw product. Also most of the partially prepared meat products are loaded with sodium. Older people still cook. The stores and brands need to be considerate of our needs for lower sodium products. Younger people do not need the high sodium foods either.

Exploring

We saw two great movies. We went to The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington, also directed by Denzel Washington and produced by Orphan Winfrey - - a great family movie. I urge all families with preteen and teens to go. Our Netflcks’s movie was Motorcycle Diaries. The movies chronicles the life of the young Che Guvaria and how his trip through Latin America in the late 50’s changed his life from a medical student to an activist/ revolutionary for the poor and native people of Latin America. Motorcycle Diaries is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Giving Back

Michigan has had a relatively mild winter so far. However, many Michigan residents are having problems paying heat bills, buying food and providing warm winter coats for themselves and their families. It is time for those who have been blessed with good fortune to help those in need. Help with a coat drive, help the energy companies help those in need. Give to the food banks. 

AARP: New Report Shows How States Can Help Prevent Abuse of Older Americans

A new report by AARP's Public Policy Institute (PPI) identifies effective practices for monitoring court-appointed adult guardians, reducing the chances for abuses that occur when oversight is lax.

Surreal Times

AARP: Prepare to Care - A Planning Guide for Families

Thirty million households are providing care for an adult over the age of 50 - and that number is expected to double over the next 25 years.

Cat gifts, German Movies and Baby Layettes

December 31, 2007

LuLu

LuLu had a busy week. We had to care for Hershey, our granddog. He is a large black lab/chow mix. LuLu loves to intimidate him. Hershey being always the gentleman does not take the bait. We had one incident of hissing and one incident of LuLu eating Hershey’s food and one incident of Hershey eating LuLu’s food. LuLu got a Christmas present, the book What Cats really want for Christmas by Kandy Radzinski. We loved the book, Lulu, however, was only interested in the wraping paper.

Taking Care of yourself

We did not do very well on keeping up our exercise schedule. We walked in the Meridian Mall one-day. I suggested the walk hoping that I could look at the stores and the people as we walked. I was wrong; Alan, my husband, kept me at such a fast pace that it was all I could do to keep up with him. We also used our exercise tapes. We like Catherine MacRae's Gentle Fitness. We got this tape because it was recommended for people with fibromyalgia. There are chair exercises as well as standing exercises. We have suggested it to persons with limited mobility. The purpose is to build strength and flexibility. In fact, we used the tape when I had knee surgery to improve my upper body strength.

Exploring

The movie for this week from Netflicks was: Das Leben der Anderen - The Lives of Others "Unlike other recent films portraying life in East Germany. It dramatizes the true cost that citizens of the German Democratic Republic had to pay for living in their communist dictatorship. We learn how much time and effort the Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, "secret police") spent on spying on East German citizens — and how this impacted both the targets and the spies." Excerpted from a review by Hyde Flippo on the website About.com. We both found the movie to be very chilling but worth the effort to watch. (It is hard to multitask when watching a foreign movie with subtitles.)

We also are now a two-cell phone family. We got an over 65 plan which allows for two phones with somewhat limited minutes. We are having a great time, reading the manual, setting up our numbers and voice mail.

Giving Back

My church, All Saints Episcopal in East Lansing, provides all the contributions for Christmas week to our Outreach efforts for the food bank and for agencies that provide utility assistance and coats for kids. We are also collecting baby clothes for newborns for the Feast of the Epiphany. We are Pro-choice and proudly support mothers and new babies. 

Health Care Myths

Christmas Blog

December 22, 2007

I am deviating from my usual format to do the annual Friend Christmas letter. Alan, my husband, and I are celebrating our 5^th year of retirement. We are happy that we can give back to the community with our volunteer efforts for Governor Granholm, the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame, the Turner Dodge house and the Michigan Department of Human services. We are most proud of our daughter, Julie, who received her JD after six years of juggling a full time job, caring for a home with a large flower garden and raising/training a great dog. We have managed to control our chronic diseases. Our extended family is also coping with their chronic diseases without acute episodes. We have had many great experiences this year.

• We visited our extended family in Florida and missed some of the Michigan snows.
• We visited the George Bernard Shaw Festival in Canada, with Alan’s Step sister Jeri and friends.
• We enjoyed a mini family reunion on Mackinac Island.
• We joined Alan’s photography club on a photo trip to Leelanau peninsula.
• We visited Bavaria in Germany and Austria.

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While these experiences have been great for us we remain concerned about:

• My good friend and colleague Jim Allen (Food service director of the Tri-county Office on Aging Senior Nutrition Program and a proud member of the National Guard) was sent for his second tour to Iraq.
• Meal On Wheels programs in Michigan are facing increasing waiting lists due to the increased cost of gasoline, lack of volunteers and the increasing cost of food.

• The increasing cost of health care is a great concern to older persons and their caregivers.

• Finally I am concerned that ageism still exits. Rush Limbaugh thinks that America does not like to look at older women.

AARP Report: Planning Size of Retirement Nest Egg Important First Step to Lifetime Financial Security

Planning the size of a retirement nest egg can be a critical first step to building lifetime economic security at a time when many American households are ill-prepared and informed about their long-term financial outlook, according to "Retirement Preparedness:  The Have and Have-Nots," a recent report released by AARP.

Poinsettias, Recycling and Holiday Activities

December 13, 2007

Lulu

LuLu is having a wonderful time. We have brought down all of our holiday decorations. She is having a great time jumping in all the boxes. We are attempting to recycle some of our underused decorations that we have accumulated over the 42 years of celebrating Christmas. Some of them are pretty sad since I made them when I went through my hand-made period. Others have stood the test of time and would go to other families for use. I will be purchasing imitation poinsettias this year since we know Lulu like to chew leaves and the real poinsettias are poisonous.

Taking Care of Yourself

Recycling some of our holiday decorations is part of our effort to reduce unnecessary stuff in our lives. Although, I accuse my husband Alan of being the pack rat, I also have some of those tendencies about certain things such as magazines and dishes. We are also using more of our exercise tapes during these times, since we are attending our classes less due to the weather and other commitments. There is no excuse for not exercising since the tapes allow you to exercise without leaving home.

Exploring

We had a busy week. We attended Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson and directed by BoarsHead's own Kristine Thatcher. The play runs through December 30, 2007. The Boarshead website describes the play this way: "It’s 1939 and legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick has just fired the director of Gone With the Wind! The film is in trouble, the script is unworkable, and the crew is being paid $50,000 a day as Selznick tries to figure out what to do." This is a great comedy about the fictionalized tale of the writing of the script for the movie Gone With the Wind. It made us want to see the movie again so we are adding it to our Netflick list. The Holiday party for my exercise class was on Friday. We had a great potluck with all healthy food--ok we did have some cheese cake and fudge. The class at the East Lansing Prime Time center has been going since 1997 so some have been with it for 10 years. On Saturday we had the extended family Christmas with my sisters, our children and grand children. We had a great time. The grandchildren, my grand nieces and nephews, are growing up. They range in age from five years to fourteen years and are great kids. They all are in sports, skating, soccer, basketball, football, and baseball. Their parents are in constant motion taking them to these various activities.

We also went to Monty Python's Spamalot at the Wharton Center. This was an All Saints church activity and we had some appetizers before the show. It was great fun.

Giving back

Our family Christmas was calmer since we had limited the gifts due to our food bank contributions. We still encourage everyone to contribute to food banks and other organizations that provide essential services to those in need. Michigan is going through some rough times and all of us that have means should help.

AARP: Walgreens Launches Health Essentials Catalog and Web site for AARP Members

Walgreens recently announced a new catalog, "AARP Health Essentials by Walgreens" and a new Web site aarp.walgreens.com to provide AARP's 39 million members across the U.S. access to discounted health, beauty and wellness products.