Archive for May 2023
Skip Boring TV . . .
. . .Tuesday evening and
drop by the dining room for
a book signing at 7 p.m.
by author Peppur Chambers
who you know as the hostess at
our several wine-, beer- and liquor-tasting sessions.
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Jazz Aficionados . . .
. . . can hang around the dining room
after the buffet and
applaud the South Valley Junior High jazz quartet
OR
head to the free
Chandler Center of the Arts POP concert
if the bus isn’t full.
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Wonders Down Under
Begin in Kiwi Country
By Tom Morrow
For Mature Life Features
AUCKLAND —- Stopping over in this North Island metropolis laced with waterways is an excellent way to acclimatize yourself to the more leisurely pace of living in this part of the world as well as stretch your way through jet lag.
Landing in this island country’s biggest city that’s home to about one-third of its population also gave us the opportunity to become accustomed to driving on the left side of the road.
Dominating its waterfront profile is the Sky City Tower that pokes up some 1,066 feet. It’s a small city unto itself with two casinos, a hotel and a theater, several shops, banks, and 10 restaurants and as many bars.
Because we didn’t have much time here, we decided to seek out the best of what the Kiwis – the locals call themselves this in honor of the odd-looking long-beaked nocturnal bird found only here – prepare best: lamb
Even if you don’t care for lamb, you must try it here. This country has just under 4 million people but more than 70 million sheep. Most of the “good lamb meat,” we were told, is exported to America, Britain, Mexico, and South America. “We’re left with the rubbish,” one hotel chef told me. “My wife works for a giant meat exporter and she says you Yanks get all our best meat.”
Still, what they serve here is superb. Here’s an example of a dish you can prepare at home. It’s a Moroccan sauce recipe from a suburban hotel’s sous chef that can be used for either beef or lamb.
Slow cook roast-beef and lamb bones with vegetables, such as leeks, onions, and celery, with bay leaves, peppercorns, and rosemary for 24 hours. Strain and cook the sauce until it is reduced by half. Add a bit of red wine and some tomato sauce. Mix to taste. Slow roast your lamb as normal, then serve the lamb (or beef) with this wonderful sauce.
You’ll be a hit at your table.
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Don’t Know How . . .
. . . anyone else feels,
but I’ve found that
growing old
has come at a very inconvenient time.
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Taos Pueblo Houses Magic, Mysticism
By Silvia Shepard-Lobanov
Hi ne ya
Dal tso hozho ni
All is beautiful, beautiful
Dal tso hozho ka
All is beautiful
Pueblo Indians carry a certain magic about life. They know about p’o (the moon), sip’ophe (the underworld) and ‘opa (everything). And, that song and the universe are one. They always have been one with the land, sensitive to its beauty. Their whole being is open to the glory of life in their valley. Indeed, the word “taos” means “place of red willows” in their native Tiwa tongue.
They believe all nature’s elements — the snow, the land, the sharp mountains, life itself — flow into their essence and make them look vibrant and purposeful, but act shy.
Silence is an important element in their nature. Solitude often is their way of communicating. To the stranger, they may not utter a word, yet one can feel a new force passing between you. Through hundreds of years, when bitter cold embraced the harsh landscape and there was almost no food to eat, Pueblo chiefs would go to the kivas, below-ground centers of religious ceremonies. The drums would start the chanting and accompany a dance whose steady cadence transported those present to the future when corn, wheat, and beans would once again be plentiful. Each generation learns that winter is only part of a cycle: that it will go away. The cold will go because the people in the pueblo command it to go, they say. They concentrate. Be the summer.
Be the warmth.
Author D.H. Lawrence sensed the area’s powerful natural force. “The moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning sunshine high over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul and I started to attend.”
For Pueblo Indians, the stillness helps them hear the energy of the universe. They see themselves as eternally knowing, part of the creation of the cosmos — secret knowledge given by their ancestors that should remain theirs alone. But it is their eyes that reveal the great sweep of life within them: the invisible fire.
We’ve Been Invited . . .
. . . to a car show
by our next-door neighbors at Sky Ridge
beginning at 4 p.m. Cinco de Mayo (Friday).
+ + +
And don’t forget our weekly indoor bocce at 11 a.m.
in the 2nd floor multi-purpose room.
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Men “Bulletproof”
Until First Heart Attack
A major health concern in the fact that many men in their 50s and older haven’t seen a doctor in years. With the aging of the baby boomers, more than 150,000 men a month are turning 50 from coast to coast.
Men also are not conditioned, as women are, to have annual checkups. This means a large segment of the population doesn’t know about or use the health-care system. Things begin to change after about age 45 because of three critical ailments that begin to emerge – joint deterioration, cancer, and the number-one killer around the world – heart disease.
A handful of simple steps has been developed by medical experts to help solve what has become a major health-care problem: men in their late 40s and older who do not visit doctors regularly.
The first move is to have an annual physical exam to screen for general problems, such as stress and anxiety. Then each of the following steps should be taken each year (they can be scheduled with your annual physical): check blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar or glucose level, blood analysis for such disorders a kidney and liver disease and urine analysis, and a stool test for blood.
Men should undergo a prostate-wall and prostate-specific antigen test annually. They also should have at least one thyroid screening and periodic electrocardiograms to check for heart abnormalities after they turn 50. They also should have their lower bowel viewed with a flexible camera to check for polyps that are precursors to cancer.
For Those of You . . .
. . . who didn’t make it to the food-service meeting,
the possibility of doing away with Sunday brunch and
replacing it with regular week-day breakfast and lunch service
is being explored.
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Eyes Give First Glimpse
of Health Problems
The old adage that the eye is the window to the body has been found to be literally true as many diseases manifest themselves first in the eyes. Diabetes and high blood-pressure are two health problems optometrists can pick up on early during an eye exam. Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are just two conditions that have ocular manifestations easily detected by the optometrist.
Vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, that can put a person at risk for heart attack or stroke also can be detected via an eye exam, even when a patient has no visible symptoms.
The following symptoms are red flags that require an immediate visit to the optometrist:
— Fleeting loss of vision;
— Fluctuating vision;
— One or both eyes turning red;
— Soreness and inflammation of one or both eyes, or
— Worsening vision.
The medical community suggests adults have eye examinations once every year or two from ages 41 to 60, then once a year from age 60 onward.
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You Know . . .
. . . you’re getting old when,
The Heat arrives and
you have to ask yourself
if you want a nice dish of ice cream
or a nice cold glass of beer.
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Test Your Financial IQ
So your braggart broker brother-in-law bugs you about not taking his advice and making a billion in the stock market. Or you think you have all the answers to present and possible problems in your financial future.
A financial IQ test published in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine could put both of you to the test with a few basic questions that examine some rudimentary tenets of a sound personal fiscal policy.
A fun question asked how big a check you think you would get if you chose the cash option after winning a lottery jackpot of $100 million but had to split it with another person who also had the winning lottery number. After cutting the winnings in half and choosing a one-time cash payment, you would get a check for about $20 million.
By taking the one-time payout instead of monthly payments over 30 years, the prize amount is whittled down based on what is known as the “time value of money” according to a formula comparing the worth of today’s dollars against $1 three decades from now. This cuts your half-share of the lottery winnings to about $27 million, of which the Internal Revenue Service will claim some 25 percent. And then there are layers of other state and federal taxes to cut through before being able to tote your final total to the bank.
Then there’s the question about remarrying after your spouse of several decades has died. Should you marry the person who has emerged in your life as a possible mate or should you just move in and live together so you don’t forfeit Social Security survivor’s benefits based on your late husband’s hefty earnings history.
Go ahead and remarry, the article states. Widows and widowers 60 years and older may remarry and collect benefits based on their deceased spouse’s record if its more than what they’ve earned.
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grab a nap . . .
. . . so you can be up for
Peppur’s book signing
at 7 p.m. in the dining room.
SORRY that’s next Tuesday…
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Welcum . . .
. . . to a new week and a new month and,
in this part of the nation, a new level of warmth.
Gear up for a couple of meetings tomorrow afternoon —
a Town Hall gathering at 4 p.m.
after the food-service meeting.
Mature Life Features 