I’ve Never Told . . .
. . .this to anyone before but,
when I found out
what electricity could do,
I was shocked.
= = = = =
Mature Motorists Slowing Down
The “get ’em off the road” gang is after aging drivers again. This happens every time a silver-haired motor-vehicle operator gets into an accident.
Take away their license. Test them every year. Let them walk. They bring out the statistics that senior drivers are the second-most accident-prone segment of American’s motoring public. However, the single-most road-risky group are teen-aged drivers. But no one suggests taking away their licenses.
Detractors of senior drivers suggest taking driving licenses away at a certain age. How about holding back drivers’ licenses to young people until they reach a certain age? Neither of these suggestions make sense.
Age is not the problem. The problem is common sense and competence behind the wheel.
It is estimated that one out of every five of the nation’s drivers will be older than 65 by 2030. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study indicates that most older drivers limit or stop driving on their own as they perceive their capabilities diminishing.
About 70 percent of more than 3,800 drivers 50-years-and-older queried said they restricted their driving under a variety of conditions. These included bad weather, heavy traffic, rush hour, night time, long distances, and freeways.
Older drivers apparently develop strategies to compensate for failing vision, slower reflexes, stiffer joints, and medication, according to researchers. They can help their cause by supporting physical improvements such as signs that are larger and less complex, improved lighting and enhanced visibility at intersections, and remedial-driving programs.
= = = = =
Learn Sign Language
11 a.m. today 2nd floor theater.
= = = = =
You’ve heard about the
Super Supper Shuttle
Here’s the schedule
2nd and 4th Friday of March
Leaves Verena for restaurants:
3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Leaves restaurants:
3:45 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.
No sign-up, just show up
Think of catching a city bus –
be waiting at the pick-up point
Miss one, wait for the next one.
Just don’t miss the last one.
= = = = =
Healthy Foods All Around You
Mangoes are the most-eaten fruit in the world for good reason: they’re among the superstar health foods, providing us with decent doses of vitamins A and C along with blood-pressure-lowering potassium and fiber.
Other plant products listed among this galaxy of health boosters by some nutritionists include sweet potatoes, broccoli, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), watermelon, butternut squash and leafy greens, such as kale, spinach and Swiss chard.
Along with this array of hale, hearty and healthful food in your larder, you might want to add plain yogurt, wild salmon and oatmeal.
= = = = =
Super Supper Shuttle, Super Idea
Beginning next month,
a twice-a-month shuttle
will provide Verena residents
late-afternoon free transportation
to and from nearby restaurants.
Because it’s a shuttle, there is no need to sign up.
Just show up at the times advertised starting at 3 p.m.
If you miss a shuttle, wait for the next one.
Just don’t miss the last one.
= = = = =
I just realized
I’ve mastered how easy it is to sleep.
I can do it with my eyes shut.
= = = = =
Coffee A Healthy Break
Coffee might be considered the WD-40 of the food system. It’s been cited as a defensive mechanism against health risks ranging from sunburn to diabetes. Scientific, medical and diet gurus around the globe claim drinking three to five cups a day is a healthy regimen.
While not the source of nutrients found in diets of the health-conscious, an eight-ounce cup of coffee, regular or decaffeinated, contains more disease-fighting antioxidants than a typical serving of blueberries or oranges.
The anti-coffee culture points out that coffee also can cause nervousness, keep you awake at night and boost your blood pressure. To counter these over-stimulating effects of coffee, nutritionist suggest spacing out one’s intake, drinking a cup of coffee every few hours during the day.
A European study also revealed coffee retards the cognitive decline in the elderly.
Caffeine reduces the risk of cirrhosis of the liver as well as lowering the odds of death by heart disease among the elderly. Studies have also revealed coffee drinkers are less likely to develop basal-cell carcinoma – skin cancer – than non-coffee drinkers. Coffee has also been found to reduce pain, protect against strokes, fight depression and a variety of cancers, and protect the liver.
While the consensus is that coffee can be good for you, it shouldn’t be considered a cure-all. If coffee gives you the jitters, try decaf. If that doesn’t work, talk with your doctor.
Go easy on milk, cream, sugar and other-coffee-shop add-ons because they add calories to an otherwise low-calorie beverage. When brewing your own coffee, use paper filters that trap the oils in coffee that can increase your levels of cholesterol.
As with anything that involves your health and well-being, discuss your coffee habits with your primary care physician.
It’s Party Time!!!
But you folks at Verena
can squeeze in your 1:30 p.m. writing class
before the festivities begin at 3 p.m.
= = = = =
I can’t even count the times
I failed math at school.
= = = = =
If It’s Autoimmune,
It Can Be Anything
A visit by the blahs, flu, endless fatigue, chills, sweats, and whatever is a reminder me of what has become one of medicine’s major mysteries – autoimmune disorders.
More than 100 conditions have joined the list since they were first labeled a little more than three decades ago. Among the most common are rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis. What links these is their root cause: your immune system is battling part of you – your skin, blood vessels, joints, nerves or organs.
In my case, it’s autoimmune hepatitis and my liver is the enemy.
It all began to surface a dozen years ago while on a trip to Italy. I began feeling tired and just couldn’t shake loose of that feeling. When we got home, it took half a year of tests, MRIs, X-rays and biopsies to unearth the cause.
I learned my liver has four major stages: good, not too bad, fatty and it-has-to-be-replaced. Mine was on the cusp of fatty and the final stage. And being autoimmune hepatitis means the doctors have no idea what caused it.
Steroids were prescribed immediately. The first one had to be discarded when they conflicted with the bladder-cancer pills prescribed a couple of years later. And I’ve been told I should avoid getting sick.
I did fall victim to COVID-19 a couple of years ago but got through my quarantine suffering mostly from boredom. Not too long ago, I woke up sweating and with the chills. I felt fatigued, unsteady on my feet and had a cough that was persistent in spells. Was this COVID-19 again, or the flu, or something else?
I felt like I felt in Italy several years ago so I did what a doctor’s assistant suggested back then. I took a bottle of water out of the fridge, sipped some, turned on the television set, curled up in my big chair, and fell asleep.
“Just baby yourself and wait things out,” she said. And that worked.
I don’t know how I got sick so we’ll just have to call it the autoimmune under-the-weather syndrome.
= = = = =
Find Out . . .
. . .what muffuletta means
to help you enjoy
Mardi Gras.
= = = = =
Clean Up Your Room
It’s never too soon to look around your bedroom for ways to make it more comfortable as age and disabilities creep into your life.
Dresser drawers can grow stubborn of the years, so you need to grease those skids or get new furniture. High shelves may become unreachable as grow older — and older. Getting around your bed, dresser, chair and whatever else you keep there without stubbing your toe is important because much or your life is spent shoeless in that room.
You might need extra space to get around it with a walker, wheelchair or some other walking aids such as canes and crutches. And you need space to store these devices without clogging up the area. It’s also important that the bedroom and closet doors are wide enough to enter comfortably with any of the mobility aids mentioned earlier. Check your bathroom door at the same time.
Thresholds should be level so you can cross them easily without tripping and not be barriers for walkers, wheelchairs and scooters. The bedroom door should open outward so you won’t block it should you fall.
What’s covering our floor is also important. Slippery material should be replaced. Rugs are decorative and comfortable but can be hazardous if not fastened to the floor. They can be tripped over as age reduces walking to a shuffle. Remove unnecessary furniture to make maneuvering much easier and remove furniture with corners that can be hazardous if you fall.
Make sure television, lamp, telephone, electrical and any other cords are not stuffed under a carpet or cluttering your pathways. Lighting is important in any room. A switch should be immediately inside the door and be accessible if standing up or seated in a wheelchair. Contrasting colors for the light switch, bedspreads and furniture will help you identify what’s what and help avoid confusion when you’re in your room.
= = = = =
After Every Mardi Gras . . .
. . . there’s an Ash Wednesday.
So enjoy Mardi Gras frolicking
that begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the dining room,
then
all Roman Catholics
get down to the 2nd floor theater
for Communion and ashes at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
= = = = =
Some people never get my name right
While there have been several requests about how to pronounce my first name, See-sill for Cecil is easy to remember.
It’s my last name that gives them the most trouble. In English, you just pronounce every letter – Scag-lee-owe-knee. In Italian, the “gl” is swallowed and the name comes out Scal-YO-knee. It works the same as gnocci — nyoki
Even after several attempts, most seem to prefer spelling my last name ending with an “i” – Scaglioni. My insurance company persisted for years to keep spelling it that way even though it was spelled correctly on the policy.
Many editors have had head-scratching sessions to make sure the by-line on my stories was spelled correctly. For many years, they preferred the shortened Cec Scaglione. One article in my Detroit paper appeared under the by-line of Ceg Scaglione until a sharp-eyed editor caught it and corrected it for the later editions.
Early in my career, I received a check from a Toronto magazine made out to Cec Scogbone. I managed to get it cashed at my bank so it didn’t become a problem.
I get a lot of correspondence with the “g” dropped – Scalione.
One of the credit-card companies I was enlisted with a while ago persisted in sending me a monthly statement addressed to Scaslione. They even came up once with Schelione.
A welfare agency I did a story about sent me a thank-you note addressed to Mr. Scageclone. A complimentary note for another story I wrote was addressed to Mr. Scheline. A Methodist bishop sent a letter to my boss lauding the effort of Mr. Ceg Scaliogre.
But I feel comfortable with my name, especially after having run across so many easy-to-maul names over the years.
It’s The Weekend . . .
. . . so take it EZ
and drop by to schmooz
around Sunday’s ice cream
+ + + +
Happiness is
not having to set the alarm clock.
= = = = =
Roman Festival Brightens
Umbrian Hillside
Why not drop around on Sunday, Riccardo suggested, “We’ll have a few artichokes.”
The retired Alitalia pilot and his wife, Mariolina, were our landlords when we arrived in the medieval central-Italy castle-town of Panicale and became our friends before we left. They opted out of big-city living in Rome and built a picture-book home in a hill-clinging olive grove just below the town’s centuries-old walls.
This fortress overlooks Lake Trasemino, the peninsula’s fourth largest lake, to the north; the manicured Tuscan countryside to the west, and the rolling Umbrian hills to the south and east.
As every hiker knows, you walk a hill at your own pace. That’s why no one hurries. Everything here is up hill. So it was about a 25-minute walk to Riccardo’s.
We knew we were in for something special as we approached the lane sloping into their farmyard. It was like breaking into an opera. About three dozen people wearing the full array of bright yellows, reds, greens – pick a color – were milling about chittering, chattering, and chanting in that Italian sing-song from which arias emerged. The accompaniment was provided by Riccardo’s tractor as it hauled dead olive branches to a pile resembling a titanic tumbleweed.
We became a member of the cast immediately because our chore was to pluck mint leaves off the plant stems and chop the stocks off the artichokes – shopping-cart-sized mounds of them. The leaves were minced with garlic and olive oil and the artichokes were given a good slam on the ground to soften them because the centers were opened up and crammed with the mint leave-garlic-oil mixture.
Through all this, you had to balance wine – almost everybody brings their own to determine whose is best for bragging rights – with oil-drenched bread, cheese, fresh fava beans, and more wine before the fire was ready.
The giant pile of shrubbery is burned and the ashes raked into a flat lava-like bed of coals. Then you had to tuck your artichoke into the coals to cook. Again, the operatic metaphor arose as each person displayed a distinctive dance pirouetting around the blistering mound. It takes about 45 minutes for the artichokes to cook in this manner, which gave everyone time to sample more wine with the sausages and pork barbecued on a fire fed with larger chunks of trimmed olive wood.
Then flowed the desserts, all of them home-made.
Name The Movie . . .
. . .you signed up for leaving Friday noon:
80 for Brady
or
A Man Named Otto
= = = =
Technology
has advanced exponentially over the centuries.
Just think,
it took only one byte out of the Apple
in Eden to change their world.
= = = =
Phoenix Embraces Desert Sprawl
Unlike its legendary-bird namesake, this sprawling metropolis ranked among the fastest-growing areas in the nation did not re-energize itself by rising out of its own ashes in the burning desert. More like that pink rabbit in the battery commercial, metropolitan Phoenix just grows and grows and keeps on growing, stretching its shopping centers and sub-divisions over and around every cactus and crevice in the Valley of the Sun.
To get our arms around this urbanized sprawl that has positioned attractions and accommodations as much as two hours apart, we traveled by car, bicycle, horse, light-rail and balloon. We launched our local exploration by visiting the Arizona Challenger Space Center. Visitors flow seamlessly through scenarios that include space missions complete with emergencies. Still in up-in-the-air mode, we headed to Deer Valley Airport on the northeastern edge of town for a mile-high 90-minute balloon ride to enhance our perspective of the local growth.
If such a diversion doesn’t sound appealing, you can take a quick drive to South Mountain Park where several viewpoints offer panoramic views of this vibrant valley. The best time to head there is the first two weeks of April when rain-fed blooms carpet the mountainside. For a closer look at those, we took advantage of a mountain-bike tour – others took a more leisurely hike – of Usery Park east of the city. That’s where we were told that one reason the giant saguaro cactus, which grows only in the Sonoran Desert that stretches from Arizona into Mexico, develops “arms” not to denote its age but to balance itself against the relentless wind.
To pick up more easy knowledge, about an hour away is a hands-on complex designed to keep anyone from 8 to 80 entertained for hours on end. While the Challenger facility transports you into learning mode without you realizing it, the Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix caters to the touch-and-feel gene in all of us.
There’s much more to this town than desert, of course, and prominent among the valley’s notable resorts is the Phoenician, which is tucked into a fold of local icon Saddleback Mountain with its eye-candy nighttime vistas of the twinkling town lights to the south. About an hour south in the Gila River Indian Community is the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort on the grounds of a casino – the largest of the more than half-dozen casinos in this metro area — built by the Pima and Maricopa tribes of Native Americans. A small parasol-protected riverboat putt-putts gamblers on a man-made creek between the hotel lobby and casino lobby. You can tour the facilities via horse-drawn wagon or range farther by heading out from the horseback riding stables.
Get Your Arms In Shape . . .
. . . for Bocce ball
Friday 11 a.m. poolside.
= = = =
What . . .
. . .do vegetarians count
to go to sleep?
Heads of lettuce?
Cucumbers?
Pumpkins?
= = = =
Only Your Computer Knows Virtual Money
It’s a tenet of investing: if you don’t understand the company or product and what it does, drop it and move on to something else. Which makes the Bitcoin story bizarre. Not only is it understood by a select group of financial high flyers, no one is really sure who started it.
Since the Bitcoin’s birth a dozen years ago, it’s travelled a bumpy road the stretches from a price of $400 five years ago to more than $60,000 about a year ago. Along the way it dropped to $4,000 in 2019 from $19,000 two years earlier.
The value of Bitcoin rises only if there’s a demand for it. If no one wants it, the value drops dramatically.
If Bitcoin sounds a bit scary, there are more than 6,500 other cryptocurrencies on the market.
If Bitcoin doesn’t catch our fancy, you can purchase Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Polkadot or Cardano among the thousands of other options.
None of these currencies involve printing presses. They exist only in computers – cyberspace.
There is a growing industry servicing the spending of Bitcoins after you buy them. They’re readily available at thousands of automated teller machines around the country.
And there’s a whole new language involved.
For example, Ethereum claims to be “a decentralized software platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party.
“The goal behind Ethereum is to create a decentralized suite of financial products that anyone in the world can freely access, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or faith.”
Did you get all that?
Transactions are conducted through a digital ledger called a blockchain. This involves a worldwide computer network that stores the virtual money in a digital wallet.
= = = =
Mature Life Features 