Thoughts on being a grown up.....

As I have aged, I realized that while others say I never figured out what I want to do when I am a "grown-up" - at now almost 68 I finally decided what to do when I am a grown up. My decision is that I do not ever have to make that decision...

I never have to decide. Why pick one thing when there is so much to do that expands our minds?

Can you start a new career?
Can you turn a fun hobby into a money maker?
Can you move to a new location where you do not know anyone?
Can you ski? travel? bicycle? etc?

The answer to all these questions is: SURE! Why not?

We use so little of our minds that there is lots of space left for all manner of new stuff..

So go ahead and span into the next stages of your life !

Why does the USA treat it's elderly like this?

How terrible - but how American.

Corporate bottom lines take precedence over care for the least able to care for themselves - children and the elderly! MONEY is the prime mover in our country thee days....and id you are not among the millionaires - forget getting help! You just don't count...well except for the money the corporations can make off you...

And ask yourself - why do we continue to allow this?

From the New York Times

September 23, 2007
More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes
By CHARLES DUHIGG

Habana Health Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002.

The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes.

Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court. Regulators repeatedly warned the home that staff levels were below mandatory minimums. When regulators visited, they found malfunctioning fire doors, unhygienic kitchens and a resident using a leg brace that was broken.

“They’ve created a hellhole,” said Vivian Hewitt, who sued Habana in 2004 when her mother died after a large bedsore became infected by feces.

Habana is one of thousands of nursing homes across the nation that large Wall Street investment companies have bought or agreed to acquire in recent years.

Those investors include prominent private equity firms like Warburg Pincus and the Carlyle Group, better known for buying companies like Dunkin’ Donuts.

As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains.

But by many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.

Full article HERE

My art group is growing older better too : - )

My art group - ORA Northwest Jewish Artists is celebrating year 2 with an elegant show and sale

Come see our healthy aging as artists while listening to headline musicians.

You can come, walk around, sit, listen to music, and chat one-on-one with the artists [all women]

Food will also be available.

Save the date: October 28 from 9 AM to 3 PM

Neveh Shalom
2900 SW Peaceful Lane
Portland, Oregon

Musicians are Stephanie Schneiderman Justin Jude and George Fendel....

More info as date gets closer but here is our website for you to look at until then : -)
http://www.northwestjewishartists.org/

Talking about weight

I have had people in my office this week - doing the diet assessment I have mentioned here. Easy for them as they live near my office - but it is doable on the phone!

Why do I keep harping on weight? Because no matter how otherwise healthy you think you are - you are at risk if you are overweight - and if you already have some health issues - being overweight worsens them.

Besides we have become an overweight culture...the kids as well as the grown ups. We no longer eat good food and we eat too much of the food we do have. Our food is less nutritious and the additives are making us fat!

I just read that the newer bigger foods - the bigger tomatoes etc. are less nutritious

A report issued this week examined several recent studies by food scientists, nutritionists, growers and
plant breeders. It found clear evidence that as the produce we eat gets larger, its vitamins, minerals and
beneficial chemical compounds significantly diminish, as do taste and aroma.
Growing bigger tomatoes and ears of corn leads to a bigger yield for the producer, but the trade-off is
the lower nutritional value.

Full article HERE

So in our rush to produce more food per acre - we are worsening the nutritional value of the food produced.

But if you have read some of my earlier posts, the soil is so depleted today that even without the super sized produce - the food is less nutritious than it was when we were kids.

So what do we do?

We need to supplement our diets, eat less but of the right foods for our metabolism and exercise more!

Not an easy path for many - but it leads to a good place////

more info? see on the right hand column

Fall comes soon; then Winter; then 2008!

My last post was about a hot few days - but now we are having late Summer, early Fall weather so I am doing this pre-New Year post.


Wouldn't it be great if this coming January 1 you did not feel the need to make the resolution to lose weight in 2008?

Well - start getting lean now and by January - well - you can make other resolutions and leave the weight issue behind in 2007.

Most diets do not work - you need information about YOU and YOUR metabolism and then eat for YOU and if you choose, add products that help get you lean - lean is good....

You can start now and feel better this coming New Year. Get a friend to work this with you...It will be good for you, your friend, your stress level and your overall health!

If you'd like more information - click on the "Request Information" button in the right hand column.

It's hot out there!

Well - we finally got a real week of summer - 80's and 90's and lots of sunshine...but it's mid September....oh well...





Dog has taken to the shade under my hammock - a good idea - he gets a breeze and double shade [hammock and upper deck.]




Meanwhile the cat has taken over the dog's usual outdoor bed by the front gate.

Stress and friends

Chatting with your friends is a good way to reduce stress. It's fun, you often smile, and having and talking to friends is good for whatever most ails you...including stress.

Go out for coffee [that's my thing] or a spot of tea, or a beer or glass of wine.

Socializing is good...food is good...wine is good.. people is good [sic :-)]

I work at home and I tend to work alone....so when I can, I invite a friend over for wine or a meal - or I accept such an invitation..and we are lucky in our neighborhood to have an adult hang-out... food, coffee, art gallery and a view! And all I have to do is walk up the ramp.

But it's closed on Monday and Tuesday and so on those days - sigh...like today..I get more work done [lol]

Laughing your way out of stress

Being able to laugh - at the world, at yourself or at something funny is good for reducing stress.

So I decided that instead of deleting the spam/scams that come to my email boxes [ yes have a few] I would read them and laugh. It worked- I feel better all ready.

In the last week I have been told I won major amounts of money from all manner of International Corporations....but I have to tell the emailer who I am and where I live and bank, and some other personal info.

Have you even won a prize? You usually just get the prize as the giver knows who yo are most of the time..and with lotteries, you identify yourself when you pick it up. I have never known anyone asked to give banking and personal details.

And the numbers of people who are dying within days - and yet have the strength to keep emailing me from deathbeds in hospitals...it amazes me how they can be so generous and so active as they lay dying.

Then the we-can-present-you-as-an-heir schemes. This one is very funny to me as I was an heir, a real heir, to an unknown relative and my cousins and I had to go through legal and genealogical systems to prove who we were, that we were related to the deceased and that no other persons closer in lineage to the deceased still was alive.

It took years to settle the account and it cost us a not so minor percentage of the proceeds...and still we had to wait out a statute of limitations for any unknowns to appear....

So when someone tells me they can easily put my name out there as an heir - I LAUGH! and I feel so good...

But one new scam is the funniest yet.....it tells me that the United Nations or some other known body, has developed a SCAM fund....yup - the scam fund allegedly pays people who have been scammed!

All you need do is provide name address bag info etc. You need not even show proof you were scammed :-)

So read these scams and LAUGH...then DELETE - you will feel relief of stress

More recalls for toys

If you bought any Mattel toys lately - here is information on yet another recall of toys form china


The latest recall involves three Fisher-Price toy models and eight Barbie brand playsets. No Barbie dolls were included.

Mattel instructs people to go to its Web site (click HERE) to establish whether they own an affected toy. After they fill out a form and send back the affected parts, Mattel will send them replacement and bonus parts.

Welcome to September

Where did August go?

Seems it was just early August and now it's early September....

For those of us who think of September as the start of a year [for whatever your reason] , let's make a new new year resolution.

This year I will exercise more, I will eat well and I will do fun things!

Starting your year now will enable you to be in great shape when that "other" year starts : - )