My mother's story continues

When I last posted about my mother’s slide down the slippery slope of memory loss, I believe that we had visited her doctor and she had finally gotten the true picture of the situation due to the fact that my mother did not know where her car was or what kind of car is was. Well, this started a chain of events, due to the current laws. Basically if you are aware of situation like this, it is your responsibility to report it. The department of motor vehicles notified her that for medical reasons, she would need to send in her license to drive. I was surprised when she actually did this. In return she received a new ID card from the state.

Now it gets interesting. Whenever asked, she called this her new license and therefore continued to drive, even though she was told repeatedly that she didn’t have a driver’s license and was driving illegally. Over a few months, we tried to give here the opportunity to reach this decision on her own. You see, I wanted her to have the dignity of doing this on her own and not to be forced into anything. But, she was never able to and to this day still doesn’t fully understand why this has occurred.

After a visit last week to bring her a few Christmas gifts, it became obvious to me that as long as her car sat in the driveway, she would use it. Then after speaking with her insurance agent about the possibility liability to us all, the decision was made. We went again this week and simply removed the car. Of course there was lots of screaming and anger, but at least now I know she won’t be driving.

In the meantime, I have learned about a profession that I can recommend to anyone that is in a similar situation as I am. It’s called a Geriatric Care Manager or Elder Care Manager. First of all I am an only child and this experience is totally new for me. I mean how do you deal with this? I don’t have a clue. I also live 4 hours away from my mother in a different state. How do I care for her remotely and know that I’m doing the right thing. Well, I found an Elder Care Manager that is also an RN and is just right for this. I mean, I honestly believe that her goal in life is ensure that all elderly people are ok.

Time will tell though. Hopefully this information might be of some help to someone. I hope so.

Instructional show on present wrapping..

Now that Christmas is over

Quoting from the email I received:
"Everyone should see this one,,, it's our heritage!! This is REAL history!!"

The Christmas Story - a new version :-)

The Christmas Story' (2010), as told by the children of St Paul's Church, Auckland, New Zealand. Merry Christmas to all....

What is your level of tolerance

Tempered Glass Breakage

As part of the new addition to our house, a bathroom was created. In it we put a shower with a tempered glass sliding door. The other day we learned a very hard lesson about the dangers (yes DANGERS) of this type of glass. After a shower the door literally exploded, leaving my wife covered with glass and blood. Fortunately she's ok. But, I want to post here some information for everyone that I found about this glass on Wikipedia.

The first article is called Spontaneous glass breakage.
The second article is called Safety and security window film.

I have an update here with a new article.

Shattered! The danger hanging in your bathroom.

If you have or know anyone with this type of glass in their house, please read this information.

Googles Doodles

You know all those drawings on Googles home page, they're called Doodles. Well, Google has put them on-line for your viewing. Some have really been wonderful..

Click here to see them.

Christmas display in Maryland

Got this today from my cousin. I quote it directly as I do not know the actual source of it.
Enjoy :-)

"This must be the ultimate Christmas yard decoration…
The site is near the Oak Creek Bridge on the St. Michael’s Road [MD 33].

The folks who own the property always have eye-catching displays celebrating various ‘holidays’ through the year… this year for Jületide they have certainly outdone themselves!"

Writers Block - finally defined

When your imaginary friends stop talking to you.

Improvement for TV viewers

Have you ever been watching TV and when the commercial comes on it gets LOUDER!!! It seems there is help on the horizon..

Read this articel TV companies have a year to pipe down loud ads to see about it.

Now, if they could only get some half decent programing on TV.. :-(

Swimming with the Dolphins

So, on our recent trip to Mexico we went to "swim" with the dolphins. It really worked out for us as we were the only two people in the tank. We, therefore had the dolphin and the trainer all to ourselves. It was Kewl to be this close to them.

One thing that I really don't understand is how you train a dolphin/fish to let someone stick their hand into it's mouth and rub it's tounge. I mean, I won't let you do that to me!!! By the way, their tounges are very smooth. I'd have thought they'd be rough like a cat, but not so..


And yes, if instructed to do so they WILL get you awful wet.. :-)


And they REALLY like their bellies rubbed..


Then we were asked to put our arms around the dolphin, hug it and lift it. Well, that went fine until it started to come out of the water. Do you have any idea how heavy a dolphin is?

Aloha from Mexico

We just got back from a week in Mexico. We were asked to join two friends at their timeshare in Playa Del Carmen, which is just south of Cancun. We had a great time, with the 80 degree weather and the beach. We even swam with the Dolphins and learned a lot about them. Here are a few of those tourist shots for you..

The Chapel Sistine

I received this from a friend of mine and I honestly don't know the source of it, but decided to share here for your viewing. The following is a direct quote from that email.

"Use your scroll wheel to zoom in as desired.

Now this is really something! This is what makes the internet so spectacular!
MOVE THE MOUSE AROUND AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
Here is an amazing bit of technology that you would never see in person, as you would NEVER be alone in the room. It is ALWAYS VERY CROWDED and of course you can't see Michelangelo's artwork close up as you can here. This is especially spectacular if you have a large high-definition screen! Too many details to view on an iPhone.

TO VIEW EVERY PART OF THE MICHELANGELO'S MASTERPIECE, JUST CLICK AND DRAG YOUR ARROW IN THE DIRECTION YOU WISH TO SEE. In the lower left, click on the plus(+) to move closer, on the minus(-) to move away. Choir is thrown in free. MOVE THE ARROW AND YOU WILL SEE EVERY PART OF THE CHAPEL.

This virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel is incredible. Apparently done by Villanova at the request of the Vatican.
Click here: Sistine Chapel"

Carrier IQ

Ever hear of this one before, I just ran across it. Big Brother is at it again...

Train Travel

Now, here's a new way to travel the rails. :-)

How to decend a mountain - FAST

Happy "Turkey" Day all

Story with a great ending

If you like classic mussle cars, this is a must watch.

Pit-stop of the unhuman kind

You never heard Kiss like this.....

A murmuration of starlings

Nice watch. Bet you didn't know what a murmuration was before. :-)

The Grilled Cheese Truck

WOW!!!

How much does the Internet weigh?

Nerds of the world, unite.. :-)

Life is like a cup of coffee

A friend sent this to me today and I thought you'd all enjoy it's message. Enjoy
Life is like Coffee.



To Life,

Mac Anderson
Founder, Simple Truths

The Adams Family

In keeping with TC's theme of Haloween music, I post this classic (or at least I think so). We're currently watching the series on Netflix. It's a hoot to watch them.. :-)

Leafs of a feather (or something like that)

I was playing around with some leaves this morning to see what I could come up with. Not bad huh, for a scanner and a leaf...

The first one is sitting on a little fuzzy puple blanket/conforter thing.

What is your number?

OK, there are now about 7 billion people on the planet. I'm number 2,421,838,631, what's yours?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

Loss of my husband stings like nothing else

An article appeared in our local newspaper the other day, which touched a soft stop in my heart. While, I'm not allowed to post it directly, here is a link to Loss of my husband stings like nothing else written by Reba Glunk. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Taj Mahal - Queen Bee

Uncle Ron posted a video that Taj Mahal was in, so I thought I'd post a good 'ole finger pick'n music for your enjoyment. :-)

Early Snow

Holy Crap, its only October 29th and look at this. Take that Ray!!



And here we are 4 hours later. We were going to a Haloween party tonight. I think we may be putting a fire in the fireplace and having a cocktail instead. :-)

Now here is the art of Bungee Jumping (almost)

How many ways are there to tie a scaf?

Now, here is a fashion statement...

Can you go home?

The old question, can you go home? In this case, it's in reference to the house that I was brought up in. When I lived there, it was an old farm of about 300 acres. (Just in case you don't know, per Wikipedia "The acre was approximately the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in one day."). The farm house, pictured below, was build in the mid 1700s and has remained in the family until it was sold in the mid 1980s. The new owners have restored it and I was invited to visit and take a tour. By the way, the house is for sale for $825,000us and only has about 1.25 acres left. What a shame.

So, can you go home after spending a childhood there. I really wanted to, but at the same time didn't. As it turns out, they have managed to maintain the charm of the old farmhouse, while adding modern touches. The old place really looks good and I am very happy that I was able to see it after all these years. Of course, when asked if I'd like to buy it.. my reply had something to do with my lack of $824,000. I assured her that the $1,000 I could handle. :-)

Playing with nature and/or numbers

The Mars Rover takes a trip

"Weird Al" Yankovic is at it again

Foundings of America

I just completed reading a book, that I'll call a Historical Novel. It changed my entire picture of the founding of America. It follows the discovery and growth of what, today, is called Manhattan Island. Of course included is Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River. Then it was New Netherlands.

I was interested in this book because I have discoverd through DNA that my family was from the Flatlands of New Netherlands. I haven't found a paper trail for this, but based on DNA, it looks good.

If you are interested in this type of book at all, I highly recommend it and it's an easy read.

LG Advertizing

Now here is a new concept, let's use an entire building for and ad. FYI, watch it fullscreen... Enjoy

Kim Komando on Windows 8

Thought you might like to see something on the new version of Windoz...
Click here to watch a video on Windows 8

Now HERE'S a round-up :-)

Remote controlled windows

Now, here is a great project. Personally I think I'd like the windows to close a little faster, but what the heck.. Very good idea though.

The Charleston

Remember this dance and can anyone still do it? Other than these folks of course :-)

Optical Illusion

Now here is an amazing illusion...

WOW a Truck vs. Mt Washington!!

If you like trucks or mountain climbing, or anything in between you're going to love this one...

Check out these little guies..

Now this is how to fight illegal parking!!!

And the crowing touch is

Well, the addition is moving right along. The contractor is working on sheetrocking and building the shower stall (tiling it) in the bathroom. But, I wanted to show you what now sits on top of our house in the center of the roof. Of course, it's appropriate because we live in a converted barn from the mid 1700s.

Now this is a water balloon fight!!!!

This is how to make a rug, in the good old U.S.A.

New senior computer users learning

Chuck you Farley!!!

WOW, we all need to watch this video which aired on the PBS "Need to Know" show, on Sunday Sept 4th. This is the story of a true Marine and an awful truth!

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

kitten vs TWO scary things

Thanks June for sending this to me... :-) VERY Scary indeed!!!

Vivaldi played by a 6-year-old violinist

Now here is a girl that has a future!!! :-) As my wife would say, You go girl!

Extremely long exposure: in the wintry Australian outback

These are wonderful time exposures. Check out the full MailOnline article and more of these wonderful pictures.

Not your typical Pastor in church

FEMA warning

** THIS JUST IN ** As the result of Hurricane Irene battering the East Coast, federal disaster officials have warned that Internet outages could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years. Residents are bracing themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact. FEMA has advised: “Be prepared. Write down possible topics to talk about in advance. Sports...the weather. Remember, a conversation is basically a series of Facebook updates strung together.

Kewl, huh? :-)

Have you seen the Air Swimmers

Smart meters, ever heard of them?

And now for something SERIOUS!!!

What is the fastest thing on the planet?

Japanese Beer Commercial

You have to watch this in high rez and full screen... I'll take a beer please...

Addition moves on

Well, we have windows and doors installed. The siding is going on as we speak...

The plumbing has been inspected and ok'd. Next will be the electrical inspection and then the framing inspection from the town. Then we can begin the interior, insulation, sheetrock, etc.

Caught!!!

It would appear that our two male cats like each other after all.. :-)

Watch an airplane being built..

Theo Jansen's Strandbeests

You've got to see these "creatures" :-) Thanks again Uncle Ron...

Japanese Tsunami Viewed From A Car

Go to YouTube to read the description of this one...

Watch, Enjoy and Relax

Now is this a great table or what?

And it's Kewl as well.. :-)

A lesson on the Internet

It's interesting how we tend to de-humanize the Internet these days. But, there are real people out there and this we can't forget..

The Rose

Well, I watched The Rose staring Bette Midler last night. Memories... It was many years ago that I last saw it and it is still so great and so sad. I had forgotten the influence that her her manager had on her and all that he was looking out for was himself and the ever loving dollar, at her expence.

Here's Bette singing the song.

II Volo - WOW...

Thanks again to Uncle Ron for sharing this with us...

The new addition

So, I haven't been blogging much lately. Here's the reason... We're putting an addition on our house and it's consuming all of my time. In the evening, I'm just plain tuckered out and need to rest for the next day.. :-(

Here is where it started. This metal shed had caved in this winter due to the heavy snow.. So I had to remove the shed. What fun that was in the sweltering heat, cutting it up with a sawsall (or however you spell that).



And then the tree had to come down, without hitting the house. Again, in the sweltering heat. :-(



So, this is where it is now. It's moving up. :-) Of course, notice how neat and clean our front yard is being kept during all this.



Oh and did I mention that we're have a new heating/cooling system put in the house, including all new ductwork. Such that the inside looks pretty much like the outside. My wife loves it, NOT.

3D Printing again.

Here's another, thanks to Uncle Ron. Now this is some technology....

Saving a Whale

Uncle Ron found this video of a humpback whale being saved. It's an amazing story, a must watch. Thanks Ron.

Thy Wiyos - Fun group

Now, here's some fun music and they're good at it. I really like them..

Solar Roads

Now, this is thinking outside the box...

Let's build roads out of glass

Declaration of Independence

On this Fourth of July, I present the reading of the Declaration. If you'd like to read more on this dcocument, visit Wikipedia.

Pics taken yesterday

I really enjoy taking pictures of flowers. Sometimes I get lucky and there's a happy visitor in the neightborhood, aka a bee..

Disappearing car

The Rose

Fellow blogger, TC, posted this. I have always loved it. Thanks TC and I hope you don't mind my posting it as well.

Porcelain Unicorn (a short film)

Some old pictures

I had taken these quite a while ago on 35mm slides and just for the heck of it feel like posting them. They're not all that great, but some time I'll get to posting some more taken over time.



I took a few of this building over time as it was falling down. Today, it's totally gone, but not forgotten in my mind anyway..

If you like the Blue Angels

Watch this one. I highly recommend that you put it into 1080 and watch it full screen. Watch them Blue Angels go...

Marcus Pinkus

Here's a fine little story about Marcus Pinkus the tailor...

Oil and Water

WOW, this is something that we all need to be aware of. I have deep fried turkeys, but certainly NOT a frozen one..

Hot Wheels sets a record

I'm not sure this is something that I'll be trying soon.. :-)

Great Monday morning music

Enjoy this music from around the world...

Korea's Got Talent

This is quite a story on life and here's a boy that looks like he's going to make it.

Ultra High Def - WOW

The Swingle Singers

I know i'm just sort of an old fart at times, but I still like to hear the artform of the human voice without the loud background music drowing it out.
Enjoy.

Got Milk?

This is sort of guy bashing, but in a weird sort of way I can follow his logic...

*Buying Milk*

A wife says to her husband, "Could you please go to the Store for me and buy a carton of milk. And if they have eggs, get six."

A short time later the husband comes back with six cartons of milk. The wife asks, "Why the heck did you buy six cartons of milk?"
"They had eggs".

The Christmas Gift

Ah! The perfect Christmas Gift for fellow blogger Eolake.. :-)

For all those photography buffs!!

Now this is a marriage proposal!!!

In case you missed Endeavour's final launch

Sunday afternoon walk

Holly Crap, this is CRAZY!!!!

Photographer goes 60,000 miles for the Milky Way

This is a 5,000 Megapixel picture of the Milky Way. Very impressive indeed..

Read the article on it here.

Worlds largest model airport

Talking Animals

This poor dog!!!



And then there's the cat!!!

More young musicians - they're good...

Can you balance this well?

How young can you learn to play the Guitar?

Wonderland by Train

I think we've seen this before, but it's still great to look at. Thanks Judy.

Happy Easter all :-)

Your daily chuckle/groan.

Happy Easter!
A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately the rabbit jumps right in front of the car.

The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit is the Easter Bunny, and he is DEAD .

The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees a man crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of the car and asks the man what's wrong.

"I feel terrible,"! he explains, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny with my car and KILLED HIM."

The blonde says,"Don't worry." She runs to her car and pulls out a spray can. She walks over to the limp, dead Easter Bunny, bends down, and sprays the contents onto him.

The Easter Bunny jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them and hops off down the road.

Ten feet away he stops, turns around and waves again, he hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again and again and again, until he hops out of sight.

The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and demands, "What is in that can? What did you spray on the Easter Bunny?"

The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label.

It says..




(Are you ready for this?)

(Are you sure?)

(You know you're gonna be sorry)

(Last chance)


(OK, here it is)


It says, "Hair Spray Restores life to dead hair, and adds permanent wave."

Happy Easter!!!

It's all in how you say it....

For Cat and Dolphin lovers

Now this is a Great Photography prank!!

Do you like Pixar movies?

Glider in the mountains

This you have to watch in HD and full screen. Looks like you need to view it on YouTube to get the HD. To do this, simply click on the YouTube logo at the bottom right corner.

Saw a women in half

We've all seen this one right? But, have you seen it done by putting her in a clear glass box?

Do you like the Beatles

In case you missed the Google April Fools Day joke

Dogs at the Diner

Thanks to Uncle Ron for this one... For the dog lover in you.. :-)

A likkle doctor joke

Eolake, I hope you don't mind my copying this. But, it's too good to pass up.

A doctor was sitting in the living room of his home reading the paper one weekend day when his four-year-old son walked in. The man had left a few of his instruments on the couch. The child picked up his stethoscope and was examining it.

The man put down the paper and watched his son with much interest. "Look at that!" he thought to himself. "He wants to follow in my footsteps!"

The child put the stethoscope around his neck. "Look at that little doctor!" the man thought, beaming with pride and thinking whatever a child pretends to be, that's what he'll often grow up to be.

The child held the device to his mouth and spoke into it. "Welcome to McDonald's," he announced. "May I take your order?"

Sorry for my absence (not my fault though)

Maybe you've noticed that I haven't been posting lately. Of course this is sort of egotistical of me I guess, assumeing that there is anyone interested in reading my thoughts, etc... :-)

Oh well. So onto the excuse.. I have recently updated my web browser from Internet Explorer version 8 to version 9 and I didn't really connect the dots as to why I'm all of a sudden unable to post messages to the blog. I did some research today and have discovered that this is a problem a lot of people are having.

So you see, it really isn't my fault as I was just trying to stay up to date. Fortunately, I have more than one computer in the house and I had only updated the one. So, using this one I can again do my happy stuff.

Glad to be back.. :-)

Bet you'll watch this more than once....

Not your typical Father/Daughter wedding dance

Great Fun!!!

What if the Beatles were Irish?

Common Sense has passed away.

I received this as an e-mail this morning. I can't vouce for it's truth and accuracy, but the message is very clear...

An Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true


Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Celebrate Pi day - It's today!

Did you know that today is National Pi Day, which is a celebration of mathematical Pi. You can even buy Pi stuff here.

And now you can listen to Pi being played musically. Great stuff!!

Flying house in real life

Did you see the movie, UP? Well, if you missed it... here you go :-)

A soldier finally comes home

Here is a very touching story from the Vietnam era to now.

If you like fiddlin' music!

Horsetail Fall in Yosemite - Wonderful

The video tells the entire story, here. I can't add anything more. Enjoy

Clark Little Photographer

I received an email this morning from a friend that contained some pictures taken by a photographer, Clark Little. They are absolutely amazing shots. I recommend that you visit his web site Clark Little Photography

A Day Made of Glass

So, what do you think? Is this an ad for Corning or a look into our future?

Oh, if animals could talk :-)

Did you ever find a "Lost Thing"?

Abbott and Costello baseball skit

If you like these guys, this has got to be one of their funniest routines.. Enjoy!!

IBM's Watson plays Jeopardy

Has anyone been watching Jeopardy on ABC lately, starting on Monday (Feb 14) and running through this evening (Feb 16)? While I don't normally watch this show, they are doing a special game pitting the two greats, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, at the game against IBM's Watson Computer.

It is absolutley facinating, after watching the PBS show Nova, which covered the technology behind Watson. Actually the computer seems to be winning. Of course it does come up with some "interesting" answers at times :-)

To have a computer understand the question, which is actually the answer, and then turn around and state the question is astonding. One thing that's interesting, when it wages money it comes up with exact dollar amounts. People will say $400, $500, or $1000, etc. But, watson on his last wager stated $473. Funny...but exact.

Kitten in slow motion

Long live the harmonica

Wow, you have got to check this out. I mean who would think that they'd ever hear A harmonica in Carnegie Hall.

Boy, can she dance :-)

Can you fly paper planes from Space?

As it turns out, yes you can...

Senior moments

Lately, I've been posting about my experiences with my mother's aging. But, here is a humorous side of the situation, if there can be one. Enjoy :-)

Google Art Project

Have you ever wanted to view art museums, but could not travel there. Well Google has created it's Art Project. Here is a quote from the site; "Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces."

Enjoy your travels to the Art Project

How to learn to Skate :-)

Good Morning Mr Snowman

Well, we woke up to another round of snow here in the sunny northeast of the US of A. :-) At least the guy behind the snowplow is making a living this year. Believe it or not, there are two cars parked here.

Dan Caro

I was recently given a book, thanks Bec, that I just finished reading. If you want to read an very inspirational book, I highly recommend this one. It's the story of his being severely burned at the age of two and his journey to become a professional drummer as well as inspirational speaker.

Here is the front cover of the book and then it's followed by a short youtube video of his playing the drums. Please notice in his picture that he doesn't have any hands!!

Artist get 15 years...

"Chicago artist's protest backfires as he faces 15 years in jail... because he recorded his own arrest on video"

Check out this article at MailOnline. There's a youtube video at the bottom. Unbelievable...

New approach to Step or Tabletop dancing...

Tyler Bradt Highest waterfall in a kayak

View it in 1080p and full screen if you can...

Human Planet - Web exclusive series trailer - BBC One

If you can, view this at 1080p in full screen. It's wonderful..

Interactive view of Nimmo Bay in British Columbia

Check this helicopter ride out. Use your mouse to view left, right, up or down. It's really nice.

It's an Interactive 360° Video View From A Helicopter.

Racing fans, this is how to cook a hot dog...

The best of AirVenture Oshkosh

If you like airplanes, check this out. It's really best viewed at 1080p HD.

NASA - The Frontier Is Everywhere

With some of the writings from Carl Sagan

An aging parent

On a recent post I spoke of having to deal with an aging elderly parent and I’ve decided to post an occasional update here so as to share the journey as it occurs. Maybe it’ll be of some help to someone else or maybe someone will be able to offer me some suggestions. Or maybe it’s just an exercise in futility. Who knows?

So, as I have stated on a prior post my mother is aging and is traveling down that path of slowly losing her memory. Oh, it’s not bad enough that she can‘t function and recognize people or events. And, if you had a visit with her you’d most likely not see anything wrong. But, I’ve had the chance to observe her over time and therefore I think that I understand the true situation. Recently a cousin visited her for an afternoon and reported that she was just fine and was just being her normal self. Unfortunately my mother is very good at playing this game or covering up what is really taking place. You see, in a normal conversation there is an exchange of information or ideas between the two people talking. Each injects new thoughts or subjects. My mother has learned, somehow, to avoid adding her side of this exchange or interaction. She’ll pick up on what the other person says and expand on that and carry on the conversation as if she actually knows what she’s talking about and that she has added new stuff. But, in reality she doesn’t remember anything. I’m probably not explaining myself correctly, but I have observed this multiple times. It’s really fascinating how she’s able to do this.

She’s very capable of doing her normal daily routine of things, get up, bath, go for coffee and a walk, etc. But, if you throw anything out of that normal activity, it gets a little hairy. Here’s an example of something that occurred recently. As you know I live about 4 hours away from her and therefore can’t be there in a minutes’ notice to see what is or is not being done. I discovered, prior to Christmas that a play of Dickens, A Christmas Carol was being put on for seniors in her town at a location that she’s very familiar with. All she needed to do was to go and pick up the free tickets. I called her and she indicated that she’d really like to do this and will go and get them later that day with her good friend. I called her the next day to confirm that she had gotten them. She had no memory of it. But, she did say that she’d go and get them that day. I, again, called on the next day and asked if she had gone to get the tickets. She said that no she hadn’t, but will today. Then she asked me, “Tell me again, what these tickets are for”.

That example is what I’m referring to about interjecting something out of the normal routine. If it’s not written down, it isn’t there and sometimes that doesn’t even help. She may not read the note.

And now there are money issues. There have been withdrawals that aren’t remembered and who knows where the money is. There are checks that have been cashed but, no accounting of where that money went.

Unfortunately, I’m an only child and have to do this alone. Yes, my wife is supportive on it, but it is my mother. It’s just tough and I feel very alone and have no real help I mean, how do you tell your mother that she needs to do this and that? How do you transfer her assets in order to protect them? How do you tell her that she needs to move to an assisted living facility? How do you take away her individuality and independence? How do you deal with taxes across state lines? How do you tell her that her house is dirty? How do you tell her that her clothes are dirty? How do you help when she refuses to accept it?

Thanks for listening.

Crap and it's still snowing

Ever hear of the song "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"? And the weather says we may get another 3" to 7" today. OK now, let's all think SPRING!!!

What song do you love

TC, put this on her blog lately "Do you have a favorite? Tell me which one and why". She was making reference to a song, which we've been talking about on her blog I Want to Know What Love Is.

So, below you'll find two versions of a song that beings back wonderful memories of a summer long gone by. I was at a special place during that summer by a pond where I lost my virginity.

We need to stop having kids!!

Yellow in a picture

It was snowing last night and I went outside and took the picture below, which is totally untouched up other than the size. Please don't worry about the focus, etc as it was handheld and dark. My question is this, where did the yellow tinge come from. What I was looking at was white snow. Do you think there's some reaction between the sensor in my camera and that street light? This has happened before and I've wondered about it and how you correct it. Any thoughts?

National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010

A friend (thanks Kenny) just sent me a link to The Boston Globes
The Big Picture site. There are really some amaxing photos here. Below is one image from that site.

Click on the picture for a larger image.

A big dummy

Thanks to Eolake...

Interesting nudity study

Here's an interesting series of four videos on a study done on the subject on nudity in human beings. It's very interesting, I think. By the way, the videos do contain nudity so if you'd rather not see that, please don't watch them. For this reason I didn't embed the videos and give you the choice to follow the link below and see them or not.

Thanks to Letter writer Anthony in Eolakes newsletter for finding this.

Enjoy or Not..


Horizon: What's the problem with nudity?

Help my Blackberry is broken.....

The Devil's Arithmetic

I watched a movie last night that I had rented from Netflix. If you are interested in seeing the Holocaust from a women's perspective, I highly recommend it. Below is the description as quoted from Netflix.

"Jewish-American teen Hannah Stern (Kirsten Dunst) isn't much interested in her family's religious tradition. But her blasé attitude changes radically when she's suddenly transported back to a 1941 Nazi concentration camp. There, Hannah learns firsthand the horrors of the holocaust and the price her family and other Jews paid because of their heritage. Brittany Murphy, Louise Fletcher and Mimi Rogers co-star in director Donna Deitch's film."

Annoyed wife!

The wife and I were at home watching TV.

I had the remote and was switching back and forth between a fishing channel and the porn channel.

She became more and more annoyed and finally said: "For God's sake! Leave it on the porn channel! You already know how to fish!"

Text Messaging

I recently posted a bumper sticker on cell phone use. It was kind of funny. This video is NOT. Please share this with everyone that you know.

White Deer

I didn't know that such a variation of deer as a white deer actually existed. Watch this video about these deer in Wisconsin.

Greaqt bumper sticker

I saw a great bumper sticker on a car today..

"Do you think you'd be able to drive better if I shoved that cell phone up your ass?"

The Sensuous Dirty Old Man

I read about this book from a fellow blogger (thanks Eolake) and knew that I had to read it. Well, I found it on Amazon and convinced my wife that I should have a copy of it for Christmas. I have now learned so much that I didn't know about being a Dirty Old Man. It's just great and very funny along the way. I highly recommend it if you want to learn Dr. A's secrets. :-)