3374 How much does it cost?

to support a single adult who isn't going to college?

There was another scare story in USA Today last week about rising costs of college.

"For academic year 2006-07, the average cost of tuition, room and board at a public university was $12,796; for a private school, the total averaged $30,367."

Just two years ago the same paper reported the good news that rising costs were making more students eligible for government aid!

So, let's take the college experience out of the equation. How much does it cost you in real 2007 dollars if your young adult didn't go to college but you were shelling out for the apartment, utilities, transportation and parking, food, clothes, leisure activities, cable, computer, broad band, and insurance?

3373 Americans and health care

Something to consider when thinking about demands for government health care. This writer takes a slightly different direction.

"There’s ample evidence that Americans don’t care very much about their health. They grouse about copayments at the doctor’s office or pharmacy and may leave an office in high dudgeon if expected to pay a reasonable bill not "covered" by their insurance. They often refuse to buy medical insurance even if they can afford it. Aside from a subpopulation of health fanatics, many Americans constantly defy the grandmotherly advice* that is the proven basis for effective health maintenance. They smoke, drink, take drugs, engage in casual sex, and/or overeat. They do not exercise, eat their vegetables, or conscientiously wash their hands. They may be willing to take lots of pills, but appear to be allergic to anything that interferes with instant gratification or requires self-discipline."

*Like mine at this blog, which is--eat less, move more; eat all the colors; don't smoke.

from Your money and your life.

Monday Memories--What Shirley told Ann

It's hard for me to resist a used book sale at the public library, a used book store like the fabulous Acorn down on Fifth Avenue in Grandview, or a box of giveaways at the church library (picked up 4 after church yesterday). About a month ago I was paging through a $1.00 hard cover book at the Friends of the Library book sale that had the slight odor of basement storage. I don't recall the title, but it was an early 20th century imprint, nearly 100 years old. A fragile, yellowed 4" x 5" note from Shirley to Ann fell out. The handwriting reminded me of my grandfather's when he used pencil, although he had a beautiful calligraphic style when using pen. There were no misspelled words; the apostrophes, commas and hyphens were all correctly placed. I know I've heard this before--maybe in a sermon--or read it on the internet. But here's what Shirley told Ann.

Ann--Did you know about the minister that told a certain man that if he didn't stop flirting with another man's wife, he would tell who he was to the whole congregation.

The next Sunday he told the congregation that the man whom he mentioned should put a $5 bill in the collection and he wouldn't tell. Well, they took up the collection and found 15 $5 bills and two ones with a note attached that said he would pay the rest pay day.

Shirley

View More Monday Memories Participants
My visitors and those I'll visit this week are:Anna, Becki, Chelle, Chelle Y., Cozy Reader, Debbie, Friday's Child, Gracey, Irish Church Lady, Janene, Janene in Ohio, Jen, Katia, Lady Bug, Lazy Daisy, Ma, Mrs. Lifecruiser, Melli, Michelle, Paul, Susan, Viamarie.

The nice men in the ambulance

Can you imagine her horror as she listens to her voice mail from her aged mother who tells her she had a fall, but the nice men in the ambulance have transported her, and then doesn't say where? This nurse practitioner brings you into the story of eldercare. . . a public health nurse, a family nurse practitioner, and an academic who taught family and community theory but learned she was completely unprepared to be a caregiver.

"I finally located her and was told that no information could be given as she had not yet signed a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) form. This was the first of many frustrations with our healthcare system. I finally succeeded in reaching a nurse at that hospital who was known by a member of our family. She told me that radiology studies revealed a right hip fracture and 2 pelvic fractures: thus began our family's journey through the intricate web known as elder care in America, a journey with many peaks and valleys, and one that resulted in the reshaping of our family structure in ways I could never have foreseen."

And 5 months down the road and through the thicket of various mishaps,

"When discharge time came, there was no placement planned, and I found mother fully dressed and waiting for me with the IV still running. There were no wheelchairs available for transport, no person available to get her to the car, and no paperwork completed. I found a wheelchair and transported her myself. We made quite a picture -- mother in her wheelchair holding on to her overnight case and purse with me pushing from behind with her walker over one shoulder and my briefcase and purse over the other. Not one person offered to help us as we made our way to the hospital lobby."

She gives some rather gloomy statistics and predictions, given the age of the baby boomer generation. However, one thing bothered me a bit--although not as bad as the article I posted about the clueless doctor and his mother in December, this nurse puts her own patients above her mother's care at a critical time. She also had access to an amazing array of top notch services, yet says there needs to be more. Would a waitress or school teacher put her job ahead of her mother? But I digress. It is a very moving article and her mother is truly amazing, but if you have a frail or elderly parent, YOU NEED TO READ THIS, just to be prepared.

"The Cycle of Relocation: One Family's Experience With Elder Care" story at Medscape.com [free site, but may require registration--it's rather lengthy, so click on printer version even if you don't print, which will make scrolling much easier

eldercare

3370 Let's rethink baning DDT

It's not really worth killing all these people, is it? For you folks counting bodies in Iraq, I remind you that these mothers and children are just as dead.

Q. How many acute attacks of malaria are there each year?

A. There are up to 500 million estimated attacks of malaria and 1 million deaths due to malaria each year.

Science Trivia from Scientific American.

3369 Boxer's no champion for women

A commenter and story reported over at Amy's blog wrote:

"OK, Rice has no children serving in the military because she has no children. But Boxer also mentioned she has neither children nor grandchildren in the military. Therefore, why the hell does she get to serve Foreign Relations?"

Another news maven called Boxer's comment a giant step backward for feminists. It's the Kerry foot-in-mouth, garden variety, Democrat, double standard.

3368 The public library as lyceum

In the 19th century, before the era of a tax supported, public library there were lyceums--public lectures, concerts and entertainment. The content of the speeches and debates were often then republished in the local papers. When I was doing research on the writing of 19th century women in agricultural publications, it was interesting to follow their activities on the lyceum circuit. Then came the Chautauqua movement--both the permanent that still exist in places like Lakeside, OH, Bay View, MI, and Chautauqua, NY, and the traveling ones which used to stop for a week or so in towns as small as Franklin Grove, IL and perform plays, operas, and provide political debates. The Chautauqua movement also published material and offered home study courses, and award certificates of completion. The largest continuing education movement in the United States was provided by the federal government through agricultural and home extension.

Although towns had libraries as our population moved westward, they were private, usually maintained and paid for by the local women's clubs, which also offered their members educational events, debates, and social gatherings. Some cities had benevolent book collecting patrons who made their learning available to the general public, but they weren't "public libraries" as we know them. When my parents were children they lived on farms in two different counties, both close to Dixon, IL. People who lived outside Dixon could pay a fee and use the library. It is still that way in many townships today that don't have libraries. One of the wealthiest communities in Arizona has no library--they pay a fee to use the one in the next suburb because it is much cheaper that way and doesn't bring outsiders into their gated communities. It is pay-to-play because you aren't within the taxing district.

The public library I used as a child was established about 1931--my mother's library card was #14 because she was a college student in that town at the time. I worked there when I was in high school, and hung out there with my friends in elementary school because there was no place else to go.

My knowledge of the time line is fuzzy here (I didn't have a course in library history), but in the 20th century public libraries decided to revisit the lyceum concept so popular in the 19th century. (Some also provide day care for after school children and circulate garden tools and paintings and sculpture for your home--a bit far afield even for the lyceum concept.) Today's public librarians see themselves as educators and social workers on a mission to improve the lives of their patrons instead of "just" adjuncts to the educational system. I think this is wasteful overlap. Here's what I posted at a library discussion today:

"Those of you who work in public libraries think I don't understand the educational mission of the public library. Actually, I do. I just don't agree with it. Calling me uninformed or anti-library won't change my mind. I'm a big user and fan of my local public library, but I also depend on Ohiolink because much of my taste and research go beyond what is available, such as my pick-up yesterday from Ashland University, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist by Norman L. Geisler. It really belongs in our PL, but I'm so tired of fighting with them over their selection policies I just drive over to OSU and pick up my religious and political titles there. You wonder why you lose readers to Amazon or Barnes and Noble? My library's web site doesn't even have a slot to plug in a suggestion for purchase. But I digress.

Instead of teaching library patrons how to cook, quilt, dance, play guitar and scrapbook, I am a strong believer in libraries offering bibliographic instruction and user education both by genre, topic and format, be it digital or paper. I think libraries should teach about preservation, copyright, business sources and investment tools, how to find complex sources locally and statewide, tracking down local history sources, and assist the community businesses, churches, foundations and schools in developing their own archives. I think the meeting rooms in the building should be available to community groups who may or may not be using library materials.

I think there should be more staff (friendly and outgoing) on the floor to help patrons maneuver the increasingly complex on-line catalog and purchased packages from suppliers who know digitizing but diddly about how people learn and remember. Waiting for patrons to come to a desk of scowling or chatting staff just doesn't cut it in my book. I think library staff should be encouraged to go out into the community and give presentations, I think they should write book reviews for the local papers, and organize reading groups. I think they should ask the public if they are doing their job and what parts of the collection are not meeting community standards.

As I've said many times, if libraries don't do their job, who will?"

3367 Do you start your meetings on time?

The thought occurred to me this week I have probably wasted a month of my life waiting for meetings to start. If the meeting is at 10 a.m., I'm usually there at 9:55, hanging up my coat, picking out a chair, opening my notebook and settling in. Around 10:10, the chair says something like, "Well, we'll just wait another minute or two." I look around at the other 7 or 8 and think, "Don't we count?" One by one, the stragglers wander in, bustling, hustling and whispering. Finally, about 10:20, we're on our way.

YOU can put a stop to this by just starting on time. Enabling procrastinators does not cure them. They will be late the next time, too. Changing the start time to 10:15 just means they will arrive at 10:30. Changing the day won't work either. They will have as many conflicts for Tuesday as they had for Wednesday.

Starting on time may not change them either, but isn't it worth a try?

time management
meetings
procrastination

3366 Investing in real estate

David Crook who writes for the Wall Street Journal has a new book, Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guide Book, which came out in December. The WSJ has its own convoluted system on when to insert a hyphen, but I'm not playing along. Anyway, he had an article in the WSJ on Jan. 10 that really knocked my socks off (can't stop using cliches since it was the assignment for Poetry Thursday).

Using two columns to illustrate hypothetical investments in two houses both costing $200,000 in 1990 with a $160,000 mortgage, identical improvements (kitchen remodeling, new roof, and $150,000 addition) and both refinanced 3 times to lower rates, and both sold for $650,000 in 2006, he shows column one with a loss of $86,424 and column two with a gain of $403,397. Column one was the owner-occupied home with the usual deductions and expenses, and column two was a rental with the usual deductions, expenses and income.

It was eye opening to see that the fabulous gains people think they make on their homes probably aren't. Even if you play the devil's advocate and deduct what the owner of the rental would pay in rent for a place to live for 15 years while he rented out his own property, column 2 house is still ahead.

I don't know if this particular example is in the book, or if Crook wrote it specifically for the paper, but his writing is clear and well paced. This would be a good title to recommend to your library.

3365 What puzzles me about libraries

Keep in mind that I was never trained to be a librarian in a public library (there are four types--academic, public, government and private/special/business). I didn't receive the official indoctrination, and never joined the American Library Association. However, I use the library maybe twice a week, and get great benefit from it.

What I've never understood in all my years of using a public library is why they are adjunct lyceums, chautauquas, amusement parks and community centers for meetings. It's not like our community has no outlet or opportunity for activities. Our suburb (and others in the Columbus area) has a "Life Long Learning" program, tax supported through the city, and federal grants, I believe. These classes meet in a variety of community buildings from churches, to fraternal halls and public schools. You can take accounting, furniture refinishing or Swahili--there's a huge variety. Various universities and colleges in the area also offer continuing education or credit for college courses. The local churches also offer both religious and non-religious programing on everything from politics to art to financial management, plus personal growth classes and lectures on marriage and parenting. The Columbus Museum offers classes as do local environmental and history societies. There are community art groups all over the place--the Worthington Art League, Dublin Community Arts Council, etc. who bring in speakers and programs. The mega-lumber sites like Lowe's and Home Depot offer home maintenance and interior decorating classes. The whole foods stores teach cooking and health classes. The local hospitals and medical networks send out quarterly announcements about their classes on everything from cancer to coping with stress. Every imaginable sport training and league is offered through the community programs, or you can go to a local sports mega-store and climb their indoor mountain. Our senior centers located throughout Columbus offer a wide variety of lectures, how-to-classes, and recreational opportunities.

So why is the public library offering writing classes, or music lectures, or quilting discussions, or this noisy gathering for middle schoolers:

The library “turns it up to 11” as we invite guitar heroes of all ages to join us in our first all-new videogame themed events. Play the Playstation 2 versions of Guitar Heroes 1 and 2 on our giant 12-foot screen as we transform our Theater into a Virtual Rock Venue, complete with sound system and lights. Sign up is limited to 50 and we expect to be “sold out.” We’ll provide snacks and everything needed to play. Feel free to bring in your own custom Guitar Heroes controllers.
UAPL program for winter

There may have been a time long ago--maybe during the Great Depression--when people didn't have much to do in their leisure time. But those days are gone.

I think it is time to privatize the libraries. They've lost their mission and are searching for something to do with their staff and money.

3364 Friday Family Photo

Kleppinger Clippinger Klepinger--that's a family name in my genealogy (maternal side). I wish I had a photo of Anna Maria Klepinger, also called Polly. But Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre didn't invent the daguerreotype process until 1839, 11 years after she was married. I'm guessing it was considered a bit worldly in their conservative religious group, even when it became popular.

Insert here
a photo of
the lovely

Anna Maria, b. 1808, d. 1875
and
her husband
Christian Wenger, b. 1805, d. 1885
on their
wedding day
August 14, 1828

Christian and Polly were successful farmers--owning over 1,000 acres of land near Englwood which is near Dayton, Ohio. However, they started married life with almost nothing. My grandfather's older sister, the woman we called Aunt Allie (Mrs. J. Edwin Jay, later President of Wilmington College) related this tale for the Kleppinger researcher: "It is said that when Christian and his bride came to their new home on horseback and dismounted to enter their cabin, he said, 'Polly, this is all we have.' and showed her the coin. It is said to have been 50 cents."

Christian was a Deacon in the River Brethren (Brethren in Christ) which I think was a split off and mix of Mennonite and Dunker Brethren. They had 12 children, and the one I do have a photo of was Nancy, my grandfather's mother. That's probably where Aunt Allie heard the story of her grandparents' 50 cent start in life.

Although I had Christian and Polly in my database (the Wenger family I've written about before), I was able to find this anecdote by using Heritage Quest Online at my public library. You can search census data, or people, places and books. The book Kleppinger-Clippinger Klepinger family history by Stanley J. Kleppinger (Allentown, PA: George P. Schlicher & Son, 1956) 351 p. with its index had been completely scanned and was easily searchable. The next time you have a question about someone hiding in your family tree, ask your librarian if there are any on-line sources available.

Kleppinger
Klepinger
Wenger
genealogy
Brethren
Brethren in Christ

3363 Send Mom on a cruise

Although my children might tell you otherwise, I'm not one of those high-maintenance mothers. I rarely say, "give me grandchildren," "train your dog better," and "stop smoking" all in the same sentence. Even so, maybe your mom is a bit cloying and needy--dentist appointments, grocery store shopping, and lonesome. Maybe she doesn't drive anymore, her house needs painting, the gutters are full and most of her friends have died or moved away?

You've seen those stories about how luxury cruises are cheaper than nursing homes? It's true--I just noticed a story today in the travel section--and cha-ching, I just couldn't resist thinking about sending good old mom on an extended cruise as an alternative to assisted care.

Now, assisted care isn't a nursing home; it's independent living, usually in a nice apartment but there are people around to serve meals once or twice a day, and help with personal care and entertain even if it is in North Dakota or Kansas. They can play pool, or bridge for hours on end. It can be pricey--maybe $5,500 to $6,000 a month depending on the facility. But you can send mom on the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria, 106 nights, for $20,304. That's 3.5 months--there will be staff to clean the room (every day), change the linens, 3 fabulous meals a day, entertainment, a nice library, a doctor on call all the time, new friends, exercise facilities, swimming, massage, hair dresser, cable, TV, wireless, and so forth, plus stops in interesting places like Copenhagen or Amsterdam where there will probably be bus tours with a guide just like the ones to the malls in Fargo close to her assisted living unit. Let's see, 3.5 months x $6,000 = $21,000. Wow. The cruise is cheaper! Where do we sign up.

Ooops. Sold out.

cruises
assisted living
retirement
care givers

3362 Any stick will do

when Nancy Pelosi pounds the President. I was looking back through searches for her exact words when she was claiming our troops didn't have enough equipment or boots on the ground to win, but although I found it reported, I think it's been removed from her web page. But scanning the 2003 and 2004 statements (with photos), her plastic surgery is quite evident, anticipating I suppose how much she'd be on camera, and also that she may be the biggest, shrillest shrew ever to hit the fan. I think we can give her credit that we are where we are in Iraq because she certainly has been giving comfort and aid to the enemy. Someone please hand her a history book of the Vietnam War, the one where the Communists praise the American war protestors for giving them hope and courage.

3361 Is it cold somewhere?

It's back to the young 50s in Ohio, but my tips on frozen car doors has had 13 hits today.

3360 Librarians and Nurses, peas in a pod?

The American Library Association has great difficulty minding the store--er--the library. Is it too boring figuring out why Google and Amazon left them in the dust? The ALA spends its time fretting over the Bush administration, poverty, crime, gay and women's rights and war while handing Castro and Chavez a library get-out-of-jail-free card. I guess all the library problems have been solved (except how to get an increasingly non-reading public to use libraries).

Then I was looking something up in a nursing journal, "Journal of Professional Nursing." I think it was something about handwashing and how hospitals and medical staff are infecting people because they've become careless. And I came across this challenge--nurses should prevent war, not just treat war wounded.

"Nurses have a distinguished history of caring for the wounded during wartime without regard to ethnicity, nationality, religion, and other personal factors. Although it is important that this tradition continue, nurses can individually and collectively take a more active posture in preventing war and armed conflict. "Journal of Professional Nursing," Nov-Dec 2006. Now what direction do you suppose that "active posture" will take?

Here's a radical concept. How about if the librarians collect, preserve, promote and dispense information (from all view points, not just their own), and nurses protect and care for our health with the highest proven standards (like hand washing). Then after doing a highly professional job for 8 hours or a shift, they could leave work with a clear conscience to tackle those projects of their own religious and political persuasion.

Poetry Thursday

Indiana claims James Whitcomb Riley as the "Hoosier Poet," and there is a collection of his manuscripts at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. You really only need one poet like Riley to enchant the school children with the rural dialect and old stories, so there probably wasn't much demand for Harry S. Chester, the "Elkhart County Poet," who also enjoyed and wrote poetry in this style. He was the Clerk of Courts, and although I've browsed through the Internet, this poem, "The Wakarusa Band," is the only title I can find. I didn't actually find it on the Internet either--I was doing genealogical research at the public library, and it is in the Elkhart County History. I have few ties to this county, but don't you get a little misty eyed thinking about old Harry behind the desk scratching out the marriage licenses, and tapping his toe while he passed his time writing poetry.

The Wakarusa Band
by Harry S. Chester

You talk about your Brooks's Band and Boyer at his best
An' Thomas's big orchestra, an' Sousa an' the rest
Their hifalutin' music, I suppose, is good enough
For city folks who educate on operatic stuff;
But when you want to reach the heart and make it laugh an' sob,
An' be in touch with nature like, and make it thrill an' throb
With melody an' music that a child can understand,
You ought to hear a concert by the Wakarusa Band.

They ain't up on concertos an' cantatas an' the like
But you can't beat 'em grindin' out a quickstep on the pike
An' when they play "Old Nellie Gray" an' "Where the Daisies Grow,"
My memory goes slidin' back to the long, long ago;
An' music that'll work like that an' strike your very soul,
An' flood you full of memories an' all your past unroll
That kind of music playin' fills its highest mission and
That's why I like to listen to the Wakarusa Band.

I saw the great directors in Chicago at the Fair,
With all their fine musicianers annihilatin' air;
A drum'd bang, a horn'd blat, a clarinet's shriek
An' ef you call that music, say, you ought to hear me speak;
I want the kind of music, that'll melt into the heart
I wouldn't give a picayune for all their classic art;
Let educated critics gulp it down an' call it grand
But I’ll just sit an' listen to the Wakarusa Band.

There are several photos of the Wakarusa Band (not to be confused with the music festival in Kansas) in the archives at the Public Library in Wakarusa, Indiana, here and here.

While I was at my public library, there were some middle school “musicianers annihilatin' air" with bang and blat and shriek.

My Turn
You ramble in your Myspace on why you do that stuff--
Your fuzzy youtube I 'spose is good enuf.
But still I'd rather read your words and text
without that noise ef from you gen-next
which don' melt my heart or strike my soul
as your past and future you unroll.

Poetry Thursday
Wakarusa, Indiana
dialect poetry

3358 What a nice idea

Burning the clocks. A little late for 2006; maybe next year. We've got a creek. . . I could make a lantern.

3357 Are you from Podunk?

For you non-USA'ns, "Podunk" is a synonym for the town from nowhere--too small to matter. Except to the people who live there. I grew up in two lovely Podunks, Forreston and Mt. Morris in Ogle County, Illinois, in the northern part of the state, close enough to Wisconsin and Iowa that we sometimes took Sunday afternoon drives to those states. Here is a website that's lots of fun, called epodunk.com where you can search out information about your little town. There are also Podunk sites for Canada and Ireland.

It appears to me now in 2007 that Forreston is the more attractive of the two, but when I was living there (1946-1951), Mt. Morris was twice the size and had the better business district, nicer homes, paved streets and more advanced schools. In those days Mt. Morris had a thriving publishing and magazine distribution industry--actually they are still there--but experienced a devastating strike in the 1970s, and the town has been slipping since. Even today, many libraries have subscriptions addressed to Mt. Morris. Statistically, the 2000 census still shows Mt. Morris with the higher median income and home values, but it essentially no longer has a school system, which really gutted the town of community spirit. Meanwhile, Forreston has diversified with small businesses, rallied its voters for bond issues, made itself a wonderful place to buy real estate and settle down, and has moved on. Both towns have housing stock with median range far below the national average.

The funny little picture on the Mt. Morris epodunk site is actually a post card of Pine Creek, IL where my dad grew up. It is closer to Dixon (home of Pres. Reagan) than Mt. Morris. Not sure how they select the graphics.

3356 Are you a tea drinker?

Although I’m not particularly fond of tea, I do drink it first thing in the morning because I am awake about an hour before the coffee shops open.* I thought this study of the affects of milk on the vasodilation benefits of tea was interesting. I always add a bit of orange juice to kill the taste. I wonder what that does to tea? It seems to be something in the milk--rat cells being tested to find that out.

"In a study of 16 postmenopausal women, those who drank about two cups of black tea without milk had a greater than four-old increase in flow-mediated vasodilation from baseline in the forearm brachial artery (P<0.01), said Verena Stangl, M.D., of the Charité-Universitätsmediz in Berlin, and colleagues.

However, those who drank a mix of 90% black tea with 10% skimmed milk had no more of an increase in vasodilation than if they had consumed two cups of hot water, Dr. Stangl and colleagues reported online today in European Heart Journal." Reported at Medpagetoday.

*Although I'm a coffee drinker, I don't like the taste of my own brew (or yours either), so I've been going out for a cup since I was a teen-ager. While there, I draft my blogs.

3355 Fat pills for dogs

Can you believe it? People are going to drug up Fido so he can lose weight. My solution is much cheaper and healthier. If you own a dog, get up off your fat butt and take him out for a walk or run for 30 minutes a day. You'll both be much healthier. Just remember to take the plastic bag for the feces. If you don't have the time, hire a dog walker--our travel agent, who is also an exercise nut, does this to stay svelte and trim. And if you have a fat cat, take a string and play chase with her for 15 minutes a day. The cat will lose weight, and you'll feel like a kid again and go to bed with a smile on your face.