Lakeside 2019, Week 3

I loved our cute hydrangeas that Loretta planted for us last summer, but they didn't make it through the winter.  She said she had something that would work better, but it was such a cold and rainy spring, they didn't get planted.  Well, the first day of summer came, it was getting hot so I took things into my own hands, which have 2 brown thumbs, and I fixed those hydrangeas with $5 blooms from Wal-Mart.  I'm also wearing my $5 hat from Wal-Mart to shade me on my walks and protect me from dive-bombing mother birds that attack.  However, about 3 hours later, Loretta showed up with two new bushes (I have no idea what they are), so I've already had to transplant my fake flowers to the back of the house.

2019  

 

2018

The rest of the plants are doing so-so, but since July is almost here, I was hoping for more oomph.

 

 

Tonight's program is Michael Stanley and band, a Cleveland group from the 80s which our daughter has heard of but we haven't.  Last night was "Six Appeal" an a cappella group from Minnesota. This is the week of July 4 and this year we won't have anyone with us.  Bob is thinking of marching in the parade with the Guys' Club.  It's a long walk. And not much fun to watch alone.

The programming for the lecture series is on Artificial Intelligence with David Staley, Director of the Humanities Institute, OSU and something on capitalism by same speaker.  We'll be gone Tuesday for a quick trip back to Columbus.  Chef Stacy will be back on Friday for another cooking lecture. 

David Staley giving a Ted Talk about Columbus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=SXYh3F4-_ko

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This title is on the review list for the Lakeside Women’s Club this summer, so I decided to check it out.  I’ve been reading it on the porch in the evenings and at the wellness center in the morning.  I’m about 1/3 finished and not sure I’ll go on.  Ng is a good writer, but stories about bio and non-bio mothers and babies, and predictable criticisms of suburban families and their life styles (in this case Shaker Heights, Ohio) are just not comfortable for me.  I’ve read several reviews, from wildly enthusiastic to I-just-didn’t-care. There is a movie in the works since it’s got all the ingredients – teenagers in the 1990s, racial tensions, adoptions, surrogacy, frustrated homemaker, and do-gooder Democrats.

Spoiler:  Ng has a motherhood problem, in addition to her angst and guilt about being wealthy and a successful Asian American. (Wealthy, professional parents, raised in Shaker Heights).  One mother is a surrogate who stole her child and raised her on the run, one mother abandoned her child and kidnaps her back from the adoptive parents, one mother wanted her child but resents all the problems that child represents from  preemie to rebellious teen, one mother had an abortion but used someone else’s name.

What to do with stuff

We had an interesting program at Lakeside this morning on "Organizing 101: Simplify our Stuff" by Chris Perrow. One member of the audience commented that the people who needed to be there, weren't. "No one wants our stuff," was a common complaint.

For old family photos, scanning was the suggestion. One woman used the app Photomyne and found it very useful. Some suggested saving just a serving piece of two of that china you inherited but don't use. Lots of suggestions for various donation sites and sales. My suggestion is that if you like the china use it and don’t be afraid to put it in the dishwasher (although not the microwave since most have silver or gold trim).

For 34 years we lived in a house with no basement and no attic. Now we have both, and have more "stuff." Definitely a first world problem. Since I have a number of blogs I can write about things I donate or give away, and still retain the memory.  Doesn’t always solve the problem, but at least I know I’m not alone.  A number of people mentioned the emotional attachment to their stuff.

Wired for wealth

I'm getting ridiculously low offers for subscriptions to Vanity Fair ($8) and Wired ($5). (Both owned by Conde Nast). Magazines are vehicles for ads for expensive products, always have been. They are capitalism on steroids. Country Gentlemen (1831-1955) had a huge subscriber base, but the ads for farm equipment just didn't move city folk mired in nostalgia for the "old days." Vanity Fair insults probably 90% of the country to attract rich people or their wannabees as its editorial policy gallops leftward, and Wired does the same but without make up and fashion ads.

http://www.magazineart.org/main.php/v/farm/countrygentleman/Country+Gentleman+1924-10-04.jpg.html

This is an adorable cover of a teen girl in 1924 with headphones!

My bursitis has flared

So I whined on Facebook. Dianne Orr McDermott (from Mt. Morris, now in NOLA area) replied:

“I'll call your bursitis and raise you a torn rotator cuff. . ..can we exchange pity parties? That said:

Medications

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

Relieves pain, decreases inflammation, and reduces fever.

Self-care

RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)

Cold compress

Reduces inflammation and dulls sensation of pain.
Physical exercise

Aerobic activity for 20-30 minutes 5 days a week improves cardiovascular health. If injured, pursuing an activity that avoids the injured muscle group or joint can help maintain physical function while recovering.”

That’s good advice, so I’ll leave it here.

  When I first developed bursitis in winter 2013-14, I didn’t know what it was—thought maybe arthritis, so I used heat.  Bad idea—it’s an inflammation of the bursa, and can happen on any joint.  So yesterday I looked up the exercises and sat on an ice pack (my gel filled ice packs are at home). I couldn’t imagine how it started, but then remembered that on Wednesday while walking to a program, I misjudged a dip in the sidewalk and stumbled.  It doesn’t take much.

https://gethealthyu.com/best-exercises-hip-bursitis/

Japan. Brazil. Germany. India

I was reading over the President's schedule for the G20 meeting, amazed that anyone can keep a schedule like this (the time change alone would do me in), all while being berated and criticized by an army of bot-like professional media know-nothings attacking his every move and policy as they intend on destroying our country. May God protect and energize our President.

8:30AM EDT / 7:30PM The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan

9:15AM EDT / 8:15PM The President participates in a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan and the Prime Minister of the Republic of India

9:35AM EDT / 8:35PM The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of India

10:30AM EDT / 9:30PM The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

11:15AM EDT / 10:15PM The President participates in an official welcome and family photo

12:00PM EDT / 11:00PM The President participates in the G20 leaders’ special event on the Digital Economy

12:20PM EDT / 11:20PM The President participates in a G20 working lunch on the Global Economy, Trade, and Investment

2:00PM EDT / 1:00AM The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Russian Federation

3:30PM EDT / 2:30AM The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil

6:35PM EDT / 5:35AM The President participates in the G20 cultural program

Elizabeth Warren thinks the economy needs to be fixed.

True, librarians are a poorly paid group, but I'm earning more now than I did when I was employed, and many retirees say the same thing. And my 403-b is invested conservatively—about 60-40. I see hiring signs everywhere I go, and I see a number of new employees who have been put on the job floor a little soon.

Recessions come and go so I don't expect it to last, but Obama did everything wrong, and took what should have been a brief recession and extended it with clamping down on the very people who could have created the jobs. That recession was over in June 2009, but he had so flogged and discouraged American investors and businessmen we limped along in "recovery" for 7 more years while the rich came back with his bail outs. In fact, as soon as he was nominated by Democrats in summer 2008 things started to take an ugly turn.

The mega-wealthy like Bezos and Gates can withstand the crazies in Congress and the White House, but the rest of us have to wait for a Reagan or Trump.

The debates—the American people lost

I didn't watch the so-called debates (I watched a dog act at the auditorium), but I did see snippets on CNN and Spectrum 1 at the wellness center this morning. I determined the general idea of the Democrats' program, but there were no surprises.

Kill the insurance companies.
Open the borders to all illegals.
Impeach.
Tax. Tax. Tax. More Taxation.
Lie.
More hate.
Kill the economy.
Speak Spanish because you're Irish and have a Spanish nick-name.
Speak Spanish because you think you're Spartacus.

No answers in any language.

Lakeside Women's Club, 2019

Last week I was a hostess at the Lakeside Women's Club program "A Photographic History of Knitting: 1900to 2019" presented by Gretchen Curtis, LWC President. Gretchen used to be the Heritage Museum archivist and always presented such interesting programs.  She was also one of the Porch Stories presenters its first year.  This week's program was "Here comes the bride and bridesmaids, 1940s - 2010," although one dress was from 1909 and one was from 2018.  It was a fun program, and one woman who talked was 100 years old.  Made me think I should go back to coloring my hair, because she looked terrific--not a day over 80.

I did feel sad knowing my wedding dress, made by my mother in 1955 for my sister, had been given to the Discovery Shop (cancer) when no one in the family wanted it.  I was trying to pare down our stuffed closets, but I wish now I'd kept it--maybe for a style show to be used one more time.

One woman modeled her "mother of the bride" dress from 1984, and it was lovely--could go anywhere today, and she said she bought it for $1.00 at a resale shop. Several women in the audience were married 60 years or more, and they received a small gift.

The photo is my co-hostess Barb Hoffman and I on June 18 although she brought some lovely little fruit snacks on skewers which don't show, and all I did was open two packages of sandwich cookies and make the ice tea.  In the background is the LWC library, which I've been using this summer to do some porch reading--just about finished with "Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century by Jessica Bruder" which will be reviewed on Friday by the ladies who run the bookstore.

Book review “Nomadland by Jessia Bruder

This Friday the Lakeside Women's Club book review is "Nomandland; surviving America in the 21st century" by Jessica Bruder. (2017) I'm about 1/3 finished, but I get the drift. Convince the readers there's something terribly wrong with the USA instead of the poor decisions, divorces, childhoods and investments of selected people interviewed for the book. So far, although the "great" recession of 2008 is noted as a cause for the white collar workers, the underlying factors in many of these cases are divorce, and/or an unhappy, abusive childhood that also included divorce, disruption, and frequent moves. I've been skimming or reading books like this for 4 decades. And since the so-called War on Poverty and the disintegration of households of married couples and families, the discussion doesn't get more positive, but the journalists/fabulists don't seem to catch on.

We first met nomad retirees in 2003 in Glacier Park. They were quite happy with their lives, moving with the tourism industry, northwest in the summer and south in the winter. According to Bruder, this movement has drastically increased as boomers hit retirement age, the internet glamorized it, and Amazon and other suppliers began to encourage a new migrant class of elder workers in RVs, vans and campers.

However, since the 1950s, our culture has glamorized the freedom of the open road, living off the grid, and personal liberty without family responsibilities in our films, theater, TV, literature or even neighborhood gossip. We shouldn't be surprised if a tiny percentage tried to grab this fading brass ring on a merry go round and found it a struggle of clunker RVs and difficult physical labor in warehouses.

So readers have a rich stew of anecdotes sprinkled with statistics about the history of retirement (it's a relatively recent concept). The reader can blame evil capitalists, bad government programs, Amazon, shrinking pensions, and overall malaise.

I'm shocked, shocked that aliens are flooding our borders. They need to read sad best sellers and then they would stay home.

Democrats espousing socialism, guest blogger

"I have seen some pretty strange things in my life and travels but nothing so blatant as Democrats openly and directly campaigning against the rights of American citizens, openly espousing socialism, flagrantly conspiring with illegal immigrants by teaching them how to evade arrest and so openly making common cause with the sworn enemies of America.

I mean they have done a little of each but never all at the same time and so arrogantly in the run-up to a presidential election year.

I haven't seen anything like this since the anti-Vietnam ethos of the 60's. Democrats say the GOP wants to take America back, but it appears they want to go back to the Fritz Mondale era.

This is on what they are going to run. This is their platform.

I don't want to jinx this but this is beginning to feel like 1984 (the year, not the book) when Reagan beat Mondale like a red-headed stepchild."

Michael Smith

I don't own this t-shirt, but I should

Bernie's immoral theft

Ilhan Omar needs to resign

Minnesota media and Democrats have failed miserably in uncovering, or reporting on Ilhan Omar's illegal behavior and tax evasion. It appears she may have married her brother, and then later filed income taxes with a man not her husband.   Not only does she hate the country that gave her refuge, she is in Congress making decisions about how the rest of us are allowed to live.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/new-documents-released-regarding-rep-ilhan-omars-possible-bigamy-and-incest/

Although with Democrats changing all the rules and then promoting reparations, perhaps incest, polygamy and filing as as household could become retroactively legal.  Elizabeth Warren wants gay couples to get reparations, although since so many never took advantage of the laws to protect their partners, don’t see that as anything other than to get more votes for Democrats.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/20/warren-introduces-bill-to-allow-wedded-gay-couples-to-amend-tax-returns/

When Mark walked away, guest blogger

“So, I walked away in the 80s. Before, I had been a raging liberal. Born and raised in DC, so politics was in my blood. What caused me to question the Democrat party was that I had a small screen printing business in college. Printed a lot of local band shirts as well as some political shirts that I sold during rallies at the mall. Mostly conservation stuff as I was deeply involved in Sierra Club. I printed "Flaming Liberal" shirts for the DNC and printed shirts for the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. One of my shirts even made it into People Magazine. (see below). So, I had just printed a bunch of shirts for DNC rally and went into their office to get paid. The director at the time, I forget his name, Michael something or another, asked me if I wanted to donate the shirts to the "cause". I said, "I already do 'em cheap, and I need to eat, so not really."

He then told me that my contribution would be greatly appreciated by not only them, but by other organizations in town.  I got a little nervous. Asked him what he meant, and he said that the DNC has long fingers in the lobbying groups in DC and it would be a shame if I found myself without clients. I asked him if this was a threat, to which he denied. I asked him how I was supposed to eat and he said that I could make more money off social services than printing shirts.

Well, I told him no, and that I had delivered 250 shirts and expected to get paid. He had someone write me a check and I left. The whole thing unnerved me. The next day, the director of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns called me and said that my services were no longer needed. I also had a bunch of shirts for sale at a local liberal bookstore and was told that I couldn't sell there anymore. At the time, I was also doing all the design and layout for the Sierra Club's Legal Action newsletter, which ended just as abruptly. I was creating posters for a group called "Liberation Graphics", mostly pro PLO stuff and pro Sandanista stuff. Yeah, that ended too.

The next day I went back to the DNC and asked what the heck they were doing to me and why? I was told to leave or they'd call the police. I was told that I couldn't be trusted. I remember so clearly the following week was the Rock against Reagan at the Washington monument. I was into punk (still am), so I wanted to make a statement. I first sent a certified letter to the DNC stating that any images of mine were not to be used in any print or video publications. This included my Flaming Liberal shirt. I then printed a bunch of them and overprinted "Destroy" in bright red. Took them to the rally and sold them to the "other side". I was amazed at how accepting Reagan supporters were to me when I told my story.

I lost a lot of friends that day, but made even more. I realized that the "cause" of the left wasn't anything more than money and an agenda. It took me a few years to fully embrace the right, but that day in the DNC opened my eyes. It was actually heart breaking to lose so much, so many friends, and to realize that I had basically been taken by the Democrats because I was young and stupid. I walked away and never looked back.”

Democrats—destroy small businesses before they can become capitalists.  Look at the larger scene and it’s done with regulations and taxation.

Summer school of Faith, 2019

I've been following Charles Craigmile's  summer lectures for 5 or 6 years. This summer's program will address many of the issues facing us in our culture. He's interesting, has a sense of humor, and is well prepared. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS6WXVr6GU  He's not a priest, pastor or professor, and instead is a businessman. I've watched the first lecture--outstanding, and the 2nd is on line, they will be off during July 4 week.

Saying good-bye to Joe Schappa

We returned to Columbus on Sunday for a memorial gathering in the ballroom at the Southern Hotel for Joe Schappa, who died in Florida in March.  He was my husband's partner when he was an owner at Feinknopf, Maccioce and Schappa.  Bob was with the firm for 18 years and left in 1994 to being his own practice, so we had an opportunity to see many old friends and colleges--and especially enjoyed seeing again Joe's wife Ruth, and his sons Noah and Caleb who were just little boys the last time I saw them. Now we saw them with Joe and Ruth's grandchildren.  What a delight. When enjoyed hearing the memories and eulogies.

I remember when my parents were in their 80s and their social life seemed to revolve around going to funerals and memorials.  There was no spiritual component to this event, but seeing the photos, his friends and family were worth the trip.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thisweeknews/obituary.aspx?pid=193152836

Lakeside 2019, Week 2

This morning on my 2 mile walk I was counting bicycles—0ne house had 13—all sizes and colors.  That must have been a challenge to load and haul here.  Then I also counted Canada geese—36 in one area, but in 3 groups.  One group of 10 or so was parents (and maybe aunties) with adolescents.  It’s always fun to see them upside down having an underwater snack.

The first two morning lectures (Monday and Tuesday a.m.) are about my nemesis—EMR or EHR. Ever since they were foisted on us during the Obama years with promises of both improving outcomes and reducing costs they have been shown to be neither.  The topics are “Using big data from Electronic health records for clinical discovery” (the primary use of them so we pay so they can mine our health records), and “Personal electronic Health records; advantages and concerns.” Two years ago my husband’s medical records—all on line--in Columbus were hacked—God only knows who now has his social security number, mother’s maiden name and next of kin.

Wednesday and Thursday morning programs are on Lake Erie. Unless you get someone who wants to get spiritual about climate change, these are usually interesting. There are also afternoon programs on Lake Erie—something about Mayflies on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the pavilion.  I crunch those underfoot on my morning walks—they only live a day, but reflect the health of the lake.

Afternoons we have an author visit by Scott Longert, and the women’s club is having a “Here comes the bride” program with Polly Albrecht.  I think it features wedding gowns from 1940-2010. It grieved me to give up the lovely dress Mom made for Joanne in 1955 and I wore in 1960 (and used at our 50th celebration at Phoebe's on a mannequin, but no one in the family wanted it, and Julie who had stored it all these years didn’t want it back.

It looks like the Herb group which I enjoyed for about 10 years has finally folded its tent and put away the gardening tools. We had some fabulous times either down by the lake or at the train station.  In its place there is a gardening program.  That ship has sailed for me.  I was never a gardener, and never will be.  Even flowers started and planted by someone else don’t flourish for me.   And I see there are some Wellness seminars, but I think I know what is needed, “Eat less, Move More,” or ELMM.   Friday there is a seminar I think I can use—“Organizing 101: Simply Our Stuff.” Maybe it will tell us how to say "good-bye" to junk we don't need.

I used to take advantage of the 3 p.m. Friday seminar on World Affairs, but that became a chore with the various problems being discussed on TV and social media.  Families and best friends are taking sides and accusing each other of being racists or communists and anarchists.  It’s just too painful to witness.

Argument with a liberal--Turning Point USA

Lakeside 2019, week 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=I1ZgaQNp4Is  Gary Lewis and the Playboys was our Friday night program at Lakeside.  This clip is from 2016, and the band looks the same, and he sounds much the same.  He’s just as skinny as he was in his 20s.  He was born in 1945, so he’s up there in years for live performing.  When his career was going strong in the 1960s he was drafted during the Vietnam War, and the career never really recovered, and for the teen market, you can’t let them forget you.  According to several bios I’ve read, singing wasn’t his strength even in the 1960s, and he started performing as a drummer. Most of his performances today are for the nostalgia market.  We noticed a number of boomers really enjoying themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAf3VavcVj4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XXIJx4HmnY

Jerry Lewis, his father who died in 2017, disinherited all his children from his first marriage. Gary mentioned during the show that is mother is still alive and he dedicated a song to her.