Me:  “Hey!  Up and at’em guy!  Rise and shine.”

Old Sol:  “Sheeze!  Hush you mouf, boy.  I’m sleeping in this morning.  Got a heluva headache.”

Me:  “Little too much partying, did we?  Get your lazy butt up over the horizon.  You’ve got a tight agenda today.”

Old Sol:  “Hell, I’ve got things going on you don’t even know about.  Didn’t any sooner get this Venus drama out of the way and got Mercury coming up.  And that ain’t the half of it.  Same old same old.  And I’ve got all this magnetic field crap to deal with.  Look at this damned coronal hole if you think you’ve got problems.”

Me:  “Look here, big guy.  I know it ain’t easy, but you’ve got a job to do.  If you can’t handle it, someone’s going to start talking to Alpha Centauri.  We’re already farming out everything important this side of the planet.  If you don’t want to be out-sourced you might start doing some gratitude affirmations you’ve still got a job at all.”

Old Sol: ”Are you threatening me?  You?  I’ll tell you what, bubba.  You guys just try passing all that mess off to Alpha Centauri.  That sissified bastard couldn’t do half of what I do.  And you’d be in for a loooong dry spell, meanwhile.”

Me:  “It ain’t my call.  It’s the multi-nationals.  Just get on up and maybe we can both keep our jobs.”

Old Sol:  “Yeah, yeah yeah.  But look at that damned coronal hole, would you?  I need an aspirin.”

Old Jules

I’ve been scratching under my hat over a number of issues regarding that old school bus as a potential escape route, studying pictures taken last time in town.  Wondering how a person might get around various problems.

One that jumps out immediately is the fact there’s no way of locking the doors, either the front, or the emergency door.  So a person who didn’t fix that problem wouldn’t want to be a sound sleeper.  Or go off out-of-sight of it if he had anything inside he wanted there when he got back.

Another is that no obvious place to mount a spare tire seems to be included in the design. I suppose a person might rig a way to keep one on the roof if there’s no place underneath to hang it. 

Those wheels appear to weigh 75 pounds or more, though, so getting them up there would be a growth experience.

Interestingly, there appears to be an old Volkswagen living underneath there.

Evidently it was retrofitted to power a huge refrigeration air conditioning complex above the rows of seats, both sides.  My thought is that the shelves are nice, but the refrigerator is gonna have to come out.  Maybe the VW engine, too, so’s to make room for a spare tire.

Meanwhile, the windows don’t lock shut and some screens would have to be rigged to keep insects out and provide a disincentive for cats jumping out open windows to explore the highway.

I’ve always wanted something with a lot of switches to try to figure out as I drive along.

Nothing about it, I reckons, that can’t be overcome, but a challenge or two if the thing decides to jump into my life.

[I was watching for a place in here to use the word 'footfeet' because it's such a novel piece of language history involving automobiles.  For the unaware, people used to call the brake, clutch and throttle pedals 'footfeet'.  But there's not a lot I can think of to say about the footfeet of this bus.  Hmmm, except,]

The footfeet appear to be intact, adequate and functional.

Old Jules

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

Gale had himself an appointment with the kidney-marble specialist yesterday to find out what they might do about getting it out of there.  Haven’t heard the outcome yet.  But what I’ve seen of him from the time they turned him out of the hospital until now leads me to think he’s going to be slow getting back into peak performance any way a person might view it.

This entire health event episode has hardened the realization for me that if things had played out differently I might have had to jump ship from this place with whatever cats I could take along, almost no lag-time.  Got to devote some attention to pounding a hole in the wall of the Universe that includes something besides hitching out and finding a bridge to live under, minus felines.

If the Coincidence Coordinators allow it, that 1977 Bluebird school bus might provide the answer.  I figure it’s going to take a month of stopping by there when I’m in town and nobody else buying it during the interim, but I might be able to beat him down enough eventually to be able to swing it.  But if it works the price will have allow me to fit in buying tags and liability insurance coverage.  Plus a tank of gas, cat food and a little for me to last the rest of the month from when it happens.

Once it’s out here I can work on it to make it capable of the cats and me living in it, while still working on the various things need doing on Gale’s place that he’s not going to be able to do for a while.  The wildlife management plan he promised the county he’d do includes thinning the cedar, erosion control mitigation, etc., and there’s heavy lifting with me being the only one here able to do it.

I’m fairly determined to get his first year promises done before I leave here, provided he’s alive to need them done.  If the bus works out, once I sense something complete in it, I’ll feel free to box up me and the cats and head for the sunset.

I’ve got a lot of stirrings in me churning around, telling me I need to be somewhere with more interesting rocks than a person can dig up here, the trees aren’t dying like flies, and the rivers empty into the Pacific Ocean..

The guy from up the hill told me when he was here that they’re crying for backhoe operators in the country between Uvalde and the Mexico border.  Oil field work.  So a stop out there a while to garner my resources on the way west might fit into the plan if the Coincidence Coordinators think it’s a good idea and the cats will agree to it.

Old Jules

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

For six days this Australorp hen’s been sitting on a golf ball and two chalk eggs.  Every day I go out and rob the real eggs from under her, stroke her, talk to her, listen to her grumbles, whines, complaints, leaving that golf ball and the chalk eggs to give her something to hope for.

Highly-bred hens such as this one are somewhat similar to 21st Century human beings in some ways.  They’ve had almost all the instincts bred out of them in favor of, either producing a lot of chicken-meat in the least possible while, or producing as many eggs as their bodies allow.  Australorps hold the world record for the most eggs produced by a single hen during the span of a year.

The cost, from the perspective of the hen, is they’ve mostly lost the instincts required to cause them to go broody.  The instincts required to survive as a  species.  Same’s true of my Americauna hens.  Great layers, lousy instincts.

So I’m prone to have a warm place in my heart for a hen when she goes broody, even though I don’t need any more chickens, don’t want any chicks.  It’s the mawkish sentimentality in me, I reckons.  I feel a lot of sympathy and tenderness for a hen trying her best to hatch clutch of eggs, even if the eggs are chalk and golf balls.

I try to simulate a pair of mirror sunglasses when I go out to lift her off the latest eggs, hers and those the other hens try to sneak in under her to give the species another microscopic shot at survival.

Those imaginary mirror sunglasses mightn’t be necessary to me to get through these final decades of my life, but they certainly make it easier to watch what’s going on around me.  Human beings sitting on golf balls and chalk eggs, allowing instincts to creep briefly into their behaviors occasionally, probably won’t hatch.  But it appeals to my mawkish sentimentality side and there’s no harm in it.

At least no harm that would be neutralized by me not indulging. 

A creature pays his money and takes his chances this lifetime.  Even if the creature’s a hen and the eggs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. 

Old Jules

Exactly why this occurs is certainly not fully understood. “Hospitalization is very popular in older age and many more aged Americans are struggling with their [emotional] function,” says researcher Robert S. Wilson, PhD. He is the senior neuropsychologist of the Hurry Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago. “We believe that people who have [mental] problems may be more likely to be hospitalized in the first place.”

The learning included 1,870 people older in comparison with 65. Participants were interviewed every three years for up to 12 years to test their memory and thinking skills. Of those, 71% were hospitalized at least once in the study period.

Scores on the checks declined slightly with age. That stated, scores declined twice as fast following a first hospital stay, the study displays. The results held even after researchers took into account severe illness, longer hospital stay, and older age.

Inside the study, just 3% of people were in the critical care unit. Most were hospitalized with regard to general medical conditions. The findings appear in Neurology.

Good Preventive Care May Donjon People Out of the Hospital

Great primary care and leading a healthful lifestyle may help prevent certain unwanted hospitalizations. Still, “many times hospitalization is required,” Wilson says.

Marc L. Gordon, M . d ., agrees. He is the chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital inwards Glen Oaks, N.Y. “Try to look at as good preventive care as potential so you don’t become unwell and need to be hospitalized,” he tells.

While this often may be easier said than done, there are some simple ways to hold out of the hospital, he affirms. For  example, “people who are immunized against the flu may have a reduced risk of being hospitalized for complications,” he says.

Richard S. Isaacson, M . d ., says the new findings mirror precisely what he sees with his own patients. He is an associate professor of clinical neurology at University of New mexico Miller School of Medicine. “More very likely than not, any patient with [present mental] impairment who comes out on the hospital will not return to his or her previous level of functioning,” he affirms.

“The million-dollar question is: Exactly why is this happening? And the bigger issue is: How can we prevent it?”

Till more is known about the setting and cause of this problem, Isaacson says that people in a healthcare facility should try to maintain a normal sleep, wake, and medication schedule.

Site visitors can also help. “A supportive environment of visiting family members and good friends can provide social interaction and may make a difference,” he says.

Clinton Wright, MD, is the scientific director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the College or university of Miami. He says the brand new study provides a much-needed get up-up call.

Hospitalization may unmask something which is going on under the surface area. “There may be some kind regarding process going on that they do not know, but it is happening and a thing brings it out. That something can be an illness,” he says.

The summation of new medications may also play a role in causing these declines, he states. Many older people do have risks for [mental] decline, including high hypertension and diabetes, and better control these factors may stave off memory along with thinking decline and hospitalization, Wright says.

Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I’m really glad I don’t have free will.  If I’d had free will I’d almost certainly have screwed things up something awful.  I can’t see any way a person making a lifetime of deliberate, conscious choices could have made the necessary ones to allow me to eventually become me.  If I’d had to find my way through that maze all by myself there’s no guessing what I’d have become, what would have become of me.

I’m a firm believer the Universe gave us scorpions, black widow spiders, brown recluse spiders and similar poisonous orthropods to train a man to shake out his trousers and boots before he puts them on.  But he no sooner learns it than he begins to forget slowly, and eventually he’s pulling on his britches or boots same as if the Universe hadn’t blessed us with Brother Scorpion.

But if the timing is good, if the Universe is feeling generous, and if the asteroid Pallas is 85 days since a conjunction with Old Sol and 293 days since an opposition, sometimes the Universe will cut us a break.  A man can slip on his britches, pull up his galluses, feel something crawling up his leg under the cloth, dance around slapping his pants, and shake out a regular big bug carcass instead of the various alternatives.

But I’ve digressed. 

Yesterday I borrowed Little Red and headed to town feeling good, but worn down to a small frazzle from cutting big cedars with my expensively repaired chainsaw, dragging them over piece-by-piece to construct a tasteful aspiring beaver dam.  Made all the feedstore, thrift store, grocery store and dollar store stops grinning like a possum, joking with the store clerks.  Bought a can of Chinese boot wax and asked the clerk whether he could tell it from Shinola, which brought a blank look.

Even bought two packages of this for a buck each at Dollar Tree.  I’ve never seen the stuff before, but my thigh was itching something fierce from that non-black widow earlier.  I was feeling a strong urge to find a restroom and drop my pants for a looksee.

As a backup, in case whatever was going on down there was as full of drama as it felt, I picked up a tube of this, too, at a buck.

But I’ve digressed again.

On the way out of Dodge I swung by the Boys Ranch Thrift Store, second to the last stop.  Not much of interest there except a shopping cart full of hardback books with a sign, “Free Books”.  I nosed around, popped open an anthology, A Treasure of the Familiar.  It opened to “Barbara Allen“, which I haven’t thought of in half-a-century.  Walked out singing to myself, trying to remember the words to “Barbara Allen“, putting the first few stanza together.  Sang it a mile down the road to the dog-catcher thrift store, debating with myself whether to go inside, or just head home.

In the parking lot a joyful sight grabbed me.

The finest off-road vehicle I’ve ever owned was a 1986 Montero.  Thousands of giddy miles up and down mountains, desert and canyons in my old Montero.  That truck would squeeze between any two trees the Universe could invent, climb anything, go through hip-deep water.  But when you got it stuck, it was for-sure, lead-pipe cinch, STUCK.

So I left that place singing “Barbara Allen” at the top of my lungs, pretending Little Red was my old Montero, remembering and flying low to the ground.

Stopped in to drop off a few bags of feed at Gale’s, needing to lift something to bring myself down, but even after unloading a few hundred pounds of sacks, still singing, still flying.

Middling good day, it was.

Old Jules

I’d just settled in for my afternoon nap when the phone rang.  Sheeze!

Radio announcer voice explained he was Dan Somebody-or-Other with the Police Benevolent Association fund raising.

“This number’s on the no-call list.  It’s illegal for you to call here.  Same as if you’re giving me a ticket for five miles over the speed limit.”

“Uh…”

“I paid a $35 fine for a burned-out license-tag bulb last time I had any dealings with your kind.  Think of that as my contribution.”

Spang hung up on me just when I was getting warmed up to ask to see his license and proof of insurance.

Meanwhile, went up atop the hill with my spyglass.  Counted 14 buzzards circling around the ranch house for the 4000-plus acre ranch half-a-mile to the north.  Widow lives there alone, but maybe she had grandkids visiting killed something last night.  The buzzards are swooping but not landing, maybe skittish because it’s so close to the house and barn.

No buzzards circling over toward Gale’s, the new neighbor’s place, or the CopShop Party Hunting Cabin.  Only other buzzards swooping are probably checking out a coon that was on the front porch a couple of nights ago, tore half-an-ear  off the invader cat.  I shot it through the window screen during a pause in the action and it flopped some, dropped a lot of blood on the porch.

But by the time I got my shoes on and went outdoors it was gone.  Looked around all over from hell-to-breakfast for it next day, but couldn’t locate it.

Buzzards think it’s under a clump of dead cedar 100 yards from the cabin.   Glad it didn’t die on the porch and dump all those fleas for the cats.

Built a humongous rock and brush dam I’m hoping will prove to function as though a beaver built it.  I’m a firm believer the only reason a beaver dam holds water is because nobody ever told it science don’t allow beaver dams to hold water.

Old Jules

During the toughest times of the post-Y2K years the blessing I appreciated most, but enjoyed least was cutting salt cedar in the bosques, trimming it,and selling it as latillas off some busy intersection in Albuquerque.  The best bosques weren’t accessible by vehicle, were loaded with ticks, and all the bosques on the Rio Grande are home to more rattlesnakes than live in the rest of New Mexico combined.

But when nothing else was working, when they’d cut off the utilities because I couldn’t pay the bills, I’d hitch up Old Faithful, the pickup bed trailer, load the chainsaw and loppers, and head for the bottomlands for a couple of days.

The work was grueling.  Bundling them and pissanting them back to the trailer took forever and assured a person would have a dozen ticks fighting over every inch of skin, and avoiding Brother Rattler required lightning reflexes along with a wary eye.

Once I had a full trailer-load I’d bundle them, pack them down and find a busy street corner where I’d sell them for $10 per bundle.  Usually took all day, but I’d try to get back to Grants in time to reach the city offices, pay the utilities and have the power turned back on first thing the next day.

It’s a lot easier in Texas, though I doubt there’s any market for them.  Never heard of anyone in Texas using latillas.  But salt cedar’s as water-hogging, damaging, invasive and pervasive here as in New Mexico.  Grows in the grader ditch between here and the State Ranch Road 385.

I can get a truckload of it in half-hour or so, and in a lot of ways I think it might be better than juniper for erosion control.  In that particular length of driveway between Gale’s front gate and his house the last runoff bypassed some of the earlier work and cut some new channels.  The salt cedar’s easier to obtain in this instance than juniper, so I’m shoring it up with salt cedar.

I’ve built four more rock and brush dams downstream from the first one in the creek to the east, hopefully to catch whatever washes out of the main one, come next runoff event.

Hmmm an aside.  A digression.  A parenthetical remark:

The new neighbor up the hill’s got him a spanking new machine to back up his track loader dozer and his rubber-tired backhoe/frontend loader. 

It’s a lopper of the magnum variety mounted on a Bobcat with tracks over the tires.  Air conditioned, everything computerized, even got a rock rake with it.  Only $57K.

I reckons I’ll just stick with my $8 thrift store Chinese repair job loppers.

Meanwhile, on a more exciting note.

I was telling my friend Rich on the phone about weirdness and anomalies I was getting on barycentric calculations for Old Sol positions.  While we were talking he went to the US Naval Observatory site and pulled up the ‘Read Me’ file for the MICA software. 

Rich, generous, amazing friend that he is, spang right-then-and-there ordered a copy for me.

Turns out they discovered an error for multiple calculations that didn’t exist for single calculations.  They’ve released a new version, 2.2.2, with the errors corrected, along with some other improvements I’d grumbled to myself it needed but suffered silently.

Only trouble I’ve found with it is that it won’t allow me to import my hundred-or-so custom locations.  I’m having to feed them in individually, longitude, latitude, elevations, each freaking one!  The Location Manager’s designed so I can’t even copy and paste them.

And when I luckily installed it on the old machine first, just in case, it over-wrote my old location manager.  Freaking erased it spang off the damned computer.

Damned pointee-headed astronomer bastards.  Rot in hell.

Old Jules

I talked to Kay on the phone last night.  Gale’s doing a lot better.  His marble-sized kidney-stone is still in there, but they installed some kind of bypass tube until they can identify what it’s made of, then break it up or do something else with it.  His fever’s down and though he’s still in ICU, looks as though this won’t be his excuse for exiting the vehicle.

Marble-sized kidney stones ought to be worth something, considering the trouble a person goes to in the growing of them.  The only one I ever had was only the size of a grassburr, but it was worth every cent I paid for it, plus some boot.  In Peace Corps training I’d passed some blood and the medico told me it was probably a kidney stone, so I thought I knew about them, but I didn’t.  If that Hawaii thing was a kidney stone I must have been living right.

This one came on suddenly, sometime in the mid-1970s, and for a few hours it got so the nearest thing to a painless position was upside down against the wall, bent at the neck, torso, feet and legs held up by the wall.

I decided I was dying fast and agreed to allow my ex-wife to haul me to Scott and White Hospital, 30 minutes away, to die there.  Someone in the emergency room suggested it might be a kidney stone and I emphatically declared it wasn’t.  “I’ve had a kidney stone.  This isn’t a kidney stone.   This is a grapefruit-sized tumor!”

They took me at my word and pursued other avenues for several hours while I demanded they check me in and begin cutting out that tumor.  Around midnight I began telling my wife I’d be dead in just a little while, “You’ve been a blessing in my life, Babe.  I’m sorry to leave you like this.”

But they finally dyed my bloodstream and proved to me it was a kidney stone.  Gave me a shot of morphine and I went around the ER shaking hands, thanking everyone, congratulating them on being genius-quality practicioners of medicine.  They assured me the morphine would wear off and offered the hope I’d pass the stone before it did.

But I’ve digressed.  Get a person telling about a kidney stone and he’ll tell it as long as you’ll listen.  Giardia and kidney stones have that in common, though giardia might be worse in the long haul.  Getting the Egyptian Ducksquirts and abdominal cramping for six months is probably memorable.  Then there’s shingles, which I could tell you about, but won’t.  But all those qualify as 900 pound gorillas, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.  Mostly people survive them.

Yeah, I digressed again.  I began this post to tell you about Junction, Texas.  The County Seat.  Gale and I went over there the day his world took the plunge into the planet-kidney-stone, so’s he could submit his application for the Agricultural Tax Whatchallit.

I was going to tell you how a mile of main street had half a dozen cars parked along it, how a few businesses are still struggling to survive.  How they have a lot of thrift stores, but the prices are too high.  How the town’s got a huge park on the river I’d like to fish in sometime.

But I won’t.  To hell with it.  I’ll tell you some other time.

Old Jules

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.  It’s raining again this morning and all that erosion mitigation I’ve been doing is in the slow process of sealing itself with floating cedar leaves, beginning to back up water and drop the silt burden.

There’s a timely, subtle irony in this.  While that miniscule effort directed at reversing erosion by time begins doing its job, my old friend Gale, [who owns this place] pictured above climbing a mountain in 1998 is in the intensive care unit of the Kerrville hospital.  He’s been there almost a week now, them searching for a different sort of erosion.

He was carrying a high temperature for an old man when he finally went to a medico, who sent him to Emergency.  In ICU they found he had pneumonia, a blood infection, and didn’t know what-all else.  Yesterday they finally discovered a massive kidney stone.  Today they’ll be doing surgery to remove it and hopefully he’ll begin the long climb to recovery.

I’ve been spoiled by good health and mostly robust physical condition.  I suppose, even though I’ve known he had a lot of aches, pains and vehicular problems, I still think of him as that young man of almost 60, climbing that mountain, or maybe younger.  I’ve probably been harder on him, less understanding of his limitations than I should have been as I watched him not doing a lot of things he knew he should, or I thought he should.

But it’s time I recognized he’s not as young as me anymore, that he’s grown to be an old man while I watched, not noticing.  Happened too slowly, I suppose, maybe like watching a kid grow up.

I’ve got to learn to show more respect and patience for old people.

Old Jules

Mexico trip complete.  Home to the felines, with a gift bag to myself.  Another year of life.

Another time around the sun contained in these dozen plastic bottles rattling with medications.  Normal blood pressure. Pain and internal bleeding from acid reflux avoided 12 more months at the cost a few uninsured cents on the insured pharmaceutical US dollar.

Traitorous, cowardly purchases in these times when our nation needs our blind, unquestioning support.

Border guard:  “What country were you born in?”

Old man:  “This one.”

Border guard:  “What are these?”

Old man:  “Drugs”

Border guard:  “Who are they for?”

Old Man:  “Me.”

Border guard:  “Do you have a prescription?”

Old man:  “No.”

Border guard: (Shrugs).  “Go on through.”

Turnstile clockticks planetwise around a steel post.

Foreign enemy homeland fades  (No. No. That was a different century.  They’re friends now.  If not friends, at least neutral.  They’ve mostly forgiven us for taking this spot of land from them by force of arms), pulsebeat slows.

A dozen Hail Marys and a flagwaving parade in penance, I promise.  I pop a cap and sink a Prinivil dry into mouth cavern, feel the rush of sinking blood pressure.

Old Jules

Previously posted June 7, 2005  (Placitas, New Mexico)

Out in the currently vacant chicken house I found a rattlesnake skin the other day.  It was in one of the layer boxes, so I don’t know how long it was there before I noticed it.  But it caused me to do some thinking about old brother rattler and what manner of nuisance he’s likely to make of himself if he’s still around.

I’m a man who holds rattlers in fairly high regard, but with a lot of respect for their clumsy bad manners when it comes to getting underfoot.  I usually try to keep enough of an eye on the places they like to show up unexpectedly to avoid offending them, and when I can corner them I’ll carry them off into some likely spot well away from humans.  Mostly they’re just minding their own business, trying to make a living the same as everyone else and don’t have the good sense to keep themselves out of harm’s way when humans are around.

This one looked a lot bigger last year (I’m assuming it’s the same one) when I lifted up a piece of plywood in a pile of debris in the corner of the lot and let out an involuntary yelp as I jumped backward in time to avoid his strike.  That skin shows him to be about two feet long, but I’d have called him an easy four from my brief look at him.

Rattlers are few at this altitude, and the one who slithered off into the cane leaving me to to decide whether to just breathe a while and let my pulse slow down, or take another tug at that plywood is almost certainly the previous owner of that skin in the chicken house.

Rattlers are lucky where it comes to changing their skins.  Happens year after year, but generally they don’t change much.  People aren’t so lucky in that regard.  We change our skins a lot of times in this life, and in a sense we leave the old ones lying around to be examined by everyone with an interest in who we are, making assumptions based on the old skin.

The other night I was down at the Range Cafe in Bernalillo …. met a bunch of old guys my age down there… retirees from the Los Alamos labs…. nuclear physicists who’ve shed their old skins and discovered they’ve let their lives slither off into the bush without doing a lot of things they wish they’d done.  Now they’re all off living other places, but decided to rendezvous down here for a hurrah into the mountains, looking for a lost gold mine.

I have a notion I’d have barely been able to tolerate those men in their younger days.  There’s a nuance about value judgements involving working on nuclear weapon development that would have influenced my thinking about them.

But these guys had left all that behind, shed that skin and now just wanting to slither off into the canyons, spend some time chewing the fat over a fire and stomp around looking for a lost mine and taking joy in being around one another again.

Strange place we’ve chosen to spend a reality, thinks I.

Old Jules

Spring winds here lean toward drama, which offers a challenge for any temporary roof repairs.  I had a couple of garage sale tarps, the blue one frayed badly, the brown one a person could only see daylight through in a few places.

There was nothing obvious to do that would hold those tarps, nail-wise to keep them from ballooning in the wind.  The sash weights, hopefully, will do the job. 

The old water hose cows chewed through several years ago finally found a use, as well.  Trotline cord threaded through pieces of it will hopefully keep the friction down enough to keep it from wearing through the tarps until materials for a better repair can be found.

Old Jules

Disclaimer: My post is not intended to offend anyone.

Typically, those who are more tech-savvy tend to be younger (30s or younger) and those older than 35 or so are more technologically challenged. Obviously, there are people who don’t fit this generalization, but for the most part, this is it typically goes.

Young children using iPads in the classroom

More and more schools are using iPads in the classroom–as young as age five, in kindergarten, there are iPads in the classroom.

Personally, I think kindergarten is a little obsessive to have an iPad, but if they’re finding ways to use them, so be it!

A fifth grade classroom in Greenville is using the iPad to their advantage and finding that their students are more engaged and learning quicker. And get this–they actually seem excited to learn.

So is that what it’s going to take to get students engaged in the classroom? Every student gets an iPad?

Unlikely, but it’s a nice thought.

However, classroom engagement isn’t the only perk of the iPad…

Purdue is using the iPad to give Autistic students a voice–those who are non-verbal Autistic can actually have the iPad speak for them. Talk about using technology to benefit the better good.

Now, what does all of this have to do with the generation gap?

Children are being taught to use these technologies at a younger age–demanding it at a younger age. I’ve seen children, literally children (probably around the age of 8) with cell phones.Why do you need a cell phone at that age?!

We can close this generation gap.

If the younger generation would take time out of their lives to go work with those who want to learn technology, we could bridge the gap. It may come as a shock to you, but a lot of the “older” generation actually want to learn about technology, they just don’t know where to start.

If we don’t start helping, volunteering our time to those who want the help, the generation gap will continue to grow. Even when the tech-savvy generation grows old and we’re replaced by a younger generation, technology continues to grow–we have to learn how to work together instead of working against one another.

Brighton, New York has started a program where the younger and older generation works together…the idea came up simply because the school and the nursing home were close to one another. If it’s that simple, why isn’t this happening more often? Both generations benefit from this!

Simpson College is literally blocks away from The Village in Indianola, Iowa–but there’s not much interaction outside of a few sporting teams that go there occasionally and they attend events on occasion on campus.

We have to start working together. We’re doing nothing but destroying each other by working against each other.

Who’s with me?

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

The analogy between Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg and that oak is still nagging at me, but I doubt I’ll belabor this post with the troubling similarities between the two this morning.  Though I might.

Gale came down the morning after the Gettysburg event and we performed an after-action analysis of the damages, the implications, and ultimately the other oaks surrounding the cabin showing some level of potential for similarly Gettysburg-like thinking.  We concluded there’ll be several other trees coming down because they’re already losing bark, or obviously dead.  Others I’ll prune the larger branches on the cabin-side so’s the weight left will cause them to fall away from anything they can damage.  Hopefully.

Fact is, the leverage a few MPH of wind in the upper growth exerts a huge mechanical advantage and a person might be prone to over-confidence about the salubriousness of fooling with the weight and balance.

Somewhat the way Pickett trusted the judgement and wisdom of old Robert Lee until the pricetag of trusting was already paid.  Lee locked his mind in one direction and managed to blind himself to the obvious, and he said what Pickett wanted to hear. 

But I said I wouldn’t go there this morning, and I’m not going to go there just because old Pickett spent the rest of his life blaming Lee for allowing him to do exactly what he wanted most.

Even Meade, the Union commander, trusted Lee so much he was ready to abandon the superior ground, pull back his larger force, more guns, rather than mistrust Robert E. Lee, his opposing commander.  Meade’s officers voted to hold position, or there’d have been no Gettysburg.

But I said I wouldn’t go there this morning, and I’m not going to go there

A while back I was trusting the invader cat to be a pregnant female because it was pacing around meowing something awful.  Trusting it other times to be a female in heat for the same reason.  But I discovered around the same time I made the discovery about the oak, that the invader cat has a pair of jingle-bollocks.  I don’t know why the hell it’s meowing.  But I trust a pair of jingle-bollocks more-or-less completely when it comes to it.

A lot more than I’m ever going to trust an oak again.

Old Jules

Today on Ask Old Jules:  1940′s and 1950′s in the USA?

Old Jules, what were some of the social, political, and religious aspects of the 1940′s and 1950′s?

Don’t get me wrong, we all have priorities. Family comes first in my life, and I bet it comes first in yours, too–but there’s only so much we can do. The economy is still struggling, and for those of us who aren’t as fortunate as others, how can we still be there for loved ones even when we’re miles apart?

For starters, it’s going to take an initial trip to your loved one’s home.

Hopefully, they have some sort of Internet connection and you can purchase a webcam–if both you and your loved one has a webcam, you can use Skype to video chat through the computer to talk to each other even when you’re miles apart, countries apart even! Like most things, Skype has a free option and a paid option. Skype works best with wireless Internet, so if your loved ones are anything like mine, you may have to do some convincing to upgrade them from their dial up.

Do your loved ones have cell phones? If you show them how you can use text messages, or at least how to read them, text messages can be used to help them adhere to a medicine regimen (something that I think I use help with most days). The video below shows the introductory portion of this benefit.

Technology can help to keep your family safe, even when you’re not there. There are Emergency Response Systems, Fall Detection Systems and general Home Wellness Systems.

There are specific companies, such as the Aging Technology Alliance (AgeTek for short) that provide you with quick links to this information. That want to help you bridge the gap between the miles and bring your family closer, in a sense.

Know, however, to do some research on the products that they may endorse. They seem to endorse the Jitterbug, but with the research I found–it didn’t do very well.

It doesn’t make it much easier, but it makes it bearable. Technology makes it bearable.

More questions? Let me know.

eBooks. Electronic books. No more War and Peace as a small tree (roughly 1,440 pages in paperback) in your hands….instead, you’ll be holding a Nook. Or a Kindle. Or an iPad…these are examples of eReaders.

The iPad does more than the “original” Nook and Kindle, but an eReader is a type of device that is used to read books, electronically.

More and more libraries are offering you the option to check out eBooks. No more having to go back to the library to return it, you merely check out the book and when it’s time for the book to be ‘returned,’ it is simply removed from your eReader.

So what eReader is the best?

Disclaimer: I’ll be discussing the very basic eReaders. The Nook and Kindle both have “upgrades” that have more bells and whistles available, but these are the very basic eReaders. If you want to know more about the upgraded version of these, please ask me a question and I’ll get those questions answered for you.

The Kindle allows you…

Kindle eReader

• Over 800,000 titles for under $10
• The ability to increase/decrease the font size (and change the font text!), all depending on what your preference would be
• Built in wireless ability (WiFi) so you can download books in less than 60 seconds
• The screen is similar to ink, so you can read in the sun without any problems
• Memory can hold up to 1,400 books
• Many books can be found for free on Amazon
• The Kindle is $79 (with special offers) and an additional $5 for the power supply.

The Nook Simple Touch allows you…

Nook Simple Touch

• 2.5 million books for under $10
• No ads while you’re reading
• The Nook also allows you to change the size of your text while you’re reading
• If you read for one hour a day, the battery will last for two months
• Memory can hold around 1,000 books
• The Nook Simple Touch is $99 and comes with 
• Something to keep in mind is that the Nook is a touch screen which can be difficult to maneuver if you’re not used to using touch screens for your electronics.

If you want a laptop and eReader all in one, I would recommend making an investment in an iPad. However the iPad is also a touch-screen and far more expensive–around $499 to start off with. There are many other elements to take into consideration with an iPad–so if you’re interested, leave a comment on this post and I’ll make sure to address that and get your questions answered.

Leave me questions and comments, I’m here to help!

Good morning readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I’m five years older than old Bob Lee was when he had his little problem at Gettysburg.  I’ve fingered a lot earlier than when I was 65 that I could have avoided what happened to him if it had been me, instead of him dealing with a particular horse soldier.  Jeb Stuart, or Jeb Stuart MacGruder, I think it was.

Bobby Lee should have had the good sense to follow the advice of Longstreet and not become an invader, I always figured.  Should have stayed the hell down in Virginia, fought in defense of his home soil.

Lee was plenty old enough to know the great majority of the leadership on both sides was composed of the spiritual kinfolk of Stuart, Lincoln, Custer, Fetterman, Hooker, and other dandies too absorbed in what the newspapers were saying about them to keep their eyes on the ball.

Bobby Lee didn’t think that way, but he got the smell of blood in his nose anyway.  The men following his orders and getting shot to hell would have been just as happy defending Vicksburg, but they trusted his wisdom, they had the smell of blood in their noses, too. 

Same as these today.

But while I was thinking about that last night the damn tree fell on the storage building, so I don’t know where I was going with it.

Old Jules

Today on Ask Old Jules:  Escape from Reality?

Old Jules, why is escaping reality ultimately harmful?

Computer technology has more than health maintenance advantages for Seniors, it provides access to the outside world for shut ins and offers companionship if only via on-line word games that thwarts depression. Keeping the mind sharp enhances and extends life. Are there any word game sites that are easy and safe (and perhaps free of charge) for Seniors to access?

Great question, Tracy!

It’s true that the Internet can help with brain functions.

BBC News reports that even searching the Internet can stimulate the area of your brain that controls decision-making and complex reasoning. There was significantly more brain activity with this report when compared to reading…and all they were doing was surfing the Internet.

On WebMD (a website that has information about basic medical conditions, medications, etc), a doctor endorsed the use of the Internet–even minimally–for those who are aging.

“We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function,” says researcher Gary Small, MD, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, in a news release.

Also from WebMD, there is the acknowledgement of how healthy these online games can be for your mental health. There are specific games that are meant to challenge your brain and to help you concentrate. With the increase of concentration, odds are that you’ll improve with the game–and as you improve the game, you’re showing signs of learning and keeping your brain healthy.

This games also allow for stress relief and social time if you’re in a group setting.

So, what games are on the Internet and what games are free?

There’s a website specifically full of free games for those who are looking to be challenged–called onlinegamesforseniors.com. There are different categories, such as sports, concentration, puzzles, words, and a few others. When you click into these categories, it just has an icon image (a picture) of the game, without a name of the game, so it’s kind of a guessing game at first, but each game comes with the option of instructions once you click into it and you’re ready to play.

There’s also a website for Senior Care Home that has specific links to games–just click here. These online games, again, are broken into categories depending on what you’re looking for.

If you’re looking for something more broad, all you need to do is go to Google and do a Google search for “Free games for senior citizens” or “Brain games for free” or something to that persuasion and odds are, you’ll find what you’re looking for!

GamesforSeniorCitizens.net is another website. The difference with this website is that it’s an aggregation site. Another way to say that is that it’s the middle man.

Homepage for GamesforSeniorCitizens.net

It has a whole bunch of information for you and then it sends you to other websites for the games and the information that it has. It has free Bingo, free Bible studies and free brain games, too.Bottom line is, the Internet is great for your brain to keep it healthy! Play around on the Internet a little bit each day–it’s like a daily dose of a vitamins!

Family pictures, no matter when they’re taken, are inevitable. The new and easy way of disseminating those photos is by using a photo hosting site–such as Flickr or Photobucket.

Flickr is a free photo hosting site (though you can always upgrade to a paid service, if you so choose–this is normal for most sites) that allows you to upload your photos to the site in full resolution (meaning that it doesn’t shrink them at all and when you go to redownload them they’re at the quality they were when you originally took them) and store them externally in case your computer crashes.

Flickr also allows you to share your photos with friends, family or whomever you may want to share them with. Concerned that your photos may be stolen or reproduced without your consent? There’s security on this website, too. Just make your profile private and share it with those that you want to see it and that’s that. Flickr is great for video uploads, too!

Here’s a quick video that shows you how easy it is to sign up and use Flickr.

Photobucket isn’t as extensive as Flickr. Photobucket doesn’t keep your photos at full resolution when you go to re-download to use your pictures again. While the resolution isn’t terrible, if you’re going to make a print of a picture (or have an intention of using a picture as a large print), I would avoid using Photobucket because a large reproduction can cause a very pixelated (lots of small squares) image.

Photobucket is also a free service–the newspaper that I’m currently editor in chief for uses it for our photo storage and for our photographers to easily access and download the photos. It’s also really easy to access the photos to download and reproduce the prints to use in the newspaper.

AndoramaPix is another site used, but this is a site that you’ll see used for professional use. Did someone take family pictures for you and send you a link so that you could easily download your pictures? All you need to do is go to that page and you can easily scroll through pictures that way.

This is my beautiful family, photo courtesy of Jill Daughterty. Jill uses AndoramaPix.

This is something that Jill Daugherty Photographydid when my family had pictures taken just a few months ago at Thanksgiving. You pay a flat rate for the photo session and then you get limited access to this website (it’s not access forever) and you can download the photos (in full resolution!) for reprint. Photographers, such as Jill, may also provide you with a CD of the photos, too (all for one cost!).

The Internet is more versatile than most people ever imagined, you just have to have the patience to embrace it and work through the kinks that come with the technology and with learning something new.

The best things in life never come easy–just keep working at it, you will get there. I believe in you!

Technology isn’t made for us. It’s made for you guys (a younger generation).

After doing some research–I’ve found that they’re right.

Now, not all technology is made for a younger generation, but that’s where the emphasis is. So my question to you, readers, is this…

If technology was aimed towards you–would you be more willing to use it? Embrace it? Love it like we do?

In all fairness, some companies are trying. Have you heard about the Jitterbug cell phone? The Jitterbug was made with senior citizens in mind, or with anyone who doesn’t want to carry around an iPhone and have to get used to a touch screen.

The Jitterbug, while I’m sure the company had good intention, has received bad reviews. You’re only allowed 50 contacts (and if you’re anything like my family, that’s barely enough to cover the entire family) and apparently it can get pretty pricey.

If you don’t like the color of the screen, you have to pay to have it changed. It has limited usage, and if you want unlimited usage for the phone, it’s an additional $250/month. Text messaging is also an additional cost.

Along with that, they apparently don’t hold a charge well (and only come with a car charger, you have to pay extra for one to use in-home), break easily and the features only focused on those who are losing their site–and not necessarily those who are losing their hearing.

While these reviews aren’t from my first-hand experience, they’re from a website called CNET. CNET is a great resource for anyone looking to buy technology because their staff features reviews from first-hand experience, along with giving any and all readers an opportunity to give their reviews from their experience with the technology and rate it on a five-star scale.

From what I can see, the Jitterbug would be a decent phone for those of you looking for just an easy cell phone–not one with iTunes and other capabilities like most phones insist on having now-a-days.

The iHome I talked about last week is another good product for those of you who may be struggling with site or just want an easy-to-use computer. The screen is large and has great graphics for anyone struggling with sight. The built-in speakers also work well for those of you who are struggling to hear. Overall, I believe the iHome is a great product for anyone that’s struggling with computers and is looking for a easy-to-use, at home computer.

But I’m left wondering–two products? One that doesn’t really work all that great and a computer that wasn’t even aimed at an “aging” audience (I say that kindly, we’re all aging, every day).

Technology needs to change with us and workwithus, not against us. And if companies took the time to understand that, they could be making a lot of money.

What’s a technology you struggle with and wish were more age-friendly?

If you’re working on a laptop, this is a normal occurrence. You’re not crazy, your screen did just shrink and you’re probably wondering what you did to make that happen.

This happens to those of us who are the most skilled in technology–so never fear, this is not happening because you’re not technology-savvy.

Odds are, you’re resting your hands on your touchpad (aka the built-in mousepad on your laptop) as you type. This is common–I do it, my friends do it…until you know what the consequences are of resting your hands on that touchpad, it’s a hard habit to break.

With your hands on the touchpad, if you make any movement that would bring your hands towards the middle of the touchpad (imagine two fingers imitating a scissor on the touchpad) your screen will decrease its font size. Not only is this decreasing the font size, it’s decreasing the screen size–which is why the pictures get smaller as well if this happens while you’re surfing the Internet.

In order to make your screen bigger, place two fingers on the middle of your touchpad with your fingers closed. From there, open your fingers to form a “V” shape, and as you do this, you should see your screen getting bigger. If the screen gets larger than you wanted, just do the reverse motion (start in the “V” shape and work towards closing your fingers) until your screen size is at the size that you’re most comfortable with.

If this doesn’t work for you and you’re surfing the web, you can go to “View” in the toolbar at the top of your screen and zoom in and out. This also gives you the option to “Zoom Text Only” so that only your font increases and not the graphics (videos, photos, etc) as well.

Did this work for you? Let me know! Ask questions, I’m here to help.

Good morning readers.  I’m obliged you made a swing by here.  I’m going to do my best to give you something to have read by the time you leave if the Coincidence Coordinators and the commie phone line will sit still for it.

I’ve about decided I’m going to have peace and harmony around here, and I don’t care who I have to kill to do it.  The roosters are driving me nuts with their sneaky non-harmonizing ways.

The Great Speckled Bird surprised me by surviving the winter, feeling better most ways than he has in a longish time.  But more crippled up than ever.  Not much use of the one leg anymore, one wing weak or useless.  So when he falls, the usual ritual is to lie on his back waving his legs around.  Struggling for a shift in reality to get into a position where the one foot can get a hold on something.

But even so, he’s out there ranging with the hens, doing what roosters are supposed to do as often as he can see his way clear to do it and he can find a willing hen.

But meanwhile I keep my bachelor roosters penned most of the day.  Mainly because they’re of a mind that if I’m not looking it’s okay to open up a can of whoopass on TGSB.  They can knock him down and peck the bejesus out of him in less time than it takes to tell it.

But I’ve digressed.  I was going to tell you about dancing with roosters, which is the only way a person can establish harmonious society with them.  A rooster isn’t long on understanding the ways of a human being, but he does understand who’s the cock of the walk.  And if he doesn’t understand, or he forgets, he’s forever trying to reassure himself about whether he’s boss, or someone else is.

A rooster has two main dances.  One he does for the hens, which I’ll describe some other time, though it’s important to know how to do it so’s to keep him and the hens on their toes.  But the one used to communicate “I’m a contender,” and “You want some of this?  Come get it!” is an absolute necessity.

The last couple of days when the bachelor roosters and TGSB were out concurrently I’ve had to do a lot of dancing around stiff-legged, acting like I was pecking the ground watching them out of the corner of my eye and flapping my arms threateningly.  Reminding them if they want to mess with TGSB they’ve got to go through the bull-goose-looney to get there.

I think where I slipped up was when the warm weather started I quit wearing my red stocking cap they considered a comb, and forgot I’m a rooster too.  Got thinking they could each be a contender.

Old Jules

The Great Speckled Bird: Respecting our Betters

The Liar: The Great Speckled Bird, Part 2

News from the Middle of Nowhere

October Quietude, Dead Bugs and Old Roosters

I got an email yesterday from an old acquaintance who’s carrying a serious chip on his shoulder about somebody calling the Social Security pension he lives on an ‘entitlement’. He raged on about how he paid into it fifty years, and his employers matched everything he paid. So, he says, it’s not an entitlement.

Sheeze. I wonder what else a person would call it. He’s entitled to it. What the hell is it but an entitlement?

But I think he’s concerned that because ‘entitlement’ has become a buzzword for something else he doesn’t like.  Namely a whole range of government payouts to bank owners, automobile companies, multi-national corporations, all manner of people bleeding the US budget dry with bailouts and payoffs.  I think he figures they might quit paying him his pension because they called it an entitlement.  Putting him down with scum bankers and CEOs and Chairmans of Boards and politicians.

Seems to me he’s just not thinking right.  He’s gotten old up there in Al Capone country and no longer seeing the opportunity it would represent if they took away his retirement check he needs to live.

Truth is, we lived fairly tame lives, we retirees.  Generally we did what was needed and more-or-less stayed within the boundaries of the laws and ethics while we did it.

In a lot of ways we screwed ourselves out of the adventure we were entitled to.  The adventure of sticking up banks and shooting it out with the cops and whatnot.

Those bankers and CEOs and politicans got to have all the fun, though they didn’t do it in a way that would take them out in a blaze of gunfire.  But we spent our lives in an environment with them in their houses on the hill, and down on the street corners and alleyways people were shooting it out with one another and the cops.

We just plodded along working our asses off not getting to drive limosines nor scoot around in the shadows mugging anyone.  But now maybe they’re finally going to give us our shot at having some fun finally.

Seems to me it’s about time.

Old Jules

“Is there a brand of computer (ie… Windows or Apple based) that is easier for older or inexperienced users to start out with?”

There are a lot of factors that will need to be taken into consideration when you buy a computer…when you’re looking into buying a computer and you’re inexperienced, here’s what I recommend asking yourself…

• Do you want a laptop (portable) or a desktop (stationary, but more stable) computer? This will impact the price range of your computer, screen size, performance (desktops are meant for those of you who will be on the computer for long periods of time, laptops have a shorter battery life if you don’t want to be tied to a pesky outlet) and certain built-in features that come with the computer.
• What do you want to get out of the computer? This may seem like a silly question, but it’s an important one. Do you just want a computer where you can catch up with your kids and play Solitaire? Or do you want to be able to play computer games for hours with your grandkids and watch movies and read books? Do you want to be able travel with your computer or just occasionally check your email?

If you want a laptop, I would recommend a Windows based (for example, a Dell) computer.
Laptop benefits: they’re portable, lightweight, great for watching DVD’s on-the-go, give you the option of being wireless instead of being stuck in one room of the house, laptops aren’t overloaded with programs and information, they’re simple to learn and operate and prices are dropping every day!

Touchpad example

Now, why did I choose Dell over Apple?

To be quite frank (which is what I’m all about, if you’re family reading this, you know that), if you’re a beginner looking to embrace technology with a laptop, Windows based operating systems through a Dell are MUCH EASIER to understand and operate than through a Mac. For example, the touchpad (aka the mousepad on all laptops that allows you to scroll, click, and access your information…see the picture if you’re still uncertain of what I’m talking about) on a Dell only requires one finger to scroll down on a page…but on an Apple, it takes two if you want to scroll down on a page.

Also, generally speaking, Apple laptops are more expensive than a Dell. If you want to get a 17″ screen (which allows you to have bigger sized fonts and easier readability), a Dell will cost you roughly $680 in comparison to Apple’s $2,499.

If you want a desktop, I would recommend an Apple based computer…called an iMac.

Desktop benefits: Desktops allow for less connection interruption–if you’re on a laptop and using wireless Internet, you may run into some Internet issues, and there would be a faster connection speed and less chance of issues if you’re on a desktop. They also allow for bigger screens, more storage space and longer battery life.

So, why did Apple win this time?

I had the opportunity to work with a resident over at The Village here in Indianola who had an iMac. The iMac allows you to have the font size at whatever you’d like (this particular resident was beginning to go blind, so I believe hers was set at a maximum screen resolution…aka the screen was as large as it could go and she was at size 40 font) and the screen is a whopping 21.5 inches or 27 inches.

iMac example

Another thing I like about the iMac is that there isn’t a tower. In a “typical” desktop, there’s an external tower that holds the hard drive, CD drive and turns the computer off and on. However, with the iMac, there is no tower. All you have is the screen, plugged into the outlet, with your keyboard and mouse. See the picture! It saves space, and if you’re anything like me, it’s one less thing to trip over. While the iMac is a bit pricier than other desktop packages (the 21.5 inches runs around $1,199 if you buy it directly from the Apple store), most places review it a 4.5/5 stars or 5/5 stars and you have a 1-year warranty any problems arise in that first year.

I hope this answered your question. I know it’s a long answer, but when you’re looking into buying technology, there are a lot of factors to consider. It’s obviously not inexpensive, and I hope I saved you some time. I did my research, and thanks to BestBuy and Apple for helping me compare prices and pros/cons of each of the products listed.

Keep asking questions!

Tomorrow, I’ll be tackling the question:”How do you start a blog?”

Don’t give up on the Internet, it’s not going away. Keep trying, it will get easier.