The Oppenheimer Report: June 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The Oppenheimer Report 6/27/13

Sorry folks, this one will be brief. No pearls of wisdom this week. I have been down in Toronto for the past week, and just returned yesterday. My father-in-law had another stroke and was admitted to the hospital. If ever there was a question about whether my parents-in-law needed the assistance of caregivers, all doubts have now been removed. Now we move on to the next and more complicated phase of their life at home. There is nothing like an extended visit to the hospital to reinforce my thankfulness for my good health. I might even cut down on cheeseburgers.

Certainly one of my greatest concerns this week, aside from my father-in-law, is for all my friends in Alberta who are just now recovering from a devastating flooding in that province. Friends in Canmore and Exshaw had to be evacuated and the flooding took out a chunk of the Trans Canada highway near Canmore. That highway is really the only way in and out of the mountains, and I am sure that detour severely impacted the flow of goods and services to the people who most desperately need them. The destruction in High River and Calgary has been unbelievable and I was shocked to hear that the water level rose to something like the tenth row of the Calgary Saddle Dome. Our friend Jim, who does road work in the Canmore area, just called to say that just today they have re-opened one lane of the Trans Canada. Jim’s house in Exshaw was flooded and there is presently seven feet of water in his basement. As well, he told me that there is a foot or two of heavy silt everywhere around his property. Water can be pumped out but the heavy silt is a little harder to remove. What a mess! Years ago, when Shauna and I were still going out to Banff every summer, we stored our cookware and other household items in Jim’s basement. I presume it’s all still there, floating around along with all the other ruined stuff. I called him today and jokingly asked if we could have our stuff sent back to us. With friends like me, who needs enemies.

Hopefully, I will be able to provide a more carefully written report next week.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The Oppenheimer Report 6/17/13

The weekend before last I attended a few hours of the quarterly and much-anticipated Katrine Jamboree at the local community center. I might have been the youngest person in the audience; there were certainly a lot of geriatric hoofers on the dance floor. In my never-ending quest to sample the local musical talent, I sat through three or four acts before I’d had enough. I will say this, the finger sandwiches were quite good. When it comes to live music I’ll listen to almost anything – I’ve sat through some pretty lame open mic acts in my day – but this was a less than spectacular set of performances. By contrast, last weekend I attended the 7^th annual music festival known as “The Family Traditions Hoot” held at the nearby Stisted Fairgrounds, and that was pretty darned good. My only problem was locating the Stisted Fairgrounds.

Advertised on Moose FM, one of the local rock stations, this hootfest sounded like something I’d like to see, and it came recommended by our plumber, who is a pretty good musician in his own right. Unfortunately, like most of the locals around here, my plumber assumed I knew the area better than I do, and his directions were less than helpful. “It’s at the Sisted Fairgrounds … you know, a mile or so past Sprucedale and then south about ten miles, until the road changes to Yearly, then you make a left on this side road and a right on that one, etc.” I consulted my local map, and of course there was no such location to be found. I finally did what I always do; I drove aimlessly in the general direction I was instructed to go, and assumed some kind pedestrian would provide guidance once I got close. Men and directions, right? As luck would have it, and after several wrong turns on dusty back roads, in the middle of nowhere, I found a tiny sign directing me to the elusive hootfest. As the crow flies, it is relatively close to Huntsville, but it is one of those you-can’t-get-there-from here spots. It’s a wonder I found it.

When I arrived I had a deju vu moment, because the event brought back memories of an annual pig roast we used to attend in Western New York. Lots of tents and campers and a lot of cars parked in a field. This get together was a little less unruly than those crazy pig roasts were. There amidst the trailers and concession tents was a mobile stage set up and a band was playing. The vocals sounded pretty good, but the rest of the band was weak. Fortunately, their set was almost up. As the next band set up a couple of guys that looked like very old hippies got up and played some filler tunes on very out-of-tune acoustic guitars. The next band up was a bit of a disappointment as well and I was beginning to think this adventure was going in the been-there-done-that catagory. I hadn’t brought a lawn chair, or mosquito repellant, or anything to eat or drink, and quickly realized that I was completely unprepared for any long term listening. But I stayed and I’m glad I did. Eventually my plumber showed up, and he had an umbrella, lawn chairs, refreshments, and the much needed mosquito coils. I’d already missed four bands but did see four more, and two of them were really good. Even the bad ones were better than those at fossil fest the week before. I recorded some of the better stuff and as I listen to it now, I’m glad I made it.

Final notes … Disturbing video of those riots in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. Istanbul was the first exotic city I ever visited, back when I was a teen, and what an eye opener that was for me. Jury selection has begun for the George Zimmerman trial down in the rogue state of Florida. Zimmerman is the vigilante neighborhood watch guy who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a teenaged African American man. Zimmerman claims he acted in self defense, but no one really knows what happened. Why did Zimmerman follow Martin even after he’d called in the 911 alert? Much has been made about the fact that Martin was not a bad kid, and Zimmerman may have over-reacted. This one has all the makings of a race riot if Zimmerman is acquitted. Florida’s “You-Snooze-You-Lose” law basically allow the “threatened” victim to use deadly force, so it will be interesting to see how the jury rules on this one. Assault weapons aside, do you think that there would be less victims and less crime if all victims were packing heat? Hero or traitor: now the spin doctors are saying that NSA leaker Ed Snowdon might have been spying for China. Of course there’s going to be a smear campaign against this guy. I don’t know how I feel about this one. I can’t imagine whistle blowers at the NSA are favorably treated, but did Snowden cross the line? This story calls into question how we control information, or fail to do so. With everything from banking to shopping to filing income tax returns, all your information is in cyberspace whether you know it or not. I’ve been wondering, exactly how does one control information and police the internet? In an autocracy perhaps it’s a little easier, but we live in a free country. I think that horse is out of the barn and didn’t look before he leaped.

Monday, June 10, 2013

The Oppenheimer Report 6/10/13

The past week was a fretful one as once again Shauna and I are faced with difficult decisions relating to the health of her parents. There have been caregiver issues and this part is not all that uncommon. We faced this when my mom and dad were being cared for. Different caregivers have different methods of treating their patients and sometimes those methods clash. It should be the worst problem an elder has that the people charged with their care are passionate about their approach and want to do the best job they can. That said, sometimes the squabbles are about trivial things. This one left the wastebasket full after her shift, that one di not clean up properly. 24-7 care can be a volatile situation when, as in our case, one of the elders is still ostensibly “in charge.” The caregivers – and we have three at present – are faced with the complications of negotiating with two fiercely independent elders as well as each other. This can be tricky, and it’s a bit like a dysfunctional family. Add to this the fact that none of the caregivers speaks very good English and the problem becomes even more complicated. Communication is important, and diplomacy is a big part of the job.

Right now, one of the problems with which we are faced concerns diet. Shauna is in contact with the caregivers all day, through text messages and Skype, and in this way she can monitor her parents’ care on a regular basis. Last week Dad Taylor’s blood pressure became very erratic, spiking to well over 190 at one point. At some ungodly hour of the morning we were afraid we were going to have to take him to the hospital. Dad had already suffered several strokes and he could not be allowed to go to sleep without lowering his blood pressure significantly. A visit to the hospital is not without its problems, as Dad could end up more traumatized by a long wait in the Emergency Room. One of our caregivers, the one who was on duty during the spikes and who is probably the most medically competent of the three, insisted he immediately drink large amounts of tea with honey and cinnamon. He was not happy about drinking a lot of fluid, because every trip to the washroom is an ordeal, but eventually her actions brought his BP down to a marginally acceptable level. Then we consulted the patient notes and came to the conclusion that there was likely much too much salt in both parents’ diets. Over the next few days we began to scrutinize their meals and realized that their salt intake was well over double that which is recommended for an elder. We restricted Dad’s salt intake over the next several days and the results were remarkable. His BP was down substantially and has stabilized. He is an 88 year old man, and there are other factors affecting his health as well, but why stack the deck? And why is it so difficult to regulate salt intake?

I never used to be a label reader, but after cooking for both sets of my elderly parents, I became more aware of their salt ingestion. So much food, especially canned foods and pre-packed meals, are absolutely loaded with salt. Mom Taylor was buying a lot of things that were easy to prepare, and which she assumed were nutritious; things like canned salmon and instant rice. It turned out much of the food she was preparing was off the scale for salt content. A package of flavored rice, something she often served, had almost the daily allotment of salt for an elder.

We all hear and read the warnings about too much salt, but especially here in North America, salt is a much bigger problem than most of us realize. It is linked to strokes and hypertension, heart attacks and even kidney disease. I knew it was an issue with fast food, but never realized how widespread the problem is. Because of Shauna’s medical conditions, I am perhaps more conscious of our salt intake than the average person, but what makes me angry is that it is virtually impossible to avoid over-salted food if one buys prepared food in the supermarket. Try to find no salt ANYTHING these days, and you might be surprised. A box of crackers might advertise no salt, and yet, when you read the ingredients, it turns out it does contain some salt. I couldn’t believe how much salt there is in cereal and bread. Check out the salt content in Kelloggs raison bran. It seems like everyone is jumping on the organics bandwagon, and there seems to be a growing demand for more healthful foods. I am happy about this trend, but too much salt might be just as bad for our health as the chemicals we spray on our vegetables. I think there is a growing market for stores that cater to the elderly. Perhaps someone will develop a codger friendly supermarket, but so far, I have not seen one.

Speaking of codgers, Queen Elizabeth celebrated the 60^th Anniversary of her coronation last week. Hubby Phil looked a little worse for wear, and I understand he was in the shop afterwards for some “exploratory” surgery. He’s almost 92 and still pretty active, so good for him. I thought the Queen looked pretty good as well. I’ll bet someone watches her salt intake.

Monday, June 03, 2013

The Oppenheimer Report - 6/3/13

Last Wednesday marked the 19^th anniversary of the day Shauna and I wed, and to commemorate the event Shauna put together a Facebook album of nineteen photos whose chronology spans the length of our relationship so far. I knew her back when I had hair, and it was black, not grey! One of the last photographs in the series was taken recently as we got our cars serviced at the local Honda dealer. How very romantic! But they say one picture speaks a thousand words, and what I see when I look at that photograph is contentment. I also see a codger. Shauna looks better than the day I married her, and I thought men got better looking with age. Not me ... I’m Festus. Let us have a brief moment of silence to acknowledge the swift passage of time. Most of all, that series of photographs reminded me of all that Shauna and I have seen and shared to this point. There is the photo of us standing outside Ron’s Fish N Chips in Blind River, Ontario where we had a delicious meal one hot summer night driving home from Banff. I remember meeting Ron and learning a little about his colorful life, and I remember photos lining the walls of his restaurant, showing Ron and his buddies on their many fishing adventures. There were the timer shots of the two of us on mountaintops overlooking the Bow Valley and the turquoise glacial lakes of Alberta, and British Columbia. Over the years, Shauna and I hiked hundreds of miles over the trails of the Canadian Rockies – no mean feat when one considers that Shauna has several chronic disabilities. There is the photo of a much younger (and wilder) me wearing a Lady Godiva wig at a party in Rochester, N.Y., making a silly face as the then unmarried Shauna looked at me with an embarrassed and confused smile, and perhaps just a smidgeon of disgust (I still get the same look from time to time). There is a timer shot of the two of us standing in her father’s boat in Katrine, with our 6’cardboard cutout Mountie “Dudley” whom we “liberated” from the Chateau Lake Louise one night after a long hike. We walked right through the main lobby of the hotel and into the parking lot with it. In that photo we were just about to go out on the lake and scatter some of her brother Jordan’s hair on the lake to commemorate his recent passing. Before he died he implored “Don’t postpone joy,” and that has been our motto ever since. Jordan had a great, albeit twisted sense of humor. One day, shortly after his unsuccessful brain surgery to remove a malignant tumor, he was sitting in a car waiting for his mother to come back from some store, and a vagrant came up to the window next to him and begged for money. Jordan rolled down the window, pulled off the bandana he was wearing to reveal a nasty unhealed incision on his head, and he said something like “I’d really like to help you out, but I’m saving up for my next surgery, and this time I think I’m going to let a doctor do it!” We brought Dudley along for comic relief. In fact there have been many photos of us taken with Dudley, from all across Canada, and he now stands in a place of honor overlooking our great room from the loft. Indeed we rescued him from his undignified sentry position outside an overpriced jewelry shop in the hotel. Mounties do not hawk jewelry. There is a photo of the two of us looking suntanned and relaxed, I believe standing outside a goofy restaurant called “Le Tub” in Hollywood, Florida. I remember the grounds of this restaurant were littered with old toilets and other bathroom fixtures and I also remember they were known for their burgers, if one could maintain one’s appetite.

That photo series was a good idea, because it jogged my eroding memory. I find that as the years pass more quickly now, it is more important than ever to reflect back on the journey. Don’t live in the past, but certainly acknowledge it. Our marriage has not been perfect, what marriage is, but when I see these snapshots of time’s passage I am reminded how much richer the trip is with a companion. Thank you Boo for these past two decades, and I hope you can go all nine rounds with me, because it has been pretty interesting so far.

Somebody mailed a letter to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg which was laced with the deadly poison ricin. It might have had something to do with Bloomberg’s stance as a gun control advocate. There has been an outbreak of a Sars like virus in Abu Dhabi which could become a worldwide threat. I remember how frightening it was when SARS surfaced in Toronto, and how it decimated the local Asian business community. Antibiotic resistant viruses scare the hell out of me. Is it the death of the Tea Party? U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has announced she won’t seek re-election. To me she and her TeaBagger buddies were the nail in the coffin of the Republican Party, but the elephants had been paralysed by boneheads and extremists long before the Teabaggers became a political force. Yet another super cell storm blew through Oklahoma last week on the heels of that devastating EF5 Tornado that leveled Moore. And finally, a moment of silence, Edith Bunker died! Actress Jean Stapleton (no relation to Maureen Stapleton) passed away last week at 90. I loved Edith. Comic genius.

The Oppenheimer Report