August 31, 2009  Autumnal Signs?....Friends Stop By...
 
Those of us who have lived in the Northwoods for many years usualy begin to look for signs of autumn approaching around mid-September. Usually, the first signs of Fall begin with color changes in the trees, particularly the maples, and in ground ferns. Savvy Northerners realize that, with the Sun at it's highest apogy in the summer (with corresponding low angle of incedence in the winter), the trees and plants along the north side of a rural forest road get lots of sunlight in the summer, as opposed to the filtered forest light elsewhere. When seasons change and the sun drops lower on the horizon, the plants on the north roadside are suddenly deprived of light and begin to turn, with the low-lying ferns are first to change from green to yellowish-rust to brown.
 
Since the plants change color mainly based on sunlight, they are impacted by long periods of late-season overcast weather or by predictable astronomic angles. So far this season, the plants and trees seem to be happy campers, still wearing full summer plumage.
 
What causes me concern is the fact that my local hummers (hummingbirds) seem to have already started their southward migration three to four weeks sooner than normal. Our mallard population jumped from just over a dozen to nearly 60 in the last two days, indicating that the migration has started up north much earlier than usual. The six-or-so geese have gone missing over a week ago...I'm guessing that they headed down to join larger flocks in the southern part of the state.
 
The squirrels are going nuts hiding nuts.
 
Does this portend and early and possibly severe winter? I tend to rely on Nature's own critters and flora to do weather predicting, rather than the last draft picks of the dinky local TV stations for meteorologists. These folks have access to super-duper doppler domes and computerized electronic Oui Ji boards with animated circles and arrows and still get the weather predictions wrong three out of four times.
 
On another note, my long-time friends, Hal and Leigh, stopped by on their way to their cabin in the UP. I haven't seen these scoundrels in way too many years, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to visit with them even if only for a brief time. Hal and I became fraternity brothers and friends back in college, and we've had a lifetime of adventures and misadventures in the ensuing years. Little did I realize when I humbly served as best man at Hal and Leigh's wedding many years back (they have two adult boys) that their wedding would mark the end of our youthful craziness and the beginning of a slightly less crazy adulthood.
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

August 5, 2009    Prologue
 
The following are the closing comments of last winter's trip to Texas. I began writing them shortly after my previous May 9 entry, but never quite finished due to a very, very busy summer. But, I finally put on the finishing touches, albeit six weeks late, and then it has taken me another two weeks to set up to transfer to a new host (Okay, this is usually a quick procedure, but the new host was making some changes and I had some critical email due that could not tolerate getting lost in the switch over... Add to that ny ISP of 15 years let their local server fail for over a week, so I had to set up a new ISP!)
 
So, if you'll bear with me this time, I'll try to move on to newer thoughts in the future....
 
May 27, 2009    Where Have I Been....Arriving in Texas...
 
Early in the autumn of 2008 I was concerned with my mother's health and well-being when I discovered she had fallen in a store and was taken to the local hospital emergency room. Our phone conversations I discovered that her fall had resulted in a broken pelvis, and had occurred following a dizzy spell and she had passed out. She had been sent to a physical rehabilitation facility for a brief time, then released.
 
What complicated the issue was that my mother began having trouble speaking on the phone and often didn't know who she was speaking to or where she was. She was confused by dreams of dead relatives who visited her house. My sister and I picked up on this rapid change in behavior very quickly. Other family members called with their concern. My sister suggested it could be due to new medications, and I called her neurologist who had been treating mom for initial memory problems and some motor skill difficulties. The doctor's office said that they would need a special signed authorization to discuss my mother's case (although mom's primary care doctor was willing to discuss a few issues with me without a form...This doc had paid attention to my mother who had told her about my sister and me and this was on her record).
 
I knew mom had another appointment with the neurologist soon, so I called mom, and after a half hour of leading her through the steps of asking for the proper form and signing it, getting her to carefully write down each step of the process and repeat it back to me. Both mom's handwriting and memory had become indecipherable, but I believed we had gotten a useable note for her to take to the doctor. I had her put it behind a magnet on her fridge, where she kept all her appointments and emergency telephone numbers. I'd phone her just before her appointment and remind her to take the note.
 
After the note had been delivered and the proper form signed with mom's new scrawl, I again called the doctor's office. I left a message since the doctor wasn't available. I repeated this action twice more before I was put through to a nurse who was familiar with mom's case. The nurse, in fact, had worked for a doctor that mom used to go to prior to that doc's retirement, and she was also concerned with the sudden change in mom's behavior and capabilities. She promised to talk to the doctor regarding our concerns.
 
Within a fortnight, or maybe it was only a week-and-a-half, mom was back to being lucid (for mom)and was more like her old self. I'd never received a call back from the doctor's office, but mom confirmed that her medication had been changed and the hallucinations had disappeared. Things were looking up. Mom now understood and followed her medical instructions, and I could almost trust her again to pay her bills or call me if there was a question.
 
Throughout all the phone calls and inquiries there was never a mention of a stroke...when I arrived in TX mom greeted me from a walker. In the days that passed I realized there was more to the situation than either mom or her doctors had revealed. Mom now had home health care nurses and therapists, needed a walker, and could no longer drive a car. Mom has had a number of small accidents recently, most of which involved backing up into people, other cars, grocery carts, light poles and anything else normally visible in the rear view mirrors. The doctors advised mom not to drive because of her inability to associate backing up with looking back...her mind was already on the next part of her journey. Mom's driving restriction came with a sigh of relief from my sister and I who were both concerned about the possibility of a major accident. Not to mention mom's insurance company.
 
But, for mom, the loss of driving privileges was devastating! It represented the loss of her freedom and the total dependence on others to get her to the doctors appointments, go grocery shopping, get to church and Bible studies, get to the bank, do the occasional garage sale trips, and most importantly, get to her weekly hair appointment. And, after 3 weeks of calls and research, I discovered that a major municipality such as Wichita Falls, TX has NO CITY-SPONSORED SENIOR SHUTTLE SERVICE!!!! My own small community has just such a service....for free! Wichita Falls only offers a minutia of a senior discount on their bus system, but mom would have to walk seven blocks and cross a major four lane highway with her walker just to get to the nearest bus stop. The taxi companies have recently been found guilty of a variety of billing misdemeanors and appear to be charging high fees to pay for their fines. A trip to the doctor would cost $22.00 one way (about 4 miles). Unforgivable!
 
Our family did get to celebrate Christmas together...sis Cindy and bro-in-law Kevin flew up from San Antonio....waiting at the airport, the flight to Dallas, renting a car and driving 2 hours to mom's was the same overall time and 3 times as expensive as driving the 6 hours house-to-house. And, they missed some beautiful Texas Hill Country scenery. Nephew Dan and niece Mayra drove down from N. Illinois with big puppy Bella and tiny baby EV...the first opportunity mom and I had to see the new addition to the family. It was a great get-together with plenty of good food, presents and camaraderie.
 
For months we (my sister, mom and I) have been discussing moving mom into a senior independent facility. Since my sister and bro-in-law recently moved to San Antonio, we began looking at facilities in that neighborhood; mom's doctors have recommended mom go to such a facility, preferably with a close relative nearby. With that in mind, sis made appointments at two such facilities in San Antonio. Mom and I drove down to spend a week with sis and bro-in-law at their new home.
 
In our travels we did get to visit and tour two of the senior facilities, and I certainly was impressed! Each place had an executive chef and menus that were delicious and designed for the dietary needs of the residents. The facilities are neat and clean and both staff and residents were outgoing and very friendly. Each offered recreational facilities, bus trips to local events, sight-seeing, shopping trips and volunteers to drive residents to doctor's appointments and other medical needs. Planned on campus-style layout, these facilities boasted nifty kitchen apartments or full cottages. Main dining facilities are surrounded by libraries, theater facilities, craft rooms, a greenhouse, coffeefe/tea shop, a mini store for supplies until the next bus trip to the grocery/mega stores. Heated swimming pools, exercisese programs, an on-site hairdresser (mom was relieved at knowing this) and a full and varied schedule of activities and bus trips allow the residents to chose what they'd like to participatete in. And aid-alert systems are always monitored should a resident need help.
 
When the day comes that I'm no longer able to drive and I have to find a settled-down lifestyle, I hope I can afford this kind of living.
 
We had a great time in San Antonio. Took a ride on a canal boat along the River Walk and almost got to see the Alamo. Parking downtown sucks and you get tired and confused trying to circle the blocks and that the one-way streets that were obviously laid out by Texas Tech trained civil engineers after an all-nighter at one of them thar mechanical bull riding saloons. I liked the old downtown area The variety of architectural styles was indeed a relief from the cookie-cutter Spanish Mission style that occupies most of the newer north side developments.

 
My remaining days in Texas were spent taking care of mom's accounts and such, which had become totally convoluted and confusing, tax info assembly and preparation, doctors appointments, garage sales (one of mom's treasured activities), overseeing mom's health care program and other odd jobs needed around the house.
 
I did manage to get out a few times for other adventures. Went out to my uncle's farm a couple of times to check on / feed the livestock. The cattle are huge and neat, but being open range critters with horns, only know to come to humans for feed and not for affection. Unlike the dairy cattle I've been used to. The two donkeys are similarly stand-offish. The Jenny was, as I was then advised, pregnant, and has since delivered a healthy youngster. The once skiterish mustang, adopted from one of those roundup operations run by the BLM, has turned into a brat and a bully.

 
I also managed to get to a farm and ranch show, which is an annual event. I've gone for several years now, and the turnout of distributors and visitors this year was less than half of that of previoprevious. On the other hand, I also attended a knife and gun show as I also done for several years. This year attendance was 300% greater than prior years. It was so busy that it was difficult to maneuver through the narrow aisles, necessary to accommodate an increased number of booths.
 
My uncle and I also managed to get to a North Texas Museum that had a specialty exhibit regarding WWI. In conjunction, we went out to Kickapoo Airport to see a WWI restored Curtiss Jenny Biplane put through it's paces. The plane, it's hanger and exhibits are sponsored and maintained by the City of Wichita Falls (as is the museum). Both are staffed by volunteers. The pilot of the Jenny is a retired professional who has been licensed for virtually every type of aircraft in his lengthy years. The biplane is flown on one Saturday each month, weather permitting. On the day we showed up the weather was pretty good for North Texas, but the wind was out of the south and blew in a laminar fashion, slower at ground level and brisker with an increase in altitude. The pilot made well over a dozen passes and once achieved an altitude and speed that matched the wind, so the Jenny appeared to be suspended. After several minutes, he put the aircraft in a dive and dropped to a more maneuverable altitude.

The Curtiss Jenny, circa 1916-1918 being prepped on the taxi way
 

 

 
So that's my story from last winter... I hope to get back to keeping this site updated and expanded in the near future. Thanks to all of you who have hung in there!
 

 
Until later.....DKHT