what no meals

WHAT NO MEALS

i have been delivering meals on wheels now for about
a year
i run a route although its not the one with the largest
number of people its the one thats the longest distance
about a 30 mile route

those people are always waiting for me when i arrive
i realize that  like my mother was when she would get
her meals delivered to her apartment that may be
the only meal they got that day
they like her since some have told me divide the meal
in half and eat part for lunch and part for supper
(or dinner according to where you live
in the south its called supper)

i wonder what they do on weekends and holidays
i dont really want to know

this route i run is about 30 miles north of austin in a
small town that you wouldnt think would have a lot
of poverty around
but let me tell you it does
i drove around and inside this town for years
we passed nearby every day commuting to work
little did i know that there were houses tucked away
that were like those you see on tv from poverty
areas in the deep south like my arkansas alabama or
of course mississippi

some of the houses i wish i could bring one of our
volunteer groups from the habitat and spend a
day cleaning the junk out of the yards and maybe
try cleaning some of the houses

none of the people i deliver to look undeserving of our
service

so it makes me sick yes more nauseated than the aricept
makes me sometimes when i read an article about the
cuts coming to meals on wheels because of our lazy ass
congressman taking the easy way out and just cutting
the s&$* out of everythings budget with no regard to
the people it affects

folks they are not doing their jobs

so far the local meals on wheels have not cut the number
of meals delivered
the small office i deliver out of deliver about 100+ meals a day
because of the cuts there is a waiting list for people needing
meals delivered
someone has to die or drop out or go to a nursing home for a
slot to open up
there never was a waiting list for these services until recently
it all doesnt seem right that this is happening

the office has had to lay off staff and rely on volunteers
luckily they still have their two cooks to cook
ive noticed a delay though in getting the meals to these elderly
folks since the volunteers arent as efficient as the regular workers
were

most of the recipients of these meals are at or near the federal
poverty levels and are one step away from a state supported
nursing home
for some the meals being delivered is whats keeping them from
going into one of these places
($2000 for the meals vs $40,000 a year for the facilities care)
you can do the math

so yes again
shame shame on congress and shame shame on us for letting this
happen

the organicgreen doctor

what does it save

WHAT DOES IT SAVE

just what does daylight savings time save anyway
the way i feel this morning when i got up makes me feel
that it didnt save me anything especially time

i know we did this at one time when we were in the energy
crisis in the 1970s
remember those long lines for gasoline
remember no one was traveling as much because sometimes
you had to search for a gas station when you did travel

i personally dont like the day light unsaving time change
i wish they would do like arizona and hawaii does and
the rest of the world does
they dont have it

the only problem is what is the correct time
now or the time it was last week

in the summer i like the non daylight savings time because im an
early bird and work outside a lot in the early morning
so if the sun comes up early then i can get work done before
it gets too hot
well i guess the sun doesnt really come up early
we are just being programmed to a time change not the sun

last summer when we were in nicaragua for a week
they are in the same time zone as we are but
the daylight would come on at about 530 am and my surfing
brotherinlaw would be up watching the waves to surf
i thought man this would be great to be home and to be able
to go outside at 530 in the summer to work in the yard

once when i was redoing my roof on my barn in the summer i
would set up a spot light on the roof and start working at
500 am
i dont have neighbors close by to bother so i am able to do that
without bothering them

then in nicaragua it got dark an hour earlier in the summer which
seemed to fit my bodys clock much better as
everyone seemed to go to bed earlier there

it was nice since i didnt have to embarrass myself and my wife she
by falling asleep in front of our hosts

so yes i propose that we undo do our daylight unsavings time so
that we dont have to deal with changing our clocks and being
confused for a few weeks until our bodies get adjusted to the
new time schedule

my old beat up black country n farm truck has been on its own time
now for several years since
i never change the clock on it
so right now its time is not correct or is it

yes lets undo it
it certainly didnt save any daylight for me yesterday

the organicgreen doctor

granny needs to facebook

GRANNY NEEDS TO FACEBOOK
after i read an article by alexis blue from the university of arizona
i felt good about my wife shes not getting dementia when she
gets older

if you are a facebook friend of my wife she you know that
she likes to like things and is a regular visitor to facebook

heck i hear her laughing at a video or telling me to read this
article all the time
sometimes its when ive dosed off in my chair while watching tv
at night
i dont get mad cause now i know its good for her


in a study done by graduate student janelle wohltmann elderly
people in the study who began using facebook showed a 25%
increase in cognitive functioning based on administered tests

could it be that mark zuckerberg who developed facebook
may have found a treatment for early cognitive decline in
people especially in the elderly

one of the things thats recommended for people to prevent?
or modify the development of dementia is to stay as cognitively
active as you can be

eg i have mild cognitive impairment amnestic type and may have
alzheimers disease
i write this blog 5 days a week
eg for today i read three articles to do this blog
went to the alzheimers association website to look up information and
reviewed notes on a presentation im doing in april
then i used that information to write this blog

i will post it on facebook twitter and email it out
i later will interact with people from the comment section from facebook
twitter and from email

each day i do this and it requires a lot of cognitive functioning and
cognitive exercise if you will to do this blog

all this activity may be helping to slow the progression of symptoms some

facebooking in the elderly (now thats not me)
may be helpful because of all the steps thats required to post something
read some about the post then interact with those who respond to the
post

its the use it or lose it theory of the decline in the elderly of their memory
facebooking seems to work better than those games that are marketed
to the elderly since facebooking requires more cognition to participate

those games may become boring and monotonous and not be as
beneficial

the average age in this study was 79
so watch out for those new grannys getting on facebook
maybe encourage yours to join up
and to stay mentally active

the organicgreen doctor