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Euphoria of flight keeps Jess Neuger jumping

By Dianna Troyer Perched 486 feet above the Snake River on the Perrine Bridge a mile north of Twin Falls, Jess Neuger, a BASE jumper and skydiving instructor, is nearly ready to plunge over the edge.

His facial expression is as eager as a kid’s ready to unwrap a Christmas present. Here, in an air space seemingly more suited for pigeons than people, he is perfectly poised and ready to make a leap of faith, believing in his parachute and that it will open and carry him to a safe landing, like it has countless times during the past two decades.

Jess is willing to forestall his BASE (an acronym for buildings, antennas, spans, and earth) jump for a few minutes to talk about his airborne passions.

“I figure I’m in the last third of my life, and I want to make my work my play,” says Jess, 53, who moved to Twin Falls in April to work for a friend as a skydiving instructor and to jump as often as possible from the famed Perrine Bridge, the only bridge in America where it’s legal to jump without a permit. The Perrine, one of the few highway bridges in the nation with a pedestrian walkway, was built in 1927 and named after I.B. Perrine who supervised construction of local irrigation projects.

No matter how many times Jess has been asked, he never tires of grinning and describing the euphoria he feels when he jumps.

“Who doesn’t want to fly like a bird?

When people ask me why I do this, I tell them, ‘Because I can.’ I like BASE jumping better than skydiving, because you have a sensation of speed and flight. With skydiving, you’re up so high; you don’t necessarily feel the speed.”

Jess has jumped from the Perrine Bridge more than 100 times.

“The jump is easy compared to the hike out,” he says. While the parachute ride down takes about 10 seconds, the hike out of the Snake River Canyon, depending on where you land, takes “old guys like me about 30 minutes. The young ones hike out in six minutes.”

Jess’ aerial addictions began in 1989, after he jumped from the New River Bridge in West Virginia during Bridge Day, a festival in which one lane of the bridge is closed to traffic and open to jumpers. “I had read about it in a magazine and thought it looked like fun. I’ve been doing it ever since. I started skydiving, too.”

Jess’ late wife, Donna, who died from cancer in 1996, shared her husband’s aerial passion. “She wasn’t a BASE jumper, but she skydived.”

When Jess started BASE jumping, he was living in southern Florida, where he owned and operated a mirror and glass company. After a day’s work, he and friends searched for the highest structures to fling themselves from and developed an attraction to TV towers.

During his Florida escapades, he acquired (Continued on page 31)

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IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 3

The Affordable Care Act: A Good Deal for You – And Everyone Else Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA It is high time to talk about what the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act really does.

The new law does not cut Medicare’s guaranteed benefits; it improves them. Before the law was passed, those with Medicare prescription drug coverage faced a growing gap (the “doughnut hole”) that left them vulnerable to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket drug costs. This year, people in the doughnut hole received a $250 rebate toward the costs of their drugs. Starting in 2011, the gap will gradually close, saving people money and helping them get the drugs they need.

Preventive care is also improved. In 2011, all Medicare deductibles and co-insurance are eliminated for preventive services like mammograms and colorectal screenings. And for the first time, Medicare will begin covering a free annual physical. These changes will make sure Medicare does more to keep people healthy, as well as covering them when they are sick.

Other important changes will help our aging - and ailing - grandparents. States have new options to help people get care in their homes rather than being forced to move to a nursing home as their health declines. The new law also increases federal funding for adult protective services, which serves those who are abused, neglected, or exploited. And it boosts support for state Long-Term Care Ombudsman programs, which look out for the rights of nursing home residents and their families.

So, how are these improvements paid for?

People with incomes over $200,000 a year ($250,000 a year for couples) will pay more in Medicare payroll taxes. And yes, Medicare spending will grow more slowly in some areas over the next 10 years than it otherwise would have. But Medicare will still grow nearly 6 percent a year.

The law makes carefully targeted changes to reduce wasteful services - like doctors ordering the same test twice. It provides more resources to go after fraud and abuse - like beneficiaries receiving wheelchairs that they never ordered and do not need. These sensible changes help keep Medicare fiscally sound for an additional 12 years, until 2029.

What about Medicare Advantage? These private plans were supposed to provide care more efficiently and at higher quality than the original Medicare program. But in fact, they have cost hundreds of billions of dollars more than original Medicare - costs paid by taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries, including the three out of four who do not participate in the program.

Moreover, the plans have shown no consistent improvements in quality. Over the next few years, the excess payments to these plans will gradually be ratcheted down - with bonus payments for those that provide high-quality care. Putting these plans on a level playing field with the original Medicare program is a good and fair thing to do.

Of course, the new law does not just help older people. By requiring insurance companies to allow young adults to remain on their parents insurance until they are 26, it enables your grandchild to go to college or start a new job without fear of

going uninsured. Prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to people based on age, gender, or health status ensures that your daughter is not denied health insurance because she was diagnosed with diabetes. And cracking down on insurance company abuses ensures that no one loses coverage when it is needed most.

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect - no law ever is. But it is the most significant improvement in health security in our nation’s history.

Undoing the law would be a tragic mistake!

ISI

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P.O. Box 3341 • Great Falls, MT 59403-3341 208-318-0310 • Toll Free: 1-866-360-5683 Fax: 406-761-8358 www.idahoseniorindependent.com email: idahoseniorind@bresnan.net The Idaho Senior Independent is published six times each year in February, April, June, August, October, and December by Barrett-Whitman, 415 3rd Avenue North, Great Falls, MT 59401 and is distributed free to readers throughout the state of Idaho.

The mail subscription rate is $10.00 per year (6 issues). The Idaho Senior Independent is written to serve Idaho’s mature population of all ages. Readers are encouraged to contribute interesting material. Views expressed in opinion stories, contributions, articles, and letters are not necessarily the views of the publisher. The appearance of advertisements for products or services does not constitute an endorsement of the particular product or service. The publisher will not be responsible for mistakes in advertisements unless notified within five days of publication.

All copy appearing in the Idaho Senior Independent is protected by copyright and may be reprinted only with the written permission of the publisher. Advertising copy should be received or space reserved by the 5th of the month preceding the month of publication.

Jack W. Love, Jr., Publisher/Editor Colleen Paduano Julie Crittendon Dan Hubbard Rhonda Lee Sherrie Smith

Office Manager Production Supervisor Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Graphic Artist Admin/Production Assistant

Contributing Writers Natalie Bartley Connie Daugherty Holly Endersby Clare Hafferman Cate Huisman Gail Jokerst Bernice Karnop Craig Larcom Liz Larcom Jack McNeel Michael McGough Dianna Troyer © 2010

PAGE 4 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010 / JANUARY 2011

The holiday season is upon us, and what better way to get into the Christmas spirit than by testing your knowledge of Christmas culture and traditions? This month’s quiz, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Quiz-mas, created by our staff, gives you a chance to do just that.

Congratulations also to Frances Castillo of Caldwell, who submitted the winning answers to the What Do You Know About These Fairly Good Films? quiz that appeared in our October/Novem-

ber 2010 issue. She receives a $25 prize. Thank you, Frances.

Two $25 cash prizes are awarded from the “Contest Corner” in each issue of the Idaho Senior Independent. One prize goes to the person who submits the entry selected by our staff as the featured quiz or puzzle in the “Contest Corner” for that issue. Turn your creativity loose and send us some good, interesting puzzles!

The second $25 prize goes to the person who

submits the correct answers to the featured quiz or puzzle from the previous issue. When there is a tie, the winner is determined by a drawing.

Please mail your entries to the Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403 by January 10, 2011 for our February/March 2011 edition.

Remember to work the crossword puzzle in this issue and on our website www.idahoseniorindependent.com.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Quiz-mas Created by ISI Staff 1. What Christmas Ballet is the most famous of all?

A. Rudolph’s Surprise B. The Nutcracker C. Mr. and Mrs. Claus D. Frosty Goes to New York 2. Where was Mommy kissing Santa Claus?

A. On the Corner B. In the Bedroom C. Under the Mistletoe D. In a Dark Alley 3. Who wrote the song “Here Comes Santa Claus?”

A. Michael Jackson B. Gene Autry C. Persy Douglas D. Leroy Jones 4. What does Alvin want for Christmas?

A. An iPod B. A Bottle of Rum C. A Hula Hoop D. A New Car 5. What should little children leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve? A. Cookies and Milk B. A Bottle of Wine C. Chewing Gum D. Cheddar Cheese

6. What is Frosty the Snowman’s nose made of?

A. A Carrot B. A Potato C. A Button D. A Rock 7. Who is Ebenezer?

A. The Milk Man B. The 23rd President C. The Scrooge D. Mrs. Claus’ Secret Friend 8. What color is the Grinch?

A. Green B. Blue C. White D. Black 9. Which reindeer’s name starts with a “B?” A. Bart B. Burt C. Bodog D. Blitzen 10. Which reindeer does not belong below?

A. Dancer B. Comet C. Roger D. Dasher 11. What is the name of Scrooge’s dead business partner?

Answers To “What Do You Know About These Fairly Good Movies?”

By Julie Hollar-Brantley 1. E, My Fair Lady 2. D, It Happened at the World’s Fair 3. A, State Fair 4. B, It’s Always Fair Weather 5. C, Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair ISI

Answers To Explore Physics from October/November 2010 page 11

A. James Willcot B. John Mantis C. Jacob Marley D. Jimmy Booth 12. Who tried to steal Christmas from the “Whos of Whoville” in the 1966 cartoon based on the Dr. Seuss story?

A. The Grinch B. The Snowman C. Hattie Jacques D. Ian Holm 13. What Christmas food is made from “marshwhorts?”

A. Stuffing B. Sweet Potatoes C. Marshmallows D. Cranberry sauce 14. Which ocean is Christmas Island in?

A. Pacific Ocean B. Atlantic Ocean C. Indian Ocean D. Arctic Ocean 15. Which continent is the turkey from?

A. South America B. North America C. Europe D. Australia ISI 1

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50. To grow stronger 53. Turbo ___: Croc makers 54. Who needs to take responsibility for the animals 55. Horse from “Sahara” 57. What a mother did for her young 58. Harry Potter’s pet 59. Ancestral continental home to cat

Down 1. Fluffy dog, and one of the most intelligent 2. To use a horse as transport 3. The quality of the Shepadoodle or Goldendoodle’s fur 4. One who solicits the help of others 5. This elephant is Dumbo (abbr.)

7. Young goat 8. Replica 9. Politician 10. Seahawk, fish hawk or fish eagle 12. __ Eliot (poet’s initials) 15. Five-toed pachyderm is an ___phant 16. Coat, in an animal

Across 1. Small parrot 6. A husky’s companion, perhaps 11. Mosquito protection 13. Mischievous children 14. _____ Sheep dog (2 wds) 17. ___ Vinci Code?

18. A large deer, Bambi’s cousin 19. Tag for the collar 20. Temperature control, for short 22. Needlefish 24. With kittens - these are usually blue 25. Cat breed with points 27. Which came first the chicken or the ___?

29. A bow of respect 30. Pet name, perhaps 34. Bearded, Grey, Harp, or Hooded 36. Golden bird 37. Templeton of “Charlotte’s Web” 38. Actress, ___Margaret 39. Grand Touring (auto), for short 40. Victorian was a fashion ___ 42. Yogi or Booboo 44. She has nine lives according to legend 46. The first steps of kittens and puppies 48. When kitty is ___, it’s time to see the vet 49. Doggie babies

Easy Conversions Submitted by Julie Hollar-Brantley Here is a list of conversions to help you make the transition from one unit of measurement to another.

1. The ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter is Eskimo pi.

2. Two-thousand pounds of Chinese soup is won ton.

3. One-millionth of a mouthwash is one microscope.

4. The time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement is one bananosecond.

5. The weight an evangelist carries with God is equal to one billigram.

6. The time it takes to sail 220 yards at one nautical mile per hour is a knotfurlong.

7. Sixteen and one-half feet in the Twilight Zone is one Rod Serling.

8. Half of a large intestine is equal to one semicolon. ISI

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 5

21. Salad type 23. Alphabet starters 26. Manner 28. Capricorn, or Nubian 30. Uglobe’s Pet Dinosaur robot’s name 31. Plant eating pet, such as a bunny 32. Kitten or puppy in the pet world 33. Parisian summer 35. One’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents 36. Cleopatra’s cat, perhaps 41. Adept 43. “Dogwear” 45. A cat coat pattern that consists of two or more colors in a striped pattern 46. Second hand 47. Leggy Llama, for short 51. Laugh sound 52. Roman 4 54. Eastbound, for short 55. Good grades in exams 56. Promotional effort ISI

PAGE 6 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

The last century has brought forth enormous changes in technology and the way we live. In his essay, Thoughts Shared With The Younger Generation, Bill Witthuhn reminds us of these changes and suggests that much of this history remains unknown by younger generations. Our winning Remember When submission emphasizes the importance of historical knowledge for understanding how our nation became what it is today. Thank

DECEMBER 2010 / JANUARY 2011

you, Bill, for your contribution.

Remember When contains our readers’ personal reflections or contributions describing fictional or non-fictional events from some time in the past. Contributions may be stories, letters, artwork, poems, essays, etc. Photos may be included.

Each issue of the Idaho Senior Independent features the contribution(s) deemed best by our

staff. The contributor of the winning entry receives a $25 cash prize.

We look forward to receiving your contributions for our February/March 2011 issue. Mail your correspondence to Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403, email to idahoseniorind@bresnan.net, or call 1-866-360-5683 or 208-318-0310. ISI

Thoughts Shared With The Younger Generation

By Bill Witthuhn, Coeur d’Alene With the passing of my generation, we are losing some real history of our country. Today’s young people know little of the conditions that existed in the country’s formative years. In one

lifetime, I have experienced living on a farm with no electricity, a windmill to pump water from a hand-dug well, horses to pull the farm equipment, and all of the cooking done on a Monarch wood stove, which also provided the only source of hot water.

The period known as the Great Depression is not just a name; it is a memory of evening meals consisting of a slice of bread and some flour and water gravy. We occasionally obtained shoes with cardboard soles that lasted two weeks and required additional cardboard inserts to plug the holes in the new shoes. We cut these inserts from scrap cardboard but they only lasted the first few hours of the day. We walked everywhere because there were no school buses.

Today’s child will never know the excitement we had when acquiring our first car, a 1927 Chevy that cost $50. They certainly will not have the opportunity to ride from Michigan to Kentucky in a Model-A Ford. When we read in our sixth grade Weekly Reader that someday they would be able to send pictures through the air, we tended to

lump it in with Buck Rogers and his flying belt.

It is likely and unfortunate that today’s youth may never appreciate what our men did in World War II. They endured tremendous opposition without panic, and eventually gained the upper hand in furious battles, suffering huge losses during the process. People today would find the statistics unbelievable.

These are just a few things that are passing from our store of knowledge with the death of each older person. I fear that today’s youth will never know, and therefore, cannot appreciate our history and their heritage. This is unfortunate.

We are a nation of immigrants bonded together to hack out a fine country with unimaginable comforts and advantages. The people now enjoying these benefits, especially free speech, have little knowledge or appreciation of what they owe to those who preceded them. Unfortunately, many will never know. Today’s older generations are leaving fantastic accomplishments to younger generations that do not realize how and at what cost this country became what it is today. ISI

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill

DECEMBER 2010 / JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 7

Making It Pay

By Clare Hafferman Considering the number of hours you have invested in gardening - along the border, behind the wheelbarrow, in the raspberry patch, or down among the weeds - have you thought about making those efforts pay off?

I am referring here to legal tender - to that picture of George, Abe, or Tom on a bill that might encourage you - because it is not too difficult to find extra income from your gardening adventures. Many of your fellow horticulturists have eyed their turf and decided that tomatoes are the way to go.

The prevailing reason for this is that times are tough and extra cash is welcome. Second, people are gardening because they want to know where their food is coming from. Eating local and buying from Farmer’s Markets has become as popular as knowing the latest celebrity gossip. The first is legitimate, the second much less so.

With several seed catalogs, a computer, and the library for reference, and by paying attention to what sells at the Saturday stalls, you can decide what you should produce to gain a financial return from your sweat equity. It is especially easy since you do not need much to get started; how little or how much you invest in this venture will be up to you.

Think about what resources you already have.

Do you have a raspberry patch or fruit trees? A juniper or other conifers that could be clipped for wreaths or seasonal decorations? If you have ever given away fruit, jam, jelly, or homemade applesauce, given a good year, you might have enough for both your generosity and some cash in the bank.

When you make a list of possibilities, think about what you know. If you freeze or can make any kind of pickles, relish, jam, jelly, salsa, chutney, special sauce, or dried fruit or vegetables, contact your County Extension agent, local service clubs, or a nearby college. Outline lectures you could deliver on those subjects and suggest they hire you. Remember, however little you think you know about gardening, there is always somebody who knows less than you know.

Home-grown herbs could also be a source of income. You can either sell surplus herb plants in the spring or cut the herbs later. Put a rubber band around a bunch of cut herbs and keep them cool in a plastic sack over ice in a cooler. Grow the common ones that most cooks use: parsley, basil, thyme, mint, tarragon, lemon balm (good in salmon loaf and lemonade), chives, and sage.

Pass out free cards with recipes you have used.

This takes a little more time to produce, but it increases interest in what you sell. A well-written herbal book will give you many ideas. You might

also consider that herbs are used in homemade cosmetics.

If you proceed down that garden path to the perennial border, you want to divide and conquer - get the shovel and act like a Roman. An overgrown Iris clump can give you between three to five dollars per division, and daylilies that spread their fans too far are good candidates for equal reduction. Delphiniums are supposed to be a yardstick apart. Could you say that for yours?

Get the shovel. If you divide the iris in the fall and sell it, the tubers will have a chance to settle in.

Daylilies and delphiniums can be dug in either fall or spring. Other plants that spread fast are painted daisies, doronicum (leopardbane), and globe thistle.

If your border has given you bouquets for the house, your office, or your church, other people might pay for a sampling. At the market, I saw a bucket with a variety of flowers and a sign, $1.00 per stalk. Usually, you can buy clear glass vases for a dollar at any thrift store. Pick your bouquets early in the morning, cut the stems to fit the vase, and put a little 7-Up in the water. Tell your customer to change the water for the next two days, and the bouquet will last longer.

Native or hybrid plants that can be dried, such as yellow or pink yarrow, black-eyed Susan, ornamental grasses, penstomen seed stalks, or poppy seed heads (especially the ornamental poppies), can be combined and sold in the fall. Countryside ditch banks are good places to look for additions.

You might consider saving space for big sunflowers, pumpkins, and gourds, because all of these are good sellers once the season slows to a golden stop. There are magazine articles and books that detail how to carve and paint gourds.

If you do not want the gourds to sprawl, provide a trellis or plant them by a wire fence.

After all the years you indulged your floriculture interests or increased your family’s consumption of homegrown vegetables and fruit, it may not have occurred to you that with the surplus and your ingenuity, this could be a little nest egg. Sit on that long enough and it may hatch into one of your long-time goals. Look at that! It is beginning to crack! ISI

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DECEMBER 2010 / JANUARY 2011

Buying and Installing the Right Product Every ENERGY STAR qualified product is independently certified to perform at levels that meet or exceed energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Energy. But how do you know which products will work in your climate or how to install them to maximize your energy savings?

The following tips will help you buy with confidence and install for efficiency.

Purchasing Tips - Shopping for energy efficient products can be a confusing process. For example, there are many different types of windows with various surfaces to either retain heat in your house or keep it from entering your house. What you choose depends on many factors. ENERGY STAR makes it simple! Follow these five steps to ensure the products you buy deliver savings and comfort youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll enjoy. â&#x20AC;˘ Determine your ENERGY STAR Climate Zone. â&#x20AC;˘ Find a retailer or manufacturer. Find a manufacturer or retailer of

ENERGY STAR qualified products. â&#x20AC;˘ Look for the ENERGY STAR label for your climate zone. All ENERGY STAR qualified products must display the ENERGY STAR label. Check the label to make sure the product you are considering qualifies in your area. â&#x20AC;˘ Ask for ENERGY STAR when ordering. When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ordering in a showroom, make sure to ask for a product that qualifies for ENERGY STAR in your climate zone. â&#x20AC;˘ Get a deal. In addition to the long-term energy savings youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll enjoy, take advantage of financial incentives that lower your initial investment: 1. Many utilities provide financial incentives for purchasing ENERGY STAR qualified products. Look for local rebates and other promotions in your area.

2. Claim up to $1,500 in federal tax credits for installing ENERGY STAR qualified windows, doors or skylights or making certain other energy efficiency improvements to your home.

Installing for Efficiency - Even the products can perform poorly if not properly installed. For example, windows, doors, and skylights can be drafty if they are poorly installed. Here are a few steps to get the most out the products you buy: â&#x20AC;˘ Stick to manufacturer instructions. Some manufacturers will void your warranty if you do not follow manufacturer installation instructions. â&#x20AC;˘ Seek out trained professionals. Ask about certification from InstallationMasters, the American Window & Door Institute, or equivalent manufacturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s certification programs. Some warranties require that you use an installer certified by the manufacturer. â&#x20AC;˘ Evaluate installers. When hiring a contractor, interview candidates and ask for references. The Federal Trade Commission Consumer Protection website offers home improvement advice under Consumer Information; just click â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shopping for Products & Services.â&#x20AC;? ISI

Best Cell Phone Plans for Those Who Seldom Call

By Jim Miller For people who do not use their cell phone very often but still want one for emergencies or occasional calls, there are a number of low-cost plans available depending on your specific needs. Here is where to find some of the cheapest deals.

Prepaid Plans - The best way infrequent cell phone users can save money is with a prepaid cell phone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; also known as pay-as-you-go phones.

With a prepaid phone, there is no contract, no fixed monthly bill, no credit check, and no hidden costs that come with traditional cell phone plans.

With this type of service, you buy a special prepaid phone (they can cost anywhere from $10 to $100), then pre-purchase a certain amount of minutes (for talk or text) that must be used within a specified period.

While there are many prepaid phones on the market today, the cheapest deal for occasional users belongs to T-Mobile (t-mobile.com at 800-8662453), which has a 30-minute plan for $10, and minutes do not expire for 90 days. That averages out to $3.33 per month. If, however, you need more talk time, check out their â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gold Rewardsâ&#x20AC;? annual plan where $100 gets you 1,000 minutes that are good for a full year. And with all T-Mobile pay-as-you-go plans, if you replenish your account before your minutes expire, your unused minutes will roll over. TracFone (tracfone.com at 800-867-7183) also offers some nice value plans that start at $10 for 50 minutes per month.

User-Friendly Phones - If you do not mind spending a little more, Consumer Cellular and Jitterbug are two other popular options because they offer inexpensive low-use plans and userfriendly phones.

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DECEMBER 2010 / JANUARY 2011

a $10 per month “casual” calling plan, plus 25 cents per minute, and no long-term contract. They even give a 5 percent monthly service discount to AARP members.

And Jitterbug (jitterbug.com at 800-918-8543), which makes the best user-friendly cell phone on the market, sells their Jitterbug J phone for $99, with calling plans that start at $15 per month for 50 minutes, and no contract. However, both services do charge a one-time activation fee of $35.

Free Cell Phones - If you are living on a limited income, you may even be able to get a free cell phone and free airtime each month through a program called SafeLink Wireless, which was created by TracFone, and is currently available in 29 states including the District of Columbia.

To qualify, you will need to show that you are receiving certain types of government benefits, such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, SSI, or have a household income at or below 135 percent of the poverty line – that is

Have You Tried Social Networking?

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 9

$14,621 for an individual and $19,670 for a family of two. To learn more or apply, call 800-723-3546 or visit safelink.com.

If, however, you do not qualify or if your state does not yet have a SafeLink program, another option to check into is the 911 Cell Phone Bank. This program provides free, emergency-only cell phones to seniors and victims of abuse. To see if there is an emergency cell phone program near you, contact your local law enforcement agency or see www.911cellphonebank. org/agencies.asp.

Savvy Tip: If you are in a long-term cellular contract and want to escape without paying the hefty early termination penalty, see cellswapper.com or celltradeusa.com. These companies match cellular customers who want out of their contracts with people who are willing to take them over.

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of The Savvy Senior book. ISI

OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF LEWISTON-CLARKSTON

By Kim Hong When most people hear the word “online gamer,” they picture a pimply“Sales • Installation • Service” faced teenager wearing headsets in front of a computer? Well, they might If you’re one of those people who have put off doing business want to think again after discovering what recent studies revealed this at OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF LEWISTONCLARKSTON, then you’re missing out on a comfortable year. experience.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project revealed OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF LEWISTONthat social networking sites nearly doubled in usage among people ages CLARKSTON is located at 422 20th Street North in Lewiston, 50 and older since last year, and has grown 100% among people ages phone 743-8485 or 1-800-950-8485. We understand how very, very important repeat customers are. That’s why you will notice 65 and older. Surprisingly, usage among these older groups is growing the extra personal attention that’s given such a high priority here to at a faster pace than younger generations. every person who comes to us. We specialize in offering Overhead Even more surprising is that 46 percent of social gamers are at door sales, installations and service. We offer manual, electrically least 50 years old and dominated by women, according to the 2010 operated and remote control systems with a model for every conceivable application. Repeat customers are a long tradition and Popcap Social Gaming Research. The study establishes social games a way of life. Let us have an opportunity to earn your trust. as a fast-growing pastime for older generations. With more than 80 percent of social gamers stating that playing social games strengthens their relationship with friends, family and colleagues, social gaming reinforces the core appeal of social networks.

These older folks are paving the way for “next generation” online gaming sites. They enjoy playing multi-player games in real-time, making new friends, and winning real prizes. Social media sites have been a long-time favorite among the younger generations, but now older generations are taking a deep interest and companies are starting to come up with niche sites specifically to address their social needs.

“I’m in a wheelchair and pretty much homebound,” said Gail Davis, a 55-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I used to be so depressed and lonely until I discovered online game sites that let me play with real people at the same time. Social game sites have been a lifesaver for me, so many friends and so much fun!”

Davis’ story is just one of thousands of mature adults who are finding a new way to form rewarding relationships online.

Popularity of social games among boomers and seniors has taken off for a variety of reasons: 1. Connecting with old and new friends 2. Being homebound or with limited mobility restricts people from leaving their homes for real life social interaction 3. Games provide mental stimulation that improves health 4. Social games offer real-time interaction for those seeking companionship to help overcome social isolation 5. Cooperative games promote positive interaction that lead to feelings of happiness and long-lasting friendships 6. Social Networking sites are designed so that EVERYONE can easily create a profile and start connecting with others immediately 7. Bridges generational gap by providing a unique platform where parents, teenagers, grandparents, friends, and neighbors regularly communicate Does your bathtub or shower cause 8. Timeout, need an outlet to relieve stress you anxiety? Feeling helpless? and forget about problems for a few minutes 9. Need a sense of purpose in life, and being Our customers are people a “host” on a website fulfills this desire just like you.

Experts on aging say that staying socially connected is a key part to a healthier and more Call the Most Trusted Name fulfilling life because it improves physical and emotional well-being, and increases mental acuin Safe Bathing. ity. New research studies confirmed that human interaction lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, promotes heart health, minimizes the effects of stress, and helps to cope with major life changes such as job loss, health problems, THE BATHROOM SAFETY EXPERTS and bereavement.

For these reasons and more, social gaming sites will continue to gain rampant popularity among the fifty-plus population. They are wired For a free at home assessment and embracing technology at full speed now more or brochure, call Toll Free 1-888-890-8314 than ever! ISI

We Help Prevent Bathroom Injuries

It’s true many falls in the home happen while bathing.

PAGE 10 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 11

For Many, The Right Time For Real Estate Is Now (NAPSI) - If you’ve been thinking - or even just dreaming - about getting another house – whether a vacation home, downsized primary residence, or investment property for rental income, recent research in the real estate market may have some intriguing results for you.

First, Fannie Mae found that two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) are still bullish on home ownership, preferring to own a home despite the challenging economic environment and the housing downturn.

Next, there’s the research conducted by MarketTools, Inc. for CENTURY 21® First-Time Home Buyer and Seller Survey. It captured and compared the opinions of prospective homebuyers and sellers who either purchased or sold their first home within the past year or are planning to buy or sell their first home within the next year. The majority of survey respondents had moved or intended to move more than 10 miles but less than 50 miles from their previous location, indicating current market conditions may be a catalyst for buying or selling homes, as opposed to a desire to dramatically change geographic location or relocate for a job.

“Buying a home, whether it’s your first of subsequent purchase, is a significant financial decision in most people’s lives,” said Rick Davidson, president and chief executive officer, Century 21 Real Estate LLC. “Research helps show that today’s market presents a generational opportunity for home buyers and current home owners looking to leverage their market position.”

Current Market Conditions - More than 80 percent of homebuyers and sellers feel the current housing market is more affordable today than at this time last year. This is despite the fact that 40 percent of all respondents are more worried about the economy now compared to this time last year.

Federal tax credits and solid mortgage rates had a positive impact on driving people to take action.

Re-establishing Balance - A full market recovery takes time and current conditions continue to favor buyers. While buyers are excited about the op-

Easy Conversions Submitted by Julie Hollar-Brantley Here is a list of conversions to help you make the transition from one unit of measurement to another.

1. One million aches are one megahurtz.

2. The basic unit of laryngitis is one hoarsepower.

3. The shortest distance between two jokes is a straight line.

4. 453.6 graham crackers are equal to one pound cake.

5. One million-million microphones are equal to one megaphone.

6. Two million bicycles are equal to two megacycles.

7. 365.25 days are equal to one unicycle.

8. Two thousand mockingbirds are two kilomockingbirds.

9. Fifty-two cards are equal to one decacard.

10. One kilogram of falling figs is one fig Newton.

11. One thousand milliliters of wet socks is one literhosen.

12. One millionth of a fish is one microfiche. ISI

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilge of wisdom to listen.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

portunities in the current market, sellers note their main concern is losing money on the sale of their home and receiving offers near their asking price.

When will the balance between housing need and inventory return? The real estate industry typically considers six months of inventory to represent a balanced market. According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of homes for sale currently represents approximately eight months of inventory and remains 11.6 percent below the record of 4.58 million homes for sale. Homebuyers anticipate home prices will soon begin to rise and, in fact, about half of first-time buyers expect an increase by this time next year, thereby re-establishing better market equilibrium.

Let an Expert Help Guide You - Whether you are considering buying or selling a home, and whether you have bought or sold before, you may be interested to learn that 60 percent of first-time homebuyers do not feel they have a good handle on the real estate process. Given the complexity and the opportunity of today’s real estate market, 85 percent of both first-time buyers and sellers feel that using a real estate professional is important.

Allowing an experienced professional to help guide you can lead you to the home that is right for you, at a price you can afford. ISI

PAGE 12 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Bite-Size Socializing For Less (NAPSI) After a ball game, during family movie night or simply while enjoying a gathering with neighbors, having a great time doesn’t mean having to put forth a great deal of effort or spend a lot of money. It helps if you keep things simple - and bite-sized.

Whether you invite people over or if friends just show up at your door, the key to being a relaxed host is to plan. Have a menu in mind and stock up on foods and disposable dinnerware when they go on sale so you can feed a crowd at a moment’s notice. Here are some ideas to try: Appetizers: Start with easy-to-eat nibbles to kick off the festivities.

• Dips are simple to prepare and appeal to a crowd. Try homemade toasted pita chips drizzled with olive oil and herbs as dippers along with the

traditional chips and seasonal veggies.

• Skewer grape tomatoes, cucumber wedges, chunks of lettuce and slices of bell pepper. Serve with salad dressings on the side.

• Set up a bruschetta bar. Pile a platter with sliced, toasted garlic bread. Place bowls of various toppings nearby for guests to make their own: chopped tomatoes, basil and olive oil; flavored hummus with feta; sun-dried tomatoes and black olives; marinated artichokes and tapenade.

Main courses: Small servings of entrées allow your guests to sample a variety of options.

• Sliders are a fun twist to their larger cousins.

Try minibuns filled with BBQ pork or beef or chicken salad that can be homemade or purchased. Serve with coleslaw, chopped green olives, caramelized

Holiday Trivia Submitted by Julie Hollar Here are some fun facts to share around the holiday table. Answers follow.

1. How many rows are there in an ear of corn? A. 12; B. 13; C. Always an even number; or D. Always an odd number.

2. What state has the turkey as its state bird and has the largest per-acre population of wild turkeys? A. Wisconsin; B. Alabama; C. Michigan; or D. Arkansas.

3. One of the reasons the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 is they were running low on supplies. Which one of the following was mentioned? A. Oatmeal; B. Salt pork; C. Pumpkin; or D. Beer.

4. In 2009, which state was easily the largest producer of pumpkins in the United States? A. Virginia; B. California; C. Ohio; or D. Illinois.

5. The Pilgrims called today’s cranberry a craneberry because…? A. A wooden crane and basket were used to lift cranberries out of a bog; B. The berry’s blossoms look like the head and bill of a sandhill crane; or C. The harvesting process was perfected by Alexander Crane.

Answers: 1. C. Always an even number.

2. B. Alabama; 3. D. The Pilgrims said supplies were dwindling, “especially our beere.”

4. A. Illinois at 429 million pounds, with California and Ohio also prolific at more than 100 million pounds.

5. B. The berry’s blossoms look like the head and bill of a sandhill crane. ISI

onions and more.

• Minimeatballs are a big treat. Buy or make them in advance and freeze them until needed.

Then serve them on buns or with toothpicks alongside a variety of sauces: barbecue, salsa, honey mustard, horseradish cream, curry, chutney, and marmalade.

Dessert: Give guests creamy frozen treats without messy scoops, bowls and spoons. Instead, try poppable, munchable, bite-sized Dibs - frozen vanilla bites covered in a crunchy milk chocolaty shell. These are available in Vanilla and Nestlé Crunch flavors in a convenient 140-bites value pack that keeps them fresh and ready to share with a houseful of guests.

For more information, visit www.dibs.com. ISI

Classic Cocktail Party Themes

By Rene Thompson Cocktail parties are a classic way to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, holiday, or any occasion.

Cocktail parties are fun gatherings and a great way for people to enjoy a social afternoon or evening, presenting the perfect opportunity to get all dressed up and escape the everyday world.

Particularly popular during the 1950s and 1960s were costume parties or themed cocktail parties. A central party theme can be reflected in everything from attire to decor to drinks and food. Here are a few classic cocktail party ideas for your next soiree: Old Hollywood or 1920s flapper. Cocktail parties always conjure up visions of elegance, so why not play up this idea by choosing this classy theme? Play jazz music and invite female guests to dress in flapper dresses or long cocktail dresses, and the men in black tie or striped suits. Pair it with sophisticated cocktails straight from this era.

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

James Bond. Plenty of martinis will be served, and guests have the chance to dress up like James Bond or a Bond girl. Make sure that you know how to make a James Bond-style martini (“shaken, not stirred”) before the date of the event, and brush up on your movie quotes.

Casino Night. This cocktail party is tailor-made for a fun-filled evening. Set up a poker tournament or other casino-style games, decorate in black, white, and red, and serve classic cocktails. Invite guests to dress as high rollers. Do not forget to stock up on cards and poker chips!

Black Tie affair or Black & White Party. This simple and classic cocktail theme is known for being a rather formal event. Invite guests to dress

in black and white, and decorate the room with small punches of color. This cocktail party theme is very easy to do on a small budget because of the simple color theme.

Tiki cocktail parties are some of the most unique cocktail parties out there. If you are looking for something a little unusual, think about decorating with tiki masks and statues and a thatched tiki hut bar. Fruit and chicken skewers make the perfect cocktail party food for this theme, while drinks should include pineapple juice and other fruity flavors. If you have an outdoor space, add tiki torches to give your party a touch of fire.

Regardless of the theme you choose, a cocktail party is the perfect chance to match your decor,

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 13

drinks, and food for a fun evening. You might even want to request that your guests arrive in a costume. Rather than having a full bar, opt for one or two signature drinks. For example, martinis for James Bond, or mai tais for a tiki party. Party food should also fit the theme, such as crab rangoon for tiki or black and white food for your Black & White Party. Stick to finger foods and small bites so that guests can mingle as they eat. Throwing a cocktail party takes some imagination and creativity.

Royal Tiki has a wide range of Tiki, handcarved on Hawaii. Also check for current specials on statues for your Tiki bar Article Source: http://EzineArticles. com/?expert=Rene_Thompson. ISI

Where Are They Now - Julie Newmar a.k.a. Catwoman

By Marshall J. Kaplan The sexy, leather clad villainess from the campiest show on television was born in Hollywood. Her mother was in the Ziegfeld Follies and her father was the head football coach of L.A.C.C. Being raised in Hollywood, Julie was constantly surrounded by glamour. Although her good looks and figure made her a prime candidate for stardom in Hollywood, she first pursued New York in order to strengthen her acting skills.

She appeared on stage in New York in numerous productions including Silk Stockings (1956), L’il Abner (1957), and Marriage Go Round (1959) in which she won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress. Julie then joined the Actor’s Studio (whose alumni included Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe) in order to strengthen her method acting.

Once her acting was at a level where she felt comfortable, Julie ventured out to Los Angeles.

Immediately she won roles in films such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1957) and Marriage Go Round (1960). She became a familiar face on television in the 1960s appearing on numerous

shows including, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Adventures in Paradise (with Gardner McKay), The Jonathan Winters Show, and My Living Doll.

When asked how she won the recurring role of Catwoman on Batman, she replies, “My agent called and told me that the role was mine, and within 24 hour’s notice, I was in front of the camera, shooting a scene with Adam West.” Julie enjoyed tremendously her role as Catwoman. “The cast was unpredictable and irresistible!” In 1966, after playing the role for a year, Julie decided to move on to appear in more television and films. She was replaced as Catwoman first by Eartha Kitt and then

by Lee Meriweather.

She continued on television in the 1970s and 1980s on such shows as Love American Style, The Beverly Hillbillies, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, and Buck Rogers. However, it was the business side of Julie that has taken prominence in the past few years.

In the late 1980s, Julie created and still holds a patent for a revolutionary design of run-free pantyhose. She also opened up her own restaurant called, “Eat A Pita.” And if that is not enough,

she has just invented a product (in research and development), which naturally grows nails.

As an actress, most recently she appeared in the George Michael music video, Too Funky (1992), To Wong Foo; Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995), and Melrose Place (1996).

Julie currently lives in Brentwood, California in a beautiful house and garden that she says is paradise. She has a son, John, who is blind, deaf and suffers from autism, and she cares for him daily.

Recently, Julie is looking to write a book called Your First Time inspired by her finding that her role as Catwoman gave young male fans their first arousal.

There is obviously nothing holding down this actress, producer, and businesswoman. Julie Newmar is purrrrrr-fect! ISI

PAGE 14 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Jo Ann Groves Has Seen Decades Of Change In The Silver Valley

100 Front Street • Wallace, Idaho 83873

800-643-2386 thewallaceinn.com

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Article and photos by Jack McNeel Jo Ann Groves’ roots run deep in the Silver Valley.

“I was born in Kellogg and my parents brought me home to this house at 902 Division in Wardner, which they had just finished building.” That was in 1938 and it is the same house she lives in today.

Wardner was a mining town, dating back to the 1800s when the whole Silver Valley revealed its precious minerals, most notably silver. “There were 4,000 people in its heyday, back in the early 1900s,” Jo Ann explains. “Now we’re down to about 165. Over the years the population has steadily decreased but the aesthetic look of the city has increased. The majority of the old houses are gone.”

Jo Ann arrived well past the boom years of Wardner, but long before its change to an attractive residential community. Over the years, she has seen many changes.

She grew up in the house on Division, left home, and married her husband. When he finished his Army service, “We came back to Wardner because we only had enough money for him, two babies, and me to get here from Ft. Lewis.”

He took a job with Bunker Hill and they started buying a house across the street from her family home. When Bunker went on strike in 1960, they left for a short while but returned and lived in that house until Jo Ann’s mother could no longer live there.

“We moved from across the street because it had five bedrooms and we had four kids. It worked out fine,” she explains. Jo Ann has lived in the family home all but about 15 years of her life. There have been some modifications to the house - the bathroom was converted to a dining room, a former bedroom was enlarged into a large bathroom, a double garage was added - but it is still the same house. “The front porch is the same front porch I played on as a kid,” she says.

After 33 years, Jo Ann retired from Idaho First National Bank in Pinehurst in 1996. She also worked as city clerk in Wardner from 1974 through 1989. When the mayor left, Jo Ann took the job for four years.

“When he moved back home, I didn’t run, he was elected, and I went back as city clerk.

In 1997, he ran again but people ran me as a write-in candidate and I beat him,” she says with a laugh. Jo Ann has been the mayor continuously since that time.

“I remember when we had a tavern, the Wardner store where you went to buy meat, and a little candy shop.

Things stayed good until the mines closed

about 1980. That’s when people started moving and leaving their houses. The tavern has been closed a few years. The bank moved to Kellogg.

We basically have no business.”

Things changed again in 1994 when the gondola was started next door in Kellogg. Eleven new homes have since been built in Wardner.

“Before, our total assessment was about $1.5 million. Now we have four homes here that have been built and are for sale for half a million apiece.

The new homes are very nice and have inspired people to put a coat of paint on their house next door or tear down some old shacks.”

Milo Creek was an open creek down Main Street.

When it overflowed in 1997, government agencies banded together and buried it under the street.

With that came curbs, gutters, and storm drains. ”It changed the whole atmosphere of the residents and people started taking interest in their yards. An ordinance passed that if grass or weeds reached 10 inches tall and property owners didn’t take care of it, the city had the right to do so and the owners were charged. Wardner now looks very nice in summertime,” she says.

Jo Ann modestly doesn’t take much credit.

“Mayor is just a title. To me it’s the city council and residents that really make up what happens with the city.”

Jo Ann keeps busy with other activities in addition to city activities. She’s a member of Catholic Daughters of America. She is on the Senior Services board for the county and on the Shoshone County Food Bank Board. She has served as a member of the American Cancer Society and treasurer for the Red Cross.

Asked about hobbies, Jo Ann says, “My yard and flowers, and cross-stitching.” With 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren, doing cross-stitching items for this brood keeps her busy.

“I make announcements for each of the grandkids and great grandbabies as they come along and if they’re getting married. If it’s a new baby it contains the baby’s name and birthdates.

If they’re getting married they get one with their names on it with wedding date and stuff. It’s a big thing, especially when sometimes I’ve had two weddings and a baby within a year’s time and it takes a while to make these. That and the garden are my main two hobbies.”

And what other changes has she noticed?

“I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed over the years is the apathy of the younger generation and decline in the membership of organizations.

There’s a lack of interest. Basically the only time people show up at meetings is when they want to complain. The younger people don’t care and 40% of Wardner is now owned by out of the area people and they’re never here. Most people are buying because of the ski hill.”

Jo Ann’s sense of family and community is reflected in what she considers her most important accomplishment. “Raising four children who became productive citizens.” ISI

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 15

Wallace’s Dick Caron is an artist, miner, designer, collector, traveler, and community activist Article and photos by Jack McNeel Some folks are content to live quiet lives. Others want to do it all and see it all while still contributing to society. Dick Caron definitely falls into that latter category. Fact outdistances fiction when he talks of his 70 years, a man who still bubbles

w i t h exuberance when he talks of his life and particularly when he talks of his hometown of Wallace.

Dick was born about three miles up Nine Mile Canyon from Wallace in the little community of Black Cloud. He still has family there and family history in that area that dates to the turn of the 20th century.

His young years sound like a movie script. He quit school at 15 “for the greener grasses of California” but soon returned. He worked in sawmills “in the back country near Eagle” and then began work with Lucky Friday mine in 1959. “I became a miner but was scared I would never go back to school.” He lived at home with his single mother helping her out for about two and a half years.

Dick had learned of an art school in San Francisco and “got it in my brain that’s where I wanted to go.” When his mother sold the house, he headed back to California to study design and interior design. Finishing there, he realized he could use some academic background, but decided that college was beyond him at that point.

This period whetted his appetite for travel. He found a room for $30 a month at the Institute for Asian studies in an ashram led by a Hindu man. He met a lady there who took him to Mexico and “got

me interested and excited about travel.” Dick says his time in the ashram was, “more philosophical than religious but with religious overtones - love, peace, harmony.”

After returning from California, Dick enrolled at North Idaho College and attended for several years until the late 1960s when he was drafted into the Army and sent off to Viet Nam. After Viet Nam, Dick worked in design for three years in the Seattle area. Finally, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pacific Lutheran and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin.

Throughout these college years, Dick kept returning home working for Hecla and doing gypo mining. It seemed the Silver Valley was a magnet to him, and his later work in and around Wallace showed his love for his hometown.

Temporarily out of work, he again visited Mexico and then jumped at the chance to visit the Himalayas. “I climbed up into the Everest region and was there for a month. I realized I had no reason to immediately return home so I ended up staying and visited Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia.” In Thailand, Dick attended the University, studied hill tribe people, and then visited among them.

When Dick returned home, he bought and rebuilt a little house in Black Cloud and got a job with Hecla in the corporate headquarters training department teaching folks how to gypo mine. He headed up the work-study program for North Idaho College in the Silver Valley.

Dick had become very proficient in photography, so he began making mining movies and working with the University of Idaho School of Mines.

In 1984, he moved away from mining, bought a building in Wallace, and opened a gift shop containing eclectic arts, crafts, local jewelry, and antiques. “I never made much money but it gave me the opportunity to be where I wanted to be, which was here in Wallace.”

Dick became very involved in the Wallace community during his working years and retirement has not slowed those endeavors or diminished his love for his hometown.

“We’re one of the few mining camps that still exist! I’m proud of that, I really am. We’re still rolling.

We’re still active. My group of friends are almost all from here but we have some smart newcomers and I’m thankful for that but we need to guide them somewhat and get them to realize what we were and what we are now. Make them as proud of our heritage as we are!” The enthusiasm and pride shines clearly through when he talks of Wallace.

Among the projects on which Dick worked was getting the entire town on the National Register

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance. - George Bernard

of Historic Places. Just recently Wallace won the national award from the American Planning Association in the “streets” category for Bank Street, “Probably the most prestigious award Wallace has won to date,” he says.

Dick keeps an extensive file on everything that has happened along with dates and comments on how things got started and this has enabled town acknowledgement and historical integrity.

Dick Caron is also a collector. Shelves in his apartment hold antique toys, early posters of Wallace, old bamboo fishing rods, and jugs and bottles with “Wallace, Idaho” imprinted.

“I have the largest collection of Wallace brothel stuff in existence,” Dick says. Some of that is displayed at Wallace’s Oasis Bordello Museum, one of three museums in town. He has a collection of 200-300 early area postcards and literally thousands of items of paper. “If it has the name of Wallace, Burke, or other small local community, I don’t care if it’s a bill of lading or what, I have copies.”

He prizes items from area old timers and prides himself on knowing who owned them. “That’s kind of fun,” he says. He plans to eventually donate them when a place is available where they can be shown nicely and people can see them.

Dick Caron has been described as “Mr. Wallace” and he is certainly Wallace through and through. ISI

PAGE 16 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Miss This Night With The Gershwins If you like the Gershwinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; music, you are going to love â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;S Wonderful.

This is an all singing, all dancing, musical revue that celebrates the genius of George and Ira Gershwin. Incorporating five mini-musicals inspired by the real events occurring in and around the lives of the Gershwin brothers, this new musical theater extravaganza illustrates their impact on the world then and now. Presented by the Idaho Falls Arts Council, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;S Wonderful plays for one night only, January 15, in the Colonial Theater at 498 A Street in historic downtown Idaho Falls. Tickets are $32 and available at the ticket office or

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by calling 208-522-0471. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;S Wonderful takes you on a ride spanning the decades from the 1920s to the present, setting each segment in different cities, including New York, Paris, and New Orleans. Remember the musical styles that made the Gershwin brothers the most successful songwriting team in the history of popular music. There are 42 beloved songs created by the prolific Gershwin brothers into a fast 90-minute performance. Some are performed as medleys or snippets; others are done in their entirety.

Like a Technicolor movie musical â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;S Wonderful paints a picture of nostalgia and entertainment while paying tribute to the incomparable songbook of George and Ira Gershwin. Call 208-522-0471 for more information. ISI

From Hollywood To Home - New Sound Format Offers Richer Experience

(NAPSI) The latest in digital cinema technology adds to Hollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative toy box to bring a more immersing sensory experience to viewers at home.

You may have already experienced the new audio format, Dolby Surround %R EPP WMRKMRK EPP HERGMRK QYWMGEP VIZYI XLEX 7.1, in select movie theatres with the release of Disney Pixarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Toy Story 3.

GIPIFVEXIW XLI KIRMYW SJ +ISVKI ERH -VE +IVWL[MR The format supplies a richer sound experience for 2-D and 3-D digital cinema 2I[ =SVO 'MX] MR 4EVMW MR XLI W ,SPP][SSH releases alike.

MR XLI W 2I[ 3VPIERW MR XLI ´W ERH The format gives content creators increased control over audio placement WSQI[LIVI MR XLI [SVPH XSHE]ŠE QYWMGEP NSYVRI] and spatial effects when orchestrating sound design for their movies. The new SJ XLI QSWX WYGGIWWJYP WSRK[VMXMRK XIEQ MR XLI audio format goes beyond the standard 5.1 channels currently equipped in movie theatres by enabling two additional surround zones in the rear of the LMWXSV] SJ TSTYPEV QYWMG 7TSRWSVIH F] &ERO SJ -HELS theatre. Four separate surround zones improve sound panning, localization, -20 XLVSYKL GSVTSVEXI JYRHW JVSQ &EXXIPPI )RIVK] %PPMERGI definition, and spatiality to better complement the on-screen action.

4SWX 6IKMWXIV ERH 'PEWW] /0') Those who already have 7.1 systems in the home will be capable of *SV 8MGOIXW :MWMX experiencing feature film content when it comes to video on Blu-ray Disc. % 7XVIIX -HELS *EPPW -HELS [[[ MHELSJEPPWEVXW SVK Nothing changes at all with the home speaker configuration as it maps perfectly with the theatrical 7.1 layout.

Until now, theatrical soundtracks that made their way to the home as 7.1 offerings were originally creGolden Anniversary Season 2010-11 ated as 5.1 mixes for the theatre, and then remixed Dec. 7 Amahl and the Night Visitors, Opera Idaho with Orchestra during a subsequent post-production session.

Dec. 9 Nutcracker, Eugene Ballet Although this delivered a 7.1 discrete experiFeb. 15 The Perfect Gentlemen ence, the mixes did not always reflect the intent of Feb. 25, 26 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Missoula Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre the sound designers who developed the original Mar. 8 Golden Dragon Acrobats feature film mix.

Mar. 21 Martina Filjak, Cleveland International Piano Competition Winner Apr. 29 Boise Baroque Orchestra As more studios adopt the format, and sound designers and mixers start working with discrete Amahl and the Night Visitors Boise Baroque Orchestra 7.1 channels to support the theatrical experience, content will make full use of the extra channels to support the story. Founded in 1965 and best known Golden Dragon for high-quality audio and surround sound, Dolby Acrobats The Perfect Gentlemen Nutcracker of China creates innovations that enrich entertainment at the Great prices, value and personal service, call: (208) 459-3405 or (208) 459-5783 movies, at home or on the go.

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DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Logger Turned Luthier Steve Weill Turns His Love of Wood Into Mandolins Article and Photo by Cate Huisman A couple of miles off Highway 95, up a gravel road covered with wet yellow leaves on a soggy cold October morning,

Steve Weill talks with a visitor about working with wood. He’s a man of medium build, draped with gray whiskers and wearing a plaid flannel shirt to ward off the chill as a woodstove warms up his workshop. The floor is covered with chips and shavings. At the back of the shop, pieces of wood are piled to the ceiling, waiting to be transformed into musical instruments.

Weill likes wood. A shed next to his workshop is filled with beautiful pieces - straight, fine-grained, knot-free boards of fir, cedar, and maple; and wedges of tight, clean spruce, each the size of a fireplace log. But you wouldn’t want to toss them in the fire. Weill will use these perfect pieces to form the top of a mandolin or guitar.

The shed also houses some of Weill’s other wood projects: a Whitehall rowing boat - a traditional hull made of fiberglass but finished with seats and rails of oak, bent and steamed to hold angles together. And stacked against the wall are wooden snowboards he’s made - he was a pioneer of the sport.

Weill grew up in California, where he was a surfer until he moved with his family back to their Kentucky roots when he was 15. He started playing guitar then, but “music’s not my gift,” he says. When asked what his gift is, he answers, “Probably wood.”

An older brother at the University of Idaho recommended its forestry program, so he got back out west when he came to Moscow to study trees in college. The next move was to find land, and this parcel well up in the panhandle filled

the bill with southern exposure, good timber, and not-too-difficult access to the nearby town of Sandpoint. Here he has built the shop and a home for his wife of 36 years, and raised two boys who both still live close by.

Weill was well into a career as a logger when he met legendary mandolin maker Bob Givens in a Sandpoint bar in 1979. At the time, he needed some extra work, and Givens offered him a job in his musical instrument shop. This started Weill down a path of logging in the summer and making musical instruments in the long dark winter when logging activity eased. Now, as north Idaho’s timber industry continues to wane, Weill is focused more on music.

Givens’ instruments were highly valued among musicians. “Bob built some of the finest mandolins and guitars this world has ever seen,” Weill notes on his website, givenslegacymandolins.com. Givens died in 1993, of cancer, at the age of 50, and Weill continues to make the instruments in his name; they’re called “Givens Legacy” instruments. He still uses Givens’s jigs and construction process, but he brings something more: his comprehensive knowledge of and passion for wood.

Weill is adamant that air dry wood is essential for his instruments. “I can’t emphasize air drying enough,” he says. “Any number of things can go wrong” with woods dried too fast in a kiln. “They shrink too fast, and they don’t shrink uniformly.” They can lose their elasticity and can crack internally, “because the heat stabilized the outside first, and then the inside had to shrink to the outside.” Much of the wood he uses he’s harvested and dried himself. He’s still cutting wood now to use in 20 years.

Built with these carefully selected and cultivated woods, Givens Legacy instruments include three types of mandolins.

The A model is simple and small; it has a round head and strings that carry their sound.

The octave mandolin is much larger than the A; with longer strings; it’s meant “to fill in the middle” between the bass line and the melody.

The F model is the mandolin that will be familiar to most readers: Fancier, more expensive, and more popular, it’s played by bluegrass pickers.

“Bluegrass is played so fast that you want

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PAGE 18 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

an instrument that does not have a lot of sustain to it,” says Weill. “Otherwise the harmonics overrun your melodic line.

The F has more mass to it so it sounds throatier.”

He also makes a “dreadnaught” guitar - a big guitar for filling out the sound under the ringing soprano of a mandolin, fiddle, or banjo. And occasionally he’ll make other instruments.

“I’ve built many different kinds of instruments because it’s all part of a study. . . You end up building better mandolins if you’ve built a few violins. Building guitars, you get to understand the physics of the energy in your different sized instruments.”

These projects have also helped him learn to judge just how much of his marvelous wood to put into each instrument: “When you don’t put enough weight in an instrument, you get a thin stringy sound. When you put too much weight in instrument, you get a zingy sound. Weill’s looking for “a

rich, robust sound,” that tells him the instrument’s weight is just right for its size.

All the instruments are made to order for individual customers, and up until recently, they’ve all been sold by word of mouth. “I’ve always been able to sell 12 to 25 instruments a year,” says Weill. But now, with less logging to do, he is spending more time building instruments and actively marketing them. He went to Idaho’s famous fiddle festival at Weiser this year, and buyers will be able to see him and his instruments at the Wintergrass festival in Seattle in February.

Although at one time there were several instrument makers in Bonner County, it’s not a hotbed of musical craftsmanship, and Weill has few peers locally for his craft. Instead, he came here, and will stay here for what grows here.

“It’s just a nice place. And it does have some perks - wood.” ISI

Legendary Lake Pend Oreille: Idaho’s Wilderness of Water Book Review by Cate Huisman Keokee Books of Sandpoint brought out Legendary Lake Pend Oreille: Idaho’s Wilderness of Water in the autumn of 2009 after it had been in the works for half a decade. The magnum opus of Sandpoint author Jane Fritz, the book was well worth the wait.

“The lake book” as Fritz’s work was known during its long gestation period goes far beyond its origins as a mere guide to recreation around the lake. It covers the human and natural history of the northern panhandle as well as opportunities for camping, boating, hiking, swimming, fishing, and even scuba diving (there are century-old rail cars down there!) throughout the Pend Oreille basin. It even provides information about several of the other, smaller lakes in the area.

Its 400 pages make the biggest book ever produced by Keokee.

This seems appropriate for a book about a lake that is equally superlative - Idaho’s largest at 43 miles long and 1,100 feet deep that curls itself around 111 miles of shoreline.

The book divides the lake into seven guided sections providing details for public access points and facilities, how to reach them, and acYou’ve gotta check out this exciting new addition tivities that are available in each area. A separate to our comprehensive Health & Wellness Program.

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chapter includes comprehensive information about trails for hiking, mountain-biking, and horsebackriding.

Another chapter covers the fish that have made Lake Pend Oreille an angler’s paradise, including a guide to currently popular game species as well as a history of the commercial whitefish and kokanee fisheries that once provided an important source of seasonal employment.

In addition, there is extensive coverage of the human and geologic history of the lake, and the area. This includes a description of the Kalispel people who lived here before those of European descent arrived, and notes on David Thompson, the first white fur trader in the Pend Oreille basin, whose incredible travels outdid those of his contemporaries, Lewis and Clark. Later human arrivals are also covered with accounts of the settlers who came to extract timber and mineral wealth near the turn of the last century.

Sprinkled throughout and adding immense appeal are countless stories of life on the lake. Vignettes called Anecdota and Lore Along the Shore give a personal touch to the sections on individual locations, locating campsites of the Kalispel, rumrunners’ prohibition hideouts, old mills and mines, and the route of the mail boat that still runs to the remote communities along the southeastern shore.

Several other vignettes with drawings provide details about native flora and fauna. Readers will know where to see mountain goats, where kokanee spawn, and the uses and benefits of wildflowers such as kinnikinnick, lupine, beargrass, and fireweed.

No less impressive than this collection of lake lore are the illustrations including maps for each of the seven areas, and a full-color foldout of the entire area. Hundreds of photos show famous people visiting Lake Pend Oreille, including Adlai Stevenson at the helm of a motorboat, Bing Crosby with a prize fish, and Teddy Roosevelt on a tour in 1912. Others show the Kalispels and settlers who lived here as well as the steamboats, ferries, and trains that were once the lifeblood of the lake.

For those who want to understand Idaho’s narrow northern reaches, the book is a treasure.

You can find it at Vanderford’s or Keokee’s office in Sandpoint, or order online at www.sandpointonline. com/catalog. ISI

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 19

Sagle’s Paul Rechnitzer Knows the Panhandle’s Railroads Article and Photo by Cate Huisman “I’m really not a railroad nut,” says Paul Rechnitzer of Sagle. In fact, he resents the whistles of trains approaching the crossing near his house - they are a real conversation stopper on summer evenings in his backyard.

But considering that he has published two books about railroad history, he often makes public presentations about trains, he lives within a stone’s throw of an active track, and he built an outbuilding behind his house for his model train layout, his statement requires a little explanation.

Like many, Rechnitzer is a transplant to the Idaho panhandle. He grew up in Kansas City and always liked building models. His first wife Katherine introduced him to model trains when she bought a model railroad kit to amuse herself during a stay in the hospital.

The next couple of decades were taken up with work and family; his career in sales and marketing with Phillips Petroleum took him around the country, including Spokane. Through a fellow employee he discovered north Idaho and purchased land on the south side of the Pend Oreille River in 1974, intending some day to retire there. In 1977, he and Katherine retired to the Pend Oreille.

He realized that his new home was close to Seneacquoteen, an unpronounceable enigma for all newcomers to north Idaho that was for millenia a crossing place on the river. There had been a ferry there until the 1950s, and Rechnitzer’s neighbor asked him to write an article about it.

“The more I worked at it, the more I thought, boy, there’s no information about the ferries. Some guy in southern Idaho had written a book about Idaho ferries, and it included one ferry up here.”

But there were in fact 14 ferries across the Pend Oreille River at various times over a 100-year period, and Rechnitzer talked to so many people about them that “it reached a point where I had to publish,” he says. He started Comanche Press to bring out the resulting work, Always on the Other

Side.

While the ferries are gone, dozens of trains passing daily through Sandpoint remind residents that their recent history is rooted in the railroads.

His next book was Take the Train to Town. Once he had published that, former employees of the Spokane International Railroad (SIRR) “started pumping me to write a book” about their old employer, and the result was Corbin’s Road, about Daniel Chase Corbin and the building of the SIRR. Initially, says Rechnitzer, “Railroads out here were built to transport people to settle the area.”

Later, private investors sold stock to build competing or complementing railroads that hauled freight as well as settlers. The SIRR was one such privately funded venture; another was the Great Northern, built by a man named Jim Hill to compete with the Northern Pacific.

The competitors did not always get along, and “financial shenanigans now are nothing compared to what it was in those days,” says Rechnitzer of the dirty dealings between railroad men. “We’re all just Sunday school boys compared to those guys.”

Hill, for example, bought Corbin’s railroad out from under him. When Hill offered to buy, says Rechnitzer, “Corbin wouldn’t sell it to him. Well, that’s no deterrent. Jim Hill goes to J.P. Morgan and says, buy up all the stock you can in the Spokane.” The next thing Corbin knew, Jim Hill owned his railroad.

Corbin “got a gold watch and said goodbye,” as Rechnitzer tells it.

Publishing inevitably led Rechnitzer into public speaking. “When you write a book, you gotta get it sold,” he says, so he started making presentations to help sell his books. Now he is known as much for the presentations as for the publications. “One presentation leads to another, and they just kinda build up,” he explains.

As a speaker, he is known for his hats. Although it is obvious from his memento-filled twocomputer home office that Rechnitzer is up to date on technology, he does not have a PowerPoint

presentation; he has a hat presentation. He has an engineer’s cap with the insignia of each railroad he talks about, and he works his way through the different lines by putting on a different cap as he tells about each one.

Rechnitzer left the Pend Oreille property after Katherine died ten years ago, and now he lives with his second wife Patti in a house close under Gold Hill, just a whistle from the tracks of the modern Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad. The model train layout in the outbuilding includes Sandpoint’s century-old train bridge.

You would think all this would keep a retired guy busy. But Rechnitzer continues to involve himself in other projects. He recently mounted a display on Armistice Day for the public library. Now, he is preparing a set of model soldiers to replicate an African American unit he commanded in Belgium and Germany during World War II. So it is clear that Rechnitzer is not a railroad nut. He does not have time. But for a non-nut, he sure knows a lot about railroads. ISI

PAGE 20 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 21

Medicare Open Enrollment Medicare’s Fall Open Enrollment Period lasts through December 31, just as it has in years past. But this year, Medicare consumers need to be aware of changes taking place in 2011 in order to make the best-informed decision during Fall Open Enrollment for Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, or Part D. The Medicare Rights Center has compiled a list of upcoming changes and issues of interest to Medicare consumers.

Changes in Coverage in 2011 • During the coverage gap (also known as the “doughnut hole”), there will be a 50 percent discount for brand-name drugs and a 7 percent discount for generics. See Part D section below.

• Medicare coverage of preventive services will improve. Original Medicare will now cover annual wellness visits, for which there will be no out-ofpocket costs. There will be no cost sharing for people with Original Medicare

for other preventive services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (While Medicare private health plans [Medicare Advantage plans] are not required to provide annual wellness visits and covered preventive services without cost sharing, most plans do.

Enrollment Periods During the Fall Open Enrollment Period, people with Medicare have the right to change their Medicare health and drug coverage options without restriction. They can make as many changes as they need, and the last change they make before December 31 will take effect on January 1, 2011.

Beginning in 2011, there will be a Medicare Advantage Disenrollment Period (MADP), which will run from January 1 through February 14. The Open Enrollment Period, which ran from January 1 through March 31 in past years, no longer exists.

During the MADP: • People who are unhappy with their Medicare Advantage (MA) plan are allowed to switch to Original Medicare, and may add Medicare prescription drug coverage even if their MA plan did not include drug coverage.

• Unlike in past years, people in MA plans CANNOT change to another MA plan.

• People with Original Medicare CANNOT make any changes.

Many people who have Original Medicare also purchase a supplemental plan (a “Medigap” plan) designed to fill in the gaps in Medicare coverage. If you become unhappy with your MA plan, or during the MADP want to disenroll from your Medicare Advantage, you may consider Original Medicare with a Medigap as an alternative option - but you may not have the right to purchase a Medigap in your state. The rules and consumer protections for Medigaps vary from state to state. Some consumers may have access to Medigaps, but may not be protected from higher premiums and coverage exclusions.

Before making your final choice during Fall Open Enrollment, call your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) to find out if you will have the right to purchase a Medigap in your state, what options you have, and what consumer protections your state provides.

What’s New - Medicare Private Health (Medicare Advantage) Plans?

• The Medicare private health plan marketplace has been streamlined, and consumers shopping for plans will now see meaningful differences among plans offered by the same company. Plans from the same company that offer nearly identical benefits have been consolidated to help simplify the choices available to consumers. People who were in a plan that was consolidated with other plan(s) will automatically be enrolled in a plan from the same company that has benefits most like the ones they had.

• Medicare consumers who enroll in a Medicare private health plan (Medicare Advantage plan) will be protected from high out-of-pocket costs by the following new cost protections: 1. Mandatory Maximum Out-of-Pocket (MOOP) Limit. Beginning in 2011, all Medicare private health plans will be required to have a maximum outof-pocket limit. The mandatory MOOP limit will vary according to the type of plan. MA plans may also voluntarily impose a lower MOOP. Consumers who need expensive treatments and services will now be protected from exorbitant out-of-pocket costs.

2. Cost protections for some medical services and items that people in poor health are more likely to require. In addition to the protection provided by MOOP, Medicare consumers in Medicare private health plans will no longer be charged more for certain services than they would be had they been in Original Medicare. Services protected by this new rule include chemotherapy drugs and durable medical equipment.

Did You Know? - • People whose plans have been consolidated with others are automatically enrolled into another plan, but they have the right to choose and enroll in a different plan. They have until December 31 to choose a plan. People will find out which plan they have been automatically enrolled into in their Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), which they should have received by October 31.

• Plans that are terminated no longer participate in Medicare. People whose plans have been terminated are entitled to a Special Enroll-

PAGE 22 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

ment Period (SEP), and have until January 31 to choose a new plan. If they do not do so, they will automatically be enrolled in Original Medicare, not in another Medicare private health plan. Note, however, that if they were in an MA plan with prescription drug coverage and choose Original Medicare or allow themselves to be automatically enrolled in Original Medicare, they must also choose a stand-alone drug plan or else they may lose drug coverage.

• While all Medicare private health plans will be required to have MOOP limits in 2011, they have the discretion to structure payments for many services. It is important for consumers to examine a plan’s cost-sharing charges for services they commonly use.

Even if you are happy with your current plan, you should review all of your options, including Original Medicare and a Medigap. Medicare private health plans change their costs and benefits every year, and every year, there are plans that decide to drop out of the Medicare program. The consolidation of plans this year, and the new MOOP requirement and cost protections will most likely lead to more changes than in past years.

Read your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), which you should have received by October 31. It will list the changes in your plan, such as the premium and copays, and will compare the benefits in 2011 with those in 2010.

If you are considering a Medicare private health plan, make sure you understand how it works. Take the time to ask questions, such as: Will I be able to

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

use my doctors or other providers I want to see?

Are they in the plan’s network and are they taking new patients who have this plan? Which specialists, hospitals, home health agencies, and skilled nursing facilities are in the plan’s network? How much will it cost to see my primary care physician?

A specialist?

What’s New for Part D Plans?

• 50 percent discount for brand-name drugs, 7 percent discount for generics for people who are in the coverage gap (“doughnut hole). These discounts will greatly reduce the out-of-pocket costs for Medicare consumers who are in the doughnut hole in 2011, and the consumer’s share of costs will continue to decrease, until the doughnut hole is closed completely in 2020.

• The Medicare private drug plan marketplace has been streamlined, and consumers shopping for plans will now see meaningful differences among plans offered by the same company. People who were in a plan that was consolidated with other plan(s) will be automatically enrolled in a plan from the same company that has benefits most like the ones they had.

• Beginning in 2011, individuals with incomes over $85,000 ($170,000 for couples) will pay a higher premium for Part D. • People whose plans have been terminated are entitled to a Special Enrollment Period (SEP), and have until January 31 to choose a new plan.

If they do not do so, they will lose drug coverage.

Every year, there are plans that are terminated.

Even if you are happy with your current plan,

you should review all of your options, because plans change their costs and benefits every year.

Your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) listed the changes in your plan, such as changes in the premium, copays, formulary, tiers, and restrictions, and will compare the benefits in 2011 with those in 2010. It is very important that you read your ANOC and consider all of your options, since many plans make changes such as coverage restrictions, quantity limits, prior authorization, and step therapy (requiring you to try another drug before the plan will cover the prescribed drug), and your current plan may not be your best choice for 2011.

If you use Medicare.gov’s online Plan Finder tool to select the best plan for your needs, call the plan and confirm the information you have gathered with a plan representative before you enroll.

Keep a record of your conversation with the plan representative. This will protect you if you discover that the information on which you based your decision to enroll in a plan was inaccurate.

The Medicare Rights Center recommends enrolling in a plan by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (633-4227) rather than the plan itself. Also visit www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan or www.ssa.gov/ prescriptionhelp/.

You can find your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) at www.shiptalk.org or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (633-4227). The Medicare Rights Center’s Toll-Free Consumer Hotline: 1-800-333-4114 (Monday through Friday, 9 am - 5 pm Eastern Time). ISI

Three Faces of Trusts: Be Sure You Are Doing the Right Thing

By Jonathan J. David, Senior Wire Dear Jonathan: My mother recently died and because of good planning on her part, she set up a trust so that her estate would not have to be probated. I recently went over to her home and found that the trustee had changed the locks. I was upset and I told the trustee so. What gives her the right to prevent

me, or any of my siblings, for that matter, from entering the home we grew up in? Does she have that right?

Jonathan says: Yes. You did not indicate why you were trying to get in the house, however, the trustee’s job is to protect and preserve all of your mother’s assets, including the home and its contents. Unfortunately, so often when some-

body dies, that person’s relatives will get access to the home and start taking personal property out whether they were the intended recipients of that property or not. Once the property has been removed, it is very difficult to try to determine what was there, what was removed and who may have taken it. That is why the trustee changed the locks on the home, to prevent this

There are 5 things Idahoans with Medicare need to know right now …

and just 1 number you need to call:1-888-492-2583 (or TTY 1-800-377-1363 for the hearing impaired), 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week.

Medicare’s Annual Election Period runs from November 15 – December 31, 2010 ONLY. Whether Medicare is your only insurance or you currently have a Medicare plan from a company other than Blue Cross of Idaho, you need to make important decisions about your healthcare and prescription drug coverage BEFORE the deadline. Call Blue Cross of Idaho today. Learn why the best option for you in 2011 may NOT be the same coverage you have today.

Our FREE Seminars are a great place to learn more — please join us!

To register for an upcoming seminar in your area (or to request a FREE Information Kit by mail), call toll free: 1-888-492-2583 (TTY 1-800-377-1363),8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week.

Or visit www.bcidaho.com/medicare to find a meeting near you.

Blue Cross of Idaho is a Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract.

The benefit information provided herein is a brief summary, not a comprehensive description of benefits. For more information contact the plan. For accommodation of persons with special needs at sales meetings, call 1-888-492-2583 (TTY 1-800-377-1363), 7 days a week between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. A sales person will be present with information and applications for the HMO, PPO and PFFS plans that may be discussed at the event. Blue Cross of Idaho is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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You’ll feel right at home.

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

sort of thing from happening.

Having said the above, do not take it personally. Do not assume the trustee took this action because she did not trust you or your siblings.

She was just doing her job, which benefits all of the beneficiaries of the trust.

Also, I would guess that if she did not change the locks on the home and someone had gotten in the house and taken things that did not belong to him or her, you would not have been too happy about it and would have probably blamed the trustee for not securing the property.

If you have any concerns about your rights as a beneficiary of the trust and/or whether you are being properly advised of those rights, as well as what assets are owned by the trust, I suggest you contact the trustee with those concerns.

Dear Jonathan: My husband and I set up a trust and upon the advice of our attorney, we transferred our home to our trust so it

would avoid probate upon our death. We are thinking that we may want to sell our home sometime in the next year or two. In order to do that, do we have to transfer the home back out of the trust to ourselves?

Jonathan says: No. The home can be sold by the trust. It is the same as if you were selling the home yourselves, except, rather than signing the deed in your individual names; you would be signing the deed as trustees of your trust.

Once you have sold the home, you should consult with your attorney to make sure that any new home you purchase is placed in your trust for probate avoidance.

Dear Jonathan: In order for a living trust to be effective, do all my assets have to be transferred to that trust while I am alive?

Jonathan Says: If you want assets titled in your sole name to avoid probate, then you want to transfer those assets to your trust while you are alive. Otherwise, upon your death, those

Number One On Your Heirsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wish List? Your Ethical Will

By Jo Kline Cebuhar, J.D. Seventy-seven percent of Baby Boomers and their parents say that the most important inheritance to receive and provide is the legacy of values and life lessons - more important than financial assets or real estate. Then what explains why less than one-third of each group has actually discussed the most important legacy with loved ones?

Whether or not you are surprised by the above findings of the Allianz American Legacies Study begs the question. How do you articulate your beliefs, life lessons, and hopes for the future or get your loved ones to share theirs? Well, the hard work has already been done. It began over 3,500 years ago with the first Ethical Will, spoken

by Jacob to his twelve sons. This ancient tradition of creating and sharing a message of your beliefs and values, life lessons and hopes for the future

has morphed dramatically over the centuries to reflect the media of the times. From the story of Jacobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ethical Will scratched on a clay tablet to The Last Lecture video delivered by Professor Randy Pausch, the core elements of an Ethical Will remain intact: as a way to record what you stand for, the Ethical Will is unrivaled.

As well as being a part of your intangible estate, creating an Ethical Will can help you sort out what principles you want to nurture with your bequests and lays the groundwork for Footprint Philanthropyâ&#x201E;˘: the practice of choosing charities that demonstrate standards and goals that foster your own core values. For heirlooms with sentimental value, consider coupling your gifts with stories of their meaning as reminders of past times or of the values of passed loved ones.

The goal of creating a special legacy may be

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 23

assets will need to be probated. Assuming you have a last will and testament that names your trust as the beneficiary of your probatable assets, upon the completion of probate, those assets will pass or pour over to your trust.

If you do not move your assets into your trust while you are alive and you do not have a will naming your trust as the beneficiary of your probatable assets, then your trust will never receive those assets. This is because a person who dies without a will is deemed to have died intestate. In that event, the state where you live will distribute your assets to your heirs according to a formula prescribed by state law.

You should consult with an estate planning attorney in your area to make sure you are properly funding your trust and that you have a last will and testament that names your trust as the beneficiary of any assets you fail to transfer to your trust while you are alive. ISI

PAGE 24 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

what starts you thinking about an Ethical Will, but there are other rewarding reasons to create one. The creative process can be a constructive exercise in self-reflection and goal setting throughout life. Whether triggered by a career change, first home, anniversary, empty nesting, your first grandchild, or even a serious illness, identifying and examining your core values and real passions can guide future aspirations - a “personal mission statement.”

And what better way for young parents to express their hopes for a child’s future than to create Ethical Will messages at birth, the first day of school, graduation, and marriage? Any one of life’s milestones, jubilant or painful, can be a motivator and opportunity to reflect and then share wisdom and stories in an Ethical Will.

The form of an Ethical Will is only limited by the imagination of the creator: • A simple, handwritten letter.

• An elaborate multimedia slideshow, with pictures, words, and music.

• An embellished photo album or scrapbook, affirming the values, life lessons, and hopes practiced by those pictured.

• An Ethical Cookbook, recalling the memories and values that accompanied those prized family recipes and the people who created them.

• An Ethical Genealogy, weaving through your family history the stories of the values, life lessons, and hopes of your ancestors, illustrating what you came from as well as from whom you came.

• Tape recorded stories or an amateur video, capturing one-of-a-kind voices and faces.

Any media that include the elements of an Ethical Will take memories and stories to a different level - focusing on values demonstrated in word and deed.

Before you turn your creative juices loose, the first step in crafting an

Ethical Will is identifying what your beliefs and values, life lessons and hopes for the future are. Right back where you started, not knowing how to begin to create this legacy of values and life lessons? The steps are simple: • First, know your reason for creating an Ethical Will and with whom you plan to share it.

• Use familiar prompts to organize your thoughts such as family photographs, special occasions, historical events, or favorite music. If you want more structure, find an Ethical Will outline or template with prompting questions such as What value has served you best throughout life? Of what accomplishment are you most proud? What do you hope life will bring for your loved ones?

• Decide what medium you want to use - a recording, a simple letter, a video or slideshow, a collection of favorite quotations, an essay, a list of adjectives, or a collage of photographs and messages.

• Put it all together. Don’t worry about style at first, just get your thoughts on paper, and polish it later. And don’t forget that your Ethical Will can evolve over time.

• Set a deadline to have your Ethical Will completed and decide when you want to share it with loved ones. Then do so or put it in a safe place where others can find it when the appointed time comes.

Our most important legacy cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

It is what we believe, what we know, and for what we hope. Take the time to practice the ancient tradition of creating and sharing an Ethical Will. As Oscar Wilde put it best: “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.”

Jo Kline Cebuhar is an attorney and former chair of Iowa’s largest hospice. She is also the author of SO GROWS THE TREE – Creating an Ethical Will – The legacy of your beliefs and values, life lessons and hopes for the future. For more information, please visit www.SoGrowsTheTree.com. ISI

Complete Proverbs A first-grade school teacher had twenty-five students in her class. She presented each child with the first half of a wellknown proverb and asked them to come up with the second half. It is hard to believe that these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!

1. Don’t change horses... until they stop running.

2. Strike while the... bug is close.

3. It is always darkest before... Daylight Savings Time.

4. Never underestimate the power of... termites.

5. You can lead a horse to water but... how?

6. Don’t bite the hand that... looks dirty.

7. No news is... impossible.

8. A miss is as good as a... Mister.

9. You cannot teach an old dog new... math.

10. If you lie down with dogs... you will stink in the morning.

11. Love all, trust... me.

12. The pen is mightier than the... pigs.

13. An idle mind is... the best way to relax.

14. Where there is smoke there is... pollution.

15. Happy the bride who... gets all the presents.

16. A penny saved is... not much.

17. Two’s company, three’s... the Musketeers.

18. Don’t put off until tomorrow what... you put on to go to bed.

19. Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and... you have to blow your nose.

20. There are none so blind as... Stevie Wonder.

21. Children should be seen and not... spanked or grounded.

22. If at first you don’t succeed... get new batteries.

23. You get out of something only what you... see in the picture on the box.

24. When the blind lead the blind... get out of the way.

25. A bird in the hand... is going to poop on you. ISI

If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play at it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.

Bob Hope

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 25

Beach Walk And Loons Wait At Dungeness Spit Article and Photo by Craig & Liz Larcom In winter, you could call Dungeness Spit downright loony. Red-throated loons dive close to the shore, in water that may be only a yard deep.

Common loons swim a little farther out, and down the way, rafts of Pacific loons swim in the strait.

The spit, a finger of land that extends into the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Washington’s north Olympic Coast, makes for a delightful beach walk, even without the loons. The expansive views, a rarity in these forested parts, sweep from the Olympic Mountains to the south, to oceangoing vessels, to a lighthouse at the end of the spit, and on to Victoria, British Columbia across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A pile of driftwood running up the middle of the strip of land creates plenty of impromptu benches, handy for any time a walker wants to sit for a spell and take in the view. And being close to sunny Sequim, in the Olympic Peninsula’s rain shadow, agreeable weather hovers here.

No one will appreciate the spit more than the bird watcher who has stood on the thrumming deck of a super ferry attempting to find the saltwater birds that prefer to live a bit off the shore.

The big ferries send the birds diving and flying just as they get into binocular range. But the person who hikes the five-and-a-half-mile-long spit walks a sandy path, as narrow as 50 feet wide, into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Officially classified as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society, the spit offers excellent birding.

Bob Norton, writing in A Birder’s Guide to Washington declares, “The prairies, wetlands, coastline, and offshore waters between Sequim Bay and Dungeness Spit, on both sides of the Dungeness River north of Sequim, are one of Western Washington’s best birding spots. Among areas of comparable size, only Ocean ShoresWestport can rival Dungeness in number and variety of regularly occurring species and for its long (and growing) list of rarities.”

Long before these accolades arrived, the federal government set aside the spit as Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in 1915. In that spirit, the east side of the spit, as well as Graveyard Spit which connects to it, is “for the birds.” Visitors cannot go there, though they can walk all the way to the lighthouse, peering over the driftwood from time to time to see the birds in the closed area.

Because of its mild winters, waterfowl from

the frozen northland gather here, and in some years, snowy owls and even gyrfalcon. A tally of bald eagles in winter might typically come to 40 or 50. Other seasons have their own highlights, notably shorebird migration in spring and fall, and a Caspian tern colony far out on the spit in summer. But winter may surpass them all.

Brant, sea geese which are attracted by eel grass, concentrate at Dungeness. They arrive in late fall, but numbers build even more come April, typically peaking at about 8,000 birds before they head north. Smaller, saltwater cousins of the Canada goose, they fly fast in wavy lines that ball up from time to time.

Shorebirds that reside in winter, such as dunlin, black-bellied plover, and sanderlings, also ball up, but they do not string out and are much smaller. Their formations shimmer as they dart and twist about in tight swarms.

Harlequin duck, pigeon guillemot, surf scoter, white-winged scoter, and black scoter are among the waterfowl bobbing on the water. Birders should also keep an eye out for Eurasian wigeon.

Birders should not turn back too soon. Bird life changes as the spit gets farther into the strait.

In fact, Bob Boekelheide, director of the nearby Dungeness River Audubon Center, says the best bird watching starts two or three miles after the walk begins. “The birding picks up when Graveyard Spit and a lagoon come into view.

You will see thousands of ducks, and at high tide shorebirds roost on the driftwood. Offshore, in the final stretch to the lighthouse, you’ll see scoter, long-tailed duck, and red-breasted mergansers,” he says.

Birds are not the only wildlife here. Hikers may see harbor seals sticking their heads out of the water along the way. The seals haul out in numbers at the end of the spit.

A hike at Dungeness offers a chance to walk one of the longest spits in the world, and to enjoy an abundance of

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PAGE 26 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

saltwater birds at the same time.

If you go: Allow 4 to 6 hours for the hike, which starts in the woods on the bluff above. Do not neglect your “strait” jacket. Even if it is sunny, the area is windy. Low tide provides the easiest walk-

ing. Dungeness tide tables are at www.kaleberg. com/tides/dungeness/index.html.

From US 101 in Sequim, drive west 5 miles to milepost 260. Turn north onto Kitchen-Dick Road for 3 miles, then left on Voice of America

Road. You will drive through the Clallam County Park and campground to reach the trailhead. Fee is $3. For more information, visit www.fws.gov/ washingtonmaritime/dungeness or call 360-4578451. ISI

Discount Travel Tips for Retirees

By Jim Miller Everybody loves a bargain but in today’s tight economy, senior discount travel deals that have real value are getting harder to find. Here are some tips to help you find the best deals.

Senior Discounts? When it comes to senior travel bargains, an important point to keep in mind is that the “senior discount” may not always be the best deal. Hotels, airlines and cruise lines, for example, offer advanced bookings along with special deals and promotions from time to time that may be a lower rate than what the senior discount is. Always ask about the lowest possible rate and the best deal available. With that said, here’s a

breakdown of the different senior travel discounts that are available today.

AARP discounts - If you’re a member of AARP, various travel discounts are available on hotels, rental cars, cruises and vacation packages.

To find them, see aarp.org/travel or expedia-aarp. com, or call 800-675-4318.

Airlines - Southwest (southwest.com, 800435-9792) has the best senior fare program, offering discounts on walk-up fares to 65 and older.

American (aa.com, 800-433-7300), Continental (continental.com, 800-523-3273), and U.S. Airways (usairways.com, 800-428-4322) also offer senior fares to 65-plus to selected destinations.

Change your address not your lifestyle.

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Check it out for yourself.

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Train discounts - Amtrak (www.amtrak.com, 800-872-7245), the nationwide rail network, provides a 15 percent discount to coach travelers age 62 and older. And a 10 percent discount to passengers 60 and older on cross-border services operated jointly by Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada.

Bus travel - Greyhound (greyhound.com, 800-231-2222), the largest provider of intercity bus transportation, offers a 5 percent discount on fares to seniors over 62. Peter Pan (peterpanbus. com, 800-343-9999), which serves the Northeast region of the U.S., offers the same deal. Trailways (trailways.com, 800-776-7581), a privately owned company also provides senior discounts but they vary by location. And, most local bus lines and public transportation offer discounted senior passes.

Car rentals - Most car rental companies offer 5 to 25 percent discounts to customers who belong to 50-and-older organizations like AARP. Discounts are also available to AAA (aaa.com) members. To shop around for the best rental car deals use sites like orbitz.com or kayak.com.

Hotels - Most hotels in the U.S. offer senior discounts usually ranging from 10% to 30%. Age eligibility will vary by hotel, usually starting at age 50, 55, 60 or 62. Hyatt (hyatt.com, 888-591-1234) offers the biggest hotel discounts – up to 50 percent off to seniors age 62 and older.

Cruising - If you’re interested in taking a cruise, there are lots of bargains available. To find them use cruisecompete.com (800-797-4635), which can give you the lowest prices for the dates and ports you specify. Some cruise lines offer senior discounts on select cruises to passengers 55 and older. The best way to find these is to contact a travel agent (see cruising.org to find an agent who specializes in cruises), or check with a few cruise brokers like vacationstogo.com (800-338-4962), cruise411.com (899-553-7090), or ecruises.com (800-223-6868).

National Parks - One of the best travel deals available is the “America The Beautiful – Senior Pass” (www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm). This is a lifetime pass that will let you and anyone in your car into national parks, forests, recreation areas and monument grounds. It’s available to those 62 or older, and you can get it at one of the federal recreation sites for a one-time fee of $10, and it never expires.

Savvy Tips - For an $8 annual fee, you can find thousands of discounts at seniordiscounts. com. Or go to Amazon.com and order a copy of the 2009 – 2010 book, Unbelievably Good Deals and Great Adventures That You Absolutely Can’t Get Unless You’re Over 50 (McGraw-Hill).

Send your questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit www.savvysenior.org. ISI

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Creative carver’s artistic talent blossoms in retirement Article and Photo by Dianna Troyer For three decades, while John Cox mended ailing appliances at his repair business in Burley, his artistic talent lay dormant, waiting for the right moment to arise. The moment came in 2003, when he went to an arts and craft show in Sun Valley.

“I saw a trout carved from wood, and the artist who made it offered a two-hour carving workshop, so I took it,” John recalls, as he takes a break from turning a piece of wood on a lathe in his woodshop adjacent to his country home west of Burley. “It really interested me then, and it still does.”

Soon, John became proficient at carving.

In 2007, he won a first place blue ribbon at the Cassia County Fair with a realistic rainbow trout rising to a fly that he carved and painted. In 2008, the owner of an art gallery in Ajo, Arizona, where John and his wife, Sunni, spend their winters, invited him to bring some pieces to show and sell.

“When I retired 12 years ago, I never thought I’d be carving or selling my work in an art gallery,” says the 74-year-old.

Sunni comes into the shop to see John’s latest creation. “He doesn’t even have a background in art,” she says. “Before he started carving, he had no idea he had so much artistic talent.”

John says when he works with wood, “the hours slip away, and it’s relaxing.” Unfortunately, along with the joy of creativity comes inevitable and occasional frustration. “Sometimes, he’ll have worked on something for days, and the wood splits and breaks,” Sunni says. “It would break my heart, but he takes it in stride.”

John agrees it is aggravating when a piece breaks, “but you don’t get discouraged and just toss it and start on something else.”

Either he carves or turns on a lathe whatever his imagination can conjure - trout, tropical fish, canes, frogs, giraffes, zebras, elephants, clocks, vases, and pens. He gives away his best work to family and friends.

Other local wood turners share John’s generosity. Every year, he and other members of the Magic Valley

Wood Turning Association, a Burley woodworking group, use lathes to make 200 wooden pens to give to active-duty soldiers. Woodcraft, a national franchise of woodcrafting stores, organizes the project to honor soldiers and to celebrate Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11.

“When we meet, we work on other projects, too. One month, the project was to make a toy, so I turned a castle. Another month, we made a kitchen utensil, so I used a lathe to make a pestle out of manzanita, then I finished it with bees wax.”

The club meets at 7 p.m. the last Thursday of the month at a Burley cabinet shop, J. Allan Creative Solutions.

“You can pick up a lot of tips there about working with wood,” John says. “We have about 20 active members who often bring wood to share that they have been given by friends or neighbors.”

For carving, John prefers basswood. “It’s harder than balsa, but softer than pine, so it’s easy to work with.”

John says when he starts to carve a block of wood, he looks at it and asks himself, “‘What can I do with this, what does it look like?’ Sometimes, it will come to me in the middle of the night.”

Next, he sketches an outline on the wood, and then uses a band saw to cut it. Finally, he carves the final piece by hand with a knife and dremel tools. Chunks of wood, awaiting his touch, line shelves in his workshop.

Inside their home, John shows other examples of his woodworking projects. In an umbrella stand in the kitchen are canes he carved from the roots and branches of desert shrubs and trees, including manzanita, saguaro cactus, and ocotillo. He adorns the top of each one with a carving, such as an eagle head, a cobra, a bird, or a dog.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 27

PAGE 28 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

He does not limit himself to carving only with wood. In the living room, he points out an unusual project. “I wondered what it would be like to carve from PVC pipe, so I went to a local store, Butte Irrigation, and asked if they had any scrap. They had a 36-inch diameter piece of pipe that was 1 1/2 inches thick. I cut it out and made a dragon out of it.”

Besides using wood and scrap pipe, John creates artwork from discarded and aged metal he and Sunni find on hikes in the desert near their winter home in Ajo. “One day, I found an old spray can that had been flattened. It sort of looked like a fish, so I shaped it a little more, mounted it on wood, and it sold at the Ajo gallery. People there like rustic, rusty art.”

Sunni is creative, too, and made a Madonna metal sculpture from a rusty car part to display in their large Arizona backyard.

John thrives on variety in his work, in subject matter and the type of materials and tools he uses.

“In the last year, I wanted to learn to use a lathe to make turned items, so I started doing that. I found a chunk of aspen in the South Hills while we were camping, so I turned it and made a vase out of it,” he says showing a bulbous blond vase filled with marigolds on their coffee table.

To find a variety of wood, he shops at woodcraft stores while visiting their children who live out of state, or he goes to High Desert Hardwood in Eagle, Idaho.

“One time when I was there, the owner happened to see a frog on the back seat. I had carved it for a wood show at the Boise Veterans Administration Hospital. He asked me how much I wanted for it, so I named a price, and he wrote out a check.”

Besides making decorative pieces, John does practical woodworking projects. He made all the router-designed trim around windows and doors in their home, which was built in 1919 and used as a doctor’s medical office before being moved from downtown Burley to its current location.

For his next project, John plans to turn wine stoppers.

“After that, who knows? I wonder myself and can’t wait to see what I’ll do next.” ISI

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PAGE 30 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Volunteers restore Wilson Theatre to its former grandeur Article and Photo by Dianna Troyer Like an inspirational muse, the handsome and historic Wilson Building and Theatre in downtown Rupert entices creative volunteers and performers to converge in its midst.

For the past decade, unpaid volunteers like Earl Corless, Larry Duff, and KriSan Hardcastle have become contentedly ensnared in restoring the structure to its original 90-year-old grandeur. Even though the third and final phase of restoration is incomplete, residents perform plays, concerts, poetry readings, and variety shows, while appreciative audiences provide lawn chair seating.

The restoration work has consumed Earl since he retired as chief of operations and maintenance with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Minidoka Project. “When I retired, I never imagined I’d be learning to make custom plaster molds for a historic theater.”

Larry, a local magistrate, never pictured himself swapping his judicial robes for paint clothes, yet he does just that on weekends, painting the theater’s walls. KriSan, a professional artist, never thought she would carve plaster into a serpentine The historic Wilson Building and Theatre in Rupert, built shape so historically ac- in 1920, is being restored, and is a popular community event center. curate molding could be put up in the theater.

The three drop by the theater frequently to visit, even when they aren’t working on the restoration project.

“It’s exciting to see the potential here and help make the building gorgeous once again,” says KriSan, standing in the lobby beside drawings on easels that show what the theater will look like when restored. “We all have a good sense of humor and laugh a lot, when we work together.”

Those volunteers, like countless others in the Mini-Cassia area, began renovating the building in 2000.

“The community support here is amazing,” says Chris Jackson, executive director of the non-profit Renaissance Art Center Inc. The center’s office is headquartered in the building, which was built in 1920 by Daniel and Mennie Wilson for vaudeville performances, silent movies, and later talkies. The theater eventually fell into disrepair and was closed in the 1980s.

“We’ve had six Eagle Scout projects done here and have two more planned. Everyone on our board is really hands on and pitches in to help, too. The Episcopal Church refurbished the six stained glass windows beside the stairs going up to the second floor.”

Restoring the building and establishing it as a community center was the top priority identified during a three-year community development project organized by local businessmen in 1997. Earl served on one of the committees and has been involved ever since.

“Survey results showed people wanted more arts and cultural opportunities and diversification of the economy,” says Chris, who was hired to oversee the project.

In 1999, the city bought the building. The following year, the non-profit art center with a board of directors was established, and Chris was hired as executive director. Six residents contributed $10,000 each for a start-up budget.

In 2001, the building was named to the National Register of Historic Places. The same year, to jumpstart construction work, Robert Orr, a 1955 Rupert High School graduate who had a successful business in California before retiring to Salt Lake City, donated $100,000.

“We were grateful he remembered his roots,” Chris says. “That money was really helpful in securing other grants, and he’s continued to support us.”

During the project’s first phase, the theater’s exterior was refurbished, and ground level office spaces were restored. The redbrick exterior was cleaned, and the façade of cream-colored floral and geometric decorative patterns was rebuilt.

“The original façade was made of a porous cement mixture that tended to crumble and fall off with the temperature extremes,” Earl says. “The new façade is molded Fiberglas, so it’s permanent.

The building’s interior and exterior décor combines

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

the floral patterns and curves of the Art Nouveau style with the geometric lines of Art Deco.”

White mosaic tiles at the theater entrance are original. In the foyer, the teal carpet complements the light mint-green walls, original colors while wall sconces softly illuminate the halls. Adjacent to stairs leading to the second floor are vertical, original stained glass windows of green, yellow, and purple.

During phase two of restoration, the second floor was remodeled into a community and convention center with a capacity to accommodate 150 people at tables or 250 without tables.

“The center has a catering kitchen, so we rent it out to people for weddings, receptions, memorial services, graduations, family and class reunions, and business and civic meetings,” Chris says.

Rentals of the convention center and ground floor offices help make the center financially selfsustaining, Chris says. “Our annual operating budget is about $55,000, and I’m the only paid

staff member.”

To ensure carpentry work was done precisely during phase two, Neil Lewis, a local residential and commercial builder, began working approximately 40 hours a week, and has continued into the third phase of the auditorium and theater restoration.

“I was dropping in to visit my friend Earl and see how things were going,” recalls Neil, as he takes a break from working in the auditorium. “The project had progressed to the point that someone with specific skills was needed rather than volunteers, so they offered me a job.”

Although the auditorium seats are gone during the current restoration, musical productions, including an annual Fourth of July melodrama and holiday concerts, were scheduled. In November, an annual cowboy poetry gathering was held.

In December, local residents perform an annual holiday variety show at the theater. The exact date for this year’s show will be announced.

“We ask people to bring their own chairs,”

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 31

Chris says, “but they don’t seem to mind.”

The acoustics in the auditorium were expertly done, says Earl, as he claps his hands loudly.

“You don’t even hear an echo,” he says, despite the auditorium’s cavernous depths.

To restore the detailed décor in the theater, Earl has cast plaster stair guards, column tops and hundreds of tiles.

“KriSan looked at historic photos, and then carved serpentine molding and tiles in plaster.

I used them to make molds, so I could make as many plaster reproductions as we needed,” Earl says. “It was a lot cheaper for me to learn to make the molds and cast the plaster decorative items than to order them.”

Completing the renovation of the theater and auditorium will cost an additional $700,000 to $800,000, Chris estimates. “We’ve already raised $1.3 million to complete the first two phases. We rely on grants, donations, and fund-raising for the restoration work. We’ll get there.” ISI

Jess Neuger keeps jumping continued from cover the nickname “Pick.”

“The TV towers are about 2,000 feet tall, and we weren’t about to walk up the stairs, so I’d pick the lock so we could use the elevator.”

Like other serious BASE jumpers, he soon learned of the Perrine Bridge. “I jumped here for the first time in 1992.”

During a recent jump off the Perrine Bridge, Jess met another BASE jumper Abbie Mashaal, who owns Snake River Sky Diving. They struck up a friendship, and Jess gladly accepted Abbie’s offer to come work for him.

“We have a lot of older people who come out and skydive to celebrate their birthday,” Jess says.

“I jumped with a 70-year-old woman in April, and last summer an 85-year-old jumped for her birthday. We recently moved the drop zone from Jerome here to Twin Falls.”

Jess would probably jump every day from the Perrine Bridge, if the weather cooperated. “You have to make safe judgment calls,” he says. If it is too windy, he will not jump. He is aware, too, of the sport’s risks and knows injuries have occurred to Perrine jumpers. During a Memorial Day weekend in 2006, one jumper died and three suffered broken bones. “Jumping is a big decision, because you don’t have a reserve chute. Everything has to be just right.”

Jess is aware in a (continued on page 38)

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PAGE 32 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

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By Connie Daugherty Usually this time of year I write a little about many books - books by Idaho authors or about Idaho subjects that I do not have the opportunity to review individually in the column throughout the year. This year I also want to touch on not only what I enjoy reading, but the evolution in how I have come to enjoy reading.

First, I am an admittedly incurable bibliophile.

Books have always been an important part of my life, while I generally consider technology a necessary evil. At best, computers and such are useful tools, at the worst an enemy sent to make my life miserable. Then I discovered a way to combine books and technology.

I started listening to audio books - at first in my car or on my home CD player then on my MP3 player. I love it because I can listen while I am driving, walking, cleaning house, or raking leaves. I generally â&#x20AC;&#x153;readâ&#x20AC;? an audio book while I am doing something else and a print book when I can sit down for a few minutes. I realize that audio books are not a new phenomenon; people have been listening while driving for several years. Now you can even download audio books through your local library to your computer or portable listening device (MP3, IPod).

This summer I finally gave in and tried reading

on a Kindle. And to my surprise, I love it. I love the fact that it has a built in dictionary; I love that I can change the font size; I love that I can take notes that transfer directly to my computer. I also love that I can travel with an entire library - literally hundreds of books - on something that is about the size of an average comic book.

I will admit that at first, it seemed odd to be reading on the screen, and it took me a bit longer to get involved in the book; but once the story got going, I discovered that a well-written book is a well-written book no matter what the medium. My Kindle has a cover so it is like holding a book. I can rock a sleeping grandchild and click through the pages with the thumb of my free hand. I can change from a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book to an adult book without putting the baby down.

Now as I think about winter travel - about heading south in an RV or on a cruise - and about packing and space restrictions, I am even more sold on the Kindle. I can tuck a dozen books into the inside pocket of my backpack. I can slip a CD into the player and listen to another book as we drive down the road.

No, I am not ready to give up print. There is always that ever-present print book on my bedside table, and besides, there are just some books that do not translate well into electronic format.

One such book is Inland Empire Electric Line: Spokane to Coeur dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Alene and the Palouse by Clive Carter (2009) published by the Museum of North Idaho. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The interurban electric railway industry was a phenomenon that started in the 1890s and within twenty years had built hundreds of railway lines.â&#x20AC;? In this thoroughly researched treatise, Clive Carter explores all aspects of the development, operation, and eventual abandonment of one of those lines, the Inland Empire electric railroad. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Despite its turbulent career and financial precariousness, the Inland Empire Systemâ&#x20AC;Ś outlasted all the other electric interurban linesâ&#x20AC;? in the region.

Carterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book includes extensive resource documentation as well as an amazing collection of historic photos, route maps, and timetables. The incorporation of the Coeur dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Alene & Spokane Railway Company in 1902 was the beginning of the Inland Empire system. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Regular passenger service began on December 28, 1903â&#x20AC;? between Spokane and Coeur dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Alene. But that was just the beginning.

Over the years, the routes were expanded and improved. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The PalouseMoscow section opened on September 15, 1908.â&#x20AC;?

One interesting aspect of the railroad as well as Carverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book are the bridges. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Close to 150 bridges could be found on the S & IE rail system.â&#x20AC;? Carver includes photos of many of those unique bridges in the book.

Although the growth of the line was a constant struggle, grow it did.

By the summer of 1909 â&#x20AC;&#x153;there were eight daily trains each way between Spokane and Liberty Lake and ten to Coeur dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Alene several of which served Hayden Lake.â&#x20AC;?

Operating an electric rail line over these distances and western terrains was a major undertaking. Just supplying the power to the line all along the way was an incredible accomplish-

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

ment. As accomplished as it was, the electric rail system was eventually abandoned in favor of newer and more economical methods of travel.

Despite protests, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Electric operation ceased in 1941.â&#x20AC;? And over the next approximately 40 years, most evidence of the line disappeared. All that remains are the memories and the records

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 33

preserved for history by Clive Carter.

Inland Empire Electric Line provides plenty of references to historic sources, and although written more for historic information about this mostly unknown electric railroad, it will prove entertaining for the railroad enthusiast and historian. It is worth checking out for the photos alone.

Clive Carter was born in York, England where his father worked as part of that areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major railroad industry. He has been a railroad enthusiast from an early age and currently lives with his wife in Bellevue, Washington. ISI

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ravage the cabbage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; It helps prevent cancer

By Wendell Fowler, Senior Wire As a child of the 1950s Mom would lovingly offer me the center core of cruciferous cabbage every time she made slaw. A little salt and Momâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sweet gift became crunchy culinary nirvana Bible belt soul food.

Cabbage is one of the oldest known vegetables. The ancients were on to something exceptional when they began cultivating cabbage. In the Far East, pots containing cabbage dating to 4,000 B.C. have been found in Shensi province in China.

The noble cabbage first appeared somewhere in the Mediterranean. Ancient Romans praised it for its plethora of medical attributes. Flourishing with luscious vitamins C and K, folate, potassium and selenium, fiber, and chlorophyll, as well as antioxidants, flavonoids and phytochemicals, carotenoids, lingnans, and indole-3-carbinol, (take a deep breath) these nutritious foods are super!

Isothiocyanates stimulate our bodies to break down potential carcinogens, preventing normal cells from becoming cancerous cells. Pretty cool, eh? Only cruciferous vegetables contain the nutrient isothiocyanates, which has been associated with a decrease in lung cancer. Nonsmokers will also benefit since second-hand smoke is so widespread.

Cruciferous vegetables are what help reduce homocysteine levels and thus reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Homocysteine is an amino acid derived from animal protein.

Are you eating enough cruciferous vegetables like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, watercress, rutabagas, and kale? Corn and green beans will not cut it. The government has set a goal of getting 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and having half of the population consume three servings of vegetables each day by 2010, said Dr. Larry Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In scientific reality, we should consume a minimum of 7 to 13 portions of a variety of produce daily. Did someone say salad bar?

One portion is considered a half cup and it is easier to accomplish that you think. One cup equals a portion of leafy greens, such as cabbage. Raw is best. I heard someone recently say that they hated the smell of cooked cabbage and the only way he would eat it, if it was redolent of bacon and cooked to oblivion. That is no way to treat one of natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s star healing attractions, is it?

Many of us spend our life either taking preventive measures, or living life recklessly thinking, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m gonna eat all the steak I want, ice cream, greasy burgers, and smoke all the cigarettes I

want so I can enjoy my life. Gotta die from something, right? I may not live as long as you treehugging, dirt eaters, but I sure am going to enjoy the time I have by eating beef whenever I wantâ&#x20AC;?.

Now, that is okay if you are hell bent on selfdestruction. Not wanting to be negative, but it is a scientific fact. Heavy meat consumption, little or no vegetables or fruit in the diet, whiskey, gravy, and fast food, for example, considerably shortens oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gift of life.

Mother Nature wants us to feel good, using the tools she has provided us. As you purchase or harvest your first batch of cabbage, consider its illustrious history as medicine to the ancients.

Cabbage in America is usually drowning, submerged in a viscous pool of deadly, decadent mayonnaise. We add vinegar, sugar and spice, onion and carrot, then accompany it with fried chicken cooked in pork fat. Darned tasty combination, however, ask yourself whether taste is the only criterion by which to decide what you eat.

Next time, try preparing sweet and sour style slaw with a fun vinegar, salt and pepper, Stevia powder sweetener, celery seed, grated carrots, green onion, and some diced red peppers. Deliciously crisp, clean, and ready to defend our bodies. ISI

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PAGE 34 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Surgery, Stunts & Chutzpah

By Saralee Perel, Senior Wire “Your husband’s in the next bay wearing breasts,” the nurse said as she hurried by me in the pre-op area of our local hospital on Cape Cod. Yes, Bob was fully endowed while waiting for arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Dr. Timothy Kinkead, his orthopedic surgeon, has a warped sense of humor too. He ordered Bob an HCG, which I later found out is a pregnancy test.

The staff became comedians. “Oooh,” one gal said, admiring Bob’s accoutrements, which looked remarkably real and were pointedly anatomically correct, if you get my drift. “Are those up for grabs?”

A few years ago, Dr. Kinkead operated on Bob’s knee. When he lifted Bob’s gown, his expression was of a man looking at someone with three legs. And, in fact, that was essentially true.

Bob had bought a very authentic-looking leg at a joke shop. The staff helped him dress and position it. When Dr. K. saw Bob’s three legs, he went blank and sat motionless for an inordinate amount of time.

When reality hit, he cracked up and took pictures.

My husband is 61 years old, by the way.

The leg was designed to appear chopped off with a hatchet. Thinking it might not be in the best of taste to carry a bloody leg into the hospital, we brought it in a long case. But when Bob was wheeled to surgery, I couldn’t find that case.

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Carrying the bloody leg, I raced through the pre-op bays, then through the waiting area filled with family members who looked up from their magazines.

Then I ran through the parking lot, drawing stares from passers-by as I panicked and yelled, “It’s not what it looks like.”

But that sounded insane so I called out, “Well it is a leg.”

People kept staring so I shouted like a lunatic, “But it’s not my husband’s leg!” I threw it in our car. I’m sure that a hemorrhaging leg was a lovely sight to anyone who glanced in our windows.

The fake bosoms that Bob wore for last week’s surgery were just the tips of the iceberg, so to speak.

Bob’s name was on the curtain in the bay where he was supposedly waiting. But he wasn’t there. He was in the next bay, talking with an anesthesiologist who asked, “How are you doing?”

“Better than that guy next door.” When the doctor opened the curtain, he looked like he had seen a ghost, which wasn’t all that far from the truth.

Then the staff gathered around, waiting for Dr. Kinkead to arrive.

I think all of Hyannis could have heard him laughing when he looked in that curtain because sitting upright in the chair and wearing a hospital gown, was a life-sized mummified skeleton.

One staff comedian quipped, “Looks like you kept your patient waiting too long.”

Later, in the recovery area, Bob was groggy and still wearing those ridiculous things on his chest. But they were on the outside of his gown. I grabbed them and stuck them in the only thing I could find, which was a clear plastic bag. Then I put them on the floor.

I couldn’t imagine anything more bizarre-looking than body parts in a bag on the floor of a post-surgery unit. So clutching them to my own chest, a photo of which could have made it into Ripley’s Believe It or Not! I made yet another mad dash through the waiting room, the parking lot, and then to our car where I tossed them on the front seat. A charming display.

That night, my friends asked, “How did you pull it off?”

“We carried everything in a large bag. When a nurse asked, ‘Is there anything you need?’ Bob took the bones out and said, ‘An extra hospital gown please.’” The staff was such good sports.

At www.CapeCodOrtho.com, it states that their central theme is to “provide the best medical care possible” and to “listen and respond to patient needs.” Dr. Kinkead, a Yale graduate, has more than medical expertise. He has heart, humor, and compassion. I don’t think those things can be taught.

And so, if Dr. Kinkead does your arm surgery, call Bob. He could probably lend you a hand – literally.

Saralee welcomes emails at sperel@saraleeperel.com. ISI

Homogeneity makes for healthy milk but anemic friendships.

We need relationhips that cross culturally imposed lines to enlarge our hearts and expand our vistas. - Dan Schmidt

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 35

Cholesterol Lowering Foods

By Jim Miller Know Your Numbers - As you may already know, your cholesterol level is the amount of fat in your blood. If it is too high, you are at a greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Ideally, you want your total cholesterol reading (that includes your LDL and HDL cholesterol) to be below 200, and your “bad” LDL cholesterol below 129 – less if you are at risk for heart disease. If your total level hits between 200 and 239, or your LDL reaches 130 – 159 you are considered borderline high. And if your total is above 240, or your LDL is over 160 you have high cholesterol.

On the other hand, a higher number is better when it comes to the “good” HDL cholesterol.

Most men range between 40 and 50 HDL, and women range between 50 and 60. Anything below 40 (for men) and 50 (for women) is too low, and anything above 50 (for men) and 60 (for women) is great, because it provides extra protection against heart disease.

Cholesterol-Lowering Foods - Lot’s of research over the past few years has shown that certain foods can help lower your LDL cholesterol and/or boost your HDL, including: • Oatmeal and oat bran: Loaded with soluble fiber, oatmeal or oat bran is a great way to start the day and shave five percent off your LDL. Five to 10 grams per day are recommended. Other good sources for soluble fiber are apples, pears,

Warming Up To The Season’s Colder Weather Joint Expert Stresses Warm Up, Stretching and Glucosamine and Chondroitin Supplements For Healthy Joints Chill is in the air and along with it the coming of winter and new seasonal activities such as downhill and cross-country skiing, ice skating, and indoor running, all of which require proper conditioning and preparation. “Any time we embark on a new physical activity, the risk of injury increases,” states Jason Theodosakis, MD, noted joint health expert and author of the #1 New York Times best seller The Arthritis Cure (St. Martin’s Press, revised 2004).

According to Dr. Theodosakis, joints are especially vulnerable when it comes to tackling cold weather activities. “Joints require proper lubrication to keep them fluid and mobile, and warming up plays an important role in regulating joint lubrication. A cold start, like that of an automobile, can lead to problems down the road. This can be avoided by incorporating a simple 10-15 minute warm up and proper stretching into a pre-sport conditioning program.”

Always Begin with a Warm Up - Never jump right into a sport or other physical activity without warming up first. A few minutes spent slowly easing into the activity will gradually raise the temperature of the muscles, joints, lungs, heart, and nervous system and thereby prepare the body for the higher

prunes, citrus fruits, kidney and lima beans, barley, psyllium, carrots, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

• Nuts: Studies have also shown that a daily dose of walnuts and almonds can lower your LDL by 10 percent, and raise your HDL by as much as 20 percent. Peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, some pine nuts, and pistachios have also been shown to lower cholesterol. But be careful. Nuts are high in calories, so a handful (no more than 2 ounces) will do. The best way to add nuts to your diet is to substitute them for foods that are high in saturated fats like cheese and meat. That way you are gaining the benefits of nuts without adding more calories.

• Sterols and stanols: These are substances found in plants that help prevent cholesterol from being absorbed into your bloodstream. A recommended dose of two grams per day can help knock 10 percent off your bad cholesterol level. The best way to get these substances is to consume store-bought foods that are fortified with sterols or stanols including certain orange juices, yogurts, breads, cereals, granola bars, cooking oils, salad dressings, margarine spreads, and more. Check the labels to find products that contain sterols or stanols and watch out for high calories.

• Fish: Rich with omega-3 fatty acids, eating fatty fish (mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines,

salmon, and albacore tuna) a few times a week can help boost your good HDL cholesterol by as much as 10 percent, not to mention lower your triglycerides and blood pressure, and reduce inflammation. If you do not like fish, other food sources that provide omega-3s are walnuts, soybeans, flaxseed, and canola oil, or take a fish oil supplement.

• Olive oil: Contains a potent mix of antioxidants that can lower your LDL without affecting your HDL. A good way to work olive oil into your diet is to substitute it with butter or other cooking oils, or mix it with vinegar as a salad dressing.

About two tablespoons a day are recommended.

Other Tips - Additional lifestyle tips that can help lower LDL and raise HDL include reducing the saturated fats (fatty meats, butter, and whole dairy products) and the trans fats (found in storebought cookies, cakes, crackers, and many fried foods like French fries) you eat; losing excess weight (even 5 to 10 pounds can make a difference); exercising regularly (at least 30 minutes, five days per week); quitting smoking; and drinking alcohol (no more than one drink per day for women and two for men).

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit www. savvysenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. ISI

PAGE 36 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

paced exertion to come.

A good warm up stimulates this joint lubrication to begin in advance of the full throttle activity and reduces joint and bone friction.

Always Include Stretching - Many people confuse stretching and warming up, which are actually quite different and provide completely different benefits. A warm up involves muscle contraction and temperature stimulation, whereas stretching involves lengthening muscles and tendons to increase flexibility. By increasing flexibility prior to beginning a more vigorous activity, the body is better prepared to respond to higher demands in range of joint motion and muscle “For years I just wasn’t mobility.

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Glucosamine and Chondroitin Can Also Help - In addition to warming up and stretching, certain nutritional supplements, such as glucosamine and chondroitin, are helpful to maintain joint health, readying the body for new seasonal sports challenges. A recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) study indicates that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin also promotes joint comfort for individuals with moderate to severe joint concerns.

Glucosamine is a natural amino sugar produced by the body and is believed to play a role in cartilage formation and renewal. Chondroitin is a naturally occurring nutrient in the connective tissue and is part of the large protein molecules (proteoglycans) found in cartilage.

Dr. Theodosakis recommends taking a doctorrecommended, high-quality glucosamine and chondroitin supplement. ISI

Dental Implants: A Modern Miracle

By Dr. Bryce Barfuss, Summit Dental Care, Twin Falls Teeth can be lost for a number of reasons - from tooth decay, gum disease (periodontitis), trauma to the mouth (tooth injury), or excessive wear and tear. Most people who lose teeth feel self-conscious when they smile or talk. As sad as this is, many people do not realize that tooth loss can result in a cascade of oral and overall health problems. For example, once a tooth is lost, the underlying bone begins to deteriorate, which can result in other health problems. Biting irregularities caused by tooth loss can have a negative effect on eating habits, thus causing malnutrition.

One solution to the problems related to tooth loss is dental implants, which are artificial tooth replacements for single or multiple missing teeth that look and act just like a natural tooth. Anchored into the bone with titanium steel and then covered by a perfectly fitting, completely natural looking ceramic tooth, implants are a modern miracle. Implants can restore a patient’s confidence and promote better overall health.

You may wonder whether implants can help those who have been suffering for years with ill-fitting dentures. Many in this situation think there is no way they can have the quality of life that they once had before getting dentures. That does not need to be the case because implants can help stabilize ill-fitting dentures. Implants allow patients to function without worrying whether or not their teeth are going to come out. What an improvement!

Whether replacing missing teeth or stabilizing a denture, implants provide people with the strength to eat the foods they desire, have the confidence to smile again, and preserve their overall health. To determine if implants are right for you, consult with your dentist, oral surgeon, periodontist, or prosthodontist. Based on the condition of your oral tissues, oral hygiene, personal habits, and your commitment to follow your doctor’s aftercare instructions, your dental professional will advise you of the most appropriate treatment plan.

Call now to see how dental implants can make a profound difference in your life. ISI

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

Navigating Your Options For A Whiter Smile (NAPSI) - Here is something to smile about: There are more products to whiten teeth now than at any time in recorded history. These remedies range from do-it-yourself at-home products to professionally diagnosed and applied solutions.

They can be found through your dentist, at grocery stores, the middle of a mall, online, or through infomercials. People now see a white smile as synonymous with being healthy, attractive, and successful. With so many products available and ever-changing technology, how do you know what product or service is the safest and most effective?

Every search for a brighter, whiter smile should begin in the dentist’s chair. “Because of the wide variety of options available offering white teeth, many people believe they are equipped to selftreat their teeth with over-the-counter whitening solutions,” says Dr. Arthur Tomaro of Exceptional Dentistry. “While these solutions are appropriate in some cases, it is imperative that patients first seek advice from a dental professional to determine if

there are pre-existing conditions or potential problems that need to be addressed before undergoing any teeth-whitening procedure.”

Once you have consulted your dentist, you will be better equipped to choose a solution based on timing and price. While professional in-office solutions are more costly, they offer almost immediate results. Over-the-counter solutions offer budget-friendly pricing, but results are limited and can take weeks and even months. Professional take-home solutions, such as custom tray whitening, offer quick results and let you whiten your teeth on your own schedule.

There is a variety of sources to help simplify whitening. One, Teethwhitening.com, provides reviews, answers questions, and offers suggestions from an internationally renowned panel of dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants. For more information about various teeth-whitening products and procedures, visit www.teethwhitening.com. ISI

Oh, That Aching Back!

Provided by the National Institutes of Health If you have lower back pain, you are not alone. Nearly everyone at some point has back pain that interferes with work, routine daily activities, or recreation. Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on low back pain, the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work. Back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in the United States - only headache is more common.

Fortunately, most occurrences of low back pain go away within a few days.

Others take much longer to resolve or lead to more serious conditions.

Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Most acute back pain is mechanical in nature - the result of trauma to the lower back or a disorder such as arthritis. Pain from trauma may be caused by a sports injury, work around the house or in the garden, or a sudden jolt such as a car accident or other stress on spinal bones and tissues. Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and/or range of motion, or an inability to stand straight. Occasionally, pain felt in one part of the body may “radiate” from a disorder or injury elsewhere in the body. Some acute pain syndromes can become more serious if left untreated.

Chronic back pain is measured by duration - pain that persists for more than three months is considered chronic. It is often progressive and the cause can be difficult to determine.

What causes lower back pain?

As people age, bone strength and muscle elasticity and tone tend to decrease. The discs begin to lose fluid and flexibility, which decreases their ability to cushion the vertebrae.

Pain can occur when, for example, someone lifts something too heavy or overstretches, causing a sprain, strain, or spasm in one of the muscles or ligaments in the back. If the spine becomes overly strained or compressed, a disc may rupture or bulge outward. This rupture may put pressure on one of the more than 50 nerves rooted to the spinal cord that control body movements and transmit signals from the body to the brain. When these nerve roots become compressed or irritated, back pain results.

Low back pain may reflect nerve or muscle irritation or bone lesions.

Most low back pain follows injury or trauma to the back, but pain may also be caused by degenerative conditions such as arthritis or disc disease, osteoporosis or other bone diseases, viral infections, irritation to joints and discs, or congenital abnormalities in the spine. Obesity, smoking, weight gain during pregnancy, stress, poor physical condition, posture inappropriate for the activity being performed, and poor sleeping position also may contribute to low back pain. Additionally, scar tissue created when the injured back heals itself does not have the strength or flexibil-

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 37

PAGE 38 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

ity of normal tissue. Buildup of scar tissue from repeated injuries eventually weakens the back and can lead to more serious injury.

Occasionally, low back pain may indicate a more serious medical problem. Pain accompanied by fever or loss of bowel or bladder control, pain when coughing, and progressive weakness in the legs may indicate a pinched nerve or other serious condition. People with diabetes may have severe back pain or pain radiating down the leg related to neuropathy. People with these symptoms should contact a doctor immediately to help prevent permanent damage.

Quick tips to a healthier back Following any period of prolonged inactivity, begin a program of regular low-impact exercises.

Speed walking, swimming, or stationary bike riding 30 minutes a day can increase muscle strength and flexibility. Yoga can also help stretch and strengthen muscles and improve posture.

Ask your physician or orthopedist for a list of low-impact exercises appropriate for your age and designed to strengthen lower back and abdominal muscles.

• Always stretch before exercise or other strenuous physical activity.

• Don’t slouch when standing or sitting. When standing, keep your weight balanced on your feet. Your back supports weight most easily when curvature is reduced.

• At home or work, make sure your work sur-

face is at a comfortable height for you.

• Sit in a chair with good lumbar support and proper position and height for the task. Keep your shoulders back. Switch sitting positions often and periodically walk around the office or gently stretch muscles to relieve tension. A pillow or rolled-up towel placed behind the small of your back can provide some lumbar support. If you must sit for a long period of time, rest your feet on a low stool or a stack of books.

• Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes.

• Sleep on your side to reduce any curve in your spine. Always sleep on a firm surface.

• Ask for help when transferring an ill or injured family member from a reclining to a sitting position or when moving the patient from a chair to a bed.

• Don’t try to lift objects too heavy for you. Lift with your knees, pull in your stomach muscles, and keep your head down and in line with your straight back. Keep the object close to your body.

Do not twist when lifting.

• Maintain proper nutrition and diet to reduce and prevent excessive weight, especially weight around the waistline that taxes lower back muscles. A diet with sufficient daily intake of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D helps to promote new bone growth.

• If you smoke, quit. Smoking reduces blood flow to the lower spine and causes the spinal discs to degenerate. ISI

Visits To The Barber

N.S. Burbank, M.D. • C.J. Fatz, M.D. • K.C. Hewel, M.D. C.E. Ley, M.D. • A.J. Martinez, M.D. • K.P. McKlendin, M.D. B.J. McNamee, M.D. • A.E. Michalson, M.D. L.S. Michalson, M.D. • D.E. Moody, M.D. R.L. Opp, M.D. • T.F. Reichel, M.D. • R.S. Thornton, M.D. Diplomats of the American Board of Radiology 700 Ironwood Drive, Suite 110 1300 E. Mullan Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 Post Falls, ID 83854 208.666.3200 • Fax 208.666.3217 208.777.1305 • Fax 208.777.1313

kootenaihealth.org/imaging

165504_0927

Submitted by Julie Hollar A young boy entered a barbershop and the barber whispered to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.”

The barber put a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then called the boy over and asked, “Which do you want, son?” The boy took the quarters and left.

“What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!”

Later, when the customer left, he saw the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?”

The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game’s over.” ISI

For more information, call 208-667-5470 or visit www.gentiva.com

Jess Neuger keeps jumping continued from page 31 personal way of the physical and legal risks of BASE jumping and what happens when occasionally not everything is “just right.”

Jess recalls his near fatal crash in Yosemite National Park in 1992. The weather cooperated, but his equipment malfunctioned. After jumping off El Capitan, he spiraled out of control and splattered onto a boulder the size of a small house. “I was about halfway down after jumping off a 3,000-foothigh cliff, when my parachute broke.”

“I closed my eyes,” Jess recalls. “When I woke up, I was disappointed I didn’t have one of those comforting near-death experiences. Instead, I woke up in incredible pain. I think I broke every bone but three. My buddy didn’t see where I had landed. I lay there six hours, before I was rescued.”

After surgery and his release from the hospital, it took a year for his body to mend. “I started jumping again two years after the accident.”

Four years later, that fateful jump landed him in several federal prisons. “It was illegal to jump in the park,” he recalls. “The National Park Service has a rule that you can’t bring anything into the park with a parachute, because they want to prevent food caches from being dropped into the back country.

They use that rule to prosecute BASE jumpers.”

Jess was arrested on Bridge Day at the New River Gorge National River, which is part of the National Park Service. “They could only cite me at another national park site, so there I was arrested in front of 200,000 people. They extradited me back to California, and I was in seven federal prisons until my hearing. A judge thought the whole thing was ridiculous and released me for time served.”

Since then, he has found plenty of legal places from which to leap and plans to settle in Twin Falls, which becomes a mecca for BASE jumpers during the Perrine Bridge Festival held each September.

Hundreds of BASE jumpers and spectators from around the world converge on Twin Falls as if on a convivial pilgrimage. The annual event raises money for the Children with Special Needs Fund administered through the St. Luke’s Magic Valley Health Foundation.

Finally, conditions have become “just right” for Jess to jump. “I feel so lucky to be able to do this,” he says, then hurls himself from the bridge, dropping like a rock, until he pulls his rip cord, and the parachute opens. He floats down as lightly as a fluffy milkweed seed and lands safely on the canyon floor, where he gathers up his chute and anticipates the euphoria of his next jump.

For more information about the festival visit www.perrinebridgefestival.com ISI

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

The holiday season is well-known as a time of love and generosity. What better time to open your heart and share your love with a special someone? Write your own ad or answer one of the ones below, and who knows what will happen? The holidays have a magic all their own!

To those who wish to respond to any of these personal ads, simply mail your message, address, phone number, and/or email address to the department number listed in the particular personal ad, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, P.O. Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Your response, including your address, phone number, and/or email address will be forwarded to the person placing the ad. If you answer an ad in this section, there is no guarantee that you will receive a response. That is up to the person who placed the ad. Please make sure you submit your correct address plainly printed so you can promptly receive responses.

Respond to the ads in this issue and also sit down now and prepare your ad for our February/ March 2011 issue. There is no charge for this service, and your ad may bring a breath of fresh air to your heart as well. Responses to personal ads appearing in this column can be submitted at any time. However, to place a personal ad in the February/March 2011 issue, the deadline is January 10, 2011.

LDS Mormon Elder desires Mormon widow for companionship who loves to have Canada and US summers, holed-up winters. I am tall, handsome, and out-going. I love kids, US history, music, movies, and dancing. I know Jesus in a personal manner. Reply ISI, Dept. 6501, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Widowed, white male desires true companionship with a lady who would enjoy driving an RV or 4x4 pickup, or riding in a 1929, rough and rusty, Ford Model A. I go in search of great places to admire nature, be kindly with all sorts of people, and eat in small, quiet spots off the road. Enjoy Route 66. Reply ISI, Dept. 6502, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

White male, 70s, in search of Mexican or Indian lady who could relocate for companionship with a NS/ND/NG who loves animals, flowers, birds, music, live stage shows, and Jesus. Reply ISI, Dept. 6503, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Friend, companion, gentleman wanted. 6580 and non-smoking. Would you like to meet a nice lady to relax and enjoy life with? I am clean, honest, sincere, financially stable, smart, and good-hearted. You can be yourself with me. I have been widowed for 6 years, and am a tall, slim, blond-haired, blue-eyed, retired nurse. I wear Levis and love the outdoors, animals, flea markets, and much more. Write me now and make it happen! Reply ISI, Dept. 6504, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Let’s start the New Year right! Single, mid60s gentleman wants to share his travels and adventures with an outdoorsy and friendly lady.

I’m a social drinker, non-smoker, moral person (but not religious). I’m looking for a similar lady friend who is financially independent, retired, not tied down, and healthy with a robust figure. Twin Falls, ID area. Reply ISI, Dept. 6505, c/o Idaho

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 39

Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

I am a more or less retired professional man who is looking for a trim and fit senior lady who might enjoy traveling and likes dancing. I would like to take a cruise, but not all by myself. I am a light social drinker and do not smoke. I enjoy doing a little computer work, watching some TV, and cooking. I live in the Snake River Canyon. I will answer every letter and age is not important to me. I am 6’2”, 217 lbs (less than when I joined the Navy in WWII). I clean up nicely. Will exchange photos. Reply ISI, Dept. 6506, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403.

Christian lady seeking the company of a sincere, serious gentleman. I enjoy gardening, going for walks, and going to see a movie now and then. I am looking for someone who is willing to deal with the ups and downs of life together and to compromise with each other’s likes and dislikes. I am a friendly and honest person. Reply ISI, Dept. 6507, c/o Idaho Senior Independent, Box 3341, Great Falls, MT 59403. ISI

PAGE 40 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

We’ve Been Expecting You In 2006 the oldest member of the 78 million baby boomers arrived at age 60, with the rest of us in this generation well on our way. In fact, almost 8,000 people cross into their 60’s everyday.

Most of us don’t pay too much attention to these facts and figures.

At Portneuf Medical Center things are quite different. We can’t stop thinking about, or planning for it. As our population ages, more people will require more healthcare more often than ever before.

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We’re happy to say that the doors to our new facility are scheduled to open in the summer of 2011 and there will be room for everyone.

So don’t give the baby boom generation another thought…at least for today. At Portneuf, your Eastern Idaho Regional Referral Center, we will be ready to deliver MORE unparalleled healthcare and MORE advanced technology whenever you arrive.

At Portneuf, we believe doing more matters.

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DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 41

Personal and Financial Costs of Elder Abuse Staggering

By Tait Trussell, Senior Wire $2.6 billion may seem a piddling amount when Washington is tossing around trillions of dollars like Frisbees.

But this $2.6 billion is important. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the cost of elder financial abuse. It was calculated in a new report entitled Broken Trust: Elders, Families, and Finances. The report was produced by the National Committee for Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in conjunction with the Mature Market Institute of Metlife Insurance Company.

Financial abuse to elders, tragically, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;most often perpetrated by family members and caregivers,â&#x20AC;? the report said. It also said that up to one million older Americans may be the victims of this form of abuse each year.

The typical victim of financial elder abuse is between the ages of 70 and 89, is a white female, frail, and cognitively impaired, according to the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA).

Related additional costs, such as healthcare, social services, legal fees, investigations, prosecution, and lost income and assets â&#x20AC;&#x153;reach tens of millions of dollars annually,â&#x20AC;? the report added.

The report included prevention advice for older adults and their families.

The report also said that for every abuse case discovered, some four or more go unreported.

The current recession may account for some increased vulnerability, the report noted.

The typical victim tends to be too trusting of others and may be lonely or isolated. The victims tend to be a rather diverse population, however.

In a three-month span in 2008, the news media reported $400 million in loses attributable to elder fraud and abuse. Family friends and strangers were blamed for $14 million. Reported Medicare and Medicaid fraud accounted for $121 million, and shady businesses reportedly stole $250 million, the report said.

Elder financial abuse takes many shapes, including fraud through coupons, mail, and telemarketing; contracting and repair scams; false and fraudulent advice from unscrupulous stock brokers, bank loan officials, insurance agents, and accountants; as well as abuse of powers of attorney and guardianship; identity theft by internet phishing (this comes from

the analogy to fishing by internet scammers for information used for fraudulent purposes); failure to fulfill contracted healthcare services; and Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

With the present shaky economy, seniors â&#x20AC;&#x153;are a greater risk than ever of having their financial security threatened,â&#x20AC;? said Sandra Timmermann, director of Metlife Mature Market Institute. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And for every dollar lost to theft and abuse, there are still more related costs associated with stress and healthcare and the intervention of social service, investigative, and legal entities,â&#x20AC;? she added.

Scholars and practitioners speculate that, like perpetrators of other types of elder abuse, family members who exploit their elder relatives are often dependent on them financially, and their actions may be influenced by other factors such as drug or alcohol abuse.

Pamela B. Teaster, NCPEA president, said that data provided through the National Center on Elder Abuse daily news feed proved invaluable. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The feed tracks media reports of elder abuse through Google and Yahoo alerts, a process that scans billions of web pages.... We had real-time information on financial elder abuse and information from numerous sources.â&#x20AC;?

Researchers from NCPEA, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University reviewed all articles from April through June 2008 from the Administration on Agingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Center on Elder Abuse, a new data base which tracks news stories through Google and Yahoo.

The report states that the justice and social

How wonderful to live in a community where friends become family.

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PAGE 42 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT

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service systems are often inadequately trained, staffed, and funded to address the elder financial abuse problem. Further, it is sometimes hard to tell whether financial abuse actually occurred or whether one unwittingly or unknowingly made a poor financial decision. Under-reporting is attributed often to embarrassment and self-blame, or even a lack of realization that abuse has occurred.

Reports vary as to whether women or men are more vulnerable to financial abuse. But isolation and loneliness leave a person more exposed to theft. Some 48 percent of women over age 75 live alone, according to the Administration on Aging.

Sixty percent of confirmed cases of elder abuse involve an adult child, usually a son.

Signs of abuse include fear of a caregiver, isolation from family and friends, a disheveled appearance, anxiety about finances, new best friends, and missing belongings.

Elder financial abuse can be prevented through education about one’s rights and about various types of scams; financial conservatorship and/or power of attorney for those who are vulnerable; aid from social services and medical personnel; and added news media attention, the report suggested. ISI

Online Resources for Advice Seeking Caregivers

By Jim Miller There is no shortage of free online resources when it comes to caregivers seeking advice. The question is, which websites provide the most practical and comprehensive information and are easy to navigate?

Top Caregiving Sites - With approximately 52 million Americans serving as caregivers today, the need for fast, useful information has never been higher. While there are dozens of sites that offer good caregiving information, here are a few, I have found to be particularly helpful.

• AGIS.com: Short for Assist Guide Information Services, this is a fabulous Web resource for caregivers. At www.agis.com you can get information on topics such as home care, daily living aids, long-term care solutions, support services, legal and financial help and more. It also lets you ask questions, links you to other caregivers for support and information, and offers a variety of checklists that suggest tips on what to do as a caregiver and how to do it.

• Caring.com: Relatively new on the scene, www.caring.com is another wonderful site that offers tons of practical information, articles, caregiving to-do lists, links to local resources and much more.

• The Family Caregiver Alliance: This is the oldest and perhaps most respected organization that has helped serve the needs of caregivers. They also have a dandy website (www.caregiver.org) that offers a Family Care Navigator map listing a broad range of caregiving services in each state.

• Family Caregiving 101: Created by the National Family Caregivers Association and the National Alliance for Caregiving www.familycaregiving101. org is a great site for finding assistance, answers, new ideas, and helpful advice for you and the person you’re caring for.

• AARP: At www.aarp.org/family/caregiving you can find tips and worksheets on a wide range of issues including long-distance caregiving, as well as access to their Caregiving Tool Kit. • Strength for Caring: Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, this site (www.strengthforcaring.com) provides tip sheets on fitness and nutrition for caregivers, balancing work and family, respite care, reducing stress, caring for specific conditions, and home safety.

Medicare Help - To help with your caregiving/ Medicare questions the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently created a new web-

DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011

site called Ask Medicare. At www.medicare.gov/ caregivers you can find out what Medicare and Medicaid will cover, search for and compare home care and long-term care options, and much more.

Alzheimer’s Caregiving - Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia can present some unique and difficult challenges. To help, a top resource is the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org, or call 800-272-3900). It puts caregivers in touch with local resources, support groups, medical professionals, and provides caregiving tips to handle every behavior and phase of the disease. Also see the Alzheimer’s Disease

Education and Referral Center at www.nia.nih.gov/ alzheimers.

Cancer Care - If you are caring for a cancer patient, a top website is www.cancercare.org, which provides cancer support services including counseling and education, as well as where to find financial assistance and get practical help.

You can also call 800-813-4673 and get help over the phone.

Care Coordination - If you are sharing caregiving responsibilities with other family members, friends, or a home care aid there are Web resources that can help you coordinate together.

IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 43

Sites like www.lotsahelpinghands.com and www. caregiverhelper.com let caregivers post updates about medications being taken, doctor’s appointments, meal plans, and anything else you want to communicate. These sites can help reduce the stress and time it takes to inform all caregivers involved so something is not missed or overlapped.

Send your senior questions to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit www. savvysenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. ISI

Moving In With A Child: Should You Do It?

By Lisa M. Petsche When older people are living alone, there may be concerns about their physical and emotional well-being. Particularly in situations where they are having health problems or do not live close by, a son or daughter may invite them to move in.

If you find yourself on the receiving end of such an offer, ask yourself the following questions and take time to honestly and thoroughly answer each one before making a decision.

Interpersonal Issues - What kind of relationship do you and your son or daughter have? How well do you get along with others in the household?

Any personality clashes are sure to be magnified when you are living under the same roof. If you need assistance, are you comfortable with the idea of role reversal?

Your Needs and Expectations - Would the move uproot you from important relationships and community connections such as supportive longtime neighbors, a church congregation, or clubs?

If you have a pet, can it be accommodated? If your child has pets, are you comfortable around them?

If you have a chronic illness, how are your needs likely to change? Would you expect your family to provide whatever help you may require?

Your Family’s Needs and Expectations Would you be expected to contribute to the household in practical ways, such as cooking meals or providing childcare?

If you require assistance: Would your child or other household members be able to cope with the ongoing physical, mental, and emotional demands of care giving? Would they have enough time to devote to the rest of their family – spouse, children, grandchildren, other older relatives? Would they still have time for themselves?

Lifestyle Issues - Do you and your son or daughter have similar lifestyles and values? If not, are differences likely to be an ongoing source of tension?

If you require care, how might your needs affect your child’s work life, social life, vacation plans, and other pursuits?

Available Support - Would you be within walking distance of a convenience store, pharmacy, or bank? What about proximity to a place of worship? Would you be close to public transit routes? Easy access to at least some amenities would maximize your independence – a win-win situation.

Would friends and former neighbors be able to visit frequently? Consider the distance they would have to travel.

What kinds of community support services are available to assist in meeting your needs, either now or in the future? Find out about accessible transportation services, recreation centers, day programs, and home healthcare services.

Finances - How much would you be expected to contribute toward fixed household expenses? Do you have savings or insurance that would cover the cost of any needed medical equipment or healthcare services?

Home Setup - Is there sufficient space in the home to meet everyone’s needs for privacy? Would you have separate quarters?

How accessible is the home? Are there steps to get inside, does it have multiple levels, can doorways accommodate walker or wheelchair passage?

Other Options - Before making any decisions, explore alternatives: arranging home health care services and other home supports such as meals

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on wheels; obtaining live-in help; doing home renovations; and moving to a condominium, seniors’ apartment complex or assisted living facility.

The Decision - If you decide to move into your son or daughter’s home, consider a six-month trial period with a clear understanding that other options will be pursued if you, your child, or other household members feel it’s not working out and issues can’t be resolved.

Keep in mind that such a plan involves changes in family dynamics and household routines that will affect daily living. Therefore, you need to allow plenty of time for everyone involved to adjust.

There are bound to be some difficulties, but these can usually be solved if you are committed to making it work.

Lisa M. Petsche is a social worker and a freelance writer specializing in boomer and senior issues. ISI

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