Padded Rooms For Seniors

It is tough to grow older for some people. It seems that we all age differently, so some of us will end up in an assisted living facility or a nursing home in our latter years. Falls, dementia, and other health concerns take over our lives so much that we have to have around the clock caregivers.

When my mom agreed to go to an assisted living facility, she still had her mental faculties about her. Physically it was beginning to become a challenge for her to live alone. She had fallen a few times, but luckily she had suffered no broken bones. Macular degeneration had begun to rob her of her central vision so she could not drive anymore or pay her bills.

While she could still function enough to be in an assisted living facility, the rest of the family thought it would be a good idea to place her there. At first it was very tough on her, but as time went by she began to really like it there. She was having a speech problem before she went there to live, but after several weeks of the social activities at the facility, she could talk in complete sentences again. So, being in the assisted living facility had really become a miracle for her and her new outlook on life.

Then one morning she was trying to hurry to the bathroom when she was awaken by the alarm. It seems that she had not been able to figure her new alarm clock out, and it was verbally announcing every hour on the hour and it was keeping her awake at night. So, she put the clock in the bathroom so she could not hear the hourly announcements, but she could still hear the alarm.

I guess every day she would wake up and hurry into the bathroom to shut the alarm off. Then one day she fell on the way to shut off the alarm and she broke her hip. Later she told me that she had figured something out about that talkative clock while she was lying there on the floor. The alarm would shut itself off after ringing for one minute. So, she found out that she never had to hurry to shut it off anymore.

However, she had suffered a broken hip, and she would have to go through the long process of surgery, recovery, and rehabilitation. It was during this time of recovery that one of my granddaughters came up with her thoughts on how the assisted living facility was constructed. The floors of the facility were solid concrete. Most of the residents' homes did not have concrete floors, because most homes are built with wooden floor joists and wooden floors. It seems that wooden floors will give a little when you fall on them. Concrete floors will not give at all.

My granddaughter came up with an idea for longterm care facilities. She said, "Why don't they make padded floors and walls for people like great grandma to live in, so that when they fall they will not break a hip or something? They should not make the walls and floors out of something hard."

She is right. They should make facilities safer for those who need longterm care. Maybe someday my granddaughter will come up with safer ways of building longterm care facilities.

Is Retirement What it is Cracked Up to Be

I am a newly retired teacher at the age of 60. For many years during my teaching career I coached, ran a business, and also taught school at the same time. My summers were always busy with running our store, working a basketball camp, and having open gym for my basketball team. So, I was not used to having a lazy summer.

During the last 15 years, I have not worked during the summers off that I have had as a teacher. We no longer have the store to run, and I no longer coach.

I have loved having summers off, but after a couple of weeks I start going stir crazy. And now I have retired and I have loads of time on my hands.

I keep telling myself and others that I need to get a job to fill part of my time, but it seems that I am not trained to do anything else but teach.

I probably should not have retired at the age of 60. I probably should have stayed in the teaching profession for a few more years. Working only 180 days a year is kind of like semi-retirement so I guess I should have plugged along for a few more years in Education.

My wife keeps telling me to start another career, and maybe that is what I ought to do. I guess we will see what the future holds.

One thing that has spurned me on lately though is the death of Nelson Mandela. A large part of his life did not even begin until he was 72 because of his prison term. It seems he has lived and worked a lifetime since he left prison, and many people at the age of 72 are beginning to do 'nothing' for the rest of their lives. He is an inspiration to me that I should use my remaining time here on earth to fill my time with greater accomplishments.

I think we can all use Nelson Mandela as an inspiration to do something with our lives to serve and help our fellow man.

Schrade Scrimshaw Set of Six Knives 1979

My wife and I used to own a business and we were always going to market in St.Louis. One of the places that we bought merchandise from carried knives. My dad had always been interested in knives and had become quite a collector. So, I bought a set of Schrade Scrimshaw knives that came in a numbered set with a display case. I kept them until Christmas and decided to give them to my dad for a present.

My dad passed away in 2003 and my mom moved to an assisted living home, so we had a sale of personal belongings and real estate. My brothers and I went through all my parents' personal property and we each took items that we had previously given to our parents as gifts. One item that I ended up with was the set of Schrade Scrimshaw knives.

I recently decided to get the knives out of the attic to study them and find out more about them on the internet. As I looked at the knives I saw that they were all engraved with the artist's name and the year. I noticed that two of the knives were dated 1978 and that four were dated 1979. All six knives had the same set number engraved on them.

I found knives and sets similar to these on the internet. Some of the 1979 scrimshaw knives had set numbers engraved on them and some of them did not. Sets of these knives were listed for sale but none of them mentioned the 1978 date for two of the knives.

So far, on my internet searches for Schrade Scrimshaw knives, the two knives that are dated 1978 are listed as knives that were manufactured in 1979. So, I guess the two different dates on the knives of this set are just oddities that occurred for this 1979 set.

The two knives with the 1978 date engraved are the knife with the buffalo and the knife with the fish.

The Envelopes

My mom was terrific with a budget. Dad always said that they would have never saved any money had it not been for Mom and her way of budgeting and paying bills. If Dad would have been in charge of the finances, he says they would not have been able to pay the bills every month.

Mom's system consisted of envelopes and a notebook. Each envelope was labeled with an expense name or category. She would use the notebook to record the payment transactions of every expense.

Envelopes would be labeled for car insurance, house insurance, health insurance, mortgage, car loan, utilities, phone bill, meat (they would purchase a beef each year), groceries, real estate taxes, car expenses (gasoline, oil, tires, battery, etc.), vacation, Christmas gifts, birthdays, church, emergencies, and miscellaneous. She would divide each expense into 12 months and then when Dad was paid, she would cash the check and distribute the cash into the envelopes. The notebook would have the annual budget for each category, and she would post when each month was paid and how it was paid (either by cash or by check).

Some of the bills were only paid annually, semi-annually, or quarterly. She would put cash in each envelope each month that would keep building toward when the bill would be paid. Many bills could be paid with cash. When she would have to mail a check to pay a bill, she would deposit the money from the envelope into the checking account and then write a check and mail it.

Mom and Dad never made much money, but they were able to accumulate over $100,000 and were able to pay off their mortgage twice.

This system is what she used until I took over paying her bills for her. I took over after Dad died and Mom could no longer see well enough to read. It just devastated her when she could no longer pay the bills anymore. I did not continue her system and that just about killed her, too.

My wife and I have never used the envelope system, but I have used it in my mind for planning with our money. If we would use the envelope system, it probably would help us. Envelopes labeled for retirement and savings would be a great benefit to us. We have never really had a budget plan, so we have probably wasted a fortune that could have been used toward our future.

No Limitations

It is funny sometimes how words and signs can be misinterpreted by kids and even adults. Getting a 'physical' for athletics has always been a requirement, and I remember one time in particular because it was my first physical for sports in high school.

Dr. Mitchell once had a family practice and was our family doctor at the time. His office was in the same office that Dr. M uses today. After my examination Dr. Mitchell gave me the physical form that he had been checking off and recording my present and past health information on. At the bottom in large letters he had handwritten 'NO LIMITATIONS'.

I kind of knew what limitations meant, but because it had the negative word 'no' with it I thought that somehow something was wrong with my health that would keep me from playing sports.

At the supper table that night my parents could tell that I was 'down in the gills' so I was asked what was the matter. I proceeded to show them the physical form with the words no limitations on it and said, "I guess I can't play sports anymore."

My parents both studied the form and they both said that my physical was great. And I said, "But it says NO LIMITATIONS!"

They both had a big chuckle and explained to me what the phrase meant and from that point on my dad would say the phrase 'no limitations' at some of the funniest times to remind me that he was still smarter than me.

I think that we, as adults, need to relate stories like this to our kids, when they feel down or dumb because of something they have done or said, to show them we are all human and make mistakes.

The one thing I tell every class that I sub in is that it is ok to make mistakes because the lessons we learn when we make mistakes and correct them stick to our brains like glue.

I will never forget what NO LIMITATIONS means.

Taking Ryan Out of the Game

Sometimes I base my decisions too much on what other people say. I think that my first instinct should be what I should go with. But, as I said, sometimes I rely on what other people tell me to do.

Many people know Ryan Nelson. Ryan was born with cerebral palsy, but he has never let it slow him down. In fact, he played baseball in the summer league here in McLeansboro, Illinois. I happened to be one of his coaches, and I consider it a great experience.

Our summer league program allowed us to pick our players in a draft each year. Ryan was one of the players I picked on my team. I was very familiar with Ryan because I was a local school teacher. So, I had seen Ryan grow up here in McLeansboro.

We had several practices before the season began, and I always pitched batting practice to my players. For some reason, I hit Ryan with many more pitches than anyone else on the team. He took it in stride every time and he never complained.

It was during one of our games that summer that I made a decision that I have regretted for the rest of my life. Ryan was up to bat, and it was always a struggle for him to hit the ball. But, what he lacked in ability, he made up for with determination. His speed around the bases was hampered by his cerebral palsy, but he could get around the bases.

Ryan was rarely able to get on base, however on this occasion he was about to be walked by one of the best pitchers in the league. As ball four was called, the coach on the other team looked at me and said, "You're going to pinch run for him aren't you?" I looked at him and said no. I had every intention of letting Ryan stay in the game to run the bases because he almost never experienced it. The coach looked at me again and said, "You need to take him out before he gets hurt." So, I made a snap decision and took him out of the game.

Ryan sat on the bench and cried. He was crushed and I was, too. But, the damage had already been done. Then guess what happened in the game. The pitcher proceeded to walk, unintentionally, the next three hitters. If Ryan had stayed in the game, he would have casually walked around the bases and scored. I felt like every eye in the crowd was on me during all of this. I was so upset, I just glared at the other coach.

Ryan's parents never said a word to me about this. And until just a few years ago, Ryan and I never spoke of this experience that I have felt total shame about. I have mentioned it a few times to Ryan and have apologized profusely each time we discuss it.

Ryan has become quite a writer and a great individual as he has grown older. He just chalked the experience up as something he had to get through in his lifetime of dealing with cerebral palsy. He has written many short stories about his experiences with his disability, and I think he has included the one about when I took him out of the game.

I have made many wrong decisions in my life and this was one of them that I wish I could turn back the clock and change.