Linda Fisher's Early Onset Alzheimer's Blog nominated for award

My Early Onset Alzheimer's blog has been nominated by Healthline for the best health blog of 2012 contest with a $1,000 prize. Currently, I'm in the top ten out of 300+ blogs. You can vote via Facebook or Twitter once daily between now and February 15. Every vote truly counts! I would appreciate your vote. It is easy to vote, you simply follow the link below and click on the "Vote Now" button next to Early Onset Alzheimer's. If I win, I will use the prize money to fund attendance of my 13^th consecutive Alzheimer’s Association Public Policy Forum in Washington, DC.

http://www.healthline.com/health/best-health-blogs-contest 

Your votes are greatly appreciated! You can check out my blog at www.earlyonset.blogspot.com

Linda Fisher

Older American’s Month: Never Too Old…

I just read an article about May being “Older American’s Month” and the theme is “Never too old to play.” I really like that theme and the message it sends. This makes me wonder—how did I get older without knowing May was MY month? After all, I’ve been hearing from AARP for a long time now and it seems like every funeral home within a hundred mile radius has me on their mailing list.

From the article, I made my way to the website. I had to make sure that this wasn’t just a joke or something. The site has many cool things on it, including “The Best Ways to Play.”

·         Get Physical—okay, I admit that I dropped my gym membership at just the time when I needed it most. That’s how it goes. Once you get caught up in the endless cycle of being involved with three or four organizations, you just flat don’t have time to go to the gym. My exercise consists of toting around several bags of papers, books, files, and reference materials. It just gets heavier and heavier.

·         Brain Activities—I pass this one with flying colors. My brain is so active that I can’t shut it off. I’m always thinking, planning, learning.

·         Bridge the Generation Gap—What gap? I’ve always loved people of all ages. I enjoy spending time with my grandkids, kids, aunts, uncles, and my mom. My friends are multi-generational.

·         Get creative—seriously? I write.

I have a pretty good handle on this older American thing. I have no shame when it comes to getting a senior discount.

 At our Friendship Lunch yesterday, we had quite a discussion on the advantages of joining AARP. “Don has a lifetime membership,” Cindy said. “I really like the magazine.”

“I’ve been getting offers and I’m thinking about joining,” said Brenda, who has just recently squeaked past the minimum age for AARP.

When we get older, we start to realize that we are not invincible and the obits are not our friends. We see former classmates, cousins, friends, and family fall to diseases that become more prevalent as we grow older. We cross our fingers and pray that cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s stay away from us and those we love. The knowledge that we are mortal and vulnerable makes each pain free, sunshiny day more precious.

It is as if I’m on a carousel going around in circles with each day pretty much like the one before and strikingly similar to the one ahead. There is comfort in knowing that life is whirling along on an even keel. Anytime that life glides along in a smooth circle is a time to relax, enjoy the ride, and play.

Getting older should be a time when we can be more of ourselves. As my mother recently said, “I don’t care what other people think of me anymore. It just isn’t important.” Yay, Mom! We are all better off when we reach that turning point in life when we can live life the way we want to live it and not the way others want us to live it.

When we get older, we should be able to play to our hearts content. We are never too old to play, or to be young. No matter how old the calendar says I am—or how old I may look—I’m still young on the inside. Have you noticed how the bar for what is considered older, just keeps getting higher? Is today’s 60 the new 40?

It’s time to catch up on all those things we never had time for when we were younger. It’s  time to finish that bucket list. Maybe it’s time to join AARP. After all, we older Americans are all about discounts and bargains.

All I have to do to feel younger is turn the XM radio to the 60’s channel. When I hear that music, I’m a teenager inside with a world of possibilities and experiences ahead of me. Age, after all, is only skin deep.

Copyright © L. S. Fisher May 2012

http://earlyonset.blogspot.com

Don't Call Me a Senior!

I can remember when I was young and thought nothing could be worse than being old. Honestly, I thought of old people as a different species.

Now that I'm older, not "old" at all, I look at the entire aging thing differently. I'm pretty much insulted when anyone calls me a "senior" and being a boomer, old is always at least ten years older, and more likely twenty years older than I am.

I have to admit that the only good expression using the word senior is when it is followed by the word discount. For the first time, I qualified for a $2 discount when I attended the Missouri State Fair this year. I had my drivers' license ready just in case I was carded--although, I can't imagine a woman lying about her age and saying she is older than she is.

Not only did I get a discount on my ticket, but I suppose they think anyone so old as to qualify for a senior discount needs a free tram ride too. Not that there's anything wrong with that and my knees have given me problems for nearly thirty years.

Okay, so how about I take the discount and skip being called a senior? Works for me.

copyright (c) Aug 2011 L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/

ERA: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, but You’re Not There Yet!

At the Missouri Business Women’s Legislative Conference this weekend, I experienced a refresher course on the Equal Rights Amendment. Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and it was introduced in Congress every year between 1923-1972. When the ERA passed only 35 states ratified it—three states short. The deadline was extended until 1982, but women had no luck getting the other three states to put equal rights in the constitution.

Chief Justice Scalia recently shot holes into sexual discrimination being included in the 14th amendment when he said the constitution does not have protection for women. One might wonder if the 14th amendment gave women equal rights (a favorite opposition argument) why did it take the 19th amendment to give women the right to vote?

This is the wording of the Equal Rights Amendment:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The 15 states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

The Equal Rights Amendment is not dead! If three more states ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, the precedent of the “Madison Amendment” for congressional pay, which was ratified 203 years later, gives support to the “Three State Strategy.”

To keep up to date, join ERA Once and For All on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ERAonceandforall

Copyright © March 2011 L. S. Fisher
http://boomeraerobics.blogspot.com

The Two “R’s”—Who Needs Cursive?

When I began school people referred to education as the “Three R’s.” Reading, wRiting, and aRrithmetic were the fundamentals that all children needed to learn, and learn well. Now the state of Georgia has taken writing out of the curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to focus on technology instead of teaching children cursive.

Why not just skip arithmetic, or math, too? Students could focus that time on calculators. Why worry about reading or spelling? We have audio books and spell check.

There is no need to teach the big three R’s at all. Focus on texting and students won’t waste hours learning grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure. Why waste precious time teaching them skills they will not need? History, science, and all those other useless classes can be renamed “Google for Dummies.” Teachers can ask questions and students can look them up on the Internet to answer multiple choice answers on their online tests. (Remember, they can’t take written tests because they don’t know how to write.) Instead of sports, why not replace that nonsense with online games?

Hey wait, I have a better idea. Why send kids to school at all? Let them stay at home and learn all they need to know from technology. That face to face time can be replaced with social networking.

What happens twenty years down the road? A new generation will think their parents are really stupid because today’s technology will be antiquated, and talk about useless information. (Does anyone remember Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Cobol?)

Don’t get me wrong, I think technology has a place in the school system, but it should not replace fundamentals. Technology should enhance a student’s opportunity to learn—not hinder it. Today’s youth have an opportunity unlike any previous generation to learn. They start school practically before they’re out of diapers and have limitless knowledge at their fingertips. Why rob them of educational basics that allow them to grow intellectually using the most complex and intricate database of all—their own brains.

Copyright © Jan 2011, L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/

Oh, Christmas Tree

I haven’t had a real tree in years. It’s really a lot of trouble and let’s face it, you can get that wonderful smell from a Sentsy and not have to vacuum pine needles for six months.

Growing up in Missouri, a few days before Christmas we went into the woods and chopped down a cedar tree to decorate. I can remember fragile glass ornaments—some shaped like bells—glass bead garland, and plenty of silver icicles hanging from every branch. One year we strung popcorn to make a different kind of garland. It looked okay, but I would have rather eaten the popcorn with plenty of butter and salt.

I can remember ribbon candy, peanuts in the shell, chocolates, orange slice candy, and apples and oranges. I also remember that when we had mixed nuts, they didn’t come in a can, they came in a sack from the grocery store. Each of us was responsible for cracking and picking any nut we planned on eating. I always like the filberts, or hazel nuts, although it seemed redundant to buy them when we each fall, we had our fill from the bush behind the house.

Another thing that stands out in my memory is how worried I would get when it didn’t snow on Christmas Eve. I was just sure Santa wouldn’t be able to make it to our house. I understood sledding, and just didn’t get that flying through the air part. Our sleds had to have snow and I figured Santa’s sled wouldn’t make the trip without a smooth layer of snow to glide through.

Eventually, we had an artificial tree at home. It was one of those silver trees that were popular in the late fifties and then were worth a fortune at flea markets many years later. I’m sure it was the nostalgic value and not the actual value of the trees.

It’s hard to believe how Christmas trees, at least for the most part, still look the same, but have also changed. I now have a fiber optic tree. I don’t spend hours decorating it, I just pull it out of the box and fluff it up, plug it in and let it twirl with its multi-colored lights and sparkling ornaments.

At least when Christmas is over, I don’t have to remove the ornaments (and million icicles) before I haul it back into the woods. Nope, I just unplug it, cram it back into the box and take it downstairs until next year. With the Sentsy candle, I can smell Christmas year round, if that’s what I want.

Copyright © Dec 2010 L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/

Christmas Doesn't Have to be Crazy

A few of the advantages of being a grandparent—you don’t have to worry about how much noise a toy makes or whether there is room for it in the Toy Room. Geeze, I remember when my kids had a toy box, but now kids need an entire room for the toys they get from Santa, their parents, their grandparents, various aunts, uncles, and family friends.

As the grandkids multiply so does the expense. More important to me is the time it takes to decide what to buy, where to find it, and the fine line between getting it soon enough that it is still in stock and not before the last marketing campaign causes a change of heart.

Several years ago, based on my kids’ pleas to not buy so much for Christmas and my own practical nature that tells me they already have too many toys, I decided to put my money in educational CDs for my grandchildren.

I buy the grandkids a few small gifts, but I don’t find it necessary to get too indulgent. I give the older kids pre-paid VISA cards so they can use them for something they really want and give the younger kids a few toys.

The major part of my shopping is done once I make the phone call transferring money from my account to purchase CDs for the grandkids' accounts. I avoid the pushing, shoving crazed shoppers, and my grandkids will each have several thousand dollars for education when they graduate high school. That money could have been spent on long-forgotten or broken toys.

We celebrate Christmas this Saturday. It will be a fun time to get together and, of course, eat. Christmas day will be a day to kick up my feet and relax. A few changes in our tradition has really made Christmas with my family more enjoyable and a lot less stressful.

Copyright (c) December 2010 L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/