Archives for October 2024

What’s The Word?

October 27, 2024 By admin

No seriously. What is the word I was thinking of not more than an hour ago?

Has this happened to you? Does it worry you? Do you think it’s early onset Alzheimer’s?

How do you differentiate normal brain aging from dementia?

I’m glad you asked. Loads of boomers are freaking out when they can’t find the book they had in their hands just minutes earlier. You forgot why you went into the kitchen? We’ve all done that. Can’t find the car fob? No biggie. Finding the fob in the refrigerator and not recognizing what it’s used for? Uh-oh. Senior moments can morph into Alzheimer’s but you need to know the difference between that and normal cognitive aging.

Normal cognitive aging starts at age 40 and affects 3 areas of cognition, and they can shift at different rates.

Processing speed is how long it takes you to see something, think about what it is and respond.

Crystalized intelligence is the knowledge, vocabulary and skills you’ve acquired over a lifetime of experience and education.

Memory is the ability to recollect from your past and learn new information now.

In normal brain aging, the crystalized intelligence stays intact. However, processing slows down – as much as 50 percent by age 80. Memory decreases as well and can fluctuate from one day to the next.

Forty percent of us will experience memory impairment by age 65, but not go on to develop dementia. You might not be able to retrieve someone’s name when you see them but you still recognize that you know them.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a term to describe more significant memory loss. About 16 to 20 percent of Americans over 60 have MCI and about 10 to 20 percent of them develop dementia each year.

Want to check for MCI? Take the free Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE), developed by Ohio State University. It won’t give you your results but you will probably have a pretty good idea how you performed. If you’ve been able to understand what you’ve read here, odds are you don’t have MCI.

Want to help prevent MCI? There’s lots of steps you can take. Aerobic exercise and lifting weights aids your brain. Treat your blood pressure and other medical issues. Stimulate your brain with games and puzzles. Try continuing your education. Have a sense of purpose. Socialize often. Get treatment for depression.

None of these things will guarantee you will be MCI free or not succumb to Alzheimer’s, but doing nothing won’t help either. Just don’t forget to do them!

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here . His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Magpie

October 27, 2024 By admin

magpie Today he hears their harsh clacking. There they are in the cherry tree, five or six of them, ying-yang, bold and brash. Nest robbers, they may be but he likes their brilliant white breasts, their glossy tails and wings. Evil birds, some say. He knows it’s not all black and white.

He holds a cup and, as he wipes it with the towel, their hocus-pocus noise takes him back to … that time he heard a thud on the window. There on the glass was the shape of a bird like a Fox-Talbot negative – vague, ghostly, wings and all. He shut the cat away then prowled into the yard. Stark against the earth lay the bird. He thought it had died but it quickened in his hands.

The other birds sensed peril. One swooped to the shed, a couple stayed in the tree. There was one swaying on the aerial. They all bobbed and twitched. Panicked. Chattered. Squawked.

“Look at that green and blue glimmering in its tail,” his sister said. He pointed out the cruel dark bill, the way they frighten smaller birds, their fascination with shiny stuff. He reminded her how they often taunted Patches, perching and cackling just out of the cat’s reach.

“That’s shows how clever they are,” she said.

They contained the stunned bird in a box she found then placed it in the shed, proud to think they were the bird’s protectors.

“It could become some kind of familiar,” she said. “You know, looking after us.”

The following morning, when she went to the shed, she found the bird had gone. He told her he’d found it on the floor of the shed pecking at crumbs and dust.

“I thought it best to let her go,” he said, “and she flew into the tree. The others joined her and they all scrammed.”

“Why did you do that without me?”

“She might not have recovered,” he said. “I didn’t want you to see her … you know … dead.”

Today he stands alone, watching the antics of the magpies in the tree. He hears their bold, aggressive chatter. He shrugs and salutes them. Then, as he returns to his domestic task, a vision of her magpie appears in his mind’s eye and, beyond that, some blurred movement in the shed.

Andy Larter

Good Manners

October 27, 2024 By admin

My grandmother was an old academic and a conscientious believer for good manners. Grandma said manners carry through life and shape you. It was always “please” and “thank you” anything else was an unacceptable response. We always showed our gratitude, if we ever received a gift. Wrote out a thank you note and our parents mailed it.

We held the door open for anyone. We never spoke in a church service. It was something you never considered. In a grocery store we never asked or begged for candy or gum. If the answer was no, we went on and accepted considered. In the invitation. A good word, a good deed, good manners can transform your life.

It never occurs that life is but to those who know. Yes, good manners. Is it because I am over fifty years of age. A cab driver continues to know the good in people. People waiting for life to pass them by all have fears to conquer.

Oh yes, the sun rises and sets again in due time. Every day the ordinary people one knows can be found doing good deeds. Yes, good manners. Funny, to think about life and manners. It starts in your favor, and you then wonder, OK now is this what it’s all about? One must find a purpose of what they would like to do in life. Just have good proper manners and all will fall in place. Do not to cry out loud.

Those moonbeams may not find you, but do not cry. The more you make one’s life not a show the more you won’t want to miss it. Life is but a script that we have never read. An upbeat tempo with a secret kept. Yes, good manners last a lifetime. Not stranger will be lost on them that you will see.

Brian Sluga

Scrollitus?

October 13, 2024 By admin

The ultimate time waster?

What to do when you’re stuck waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room?

Ooh, ooh! I’ve got one. It’s what you do when you’re waiting to board an airplane.

Or definitely what you might want to do when the plane is tearing down the runway.

Facebook reels, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube…choose your poison. The reality is that there are dozens of ways to waste our time with the smart phone of your choice. What did we do before smart phones? Crossword puzzles? Still do those but a bit of a drag to carry pencil and paper around all the time. Oh, wait. You can also do them on your smart phone. Solitaire? A deck of cards is hardly portable, and you can play that game on your phone as well.

Now I know the book people are thinking, why not read a good book. A paperback is relatively portable and an iPad mini or Kindle makes it even easier. Plus, you can read in the dark. Okay, I accept that option as a great way to fill the downtime. But what if you are just trying to avoid any intellectual engagement and just want mindless fun? Then you’re off to the app store to get Angry Birds, Tetris, Sudoku, Words with Friends, Wordscapes, Minecraft, Candy Crush, or Sonic Dash.

If this is all starting to sound like it might be too much work, you might want to try Viridi. You grow and care for a pot of succulents in real time. Seriously. People say it’s great when you’re waiting for the Wi-Fi to kick back in (or there is none).

Gardening not your thing? Try Zen Koi. Yes, you can raise koi on your phone.

You could also try Fluid Monkey, where you drag your fingers through pools of liquid in the quest to make fabulous designs. This is ideal for when you’re on hold with customer service.

How about Prune? Not the fruit. This meditative app lets you retreat from the world in order to trim your digital bonsai tree.

Similarly, you could methodically wrap carved wooden objects with rope in Zen Bound. If you like puzzles, you could try Monument Valley where you get to guide a princess through simple Escher-like structures.

Perhaps the ultimate time waster is going to the app store to find something you like. With any luck, that should help you blow off an entire afternoon.

Pumped

October 13, 2024 By admin

While it was not exactly pocket-worthy, I did have to pump myself up a bit after I fumbled in the final round of our golf tournament. I still came in second … or as they say in the pageants, runner-up! No tiara for me, but I was hoping I’d play a little better in the final stretch.

So, whew, I’m glad that’s over. In this final stretch of life, I find that competition is overrated. Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!

Of course, I mean that figuratively, because you know, pain and inflammation and all that. But here we are. Still at it. Finding joy no matter what. Dancing with bad knees.

The aging body is wont to crap out, but I have vowed I will not be part of the club that recites their ailments like baseball stats. Bone-on-bone … that’s my personal favorite. It’s actually a drinking game for old people. Every time someone says bone-on-bone, you take a shot of your protein shake.

I’m sticking with my physical therapy and will save my whining for a professional.

We went to Walgreens to get the new Covid vaccine, and for the first time, we had to check-in using our phones to scan a QR code. We don’t know nothin’ about QR codes. Dale can barely use his phone to text hi, and I say that as his loving partner of 45 years.

It was an unpleasant experience at best. Low-grade profanity was involved, but we finally got it done, and I had to apologize to the pharmacy assistant for my rant about serving old people with technology designed by and for young people. Oh, sorry about you wanting to stay alive, but we’ve got this little test for you first. I do think she was a little rough on the arm. Note to self: Be nice to the people who poke you.

A good number of you have expressed an interest in volunteering – learning more about my personal journey toward deciding what to do – and reaping the rewards of any pearls of wisdom I may uncover during this quest. Did I mention this time of life is also filled with disappointment? As in you will be disappointed I have nothing new to share.

Well, that’s not completely true. I seem to be very good at talking myself out of potential opportunities. Children scare me, animals are unpredictable, I don’t want to go into anyone’s home, I don’t want to actually talk to anyone, no closed up spaces where I’ll catch any virus that’s going around, I can’t sit all day, I can’t stand all day. I’m sure you understand.

Donna Pekar is an aging badass (for real) who lives in California and writes Retirement Confidential.

Preparing to Leave

October 13, 2024 By admin

empty college classroom I Take This, and This

In my dreams, of course, my final year of teaching resembles a retiring ballplayer’s farewell tour. Alas, in reality there will be no key to the city, no basket of hometown culinary specialties, no desktop-sized replica of some local landmark. There won’t be a presentation at the home plate of my lectern before the semester begins, let alone a highlight reel of my greatest classroom quips and insights.

Moreover, I’ll be the one giving (or throwing) stuff away. Here for the taking are boxes—and stacks beside them—of Shakespeare, Thoreau, Frost, Dickinson, Douglass. Here are my mugs full of pens and markers, drawers full of knickknacks I’ve used to jumpstart writing workshops: bottle caps, rusty pennies, a cracked hourglass. Here are posters from Dublin and Rome and sets of shelves for my colleagues to claim, here are two sturdy office chairs, a wide desk and a printer. Here’s the office itself, sans books, sans furniture, sans light, sans everything.

II Miss Foley, Elle est Moi

In one of her essays, the late poet Kay Ryan recalls her college English instructor, Miss Foley, who every few minutes would “look down and rearrange two or three little stacks of books and papers on her desk… always unconsciously tidying up, already preparing to leave.” It was an epiphany for Ryan back then: “Miss Foley had a private life of the mind that she protected, and to which she was eager to return. She wasn’t entirely there for us.”

After decades as a professor, I have to admit to a similar fugitive sensibility. For much of that time, and more consciously than not, I too have been preparing to leave. I’ve always been more Miss Foley than Mr. Chips.

Maybe that’s why the departure seems natural, why I neither fear an abyss of purposeless days ahead nor itch to begin checking off items on some bucket list. As a class session has ended or a semester wrapped up, I’ve hurried to return to the pen and the lamp, to the books still open on the desk or armchair, to the draft of that poem or essay I was scribbling—my teaching day but a necessary, if on the whole pleasant, interruption in my real life, that private one of the mind that all of us Miss Foleys hold dear.

James Scruton is an associate Academic Dean and a professor of English who is speeding toward retirement at the conclusion of this school year. He has published poetry, essays, and reviews for forty years.