BENICIA

BENICIA.
Today is Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Our “Outing” is to Benicia, a neighboring city about 20 miles to the South. We leave Quail Creek at 9:50. The weather is sunny, cloudless and hazy visibility. The temperature is around 70 degrees. Besides Tony, our chauffeur, and Kelli, our Activities Coordinator, there are seven residents along.
While it is a very nice day for golfing, I see only a few players on the Paradise Valley course. Gas at Shell is $2.96 - at Chevron - $3.06 and Arco is $2.88 a gallon. Crude oil is about $60 a bbl. today - down about 18% in the past week. We pass an auto hauler loaded with licensed cars. My first thought is that they were repossessed. Traffic is light on I-80, with more cars going eastbound than in our direction. Another grass fire on the right side. This one has burned a greater area than the previous ones that I have seen, including turning some trees brown. There are not many trucks sitting in the westbound truck scales. This is not a good economic sign.
We exit #80 onto Southbound #680. We whiz by the Cordelia Industrial Park. I haven’t been over this route since we went to Antioch for lunch at Humphrey’s. I can barely see the outline of Mt. Diablo through the front windshield - about 20 miles away. It is interesting to see the green trees sitting on the golden hillsides. They must have deep root systems, as we haven’t received any appreciable rain for three months now.
The Benicia City limit now extends beyond the Industrial Park. We are passing large golden storage tanks on both sides of the freeway. They used to be owned by Exxon, but now they are owned by Valero. We exit form 680 on to 780 and then turn off at East fifth Street in Benicia. This off-ramp is very familiar to me. I used to take it from 780 every Sunday when we drove to Benicia, from Vallejo, to attend mass at St. Dominic’s Church. We liked this small church better than our parish church in Vallejo. The church is more than 150 years old. It is much smaller and warm. It reminds me of the old Mission churches. We are passing new construction on East Fifth Street, which I hadn’t seen before. The last time I saw this area it contained an auto parts store, a restaurant and an empty lot from which they sold Christmas trees. The large building looks like ir will be apartments.
Benicia is an old city. It was founded by Robert Semple and Thomas Larkin and General Vallejo in 1847, on land purchased from General Vallejo. The city was named after the middle name of General Vallejo’s wife. It was the first city in California to be founded by Anglo-Americans.
Benicia is located on the north shore of the Carquinez Strait. It served as the state capitol (the third one) from 1853-1854. The 2000 census lists Benicia’s population as 26,865. The city was the Solano County seat until 1858, when it was moved to Fairfield.
The original campus of Mills College was founded in Benicia in 1852 (Young Ladies Seminary). It was the first women’s college west of the Rockies. The college moved to Oakland in 1871. I mention Mills, because my wife, Marie, attended Mills for a year - before and after our marriage in 1944.
Our first stop in Benicia was at the old Benicia Arsenal, located next to Suisun Bay. The 252 acres was acquired in 1847, and first occupied in 1849. For over 100 years, the Arsenal was the primary US Ordnance facility for the West Coast. The Arsenal was famous for stabling the Army’s one and only Camel Corps, between 1855 and 1863. The Benicia Arsenal was a staging area during the Civil War for Union troops from the West, and during the Spanish American War. The Arsenal is most famous for supplying munitions to Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25’s, for the first bombing raid on Tokyo, on April 18, 1942. Prior to 1940, the Arsenal had 85 civilian employees. By October, 1942, 4545 people were employed, about half of them women.. Because of the labor shortage during WWII, Italian and German prisoners of war and youth from the California Youth Authority were part of this work force. During the Korean War, the work force reached an all-time high of 6,700 workers.
The Benicia Arsenal was de-activated in1963, and the facility was closed in 1964. The space now is primarily used by artists and artisans.
We visited one of the sites - Benicia Artists. We checked out the paintings in their gallery. The prices ran from $300 to $14,000!
From the arenal, It was a scenic ride down First Street to
Captain Blyther’s restaurant. It was very picturesque - sitting on the shoreline. I could see the two Carquinez bridges to the west, Port Costa across the bay and Martinez, across the water, to the east. To the left of this view, were the two Benicia-Martinez bridges. After a nice lunch, we left the restaurant at 1:20.
We are back on Highway 680, heading home. Visibility is still hazy, but we get a good view of the Mothball Fleet. The original motive for mothballing these ships (some of them over 50 years ago), has long seen it’s day. Yet, they still police and maintain the “fleet” at a very high cost. My guess is, that there is no scrap market large enough to pay for the dismantling - a “Catch 22.”
As we leave 680 and merge into 80, I see much heavier traffic than when we were on our way to Benicia. After an uneventful trip back, we arrive back at Quail creek at 1:55. It was a very nice day. Tony gave me the mileage for our round trip - 66 miles.

RCL - 7/11/09.

07/08/09

07/08/09
Today is Wednesday, July 8, 2009, or numerically: 07/08/09! Anyone playing the Lottery today should take note.
A bad day on the Bocce Ball court yesterday. Team #1 beat our
Team #12, 12 to 4. I can see why they are number one! They had three ladies on their team. I was impressed. The women are better players than the men. The game is more skill, than brute strength. At least I did better on the putting green. I sank a couple of putts.
Off to Benicia this morning for our Wednesday outing. There are worse places to go than beautiful Benicia!
RCL - 07/08/09.

STEVE'S SONGS

STEVE’S SONGS
I always look forward to the first Thursday of the month, when Steve Barkhurst entertains us, playing his keyboard and singing. His theme today was “Country” music and “Patriotic” songs - his salute to the Fourth, and month of July.
Steve started out playing “The Entertainer” a piano tune written by Scott Joplin in 1902. It is one of the classics of Ragtime. It is sub-titled “A rag time two step” - a dance step - popular until about 1911. “The Entertainer” was the theme song for the 1973 film - “The Sting”. It won an Oscar. You also hear the tune on ice cream trucks, used to attract children. Steve praised Scott Joplin for his talent as a composer.
Steve mentioned George (“No Show”) Jones, and told us about his sad life. “No Show” got his nickname because he missed so many performances - a result of his wild lifestyle. And yet, they referred to him as “the greatest country singer”. He is responsible for more than 150 hits during his career - both as a solo artist and in duets with other singers. He was married four times. His second wife (1969-1975) was Tammy Wynette. He is still an active recording artist, and a touring country singer, even though he is in his seventies. He credits his current wife, Nancy, for saving him from being destroyed by alcohol and drugs.
Steve played, and sang, Hank William’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, (this was quite fitting, with all of the marital infidelity reported in the news lately!) made famous by Patsy Cline. Hank wrote, and recorded, the song in 1952. It was released in 1953, after Hank’s death. Steve went on to explain about Hank’s tragic death. On January 1, 1953, he was due to play in Canton, Ohio. He couldn’t fly there because of bad weather. He hired a chauffeur in Knoxville for the trip. Before leaving, he injected himself with vitamin B-12 and morphine. Steve said that Hank had his chauffer make two more stops en-route. Hank talked personnel at the hospitals into additional injections. When the 17 year old driver stopped for gas in West Virginia, he found Hank dead in the back seat. Hank Williams was 29!
Steve played and sang “Hey Good Lookin”. Hank Williams wrote and recorded the song in 1951. This version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. Cole Porter wrote the original version of the song in 1943. It was sung by Ethel Merman in the Broadway Musical, “Something For The Boys”. In 1951, Hank Williams wrote a variation of “Hey Good Lookin”, and he has received the credit for “Hey good Lookin” ever since!
Steve played “King of the Road” by Roger Miller. This was a #1 hit in 1964. Roger Miller started out playing the fiddle and the guitar, along with his singing. Later, he was known as a composer.
Steve talked about Johnny Cash, and how he met him in 1960, at Don Ho’s night club in Honolulu. Steve went on to play “I Walk the Line”. It was written by Johnny Cash and recorded in 1956. The song was his first number one hit. It spent six weeks at the top spot on the U.S. country charts, and reached number 19 on the pop music charts. “Rolling Stone” ranked the song at number 30 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1956, a million copies of this song were sold. Cash also wrote 150 religious songs.
Steve talked about Josh White. He was blind, and sang blues and folk music. In 1954, he recorded “One Meat Ball” (15 cents) and the first African American to sell a million copies. His career lasted for more than 40 years.
George M. Cohen:- Steve said that “Cohan wrote more patriotic songs than anyone.” His real birth date is a legend. The only record of his birth is his baptismal certificate. It states that he was born On July3, 1878. His family insisted that George was born on July 4th! If true, he had something in common with the three presidents - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Adams and Jefferson died on the same day - July 4, 1826 - 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Monroe died on July 4, 1831.
Cohan’s parents, Jerry and Nellie, were vaudeville troupers. They took George and his sister on tours with them. He had very little formal education. He got his start playing the violin in theatre -pit bands.
When George was eleven, he and his sister Josie joined their parents in the family song and dance act, as The Four Cohans. The family group was so popular that they were probably the highest paid group in vaudeville - $1,000 a week - in 1890. (This is the same year that my Dad Raymond Marks L’Amoreaux was born - in Hillsdale Michigan)
Cohan composed his first Broadway musical, “The Governor’s Son” in 1901. He wrote many more Broadway plays. Cohan visited the White House in 1940, and President Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his creating “Over There” - the only American composer to receive such an honor. He also wrote “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” Cohan wrote more patriotic songs than anyone. He wrote the music for the film Yankee Doodle Dandy starring Jimmy Cagney. It received an Academy Award. George M. Cohan was married twice, and had three children by his second wife. He died on November 5, 1942 at age 64.
Steve played and sang “America the Beautiful. We all joined him in the singing. He went on to explain some of the background for the song. The words are from a poem written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893. The
Music was composed by Samuel A. Ward - a church organist and a choirmaster. Bates wrote her poem after being inspired from a view atop Pike’s Peak. She went back to her hotel room in Colorado Springs, and put her vision into words. It isn’t clear whether she was staying at the Historic Broadmoor or Antlers Hotel - also a historic facility. The combined writings of Bates and Ward were published in 1910, and titled “America the Beautiful”.
Steve wound up his program by introducing “God Bless America”. We sang it along with him. It is a patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 (the year of my birth ), and he revised it in 1938. Kate Smith introduced the revision on November 11, 1938, on her radio show.
God Bless America is often sung at sporting events, some times in place of our National Anthem. Celine Dion has received a lot of recognition for singing “God Bless America.” The song was also recorded by Daniel Rodriguez, New York City’s “singing cop”, after the September 11, 2001 attack.
Steve always signs off his program by singing “All of Me”. The melody, and words, are “catching“. I find that I am humming and/or singing it to myself for days afterwards. The song was written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931. It was first recorded by Belle Baker, and by many other singers since then.
RCL - 7/5/09.

MY DAY

My Day
Yesterday morning, after a fast breakfast, I played Bocce Ball. Our team 12, beat Team 4, 12 to 7. We had the early shift - 8:45.(There is also a 10:00 o’clock game.) I am glad that we were scheduled early, It was to be a hot day. At this time, it was probably a pleasant 70 degrees - on it’s way to a hot 90 degrees. (“But, it is a dry heat“, as they say in Phoenix).
Two of the players on the other team were women, Charlotte and Ginny, and quite skilled “rollers.” I first met them at the Laurel Creek Health Center, where Marie lives. They are “Volunteers”, and bring around drinks and snacks to the residents (and me.) Charlotte’s husband is also on the team (Charlotte has a twin sister who lives in Carmel). Ginny is the team Captain. I assume that her husband was also on their team, before he died, about a year ago. The two families live next to each other, in a duplex on campus. I see Ginny at church every Sunday.
In the afternoon, I played bridge with Virginia (Charlotte’s older sister), MJ and Bud. Mj had a stroke a few years ago, and her doctor recommended that she play bridge for mental therapy. Bud lost his wife a year ago, and he also had a stroke six months ago. That is why they call this an “assisted living facility.”
AN ASIDE:
It is a small world! In talking to MJ, she mentioned that her husband was in the Air Force during WWII. I asked her where he was stationed. She said that his last assignment was on Ie Shima. (This is the first time that I have ever heard any one, since the war, mention that tiny island a few miles off Okinawa.) I told her that I was stationed there too. too. I learned that we were both there at the same time -the latter part of 1945 - in the Fifth Air Force. He was flying B-24’s and I was flying B-25‘s. I never knew him. Because of this coincidence, I get he feeling that MJ feels a “closeness” to me.
Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent, was killed on Ie Shima by Japanese machine gun fire on April 18, 1945 They placed a monument at the site where Ernie was killed. It reads, ”At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy.” He was originally buried on Ie Shima, but reburied, after the war, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.



None of us had played bridge in quite some time, so it was a case of “the blind leading the blind”. Bud was my partner. Talk about being rusty, I not only reneged once, (MJ challenged me - a two-trick penalty), but I threw my king on my partner’s ace!
Marie and I used to play a lot of bridge. through the years. She belonged to the St. Basil Bridge Club for many years. The original group was composed of 32 ladies from St. basil’s Parish. Two tables of players would rotate around to each others’ homes - each player taking a turn at hosting. Marie was in the Group for 30 years. Substitutes were merged into the Group as players died or dropped out.
Marie and I played bridge with our long time - friends, Pat and Mac Macdonald. We would rotate alternately between each others’ homes. We started out serving dinner first, and then playing bridge afterwards. But, as we aged, we didn’t feel up to the late- ending of the evening, so we eliminated eating dinner first.
We also played round robin- bridge with three other couples for many years. We started out with serving dinner first, and when that got to be too much work, we ate out. When it made too long an evening, we just met at each others’ homes to play bridge.
RCL - 7/1/09

ODOM

ODOM
At Quail creek, I usually sit with Jean and Ray Odom for breakfast. I enjoy his wit and sharp memory. Ray is 94 years old and recites poems verbatim. He is a retired Lt. Col. (Army), and a West Point graduate, as is one of his two sons! He relates stories of their military travels, during his 30 years of service, in such vivid detail, that I can almost “experience” the event,
It is interesting,. His wife’s memory is shot. Jean doesn’t know what day it is. She is four years younger than Ray. Her conversation is repetitive -day after day - she talks about the same thing. But, what the heck, on November 23, they will have been married for 69 years! They go places as a team(primarily to their doctors). I have never seen one without the other. I am frustrated because I can’t communicate with him. He wears an expensive hearing aid, but “the battery is dead!”. So, Jean repeats what I say to him, and he reads her lips. This is a slow going conversation, so it is short and infrequent.
This morning at breakfast, the discussion centered around whether today was June 30th or July 1st? Out of the blue, Ray recited “Sing a Song of Sixpence”, verbatim.
“Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose.
I asked Ray when he learned that . He said, “In the first grade! RCL 7/1/09.

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Recently, I saw a review of the National Geographic book - “Where Valor Rests” - on the Lehrer NewsHour. It is an excellent collection of photographs taken at Arlington National Cemetery.
My daughter, Mary, checked the book out of the Vacaville Library for me .While the book is an emotional read - very sad - the experience is almost like being there. If you haven’t already bought a copy, you can check it out at your local library. I am sure that you will enjoy each page.
RCL - 6/29/09.

Alzheimers Diease

Background:
About two years ago, my wife, Marie, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Dimentia. She was 84 years old. Her neurologist showed the family the image from her MRI brain scan. He pointed to the frontal cortex, and said that she had lost 50% of her brain cells in that area.

Marie's mental ability, at that time, was variable - but fairly stable. She had trouble with her short- term memory. But now, this is slowly declining. While she still knows me, and our daughters by name, she has entered the slippery slope of memory decline, so common with Alzheimer Disease.
And so, ever since her diagnosis, I have been very interested in the subject of Alzheimers Disease.

The Alzheimer’s Project

I didn’t see the Special on HBO on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). My daughter, Mary, let me review the AD Project Kit. Besides the HBO, it is co-sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, of the National Institutes of Health, in association with the Alzheimer’s Association, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer Initiative. The kit contained four DVD’s on the subject. While watching them, I made rough notes. I will use them to try and paraphrase the subject matter.
Alosis Alexander was the discoverer of A.D. back in 1906. He was a Pathologist, and he discovered lesions in the brain, after death.
Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger was the moderator on Tape 2. She covered kids reaction to the disease, plus she talked about her Dad’s A.D. Here are some of Maria’s quotes:-
You don’t know the future - you live in the present.
When it comes to A.D., just go with the flow the best that you can.
It’s O.K. to be afraid of A.D.
It’s hard to accept a mind with no memories - our lives are made up of memories.
You have to let it sink in and accept it - when they don’t know who you are.
Remember, when they get angry, it is not them. It is nothing you did,
it is not she or him.
A family is a collection of emotions and experiences. You want to remember them the way that they used to be.
A.D. is difficult - both emotionally and financially.
On Tape 3, they discuss Plaques and Tangles.
A.D. is the second most feared disease - after cancer. As many as five million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer Disease. It causes not only human suffering, but A.D. has a huge financial impact. A.D. destroys brain cells. An MRI scan confirms A.D. The challenge is, how does the brain go wrong? Alzheimer predicted that we will see plaques and tangles in the brains of people who die with A.D.



The synapses, in the brain, transmits information. When they die, they no longer work, and you can no longer remember.
There are two types of the A.D. disease - Early and Late Onset. The “Early” is defined by ages 40-50, in 3 % of the population. “Late” is defined as late 70’s and early 80’s. The risk rises with age. It is a disease of the entire human body - not just the brain. It is not normal aging. He found that Beta amyloid plaques (composed of A-Beta cells and produced by the brain) and tau tangles (proteins), adjacent to the amyloid plaque in the brain, interfere with the synapses (information switches) ability to transmit information between the cells. Beta neurons produce amyloid Beta in the brain, which forms tau tangles, and must be cleared. Eventually, synopses are lost and the neurons are destroyed. Producing too much Beta amyloid, or not clearing it away, is toxic to neurons and synapses. When they are gone, it establishes the clinical diagnoses of A.D. If they can slow the chemical reaction, they can design drugs (which are also chemicals) to do this. They take spinal taps to analyze the A-Beta in the spinal fluid. The scientists are trying to determine why it is killing neurons and destroying synapses. Lowering the production of Beta amyloid slows A.D.
The average human male-brain weighs about 1100 grams (2.4 lbs.),
Our insulin system is very important for healthy aging. It is produced in the pancreas, in response to the need to transmit glucose into the cells. Insulin resistance underlying pathology is that it prevents glucose from entering the cells. Insulin resistance begins in mid-life, and detected by levels of insulin. It is treatable through diet and exercise.
Researchers are looking for “markers” APO-E (A-Beta) is one of them, pointing to susceptibility to the disease. Inflammation kills brain cells.
High blood pressure changes the heart, because it has to work harder to pump blood to the brain, and it leaves some residual blood still in the heart. People diagnosed with AD are very likely to have clogged arteries. The arteries in the brain become inflamed, and they can’t do their normal job of eliminating the excess A Beta from the brain.
It then accumulates in the brain as plaque.
People with high cholesterol and high blood pressure are candidates for A.D. There is a connection between vascular disease (V.D.) and dementia. Vascular disease can enter the brain and cause mental problems, when you are older due to an abnormal brain. In autopsies of older people, A.D. and V.D. are most common in dead brains. Brain injuries accumulate, resulting in late onset A.D. Statins lower cholesterol, and the brain damage goes away. Statins have been found to decrease the onset of A.D.
By the time that people are aware of their mental problem, they already need a caregiver. - even though they will tell you that they can take care of themselves. “Chuck”, one of the\ people, with A.D., that they interviewed, said, “If you can’t cry about it all the time, you might as well laugh about it half of the time.” Very profound!
Caregivers need respite. If they don’t have anything else to do , stress will get them. The Caregiver will know when she/he is maxed out with stress. The sequence of care goes - friend - family - professional care - grave. People in family support groups have said, “live life in the moment”; it takes indomitable spirit. It is like saying a long goodbye. It is exhausting and you get scared. There is some “denial” by both patient and the caregiver. Spirits fade as the illness progresses. A.D. patients tend to not like noise or crowds, they just want to stay home. With wandering, and toileting, a Caretaker in the home can cost $100 a night or $3,000 a month. One on one, is the toughest kind of schedule - it creates a fast burnout. You cannot be a caregiver unless you love the person you are caring for. A caregiver’s responsibility never leaves your shoulders.
Medications have side effects. The change in the patient is more noticeable when you don’t see them every day. Some people will make vows to loved ones that they will never put them in a nursing home. But, some vows you have to break - you have no choice. In the film, a woman was feeding her husband and said, “You gotta eat everything, it will make hair grow on your chest.” then, she said, “Do you remember when you used to tell our boys that?” Some other quotes -
We never say goodbye.
It is hard to see him the way he is now.
Family takes care of family.
It is hard to see someone who was so full of life.
When it’s time for me to leave, I will - until then, I’m holding on.
You don’t want to lose a person that you can’t live without.
Aren’t we lucky. (by an A.D. patient. I had a long-time friend with
A.D., and he used to tell me that.!)
It’s the bodies way of shutting down. Nutrition is not that important anymore.
The doctor said to the wife,” What do you want to prolong?” (Wife) It’s not fair to him. It’s not what he wants.
(Patient) - Memory problems are not fun.
In autopsies of people with A.D., they have found that the hippocampus has shrunk.
The genetic researchers have determined that genes influence the progress of A.D. or the probability of getting it. A gene makes the protein which makes the plaque. Late onset A.D. is not inherited. It is caused by the contributions of many genes, each of which make a small contribution. You cannot modify your genetics, but you can modify your lifestyle.
Postscript.
Marie’s neurologist, Dr. Pai of Kaiser, diagnosed her Alzheimer dementia a couple of years ago - based on her MRI. Watching these four DVD’s was very emotional for me.


RCL - 6/26/09.