All Posts in "Everything Else"

Whitney Scott in front of a recent class on Mixology held at Franke Tobey Jones Senior University.

Crayons and pencils, paper and erasers.  Stores are abuzz and kids are aghast because it’s back to school time.  If you are retired or semi-retired, you might be wondering why you should even bother thinking about school.  After all when we are children, school is the ladder we have to climb to get good jobs or careers.  So what’s the point of going to school, when you are 60 or 70 or even better?

The benefits can be pretty impressive.   Spending time learning can help your mind build new pathways, allowing it to stay sharp for a longer period of time.  A classroom setting encourages social interaction, opportunities to mingle with people of varying view points and a chance to pursue a hobby or even a new career.

There are as many ways to continue school as there are to begin schooling.  Universities have programs as do senior centers, libraries and the list goes on and on.  In the Tacoma area, one of the easiest ways to slide back into education is by attending Senior University at Franke Tobey Jones.  Classes cover the gamut from educational or cultural to health and finance.   Senior University classes offer community members the opportunity to dip their toes into the waters of additional education by providing free classes in a no pressure, relaxed environment.   In July, community members had the opportunity to learn about summer cocktails and wines or hear from best-selling author and healthy life style expert, Joe Piscatella about current medical information on nutrition and eating.  They spoke with and listened to Democratic Senatorial opponents Jeannie Darnielle and Jack Connelly or boned up on their genealogy.  Instructors come from local universities and businesses and include community members, musicians, entertainers,  and artists.

Whitney Scott, a certified Mixologist and a staff member at Franke Tobey Jones recently taught a summer cocktail class.  Scott and her mom attended a bartending school together.  The school didn’t teach Scott a lot about how to mix specific drinks but concentrated on information on the various components and their history, which she found interesting like the fact that Ernest Hemingway is known to have favored Mojitos but the original drink was for medicinal purposes.  It wasn’t until the use of rum that the drink became recreational.  She showed the class how to mix Sangria, Mojitos, Margaritas, and Daiquiris, which all shared three characteristics: they tasted great, were simple and fast to make.  Scott talked to everyone about methods to make the drinks “pretty” including salting the glass rims for drinks and to try flavors outside their normal repertoire such as making mango daiquiris rather than sticking to always using strawberries.

Bonnie Dickson by — August 11, 2012 in Everything Else

By Amy Lewis, PLLC

When it comes to planning for their future health care, most people’s first thought is that they need to have a living will (called a “Health Care Directive” in Washington).  Once they have a Health Care Directive in place, then most people feel that they have future health care decisions covered.

Unfortunately, a Health Care Directive is only one of the documents you need, and it is not the most important document when planning for health care decisions.
There are three documents to consider: (1) Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions, (2) Health Care Directive, and (3) possibly a Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment (or “POLST”).  Of these documents, the Durable power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions is by far the most important because it will apply anytime that you are unable to communicate.

The Health Care Directive applies in relatively narrow circumstances–end of life where no recovery is expected or in the event of a permanent coma. In those narrow circumstances, it states your preference for the use of various forms of life support. It does not name another person to make decisions for you.

In contrast, the Power of Attorney could apply in many different situations, both temporary and long-term. For example the Power of Attorney could be used in the event of temporary unconsciousness following an accident or a surgical procedure from which you are expected to recover.  Powers of Attorney are also commonly used when a person has a long-term debilitating illness, such as Alzheimer’s and is no longer able to make decisions, but is not yet terminal.

Powers of Attorney usually include the power to make end-of-life decisions concerning the use of life support. The Health Care Directive is helpful because it gives guidance to the person who has your Power of Attorney. The last document, the POLST, is similar to the Health Care Directive, but you complete it with the assistance of your physician and the physician also signs it. Most often the POLST is used when a patient has a diagnosis that is likely to trigger these types of issues at some point in the future. The patient then has the opportunity to discuss these issues with the physician.  Like the Health Care Directive, the POLST addresses end of life issues and is not a substitute for the Power of Attorney that might be needed in situations arising prior to end of life.

Amy Lewis is an estate and tax planning attorney with Eisenhower, Carlson in Tacoma.  Please consult a qualified estate planner before making a gift in your will.

srmedia by — August 10, 2012 in Everything Else

By David Mackintosh
ISBN 978-1-4197-0393-5
$16.95

For decades, Americans have embraced the concept of the nuclear family as a point of honor.  Extended family households dropped from about 25 percent of the population to just 12 percent in 1980.   However, job losses, foreclosures and the reality of an aging population have shifted that dynamic so that we are returning to multigenerational families of at least two adult generations according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

David Mackintosh explores that new dynamic in a humorous children’s book about what it’s like growing up with Grandpa Frank, a man without any interesting hobbies, or ability to speak a foreign language.  Oh, what to do, when the only available person in your household is boring and you need to bring him to school for show-and-tell.  As the day draws near and the young narrator of the story continues to list item after item that Grandpa Frank can’t do, he despairs he’ll never find something to talk about for a full minute.
But Grandpa Frank has a trick or two up his sleeve.

The Frank Show is a touching story about finding value in an older generation.  You don’t need a kid to enjoy the book, but find one and you’ll be all the richer for it.

Bonnie Dickson by — August 10, 2012 in Everything Else

Volunteers glean a rhubarb crop.

Fred Robbecke, a volunteer with “Senior Scene,” knows that with summer gardening comes summer overabundance.  You’ve heard about places that lock their cars only during the summer because people don’t want other people’s excess zucchini?  That’s what Robbecke thinks about in the spring of the year when everyone is so gung ho about planting.  Last year, Robbecke’s son was injured and unable to harvest his garden and all that waste frustrated him.  There is a solution though.  It’s called the Gleaning Project and it’s run by Emergency Food Network (EFN).

The Gleaning Project is a collaborative effort to rescue local produce waste and to get it to people who need it the most, said Emily Boston.  Boston is the Gleaning Coordinator with EFN and she spends her time trying to convince folks to do something about the amount of food that never gets eaten.  Some estimates suggest that in the U.S. somewhere between 20 to 50 percent of commercially-grown food is thrown away each year.  There’s no estimate of how much home grown food receives the same treatment.

So the result is a multi-prong approach to taking that food that would have ended up in landfills and “capturing it” to feed food bank clients.

Boston encourages fruit tree owners to register their trees.   “We’re looking for healthy fruit trees in the backyards of people who can’t harvest or can’t eat all of their harvest.”  When owners notify the gleaners that the fruit is ripe, a group of volunteers harvest the trees and leave the owners 20 percent of the harvest and the rest goes to a food bank or shelter in the area.  Last year, the volunteers “captured” 30,000 pounds of fresh fruit in this manner.  EFN doesn’t physically get the fruit.  It goes directly to a food bank in what Boston called “tree to table.”  Owners can register their trees online at www.piercecountygleaningproject.org or by calling (253) 584-1040.  Some examples of fruit trees they’ve harvested in the past include apples, grapes, kiwi, pears, figs and lots of plums.  They don’t harvest berries because they require too much time.

“In addition to harvesting fruit, we also harvest farmers markets and encourage gardeners to plant an extra row,” said Boston.  To find the closest food bank, suggestions for harvesting and ideas about what kinds of produce the food banks are able to accept, go to www.piercecountygleaningproject.org and click on Where To Donate.

EFN also does farm gleans.  Boston connects with farmers and when they have an abundance of produce they contact her to send out volunteers.  Volunteers consistently go every Friday to EFN’s Mother Earth Farm in Orting but crops usually don’t become ready with any kind of consistency.  It’s more normal to suddenly need volunteers such as a recent glean when someone called to say they had a lot of peas.  To sign up to volunteer as a gleaner, email Boston at Emily@efoodnet.org.

Bonnie Dickson by — July 30, 2012 in Everything Else