Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sunday slacking
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Sorry. I took off early today for Stuttgart and just got back. Rice fields are golden; trucks full of grain are lined to deposit their loads. I believe this is way early. But don't take my word.
Have at an open line.
Comments (24)
Showing 1-24 of 24
I am wondering if anyone else noticed the AP story in Arkansas’s largest daily newspaper this morning about the “U.S. Chamber of Commerce…spending record amounts on lobbying and in election battlegrounds”:
“Elections have consequences, votes matter," said Bill Miller, the chamber's political director. "And we're going to go out and engage in an effort to try and ensure we have people on Capitol Hill that will listen to our arguments and propose and promote ideas that are more supportive of the free enterprise system."
. . .
The chamber's ads have criticized Democratic Senate candidates such as Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois and Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and voiced support for [Republican senatorial candidate] Portman in Ohio. It also spent $300,000 in ads supporting moderate Democrat Blanche Lincoln in her Arkansas primary contest. Lincoln is now trailing her Republican opponent and Miller would not say whether the chamber would help her out again.
http://www.salon.com/wires/politics/08/21/…
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About 80 U.S. soldiers have been disciplined at Fort Eustis, Virginia after refusing to attend a "spiritual fitness" Christian-rock concert put on by the Army. The unit was first marched in formation to the concert, only after which were the soldiers given to option of attending or not. Those who chose to leave were punished.
http://www.truth-out.org/troops-punished-a…
Not really way early Max, just sorta somewhat early. Mid-August is the usual start time but it is early for so much of the crop to be ready now I would guess probably 20% of the crop had already been harvested.
Rice
About a fourth of Pakistan's rice crop was ruined by massive flooding. Pakistan is 3rd largest exporter of rice.
Rough rice price is up .03 cwt domestically.
Blue Arkansas has a thread up on SoS candidate Mark Martin (R-Neptune) abusing the state per diem payments.
http://bluearkansasblog.com/?p=3763
Here's one wonks-wonkettes and observers want to hear..out of Fayetteville, tonight, Aug 22, featuring David from Blue Arkansas blog.
Midnight Politics Radio - Sunday, August 22, 2010
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/midnight-poli…
Remember Pat Boone? Given the blog’s median age I feel certain some Razorbabies do. I’ve HEARD of him, like I’ve heard of Sandra Dee and Howdy Doody, but am sadly deprived of even glancing cultural exposure to Boone’s oeuvre.
Born too late.
Apparently he was a white singer who made LARGE bank covering “race” songs (black artists’ R & B hits) back in the day when “Colored Entrance” signs hung everywhere. To this day, Boone’s remains the single Beverly Hills address with such an entrance, say insiders.
Lifelong, though lapsed, Church of Christer, (the only recording artist of his era, white or black, who thought the lyrics, “I’m like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store,” referred to an injured starving street kitty) Boone recently essayed this piece entitled, “The Mosque at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&…
Most delightful pull quote, with but a whiff of covetousness? “Muslims and homosexual activists have been invitees at the White House more than any Christian or Jewish representatives have; odd for a Christian, isn't it?”
Few philosophers or religious scholars, much less former B-singers-actors, could construct, at age 77, so intricately stupid and childishly hateful an insult equating Muslims, homosexuals, Christians, Jews, blacks and the President of the United States.
You’ve still got it, Pat!
Norma, dearest
Thanks for the Pat Boone update. I've chastised those of late who've automatically labeled gay haters as gay, but I do make an exception in this case.
If somebody's light in his proverbial "white'' loafers, this is the guy. This guy makes Larry Craig look masculine. Pat Boone is more effeminate than Liberace.
"True Blood'' time.
Sorry I've been slacking as of late. Had to get something straight with Blogger about storage space. I have a lot to tell you about my Eureka Springs adventures and hope Hunter allows me the time to write them all down before I head to Memphis er-ly in the mornin' Tuesday. Still looking for great breakfast places; afraid I'm going to run out of time, thank you Lulav and The House and such for suddenly starting breakfast and frustrating me further!
Anyway, the Hope Watermelon Festival piece, a week late, a dollar short, but photos of Hunter sipping pickle juice should make up for it.
http://www.tiedyetravels.com/2010/08/melon…
Durango/tap...thanks for recommending UAMS. (I didn't go; hubby/his brother took their parents Friday.) Hubby said they learned more in 3 hours about the EXACT health state of his dad than they've learned from the parents in the last 20 years. It took almost three months to get the appointment, but, evidently, UAMS knows what's doing regarding the care of our elderly. He was very impressed with the treatment his father got at UAMS.
The ONLY glitch was the inability of the doctor to speak the English that my in-laws spoke/heard. Evidently he was from some place like India (hubby unsure), and he spoke so fast the parents had a hard time following everything.
My in-laws, after all, are OLD-TIME Arkansas through and through/good and bad...she's never left the state except 2-3 trips to neighboring states to see one of their BELOVED sons. He fought in WWII/navy and that was his ONLY other venture outside the state. In the almost 40 years I've known them they've NEVER raised their voices/cussed nor drank; and if their Baptist church's doors are open they're there (well, up until they couldn't drive at night). They are, despite their religious biases, good people who live for their families/their God.
They grew up in 'dirt' poor in Concord, went to school together and married shortly after high school. He retired from AP&L; she, of course, was mostly a stay-at-home mom. The point of all this is that to them foreigners are foreigners, neither automatically good/nor bad, but suspect until prove otherwise. Plus 'grandpa' (my name for him) doesn't cotton to other folks doing things for him...and he certainly didn't want to go to this doctor's appointment. Love/respect for sons is the only thing that made him follow their semi order to go.
None of that would matter except the doctor gave hubby bad news about the mental state of both and he's now trying to decipher the exact state of his dad's mental health. (We can picture him resenting some of the 'simple' tests the doctor gave him to determine the state of dementia/Alzheimer/etc and therefore he wouldn't cooperate.) We've decided the Truth lay somewhere in-between what the doctor said and how his dad is acting. In general, grandpa's mental state is bad.
Yes, my mom-in-law is nuts, too, but nothing the doctor could tell us about her would surprise us. And most of her nuttiness isn't from aging. (I'd say it's from family but she's always telling us 'There are no crazy people in my family.' Ha.
The most important things we have to do are: COMPLETELY take away his ability to drive (he said about 5 years ago that his driving days were over but loony wife says 'If grandpa forces himself to drive it'll be good for him'); and get a handle on his medication (again, lovable but loony wife also thinks she has a medical degree because she comes home, reads about the medicine and then sometimes decides he shouldn't take that stuff.) They need an outside person dolling out the pills...but these are the folks that STILL say they're not ready to turn loose of those THOUSANDS they've scrimped and save for because one day they'll need it to make sure they can stay in their home. Raising children does not require half the patience that tending to beloved but stubborn-as-hell parents do.
Oh well...anyone on this blog who has dealt (or is) with aging parents understands the difficulties that come from having to make independent folks become dependent. They've always taken care of themselves. They don't hire folks to do for them, they do it...even if it kills them...'cause 'Waste not, want not/BLAH BLAH.' The saddest/hardest part is my beloved father-in-law is TERRIFIED of being put in a home; yet he RESISTS all our attempts to do the things that will KEEP him in that home.
Again...thanks durango/tap. You were absolutely right, tap, about hanging in there for UAMS. Hubby did wonder whether your 'American' doctor, durango, might have been easier for his parents. But he doubts any single doctor could have been as good as the care they received from UAMS. We'll see.
Zelda,
at age 83, my sainted mother laid down alone and at peace in her home and did not wake the next morning.
It happened four years ago this month, and the rational part of my brain knows it to have been a blessing.
The part of my brain where I live makes me cry to this day.
Zelda--I'm sure you've probably checked into some of those agencies such as Home Instead that provide people to come into the home to help with things like making sure they take their medication, eat, bathe, etc. Even though my mother was in a senior living facility that provided a couple of meals a day, and I doled out her medication into a weekly pillbox it became necessary to also employ a home helper for awhile before we had to move her into an assisted living facility. She would take a nap and be confused when she woke up whether it was morning or night. Her pills would "mysteriously" move from one slot to another in the pill box. She was losing weight and was becoming harder and harder to deal with.
Unless the in-laws live here in town and you have enough family members to take turns spending time with them to do all of the necessary chores, then I'd highly recommend hiring some help to come in. Sometimes having a neutral party telling them what to do works better. It is very hard and stressful to see our parents become dependent while fighting it for all they are worth.
My mother is now in a nursing home and doesn't really know who we are for the most part. She can't really carry on a conversation that makes any sense. She is however content in the only "home" she remembers. She has gained weight, and is as physically healthy as you can expect for someone her age in her condition. She is in some ways as lost to me as Silverback's Mom is to him.
Hang in there, Zelda.
I can't promise you it will get better, but you "do your best and deal with the rest." Just the same way they did with us when we were teenagers and knew all the answers.
There are times when you wonder if you can stand another hour much less a day, but you can. And you'll find a way to explain to them why they can't drive anymore or can't do some of the other things whose loss they fear will make them less of a parent or person. The only clue I can give you is that when they were honest with me as a teenager and really talked to me as one individual to another I listened. I've found it also works when your parent(s) have reached the point where they need to realize that some of the things they have done for years have become dangerous for them and others.
However, whenever you find yourself on the limiter, think about what a hole there would be in your life without them. My Mom is 101 now and I end up telling her about her next day's appointment(s) five to six times or more, because she worries that if she doesn't remember, we won't get her to the appointed place at the appointed time.
But we get there and I find it much more enjoyable for both of us when I don't let the little irritations get to me. It isn't easy, but you can do it.
Zelda,
We had a similar situation with my wife's illness and the various doctors who were treating "their" part of the problem. We were in Scottsdale at the time and although my insurance, which was pretty good, wouldn't cover one of those "get all the doctors in the same room" type approaches at the Scottsdale Mayo Clinic, we dug up the $1000 or so and learned more in one day than we had found in years of going to "symptom" doctors. Sometimes it pays to go the major hospitals for testing and results.
This has been the week from hell. My brother's wife lost her mother last week-end and she also lost an uncle on her father's side on Tuesday so they were in town and on Friday, we did the visitation and funeral for her mother on Friday morning and then they drove to Newport for the visitation for the uncle before flying back to Carolina on Saturday afternnon. Saturday morning, we learned that my sister's mother-in-law had died of a heart attack. Bad week-end but all in-laws this time around. Next week has to be better!
Think good thoughts Zelda! Be patient and have alot of love about you. Some of us have been where your are. It's not easy, but you certainly have the love and support of the blog.
Hang tough, Zelda. My family is in the same place. We've found that the Home Instead people are really wonderful. They provided for us just the amount of help my parents needed to stay in their house - which they are determined/obsessed to do.
Tis not an easy course to take Ms Z, no matter what you choose they're either endangered or unhappy.
My late (and favorite) aunt became loony, could only recognize me her last 5 months here, and would be headed for the nursing home door asking if my invitation, from years earlier, for her to come visit...did I really mean it. She could manipulate but she couldn't rise from her wheelchair. She wrangled a phone and called the local sheriff when she was first placed in the home and reported to sheriff, her old acquaintance, that she was locked up in the basement of the place and could they come rescue her.
The staff had a few good laughs about that stunt. Charge-nurse remarked that one could easily see who had been in control for 90 years.
Wingnuts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sharon Angle and Michelle Bachmann may have drifted into actual psychosis. The facts:
A meta-analysis culled from 88 samples in 12 countries, and with an N of 22,818, revealed that “several psychological variables predicted political conservatism.” In order of predictive power: Death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism/intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order, structure, and closure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, and low self-esteem.
Let Psychology Today explain it all..from '08
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/genius…
A bit of good news if you have Dish Network and its HD packages. AMC-HD is finally freaking available, which of course means original programming such as "Mad Men" can be seen in ALL its glory. I got sidetracked into watching something else at 9pm and was going to record MM for later viewing but since I have the day off tomorrow, and have no DVR its the midnight rebroadcast of MM en HD.
Continued good thoughts and prayers go with you, zelda. A few answers, and some knowledge of the right questions to ask, help immensely, and UAMS does a good job with that. The comprehensive nature of care can be frustrating--so many appointments and tests. But in the end knowing the things that can be known is a blessing.
We and they get what they'll get, zelda. The deal with your in-laws may turn out better or worse than you can imagine. My advice is to hang loose and not push too hard on them. Each case of Alzheimer's or dementia is different, not that any of it is good. But I've known some that drift very slowly into the fog and others that race there.
Your father in law might get the jazzy treatment and just fail to wake up some morning...before things get awful. And I've seen cases where everyone is worried about Dad and Mom suddenly blips out. There's just no way of knowing what the future holds for them. All that money they've saved may wind up going to the government if one of them is forced into a nursing home. That's why I bitch about Blanche and her Death Tax business that will only affect a few.....a ton of us will see our elderly parents lose everything unless they've got enough money to pay 5000 dollars plus per month for their nursing home room....for what could be a couple of years or a decade. Not many working families can squirrel away that kind of money.
It has become the American Way to get Mom & Dad's assets in someone else's name at the first sign of decline. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think their assets have to be gone for 3 years before they're safe from the government. I don't like any of that, but watching 100% of what your parents worked for all their lives go away feels a lot worse.
I'd check out the home help people. Lots of elderly people I know have gotten comfortable with the system and even look forward to the people coming by to help out. I was too big an idiot to call them to help me with Ma. Now I know, out of love, I did a lot of things the wrong way which didn't help her and wound up nearly killing me.
I hope the in laws manage to stay in their home and die in their own bed. No matter how good they are, every nursing home is a hell hole where worse than horror movie stuff plays out in real time every damn day of the year. But like I said....you get what you get and you never know what you'll get ahead of time. Very depressing stuff...
IT'S SO DRY IN ARKANSAS . . .
That the Baptist are starting to baptize by sprinkling . . .
The Methodists are using wet-wipes . . .
The Presbyterians are giving rain checks . . .
And the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water!!!!
All this news about the Republican landslide coming this fall has me incredibly depressed. It's like Arkansas is turning into.......
Texas.
Ah, such good blog love (not like you, durango, to miss out on a blog orgy)...what a great way to start the day!
NVR...we're checking on those helping agencies, but, this is the hurdle: Mom/dad don't think they're ready, YET, lord help us. Just trying to hire someone to mow their tiny yard is difficult...mostly because 'They're not ready for that stuff, yet.' And, THEY'RE SO CHEAP, or, as she says, 'If you grew up as poor as we did...' One of my favorites 'truisms' I get every time I get wild/crazy and cook them something simple that they can manage after I've gone (something crazy like cream of mushroom soup/chicken breasts): 'We're not use to 'fancy' food.'
They're scrimped/saved their whole lives (except, of course, when it comes to their three boys/grandbabies...then they'd turn over their bank accounts) so that they can be independent (these are folks who can save half of a $25,000 yearly income). BUT THEY'RE NOT THERE...YET. Anyway, thanks for the info on helping agencies. I'm proud of our state/country for the services they offer the elderly. If you have the patience, determination, help is available.
I know what you mean about the money thing, dbi...and the more money folks have the more they're worried about getting out of their name so they can get our 'socialist' government to pay for everything; and usually it's those with lots of money who most zealously guard that money. The sad thing is that it's so important for mom/dad to leave something to their boys because of how poor they grew up. But, to their credit, the boys don't want their money, they want them to live as well as possible for as long as possible. They want them to spend every last dime on themselves...which ain't gonna happen!
I hope we're able to take care of them as well as you took care of your ma, dbi. Yes, my mom-in-law drives me nuts and she is loony; but she's also been better to me/done more for me than my own mom. I consider my father-in-law to be the best human I've ever met. In forty years, I've only heard him say something somewhat negative about another human 2-3 times. He just quietly lives the religion he believes in and does NOT judge others. No matter how poor they are, they tithe AT LEAST the 'mandatory' 15 percent and will help anyone they can. They're so honest...it's beautiful.
Side story: Because both mom/dad had to pay, along with their just-as-poor siblings, to bury their parents, they've had their funerals paid for FOREVER. And, the trip to Concord to see their bought/paid for plots was something. (We are leaving son lots of insurance money to bury us but I REFUSE to buy my grave...mostly 'cause I don't want a funeral/ I want cheap cremation/celebration of life...but the creep factor is at work, too.)
I'm sad she's gone, but jazzy was blessed dying the way she did. It would be the greatest act of kindness for mom/dad to go similarly; and I pray I'm so blessed. He's ready to die, in fact he's given up and that's the biggest problem. She is, comparatively, quite well...mostly because she stays active/busy.
If I've learned one thing from watching grandpa the last few years it's that all of us should stay busy doing something we love, no matter how simple, until the day we die. But in his defense...his loony wife griped if he went out in the heat to work in his wood shop (his retirement hobby) and then bitched 'cause he was just sitting in his chair when he come inside 'cause of her griping. She gripes regardless and her 'gripes' are pure biblical guilt trips...'If you love me you'll...The lord says...All I want to do is what's best for my family...' Oh well...I'm meandering.
After watching them, I've come to realize there is more ways than one to die. And all of us should try to live life to the fullest up until the moment it's over.
I would've loved your aunt, elwood...my kinda 'feminist.'
CBB...the comprehensive medical care that you described for your wife was exactly what UAMS did for my family. We kept getting fragments of symptoms rather than a total picture; and that's mostly 'cause the doctors kept sending them to specialist to specialist. And they, for the most part, cannot see the forest for the trees. It had become quite a mess and UAMS cleared every bit of that mess up!
Childrens and UAMS make me proud to be an Arkansan/American.
Perplexed...it sounds like you're exactly where we are. It's frustrating 'cause they have the money and their community has the resources to keep them in their beloved home for sometime. But...'THEY'RE NOT THERE, YET.'
They reside in Bald Knob, hubby/I, of course, are in Conway;brother-in-law lives in Leadhill. Both hubby/brother had to take vacation days...which is another reason grandpa relented and went. The boys love their parents and that family more closely resembles the 'perfect' TV family than any other I've known. (My family is the average dysfunctional/nutty crew that 'most' folks come from...if it doesn't kill ya it will make ya stronger...at least that's what I'm telling myself.)
Thanks y'all...and I'll keep y'all updated/and all the 'parent' advice is appreciated/USED!
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