What do you want? Have you really thought about it? After the 2007 movie “Bucket List” was released, many folks made their own list of things they wanted to accomplish before they died. And that is a start. But there is much more to consider than what you want to do. How do you want to live and where? Near friends, family, someplace warm in the winters? How do you want to be treated by your health care providers? Who do you want to make health decisions for you if you are unable? What do you want your loved ones to know?
Often we are too busy taking care of our own immediate concerns – like trying to maintain our own bodies; or helping others such as loved ones, friends or volunteering in the community, to seriously consider these kinds of questions.
If you haven’t started considering what you want in this broader sense, the next two 11:00 Tuesday Lectures can help. On the 29th, I will show a video produced by the SCAN Foundation with Dr. Bruce Chernof discussing the “Ten Things You Should Know about Aging with Dignity and Independence”. Topics that will be covered include how to initiate conversations with your family about your wishes, questions for your doctor, knowing when to ask for help and much more. Then on the following Tuesday, May 6th, Dr. PK Swartz will explain Advance Directives, POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) and Organ and Tissue Donations. .
From these two presentations you will learn more about some of the tools to help you maintain control of your own life, improve the quality of your care, and live with greater independence and dignity as you age.
Here’s another scam you can put in your long term memory bank. Helen Lynch, who seems to be a magnet for telephone scams, shared with me the latest one she just received. She was called by an alleged computer company (often they mention Windows or Microsoft) asking her to turn on her computer to make a correction. But she can smell a scam ten call centers away, and after she played along for a while, she hung up. As Helen did, never allow anyone access to your computer. As the Better Business Bureau points out, allowing a stranger access to your computer is like inviting a stranger into your house, letting them snoop around and take whatever they want before they leave. To learn more about this scam and others, go to the Center’s website www.midcolumbiaseniorcenter.com and click on the tab Scam Alerts.
As part of the Cherry Festival activities, the Center will again host a Cherry Festival Breakfast on the 26th sponsored by the Center’s good neighbors to the north – Cherry Heights Retirement Community. Breakfast will be served a half hour early starting at 7:30 – for the early risers preparing for the parade, and will stay open until the parade starts at 10:00. The menu includes pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage along with fruit and your favorite morning beverage. On a busy parade day, why bother making breakfast when it can be waiting and ready for you at the Center. $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children 12 and under.
The Dufur Boys aren’t in the Center’s regular rotation of bands, but we try to schedule them for the fifth Tuesdays which fortunately will be this coming Tuesday on the 29th. As usual the music starts at 7:00 PM and concludes by 9:00 PM. Everyone is welcome and donations are always appreciated.
“We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds,” was announced at the opening of the soap opera Another World which ran on NBC for 35 years. (And the winner of a Cherry Festival Breakfast on April 26th is Alice Mattox.)
For this week, here’s another “double your pleasure” set of “Remember When” questions with the two answers having something in common. What actress and singer starred in two television series, My Little Margie as well as her own show; and what actor started his career in radio and then appeared on television in Our Miss Brooks and The Lucy Show? E-mail your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, call 541-296-4788 or mail it with a 45 recording of the 1955 hit song “I Hear You Knocking”.
Well, it has been another week making the best of what I got. Until we meet again, don’t let what you can’t do nothing about, bother you.
“Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if …” And then do it.” Duane Michals – Photographer
