Month: February 2007

The Subject of My Blog – Retiring, moving, and downsizing

You should pick a subject for your blog, is something you usually find included in advice about how to start a blog. I’ve always resisted having a subject for this blog because I
want to talk here about all the varied things that I find interesting.  I think not having a specific subject tends to limit my readership to a smaller
group of people. I always say that I’m blogging because I like blogging, not to build a big readership but I have to admit I do look at readership statistics. 

For the next several months a big focus of this blog will be all the life changes that we are making. As you know Duke and I each retired last year. Our plan is to sell the house, move into temporary quarters (probably in the Reno area), and then spend the next several months traveling around looking for a place to settle down for the next phase of our life. I’m very excited about the adventure and will be sharing a lot about it here.

We won’t be selling the house until early summer but I’m starting to get ready now. The trim around many of the windows needs replacing and we’ve hired a guy to do that. I’ve been selling some of my books on Amazon.com and donating the ones that don’t sell. I’ve also been selling some odds and ends on Craigslist. The goal is to trim down our possessions and get organized.

Even though I will continue to talk about lots of different things on this blog, a reoccurring theme for the next several months will be downsizing, searching for a new place to live and finally moving and settling in. Of course I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all the adventures along the way.

Yoshi’s, What I am Reading, and Charlie Rose – An hour with Michael Crichton

We went to Yoshi’s last night to hear Don Byron. He had a sextet and he played the saxophone and the clarinet.  It was a great show. I really enjoyed it. Duke is a volunteer driver for Yoshi’s and we get free tickets when he drives musicians to the airport. He Just left to drive Don Byron.

Before we went to the show last night we watched Michael Chrichton on Charlie Rose. It was a very interesting interview – One of the best I have seen. Coincidentally I just picked up Michael Chrichton’s book Travels  from the library.

I usually am reading more than one book at a time. Right now I am two thirds of the way through Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris and I have just started Team of Rivals by Doris Hearns Goodwin which I am reading for my non fiction books club. In addition my light reading is Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska. I’ve read it before but I like to reread books I have enjoyed.

 

   

 

 

     

 

      http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2663847011110488414&hl=en
   
A wide-ranging hour-long conversation with author Michael Crichton.  His latest book is "Next".
               

Lessons Learned when my Dad broke his hip.

As I mentioned in my last post my Dad fell and broke his hip on the morning of January 23. That morning Dad called and asked if I could come down to help out. Thank goodness I am retired. I was able to hop on a plane and be in San Diego by early afternoon. I ended up being in Escondido for two and a half weeks. Both my sisters and my brother also dropped everything to come down and help. It was a pretty intense exhausting time but thinking about the experience on my flight home I realized that it was also an intense learning experience. Here are some of the things I learned.

  • I knew next to nothing about options for getting help with living when you need it. I learned that it ranges form hiring in house help, to skilled nursing which is more than Mom and Dad needed, to independent retirement housing to assisted living which is what fit the bill. In their case Assisted living made the most sense. They are renting an apartment and then paying on top of that for the assistance they need.
  • In the two weeks I was in Escondido my sister and I looked at 5 assisted living places. I learned that in the area where my parents live there are lots and lots of assisted living places. The ones we looked at were all OK but the one we chose stood out to us as having better food, staff that seemed to know the residents and a more upbeat feel than the others we looked at. Of course only time will tell whether Mom and Dad like it or not.
  • I learned the difference between a living will, a power of attorney for health care and a do not resuscitate order (a DNR).
  • I learned first hand something that seems obvious. Moving from a 2000+ square foot house of your own to a two room apartment is very hard. Mom and Dad haven’t decided if this is  temporary or not. They may move back into their house when Dad’s hip is healed or they may move somewhere else or they may move to a bigger unit in the place they are now.
  • I learned that when you have trouble getting your words out people assume that your mind is slipping. My Mom is as sharp as ever but the Parkinson’s that she is battling makes it hard for her to say what she is thinking.
  • I learned the importance of perspective and of not trying to do everything and be all things to all people. I didn’t realize how emotionally draining the whole experience was until I flew home and got some perspective.
  • I learned how lucky I am to have a loving supportive family and three wonderful siblings . We all pretty much get along and are there to support each other even if we live in the four corners of the  country (Boston, Memphis, Tacoma, and the Bay Area)
  • I learned that we need to just take things one day at a time and keep our options open. My temperament is to always want to have a plan. But in a situation like this there are too many things changing on a daily basis to be able to see too much into the future. If my sisters hadn’t helped me keep my mind open to the possibilities and if we hadn’t continued to weigh our options based on the information available to us we would have missed out on better solutions that presented themselves over time. The first assisted living place that we thought we liked wasn’t as good as the one that a friend told us about later. The  first doctor  we talked to  about Mom wasn’t as helpful as the second one and  the solutions we worked out as a team were better than anything I would have come up with alone.

All of these  learnings seem painfully obvious but  in the stress of the moment I had to learn them anew. I’m really glad I could help out and that Mom and Dad are doing as well as they are. Who knows what the future holds but for now I’m trying not to worry about it. My brother arrived in Escondido today to help out and it sounds like everything is going pretty well.

Why I Haven’t Posted

You may wonder why this blog has been silent since our return from Mexico. Unfortunately my Dad fell and broke the socket portion of his hip (the acetabulum) a couple of weeks ago. Luckily it was not displaced and he was able to avoid surgery. Right now he is in an acute rehab unit and is doing incredibly well. We expect him to make a full recovery.

He was the care giver for my Mom who is not well so when he fell I flew down to help out  and my siblings are also coming in shifts. None of us live near my parents. We have found an assisted living place that we really like so when he is discharged (hopefully Wednesday) they will both be going there and soon after that I will be going home.