Our Journey of Thirty-two Sleeps: Sleep # 7

Sleep 7

After church, lunch and a short nap we took off for the Shenandoah Valley and foothills of the mountains. I am going to offer you photos and see for yourself  the beautiful sights of our wonderful visit.

We came upon three little houses in a row, which according to S. probably were slave quarters. As we drove a little further on we came upon the Primitive Baptist Church and according to the sign was founded in 1724. I have included two photos because both are wonderful views. After finding the church across the road from the houses, we are convinced this was an area where slaves lived, WORKED, and worshiped. The Primitive Baptist church advocates “intense conservatism” and simple forms  of worship taught in the bible (singing, praying and preaching) without any man-made inventions or additions.
I am reading the book WENCH and so this historical encounter becomes even more vivid.

And now the views of the Shenandoah Valley and foothills of the mountains.

And believe it or not tucked away in all of this rural beauty is elegant sleeping and eating. We came home had leftovers and slept most elegantly and comfortably.

Our Journey in Thirty-Two Sleeps: Part II

Sleep 4 and 5:

Today the Saratoga and North Creek Railway provided us with train 821 which took us into the Adirondacks, along the Hudson River to view the beautiful changing

colors of the foliage, as well as being able to see the towns of Hadley, Luzerne, 1000 acres, Thurman, The Glen, Riparius and a stop to eat and visit in North Creek. We spent our day enthralled with the sights on the trip traveling to North Creek as well as the trip back. How was the weather? It rained on and off, and some of the rain pounded, but did it dampen our spirits and the things we saw?  See for yourself some of the treasures of the day.  Love, hugs and thanks to our dear lovely, lifelong friends, generous, caring E & D for a our wonderful sleeps in your company. You showed us a little part of Heaven!

Sleep 6:

Skip’s first home in Albany, New York, his school, Public School #1, and his second home on Glendale Avenue.

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Our Journey of Thirty-Two Sleeps: Part One

Sleep one After having breakfast in Los Angeles in the morning and having dinner at Half Moon diner upstate New York in the evening is not an easy task. There was a lot of work in the traveling mode to achieve our breakfast and dinner with a bunch of little snacks in between. We are sleeping in Bolton Landing, (established in (1799) perched atop Lake George in a mountain home which is more unique than most of the houses we passed on our ride in. In front of this mountain home fly two flags, the American flag and the Marine Corps flag. We were told, “Once a Marine, always as Marine.” Sleep was an important rejuvenating necessity and was provided by a private room with luxurious sheets and down comforters. Tired is an understatement.  Once rested you are ready to conquer the world once again. We woke to breakfast service in the main dining room with gigantic windows showing off the land leading to Lake George. The wind would rise and fall and with each rise it would blow a rainstorm of leaves falling to the ground below forming a carpet of color beneath the tree. The sight is awe-inspiring and humbling in it’s showing of nature working through the windows. Watching these nature dances through the windows gives you the notion that of course there is a higher power, in fact, but if not a higher power or order, then, what? Next telling mountain event was the delivery of heating oil. They filled the tank making the house ready for winter heating.  It was an interesting delivery because we just flip the button and gas comes from somewhere and we have heat. Sleep 2 This morning was spent enjoying the environs of our hosts E & D’s beautiful mountain home in Bolton Landing in the foothills of the Adirondacks.  All the while, I keep a watchful eye for humping deer. This is the mating season and the deer love to hump in this spot. They will carry their offspring all winter and then, in the spring they come to this spot as a family. I was told to marvel at the deer as an animal extraordinaire. Why? Think about the phenomenon of an animal that lives and thrives in a habitat that gives them twenty below and over 100 degrees and yet they adapt. Isn’t nature supreme? At noon, we picked up a picnic lunch before our boat ride in and around the 35-mile long Lake George finding ourselves guests of P & D at their compound consisting of three small islands connected by Gothic looking bridges.  It was thrilling to be escorted and to visit this lovely spot in the middle of the lake. If you are a blood relative you were welcome to build a home and live on the islands, but now that most of the building is done, you have to buy what is there now from a relative. The summer finds many of the Sir clan living and visiting this lovely idyllic paradise at the water’s edge. During the winter months you have only P & D living year round.  I asked P how they get to the mainland when the lake is frozen solid and she said they have a Norwegian Sleigh, they have a canoe they use and paddle it along the ice to get over the solid lake; they skate and have their private secrets on getting to and getting what they need during the months of living on the frozen winter water. She said that they close off a good part of the house and live in a small portion of it during the freeze. As we boated our way to the mainland, I turned and saw the beautiful trio of islands and bridges receding and realized that we were very privileged guests and I thank P & D for their generous hospitality, the generous gift of imparting their knowledge and sharing their fortunate life with us for the afternoon. Thank you P & D. Sleep 3 Today we rode an amphibian (Hydra-Terra vehicle) tour bus/boat to experience and delight ourselves with the sights of New York’s capital city of Albany. Not only is it New York’s capital city but also, it is the city of Skip’s birth. Even though Skip is a historic sight himself, we took the tour with experienced guides to enlighten us about the other historic sites of this 402-year-old city. We passed by the Albany City Hall, the Ten Broeck Mansion, Washington Park, New York State Museum, the Palace, which was the flagship theater of RKO, many years ago and the D & H (Delaware and Hudson) railroad building.  

After an hour ride through Albany a beautiful city we rolled and splashed into the Hudson River.   There are many interesting sights along the river and one that put some puzzle pieces together for me was the replica of Henry Hudson’s ship of discovery, The Half Moon.  Remember I mentioned we had dinner at the Half Moon Diner.  Now I fully understand the origin of this diner’s name.

Tell Me This is Not the Dreaded “It” Disease: Brain Freeze on Downers. Tell Me

When I realized that there were four jars of Best Foods Real Mayonnaise in my cupboard, I thought to myself, well this is how IT starts.  By IT, I mean the gentle demise of your brain and all of the functions it controls, literally Brain Freeze on Downers. You see, I still cannot mention the name of the disease that does this to basically elderly people because I am terrified.  I’ll bet you thought this is a commercial for Best Foods Real mayonnaise; well it is not. It is a discussion on a disease I must continue to call IT.  My doctors would like to know if I would like to be tested to see if I have the marker for IT.  Since my mother and father both had IT, I don’t need a damn test to tell me I will get IT, someday.  In the meantime, the health care specialists say, let us explore some ways to best help older adults lead happier, healthier lives.  I say this a crock for sure, because as I see it, it is more like let us see how little we can spend on health care for the aging and how to best use them as guinea pigs for new testing to gather results on the future of aging.

The UCLA Division of Geriatrics sends out a newsletter titled: Healthy/Years stating they are helping older adults lead happier, healthier lives. I say this is nonsense because everything I read in their letter and experiences as well about seniors leads to a brick wall.

This newsletter and the articles prepare you to fear for your life and the shoddy scary treatment yet to come. First of all, it states that 45% of all new breast cancer diagnoses is in women over the age of 65. Also stated that the risk of breast cancer does not start to decline until after the age of 85. Yet, they are promoting less mammograms for older women.

Healthy /Years, says what we all know that, the cure rate is early detection and the best way to do that is to have regular mammograms. Yes, I agree, but they have suggested that providing mammograms for women over the age of 70 is something of a debate among the experts.  They also state that mammography for older women depends on life expectancy and whether you would undergo treatment if a tumor were found. Really? This is disgusting. The UCLA Division of Geriatrics is cutting you off so to speak at 70 and if you want to live longer, you should make that known.  How does anyone predict true life expectancy? Maybe a mother, father, or grandparents died younger, but the way modern medicine is contributing to longevity, I expect to be way over 100, don’t you? So, if I know I have the marker for the dreaded brain freeze on downers (IT), then I should not get mammograms, or should I or should I not try to increase my life expectancy with or without the disease? I really do not like to think of these things, but we cannot sit with blinders on our eyes as well as our conscience.

The article in the UCLA Healthy/ Years, also states that in fact being older is actually beneficial when it comes to mammography because they are more sensitive as women get older, because their breast tissue becomes less glandular and more fatty, which makes it easier to detect cancer. Plus it takes less radiation to get excellent quality mammograms in older women, and I know all mammography has not been adjusted to this stated fact. So now that in older women it takes less radiation, is easier to detect, and is important in ladies until they are 85, you, the medical profession has suggested that we actually stop giving mammograms to women over the age of 70 because they might not live very much longer and may not want to receive the cure opportunities.  I say, what a crock.

UCLA Healthy/Years further states in another article titled: Vaccination is Crucial to Ensure a Healthy Winter for seniors.  It is stated that in December 2009 the FDA licensed a high-dose influenza vaccine Fluzone High-Dose, which has four times the amount of each of the three influenza antigens that standard vaccine contains for seniors because producing an antibody response has shown to be diminished in older adults. Nothing was said about receiving four times the amount of preservatives and other particles in this vaccine. Now, seniors it is time to step up to the plate and become a human guinea pig and receive four times the amount of influenza. Gosh almighty, will it stop?  No it will not, and I have it on good authority that it will not stop for a long, long time or even ever.  Where money and expenditures are in the equation, you will get seniors chopped off first and foremost because as stated above, life expectancy. It does not take into consideration the time, money and service you have put into the system. I have always known this fact and here it is quite evident here.  It is not what you have done for me in the past; it is what you can do for the future and us now.

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