Pictures below are Marge and I getting ready for the Christmas party here at Westminster Oaks and a few shots of the party. Also our dog watching!!
It was a great party and well attended

Pearl Harbor Day
69 years ago today, I was being driven back to Ann Arbor by my parents after spending the weekend at home in Detroit. I was a freshman at the Univ. of Mich. We were listening to the radio. It came on, Pearl Harbor has been bombed! I asked my Dad " where's Pearl Harbor" Neither of my parents knew, but my Dad said " this could be serious, might even be war!
One year later. I was in the air corp, beginning my training that led to becoming a first pilot on B-24s, and flying 27 sorties over Germany and other targets until the war in europe ended.

Yesterday, Nov.17, Marge was admitted to Hospice as a patient
RHD

PLATEAUS

Marge has been fairly steady for the last few weeks until about a week ago.
The change has been quite rapid, and quite scary! She has been staying in bed
for up to 20 hrs. She just stays quietly sitting when she does get up. She now relies completely on her walker, and she had been scornful of it, and wouldn't
use it at all. Of course all of this has been expected, but the change has been
sudden. We, Deb and I, now know that the next step is looming. That is, getting
much more care than I am capable of, and will probably include moving her to
Parry center for good. Of course that's one of the reasons we came here to
Westminster Oaks.
RHD
PS Marge will be 86 this Sunday, Nov. 21

This n that

Below are three new posts:

Debbie's dog Trixie cosying up to a fake dog!


Me with a new mustache, which I have already shaved off!

The front of our house here with a view of my rose garden

of which I'm very proud!!!

 

Alzheimers disease

Today the NYTimes had a feature article begging for fed funds to find a cure for
this terrible disease. I heartily applaud this effort, but grieve again about the timing. Marge was diagnosed with Alzheimers about 5 years ago. At first, we hardly thought about it. But it has gradually got worse, and now, our daughter and me, are seeing the long slow culmination that cannot be stopped, or easily slowed down. The article firmly predicts, and I believe, that it can, and probably will, see a cure by 2020. This is a time frame that prevailed for the demise of polio and the cures for aids, flu, etc. That's great, but too slow for us.
When polio was cured. I had a friend who was probably one of it's last victims. What a tragedy for him to go thru life knowing that he was last to get the disease.
We see that happening to Marge. NO CURE AVAILABLE NOW!

lifelong question

In line with my lifelong passion for water, I crossed the gulf stream about 70 times. You learn to realize the awesome power of the stream. It never quits, and never varies much. Now I know it is very deep at it's axis but near the shore of Florida, it's maybe 600 or so feet deep. I have always wondered why you never hear of plans to build turbines on the bottom that could provide endless power
and would never quit. Anybody got an anawer?

woodstock

The picture below is the entertainer at the Woodstock festival. Has to do with
animals, but mostly birds. Debbie, our daughter, entered some pictures, and won a first prize. The picture below is of the entertainers. Real hill billy, but quite good.
RHD

Woodstork

Thoughts on politics;

I have been a republican since I voted for Thomas Dewey. I want to see us get to a balanced budget and then to a reduced debt. We owe China too much now. I would like to see us get out of all wars and stay out unless we are actually attacked. I can't understand gays, queers to me, but I would see them have what would be a nice life to them. I favor stem cell studying. So why am I pontificating?
I abhor GLEN BECK! I find it hard to believe how many of my old friends feel he's the second coming! I feel the same way about Laura Ingrahm. I don't feel like Sara Palin would make a good president, I would favor Mitt Romney at this time.

Speaking of religion, I guess I'm an agnostic. I was raised Episcopalian, but I can't
believe in the teachings of our church. If there is a benevolent God, how can there be a holocaust. Only one of the myriad number of religions can be right, so all the others are surely wrong! The world was created somehow, and I can't begin to explain it, but it aint the bible way!
Back too Glen Beck, if any one reading this is 80 or older, remember Father Coughlin, the Catholic priest in Detroit (a suburb). He was finally shut up by the Pope, and I hope someone shows up who can shut up Beck.
I have more thoughts to add, but that's all for now
RHD

2 new shots

Marge and I at Riverside cafe, St. Marks, again.

Deb took the first one, I took the second.

Deb's dog, trixie, was fresh back from grooming,

our Hobo is going Wed.

As you can see, the dogs are really theuraputic for Marge.

We like to think of our country as the foremost peaceloving country in the history
of the world. But are we? In my lifetime (I'm 86),I have been influenced by WW I,
WW II. Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, it never stops. I love my country, and indeed I flew 44 missions in WWII.
Add our passion for fire arms, compare our murder statistics with the rest of the world. I submit: we are an extremely war like nation.
I have no solution.
RHD

The years go by!

When we moved to Fl. and I went to work for Merrill, I got entranced with the idea of the computer. I bought my first about 1973. DOS was about all there was!
I put my accounts and prospects on it in files, and began to shower my sec. with labels and ideas on paper! They were my entry to the computer world. I'm now on about my 11th computer, and I just bought an I-pad! What a machine!
I bought it more or less just for reading books, and for this it is fabulous. I can't read small print any more and this is just right.Finding and downloading books is a cup of tea. But I'm finding the machine will do much more. It is rigged for wi fi, and any place with wi-fi, and there are lots of them, the machine becomes a small computer. It is easy to use, but I have to learn all it's features. What a kick for an old man! It's a new life!
More later as I learn it's ins and outs!
RHD

Up to date!

a picture of our little girl looking through a hole in the screen

in out first house, she's now 61 years old

After an exciting day at Westminter Oaks

Note my ever vigilant guard dog asleep
on the couch, which she regards as her
own.
RHD

Alzheimer's disease

If anyone who reads this is being faced with the job of caretaker, a few thoughts.

If it will involve someone you truly love, as I do my wife, it's better and worse than you think. Short term memory virtually disappears. You will be asked the same questions over and over. Is my mother still alive? No, she died 35 years ago, How's myDad? He died 3 years before your Mother. I have to write my friend, Marge Van?
She died 5 years ago. Has Lynn Stedman said when he's coming to visit us? We went to his funeral 20 years ago. How is my mother? It never stops

But if she, or he, was a church goer [mine was], she'll surprise you by singing all the hymns correctly. If you shared a true love,it can really get bad.
She'll tell you how much she loves you 20 times,or more, a day. But as she goes deeper and deeper there, she'll cuss you out also. The saving grace, she won't remember it 5 minutes later.

General health is an ongoing problem. My strength has virtually disappeared, and Marge's has too. This leads to falls, and you wonder which one will cause a serious break leading to death. and believe me this is how most elderly people like us cash in.

It helps a little to complain a little and now I have to leave and supervise changing the depends.
RHD

some thoughts on prejudice

When I was a young teenager in Detroit in the 30s The whole city reeked of it, and we didn't realize it!My Mother,and all of her friends hired live in maids for
$10/ week, thur. and every other Sun. off.
They were referred to as Darkies when we thought about it. But casually, especially by us kids, as coons, wooly bugers,spades, and of course NIGGERS. Why not, everybody did it Jews were Hebes,Christ killers,etc. In the 30s, CentraL High was virtually
100 % Jewish. When we played football against them, We sang "Issie, Iky, aby Sam, we are the boys who eat no Ham, now we don 't care for fancy dishes, we just want Gefulta Fishes. Yay Central
Most of us didn't know about the Jim Crow laws. Father Coughlin spewed his hate every Sun. night on radio until Pope Pius 12 shut him off.
The purpose of this is to get you to realize how widespread nad pervasive it was I began to realize how awful it was when we began to learn about the Holocaust after the war.It turned me completly around on my prejudices, and also religion. See below
I think it is beyonsd understanding to the 2 generations younger than mine.
I PRAY IT IS
RHD

My thoughts on religion:
I was raised inthe Episcopalion religion. I was an accolyte at about 11 or 12 years of age.I carried the cross with the choir. I went to an Episocpal camp for 3 summers' I was confirmed at age 13. Then why am I now an agnostic? I believed in an all powerful and benevolent God.
I began to doubt when I realized how terrible the holocaust was. How could a benevolent, and all powerful God allow this. Then I began to have other doubts. The bible seems to portray our history as one of a few thousand years. But science shows us a history of unimaginable duration. The mumber of Stars, and Planets is beyond count. How could one God supervise this vast kingdom.
If all relogions on our earth believe their right, then all the rest must be wrong.
But the vast numbers are the hardest for me to equate to "our faith" As I write this, another tragrdy involving completely innocent children among others,is happening in Haiti. Why would God as we portray him allow this?
One more thought that somehow belongs in this treatis. We believe our country to be peace loving. But almost all of my 86 years, we've been involved in one kind or aother WAR,
But yes, there has to be a start somehow, I just don't believe we have it right!!

It slowly gets a little worse. Marge cannot do much for herself now except to go to bed! We have been so lucky to have met the Davissons, Cas and Marilyn.
they play bridge with us every Thur. It's a real chore now. MARGE can't sort her hands, revokes, and the dummy has to correct the errors. Her bidding is impossible to
read. These are the reasoins why the duplicate club asked us to quit. it was a real blow to Marge when this happened, but now she hardly remembers about it. Deb has been a real God send, and takes her with her on most Sat. and Sun. Because of this, I have been able to play Duplicut with Cas at least every other sun. with quite a lot of success!
There, I've unloaded some, and it feels good.
RHD