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The Bezabor Log

"The Bezabor Log" is my online diary since retiring in September 2005. My blogging name,'Bezabor', is an archaic term used mostly by canallers in the 1800's and early 1900's. It refers to a rascally, stubborn old mule. In the Log, I refer to my wife as 'Labashi', a name she made up as a little girl. She had decided if ever she had a puppy, she'd call it 'McCulla' or 'Labashi'. I'm not sure how to spell the former so Labashi it is. Emails welcome at bezabor(at)gmail.com.

Friday, June 26, 2009

‘Young Mr. Lincoln’, Michigan trip, Tour-De-Retirement-Homes, Brainiversity
(posted from home)
(This post covers June 8 - 25, 2009)


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Thursday, 25 June-

In Michigan I had read about a brain-training program called ‘Brainiversity’ and had ordered it. I’ve long been interested in ‘Brain Age’ but didn’t want to spend $150 on the Nintendo DS Lite and the game just to find I didn’t like it. The Brainiversity version runs on the PC and costs $20… low enough to take a chance on it.
Today it arrived. After the ultra-simple installation, Labashi and I gave it a run and we both enjoyed it. We’ll see whether this holds up.
I do like the way it works. You have practice sessions in Language, Memory, Math, and Analysis to prepare for a ‘daily exam’. The exam then presents four tests (one each from those categories) and posts your results. The results are tracked from day to day.
I’m hoping to add this to my morning routine of weighing myself, taking my blood pressure, and then recording the results of those as well as what I’ve eaten and what activities I did yesterday in FitDay.
Status on the diet: The original 30-day program ended last week. I dropped 12 pounds but perhaps more importantly my blood pressure dropped from the ‘should begin blood-pressure medication’ to well inside the ‘normal’ range. We are going to re-cycle through the 30-day diet for now, then get off it during our upcoming Fall trip.
That afternoon I jogged the 5K course at Rudy Park in the full heat of the 88-degree day. I had a slight breeze to help out but did have problems cooling down that evening after going to bed. We may have to bring the air conditioner up from the basement soon. Last year we only ran it twice but then again we left about this time for our trip to Alaska.

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Wednesday, 24 June-

My primary chore today was to get the lawn mowed. With temperatures in the mid-Eighties, I chose to mow in mid-afternoon; I need to work on my heat-tolerance. Fortunately, the humidity wasn’t as high here as it had been in Michigan and I had a light breeze so my 2- ½ hours outdoors was actually pretty comfortable.
That evening we watched five episodes of ‘The $100 Taxi Ride’. This is a television series jointly produced by Canada and the UK in which a guy flies into a city and gives a taxi driver $100 to show him the sights. I love the idea but initially found the execution wanting. The guy tries to cram way too much into the tour (and there are two different cities in each half-hour show). But as we watched more episodes, they seemed to improve and we’re looking forward to more.

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Tuesday, 23 June-

Labashi and I once again made the 500-mile drive between Detroit and home today. We had a beautiful day for it and enjoyed listening to four ‘This American Life’ episodes on the iPod.
As we neared home, we celebrated our successful tour-de-retirement-homes with a meal at the Hillside Restaurant.
That evening we watched a documentary about Howard Zinn, a favorite of the Progressive community.

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Monday, 22 June-

Today we did some more chores around the house. I removed the winter cover from the air-conditioning condenser and we enjoyed having a nice, cool afternoon on this very hot and sticky day.
I also spent a few hours attempting to cut down on the number of unwanted phone calls coming in to the answering machine. The new DSL/telephone installation gave us caller-ID so I started making calls to attempt to stop the unwanted calls. I was successful in some cases but there were also cases where the number is hidden or the callers are playing games by not having an opt-out capability. Of eight numbers, I believe I got three of them cut off. The new system also has call-screening and that’s supposed to block up to ten numbers. I could only get one number into the system, however, and had to put in a trouble ticket with AT&T to determine why I can’t add the other nine.

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Sunday, 21 June-

Today I bought and installed two antennas for Labashi’s parents’ DTV conversion. The rabbit-ears just aren’t cutting it. I’m surprised that we are within five miles of the PBS transmitter but have problems getting the signal. I first installed an RCA flat antenna in the kitchen and found the signal only marginally improved until I strung the antenna to a location which looks out the window. That gave a much stronger signal and ended the problems for that one. This also allowed me to eliminate the unsightly rabbit-ears antenna.
The living-room TV was another matter. I considered buying another flat antenna but while checking out the setup, I saw the disconnected cable from an earlier satellite-receiver installation. The satellite dish was still in place on a five-foot mast in the yard. When Mom and Dad ended their subscription, the company merely took the LNB down-converter and the in-home receiver and left the cabling and bare dish in place.
I bought an exterior antenna which looks like a small (about 30”) UFO at the local Radio Shack. While discussing my plan, the Radio Shack guy said I might have a problem if there’s a splitter between the antenna and television since the satellite splitters pass a different frequency. Sure enough, after installation my channel scan only found one channel (while the other tv had found 14 channels). I traced the cable from the mast to its entry into the crawl-space under the house and there found the splitter. After a quick trip to Radio Shack, I replaced the splitter and soon had 15 ultra-clear channels.

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Saturday, 20 June-

Today we made the 500-mile drive back to the Detroit area to take Labashi’s parents home. Our trip went very smoothly, particularly so in Dad’s full-size Buick. It rides smoother than our car and I was amazed to see it get 28 mpg coming east earlier this week, then 25 mpg going west against a fairly strong headwind today.
We didn’t make it to our destination until 1900 so we were all pretty well tired out by the journey.

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Friday, 19 June-

Today we finished up at Bethany Village and drove to the Normandie Ridge retirement community on the west side of York. We toured the common areas and two apartments and had supper in the dining hall—(EXCELLENT crabcakes!)
That afternoon, Labashi’s Dad had expressed an interest in seeing a Catholic retirement village which Labashi had mentioned. Originally we thought it wasn’t of great interest so hadn’t made arrangements to visit. But Labashi got on the phone and just caught the marketing person before she was taking off for the weekend. She very graciously arranged for someone to give us a tour that evening.
We drove to St. Anne’s retirement community in Columbia and had a quick but very thorough tour that evening.


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Thursday, 18 June-

Today we toured Bethany Village East retirement community. We had been introduced to apartments there yesterday but hadn’t seen the common areas.
I split off from the group and drove home to mow the lawn while they toured the Assisted Living and Nursing Care areas (I had seen them on a previous visit with Labashi). I had foolishly gone for a jog the day before we left home, never thinking I should be using my exercise time to mow instead of jog. And as we left I realized I was going to have to take care of the mowing or make arrangements with the lawn-pro guy we use when we’re travelling.
As I arrived home and changed clothes to mow, a rain shower came through and thoroughly soaked the lawn, making the grass a clumpy mess to mow. But I persevered and finished in time to get back to take the group to supper.
We once again dined well in the Bethany West restaurant and then spent an hour or two relaxing in the reading room. Back at the guest house, I spent the evening catching up the blog.

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Wednesday, 17 June-

This morning we briefly toured the nearby Penn Hall retirement facility. My mom lived there for five years so we’re familiar with it and didn’t need the grand tour to give Labashi’s parents a good intro and let them see a few apartments.
We then drove to Mechanicsburg and spent two hours touring the Bethany Village West retirement facility’s independent living apartments.
That evening we dined well in the Bethany Village restaurant and then spent the evening in the guest house.

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Tuesday, 16 June-

We spent several hours touring the Northgate retirement center today. We were very impressed with this facility—it’s really, really nice. The building is only a year old and it super clean, super-modern, and seems more like an upscale hotel but with better rooms than a hotel.
That evening we dined in the restaurant and found it to be one of the best restaurant’s in Chambersburg. We were so impressed we asked if we can dine there even if we aren’t residents. We can, so long as we call ahead for reservations.
After supper I met my brother Maypo for a drink at the Norland Pub. We had a few then returned to the Northgate so I could give Maypo a brief tour and have him meet Labashi’s parents. What a great evening.

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Monday, 15 June-

We travelled from Michigan to Pennsylvania today. ‘We’ in this case is Labashi and I and her parents. We’re traveling in their older Buick and it did really well. It’s more comfortable than our Honda van and gets about the same gas mileage.
We had a later start so supper time found us around Bedford exit. I’ve long wanted to try the Jean Bonnet Tavern which is only five minutes off that exit. That turned out to be a great decision. We had perfect weather to dine on the porch and the food was very good. We also enjoyed a tour of the bed-and-breakfast rooms upstairs and a chat with the restaurant manager. The tavern has been there since 1762 and it has a great feel though it does sit close to the turnpike and to Routes 30 and 31.
After our leisurely meal we took old 30 to Chambersburg and checked in to our rooms at Menno Haven’s Northgate community by 2000.

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Sunday, 14 June-

I spent most of today working on an email problem left over in the DSL installation begun by my sister-in-law. After working with an AT&T technician who finally had to give up and refer me to Microsoft to address an Outlook issue, I thought to update the product to the latest releases and that did it. What a pain. I could receive mail but could not send. And the error simply said there’s something wrong with the To: field yet it was clearly correct.
Late in the afternoon I celebrated the fix by walking to the nearby Starbucks for an iced tea.

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Saturday, 13 June-

Today we drove the nine hours to Michigan. The trip was an easy one and we made it there in time for supper.

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Friday, 12 June-

Today we finished up prep for our Michigan trip and then I spent an hour or two combing the web for some shotgun accessories.
In the afternoon I rode the motorcycle to Rudy park and warmed up on the LifeTrail exercise equipment, then slow-jogged 5K on this very hot day.
That evening we watched Bill Moyers as he and Robert Reich talked about the impact lobbyists have on our government.

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Thursday, 11 June-

Today we prepared for our upcoming trip to Michigan. We’re going to pick up Labashi’s parents out there and drive them back to PA to look at several retirement homes in the area.
Late in the day I received a call from my sister-in-law who was installing a DSL line for her parents. I believe she has most of the problems solved.

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Wednesday, 10 June-

Today I drove to Biglerville to pick up Labashi’s new 14-foot orchard ladder. After much research on the alternatives, we decided an orchard ladder would be the best way for Labashi to trim her Canadian hemlocks and white pines. For the price of the ladder we could have nearly paid for a professional tree trimmer but then again it wouldn’t get done the way she wants it. And she’ll be able to keep the trees trimmed just the way she wants them in the future.
On the way home, I had lunch at Sidney Restaurant in East Berlin. Now there’s a find. It’s a upscale tavern and restaurant and the food was excellent (I had a super quiche). It’s wonderful to find a good restaurant on our rural drive route between home and Chambersburg.
That afternoon I jogged 5K at Rudy Park. I was caught in a light rain storm but that just felt good and by the time I reached the parking lot, the rain was over for my motorcycle ride home.

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Tuesday, 9 June-

Labashi is having sleeping problems we believe are related to the low-carb diet. I spent an hour checking through posts about insomnia on ProteinPower.com and it appears melatonin may help. I have some left over from trying it years ago so she can give it a try. As I remember it from the last time, the melatonin worked well for a day or two, then didn’t really help.
In the afternoon I drove up to a local junkyard that advertises taking junk cars. Good old Cherry Larry is done, I believe. In any case, I’m tired of dealing with problems. The latest is a failed power steering pump. I could get that fixed for about $125 but Larry’s right-side rocker panel is completely rusted out and we use him so little that I think I’m ready to junk him. The going rate is $3 per hundred pounds if I drive it in and $2 a hundred if they have to come pick it up. Hopefully a refill on the power steering pump will allow me to drive it in sometime in the next few weeks. Larry served us well. He has 156,000 miles now and I paid $10K for him in 1997 or so (he’s a ’93) with 38K. I remember feeling lucky to find a van at the time.
That evening we watched ‘Young Mr Lincoln’ with Henry Fonda. This one is a John Ford film about Lincoln’s early years, mostly in Springfield, IL. Very good flick!
We also watched the finale to ‘Out of the Wild’, the series about nine people left in the Alaskan wilderness with no idea how long it would take them to get out. This series was much better than last year’s attempt at this idea (I can’t remember the title). We were particularly impressed with how well these folks did in holding up in the cold weather.

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Monday, 8 June-

I spent the morning updating and posting to my blog. I continue to struggle with time passing so quickly that I forget to keep notes on what I was doing and then have trouble catching up on the blog.
In the afternoon I walked at Pinchot State Park. Today I walked from the east mooring area along the lake to the east parking area, then up to the Ridge Trail and then across the very muddy link trail to the campground office. The latter was horribly muddy and turned into a slough-slog. After circling back past the east parking area, I was passed by a bus-load of joggers and after they passed I began jogging too. I caught up with a couple of stragglers and learned they’re from the Dover Junior High School cross-country club. I was just happy to be able to jog at all, even if it was only for ten minutes or so.
That evening we finished Corner Gas Season 3, disk 1.

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