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Another Reason To Love Your Coffee

In my lifetime, coffee has been seen as bad for you, and good for you, and all points in between these two extremes.

As with most food research, I used me as my own subejct…and I figured it was good for me….

I love coffee…I have been drinking it since way back in high school.

Over the years, I cut back on the amount I drank, but I never stopped, and never will stop, drinking coffee!!

Now we see that coffee may keep us from getting depressed and committing suicide.

In this study of over 43 thousand men…..

Suicide was the cause of death for 277 people over the course of the study, though researchers made a surprising discovery: the risk of suicide for adults who drank between 2-4 cups of coffee each day was 50 percent lower than adults who drank decaf, very little or no coffee.

Their conclusions:

Researchers explained that coffee and caffeine stimulate the central nervous system, acting as a mild anti-depressant by boosting the brain’s production of neurotransmitters including noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin, chemicals all associated with depression. This, they add, could help explain why the results of past studies have linked coffee to lowered risks of depression.

So here’s to a happier life – filled with just the right amount of java …… and friends to drink it with….

Thoughts?

Comments?

Thank you!

07/29/2013
Washboards, Washing Machines, And Memories

I have had a lot of conversations of late with a good friend, my age, who is visiting, and we have been reminiscing about how things were…

It’s fun to try and remember how life was before all the conveniences we take for granted were in existence, or in my existence. Things like washing machines, TVs, checking accounts, credit cards, and a whole lot of other modern conveniences….

I have decided to write about these to refresh my memory and to make some sort of record for

my son and anyone else who is interested in living history.

I often regret that I did not push my own mom a bit harder to talk more about her childhood and youth – she was generally reluctant to talk about it so I did not push hard. Now I wish I had asked a lot more questions.

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Memories about washing clothes

There aren’t many household chores I enjoy – but washing clothes, oddly, is one I love.

I don’t do them by hand; I do have a washing machine so the part I love is hanging them outside on a line to dry in sun.

Doing this often has me thinking back on how we washed and dried clothes before all the modern appliances came into being.

I remember a double sink in the basement of the house I grew up in. It was deep to hold the washing board and I think it was made of concrete.

My mom used Fels Naptha and scrubbed the clothes in one half of that sink and rinsed them in the other half. They were then wrung out by hand, and hung outside on a line to dry, or hung on a clothesline in the basement when the weather was bad.

I don’t recall when we got a real washing machine, but I do remember it had a wringer on it! One fed the clothing thru that wringer to squeeze out excess water.

That was modern technology!

Over the years, I moved on to machines that wash, rinse, and spin dry….

Yes, I do own a dryer, but my preference will always be the sun!

And PS – I now make my own laundry soap and guess what? The main ingredient is Fels Naptha!

What are some of your memoir of how things were?

Stay tuned for more “blasts” from my past :roll

07/16/2013
Birthday Thoughts [for our adult kids]

35 years ago, at 3:55AM in Boston Massachusetts, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy!

Then, about 20+ years ago, when he was a teenager, we went to see City Slickers.

There is a scene where Billy Crystal is awoken at 5:16AM by his mother who reminisces about his birth.

She does this every year – and Billy Crystal mouths her exact words as she says them.

“Oh no” said my son, “I can see it now!”

Well – I never did start the reminiscing calls – because for one thing – 3:55AM and I have become strangers in these 35 years. But it keeps him wondering if I will!

But I can schedule this to appear at 3:55AM EDT 🙄

And for most of his birthdays, he calls me and says…”yes, mom, you HAVE aged [whatever age he is] years…because I tend to say how can you be [x age] when I have not aged that many years….

Do you have a birthday custom that has gone on as your kids grew into adulthood?

Please comment below and thank you.

07/15/2013
Heat Exhaustion: Does It Really Get Worse As We Get Older?

Good grief! I hope not!

I’ve had problems with hot weather and humidity since I was born.

I was the kid on the beach with a hat, long sleeved shirt, and long pants with zinc on my nose.

As a teen, I kind of went out there without parents around, and got too much sun and got burned many times – but you know you do that when you’re a teenager… and then you hope as an adult that you didn’t do “too” much that you now have problems…

So far, I’m okay.

But heat, especially when it is over 80 degrees F, starts me on a path to heat exhaustion. This is worse for me when I can not acclimatize.

I lived in Washington, D.C. for a long time, but there the temperature increases from May thru summer. I had issues some summers, but generally I survived all my D.C. summers.

Where I am now, in Oregon, we don’t get a chance to acclimatize. It goes from pleasant in the 70’s to near 100 in one day!

One day is about all I can take, so when it is brutally hot for 2 or more days, I have heat exhaustion issues.

I get nauseous, irritable, headachy, and dizzy. These symptoms and I are on such familiar terms, we recognize each other.

Have they worsened as I aged? I’m not sure, as I also changed the coast I was on, and reduced the humidity factor. I do note that the symptoms come on after a day of excessive hot, but they go away when it cools off.

I do pay attention to the weather and try to plan ahead – and one of these years, I will get an air conditioner….maybe when I am “old.”

How does the heat affect you?

Thoughts? Thank you….

07/02/2013
Beware: Medical Alert Impostors Targeting Seniors

The following alert came from the Oregon Atty. General, but it applies to anyone in any state who is a senior citizen or who knows any senior citizens.

Scammers are not picky as to what state they operate in.

Please pass this message along. Thank you.

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The Oregon Department of Justice has recently learned older Oregonians are receiving pre-recorded messages from medical alert imposters claiming to be from Life Alert, a personal emergency response and home medical alert system company.

The recordings sound like a real person claiming that either “someone has purchased a Life Alert system for you,” or that “you qualify for a free Life Alert.” Others may say they are calling from a shipping department to confirm a free order or to send you new Life Alert equipment.

Life Alert has confirmed the calls are not made by the company. (See Life Alert’s Fraud Alert online at http://www.lifealert.com/fraudalert.aspx.)

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum urges Oregonians to simply hang up the phone if they receive a recorded call saying they are with Life Alert or the “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” people. “DO NOT press a button to talk to sales person, and never give personal information or credit card numbers over the phone unless you have initiated the contact or you are sure you know who you are dealing with,” says Attorney General Rosenblum.

If you think you have fallen victim to these medical alert imposters, contact the Oregon Department of Justice online at www.oregonconsumer.gov or call 1-877-877-9392.

05/29/2013