Mexico

My son said that we were so close to Mexico we just had to go. So that was one of our side trips. We parked our car on the U.S. side and walked over because we were told that driving back was difficult. And that sure was true. Coming back, I think we saw six lanes of traffic. And it was backed up as far as the eye could see. Anyway, we just wanted to say we were in Mexico. Now the biggest surprise was the border. It was just a turnstyle. There wasn't a soul there. Well, there may have been souls but there were no people. I imagine there are not too many people trying to sneak into Mexico. Once inside, we were bombarded by hawkers and taxi drivers ( in yellow shirts). So we looked around there for a spell and then came back. This time it was a real border crossing. Though I must say, it was easier to get back into the U.S., than getting back into Canada later on. Coming back home we went thru customs in Toronto. In the lineup next to me was a group of Mexicans. It seems that they come up her to work also. Fancy that. Anyway, when I get up to the desk, its why,when,where,how much etc. Now in the lineup next to me it was "Do you speak english?" Head shake "No". "Do you speak French?" Head shake "No". Very good, off you go.

LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO DRINK BAD WINE

Just a hint that I did drink some wine on our trip. How can you not go to California and not drink wine ? So we went to the Santa Barbara wine country, as in the movie "Sideways". And the reason for that is because the Fess Parker Winery is there. I had to drink Davy Crockett wine. How could I not? Wine tasting cost $10.00 at each place. For that you get to try out six types of wine and you get to keep the glass. Quite a large glass with a coon skin cap imprinted on it. The winery along with eleven others is located in Los Olivos. Another one you might reconize is The Firestone Winery. Went there too. Now a word of advice. One should not start a wine tour at 10 am. Needless to say I was the only customer. No, we did not see Fess Parker, but we did see his daughter.

Big Rain

Since I haven't written for so long, it looks like I went to Alcatraz and never came back. We had a great time and my son drove 2000 miles in those 10 days. Had to see and do as much as possible. Must compliment the California drivers on their courtesy. On any of those super highways, when we wanted to change lanes, there was never a problem. And we didn't even have foreign plates.

We did go to Alcatrez. Not a place you would want to spend a large part of your life. I was disappointed though about the parks dept. letting it fall apart. They don't do any repairs. I don't think they understand that when tourists go there, they want to see how it was, not how it is now. Over time ,"how it was" will be all gone and there will be nothing left but a pile of rock. And it is not like they can't afford it. The ferry carries about 500 people and comes every half hr. Fee is $24.95. In Nova Scotia, we have a number of historical spots which have been kept up. Have to think living history.

I loved the way they did the tour. Your tour guide is a tape player around your neck so you could go at your own pace. Just stop the tape if you wanted to stay longer at any spot. That's a great idea.

On another note, we had big rain yesterday. We received a month's supply of rain in one day. So I can't cut the grass today, too wet. Tomorrow is supposed to be another rainy day.

The Day Before

This is Monday, June 2.

Today is garbage day. There is usually a parade of trucks driving by the evening before. Looking for anything useful. You can be sure that all the metal will be picked up. Whatever is left is really garbage. I look at this as a good thing. Everything gets recycled, one way or another. I've picked up things from my neighbours that I can use. I don't think any of them would. The last thing I picked up was a footstool. The top is a padded lid. It's for magazines etc. The only thing wrong with it was that one of the hinges had become unscrewed. Three screws later, it sits in my living room.

I have a next door neghbour, who is divorced with two daughters. She has two cars in the driveway. One doesn't work and has been sitting there for years. It has become her storage shed. The other car has been sitting there for a month because it has a flat tire. My wife says that I should be a good neighbour and change the tire for her. I said no, I would be a fool if I changed it. She has two daughters, with two boyfriends, who walk past that car every day. They stay over a lot of nights. I think they should change the tire.

On Sat. she hops in her car, drives out of the driveway and parks it in front of the house. Still with a flat tire. I go to church that evening and when I come home, I see that the shedcar is gone. My wife tells me that someone came and towed the car away, And what else? They changed the tire on the other car.

The one thing I can't understand is with all those cars is that they didn't park in front of their house. They parked in front of mine. Hopefully, with one car gone, someone will park in the driveway. But, this is not a sure thing.

I have to get up at 4 AM tomorrow. Becauseeee! I am going to California tomorrow with my son. I say going with, but actually he is taking me. So I am looking forward to that.

Start The Morning With Chi

Its Sat. morning. Nice out now,but I think it is supposed to rain later.

I have one of those Magic Bullett blenders. That is some little machine. I use it almost every day. I have gone over to a liquid breakfast, so to speak. Put everything in the glass provided, screw on the base and voom,voom,voom finished. Here is my recipe. Got it from the newspaper.

Fill the glass half full of milk. Put in one banana, (use large spoon) for one spoon of wheat germ, sunflower seeds (without the shell of course), walnuts, flax seed, chi seeds (you should look up its content and history) and virgin olive oil. Then you need two tablespoons of yogurt and top it off with milk. After that,the three vooms and you are finished. Now you have everything you need in a breakfast. You can buy the flax seeds already ground but I like the crunch. I hope this will give me fortitude this morning because I have to go yard sailing with my wife.

Bought a new hat the other day. I guess it is something like a cowboy hat. Wide brim and all. My friends are poking fun at me but I like my hat. Makes a big difference walking in the sun. The wide brim keeps my face cooler than with my other ones. When I was much younger, I was expecting to be wearing a hat all the time like my father. But John F. Kennedy put the kibosh to that. He didn't wear a hat, so that became the new fashion. Wiped out the hat industry. So when the kids grew up and it was time to switch to a new hat, there wasn't any. They just kept wearing their baseball caps. So now old men still wear them. Come to think of it, it does go with the rest of the clothing. And that's not a compliment.

Back from the yard sales. I think this is the first time I've gone out and not spent any money. Of course I spent money on gas, which today is seling for $1.40 a liter. That would be $5.30 a gal. My wife and son just took off to Wal-Mart. She is running around looking for new glasses. We had tests done last month. My glasses are still good. No change in five years. The doctor said that eyesight doesn't change much after 60 yrs. of age. They just have to watch out for other things.

I was going to add a photo of the Magic Bullett. But I changed my mind and will put up one of my hat. My son just got an e-mail from one of my brothers. He bought an Apple computer at a yardsale for $75.00. Now he is asking my son how to get into it if he doesn't have a password. He is always buying computers at yardsales. I don't know if he ever checks them out first. Money with wings.

The Calm, Quiet Vitamin -- and Why You Need It

Know what's super bad for your body? Inflammation. It’s thought to be at the core of problems like heart disease and heart attacks.

Know what's a great way to quiet inflammation? Get your fill of vitamin K. Good choices: just about anything leafy and green -- from spinach and kale to collards and turnip greens.

Fanning the Flames of Inflammation

Inflammation is your body's response to injury or infection. And when it occurs in your blood vessels, inflammation can be a sign of bad things to come -- like ruptured arterial plaques, clot formation, heart attack, and stroke. Enter leafy greens. They pack a real vitamin K punch, and more and more research is linking high vitamin K intake to a lower bodywide inflammation index.

Going for the Green

Bored with salads? The trick to getting more greens -- and more vitamin K -- into your diet may be learning to use them more creatively. Start with something simple but different, like this Basic Sauteed Kale recipe from EatingWell.

Then, move on to these K-rich greens recipes that will have you feeling like a world traveler:

.Simmer kale with chickpeas and exotic spices for this vegetarian Indian dish: Indian-Spiced Kale and Chickpeas.
.Slip collard greens into your red sauces, like with this unique Italian dish: Pasta with Greens and Tomato Sauce.
.Mix spinach with butternut squash and beans for this Brazilian soup: Amazon Bean Soup with .Winter Squash and Greens. Here's why your hands can't do without K.

COMMON DRUGS HASTEN DECLINE IN ELDERLY

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Elderly people who took commonly prescribed drugs for incontinence, allergy or high blood pressure walked more slowly and were less able to take care of themselves than others not taking the drugs, U.S. Researchers said on Saturday.

They said people who took drugs that block acetylcholine -- a chemical messenger in the nervous system critical for memory -- functioned less well than their peers.

"These results were true even in older adults who have normal memory and thinking abilities," said Dr. Kaycee Sink of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, who led the study of 3,000 people of whom 40 percent were taking more than one anticholinergic drug.

"The effect is essentially that of a three- to four-year increase in age. So someone who is 75 in our study and taking at least one moderately anticholinergic medication is at a similar functional level to a 78 to 79-year-old," Sink said in an e-mail.

Sink's findings, presented at American Geriatrics Society Meeting in Washington, add to a growing body of research that suggests these so-called anticholinergic medications can hasten functional and cognitive declines in elderly people.

Some of the most common such drugs in the study included the blood pressure drug nifedipine (sold as Adalat or Procardia), the stomach antacid ranitidine or Zantac, both with mild or moderate anticholinergic properties, and Pfizer Inc's incontinence drug tolterodine or Detrol, which is highly anticholinergic.

"The tricky part ... Is that many useful drugs from many different classes of medications have anticholinergic properties," Sink said.

She said in many cases newer drugs are available that do not have these effects and said doctors should look out for them for elderly patients.

MEMORY DECLINE

Dr. Jack Tsao, a neurologist with the U.S. Navy, reported last month at a American Academy of Neurology meeting that elderly people who took anticholinergic drugs had a 50 percent greater rate of memory decline than people in a long-term study who did not take the drugs.

Sink studied the effects of taking multiple anticholinergic drugs on walking speed, basic activities such as dressing, eating, taking care of personal hygiene, grooming, and harder activities like shopping, cooking and managing money on her test subjects whose average age was 78.

The researchers found that the more anticholinergic drugs people had in their systems, the worse their physical function, based on reports from people in the study and on independent measures of their performance.

In a separate study this month in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Sink found that older nursing home residents who took drugs for dementia and incontinence at the same time had a 50 percent faster decline in function than those treated only for dementia.

"I would encourage patients to bring in a list of everything they take (even over-the-counter medications) to their doctor and have them review it at least yearly," Sink said. "Physicians should try to decrease anticholinergic burden whenever possible."