Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Wednesday, September 25, 2013; 6:30-8 pm
I arrived early and went inside
to see that nobody was in the activity room.
That soon changed and we were joined by Jack and Jim, who in particular
was in top form. It was the end of the
regular season for baseball, and Jim’s ‘White
Sox’ had been eliminated from playoff contention a long time ago. Yet he was complaining about his favorite
whipping team, the ‘Cubs’. Once again, he reiterated his frustrations
that people still flocked to ‘Wrigley
Field’ to see the ‘Cubs’, despite
them being so bad for so long. He said
that he still fails to understand why everyone would continue to go for those
games and keep ignoring the ‘Sox’. I said that perhaps it was because ‘Cubs’ have a nicer ballpark at which he
waved his arms in disgust. I quickly
changed the topic by saying that the ‘Bears’
are doing well and he said that it was too soon and we will see at the end of
the season. All this time Jack was
sitting quietly without talking and I asked him how he was doing. He said that his foot was hurting owing to a tight
shoe. Then I asked where Larry was and Jim said that he wasn’t doing so well. It
certainly looked like everyone could use some cheering.
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| We know now! |
Gwyn arrived with her mom, who
was visiting her; and Andrea, who is turning out to be a regular volunteer for
this project, also joined us. Gwyn said
that today we would be starting work on the November/December issue of ‘As We See It’. What…already! Where had the summer gone? As she
set up the computer, I took a look at the September/October issue, which was
now being circulated. It seems like
September is the ‘National Chicken Month’
and second Friday in October is the ‘World
Egg Day’. Well then. It’s settled isn’t it? I said that the age-old question had finally
been answered. We know now which came first.
According to the ‘Gregorian’
calendar, it was most definitely the Chicken!
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| Here they are |
Gwyn said that we should start by
listing all of the holidays in November and December, and we went through the
usual ‘Thanksgiving’ and ‘Christmas’ while looking at some others
online. I suggested we include ‘Boxing Day’, which is the day after
Christmas, and quite popular in places such as Australia. We also noticed that November 11th
was ‘Veteran’s Day’, and that led to
Gwyn asking if Mary was around to talk about the ‘Puerto Rico regiment’. Jim went to fetch her and she came over readily, to talk to us about how Puerto
Rico participated in the ‘Korean War’. She told us about ‘Borinqueneers’, Puerto Rico’s 65th regiment, who fought
for the US in both World Wars as well the Korean War. She said that the full extent of their
contributions has not been recognized so far, and in November there is a
fund-raiser to increase awareness. Mary
is involved in the organization of that event and mentioned that some of the ‘Purple Heart’ winners from that
regiment, and who live in Chicagoland, have been invited. She was very excited about that and was
hoping that at least one would make it to the gala. We then looked online at a ‘Borinqueneers’ DVD, which was a
documentary about that regiment.
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| The Dark Tower |
Andrea and Jack were looking at their ‘Chase Book of
Events’, while I discussed the ‘Book
Review’ section with Jim. We were
doing the book ‘The Web’ by Jonathan
Kellerman and Jim was recommending it, though with some reservations. I pulled up some of the reviews online and it
was a mixed bag, with some of them being quite brutal. One of the reviewers had compared the book to
‘Scooby Doo’ and said that they had
no idea what had compelled them to read it.
Man, not pulling any punches were they?
Gwyn said that she wants to read eventually, but when I mentioned that
some of the reviews talk about giant spiders and cockroaches, she said that she
would give it a pass. We talked about
the new Stephen King book that is a follow-up to ‘The Shining’. Gwyn said
that reading ‘It’ and ‘The Shining’ were enough to scar her as
a kid and so would pass on this one as well.
I happen to like Stephen King and remember reading ‘It’ long time ago in school.
One of the most enjoyable things I did a few years ago, when I was still
in Pittsburgh, was reading the entire ‘Dark
Tower’ series. Well, when I say
reading, I mean listening to books on tape – all 7 of them. It was a part of my routine, listening to it
while going across the bridge to the ‘Strip
District’ on Saturday’s and during my Sunday afternoon walks down the river
trail. I remember exactly where I was,
in what location, when I listened to some of the sections from each book. It’s funny how some random things like these
get etched in your memory and for as long as I will live, I will remember my
days in Pittsburgh as I went through Stephen King’s Magnum Opus.
Next we needed ideas for the ‘Restaurant Review’ section and I
started looking for nearby places on Google Maps. I found a place which advertised “Burrito’s As Big As Your Head” and Gwyn
immediately said that she wanted to do that one. No one had been there and Gwyn asked Jim to
investigate. I tried to look for prices
on their website, but it wasn’t mentioned.
We certainly did not want “Prices
To Drain Your Savings” to accompany their slogan! While this was going on, Jack and Andrea were
still looking through their book, and announced that November was “Bingo Birthday”. Considering Bingo’s popularity at Lakeview, I
said we should definitely include that. The
session was almost at an end and we had a great time. Gwyn’s mom had brought some books for Jim to read and he was very thankful.
Mary and Jim talked about some of the recurring problems at Lakeview
Nursing and Gwyn said that she could argue with the staff. Her mom said that they would fire her at
which Gwyn replied that she did not care since she did not work there. “I
meant as a volunteer”, her mom said.
Gwyn has built this into one of the more enjoyable projects and
something that I have a lot of fun at whenever I come. Plus, I can see how much the residents love
her. To lose her because of some inconsiderate staff members, now that would
certainly be a shame.
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