SWCAMBORNE

Here are a few more tips for aging well.  Or at least not to badly.

• Accept help graciously.  When people offer accept. Say thank you.
• Learn to not try to do everything for yourself.
• Stop worrying about money.  You saved it for a rainy day.  It is now a rainy day.

The terrible saga of Jack attempts to recover from hip replacement surgery that went bad continues.  I’m glad I’m able to help a little and learn from the mistakes of others.

Unfortunately the skills that work in the prime of life are not the skills you need when you are bed ridden and 85.

Nurit and I went to Santa Fe last week with our friends Gretchen and Randy.

We shopped, I wrote postcards, we looked at art and we ate great food.  Mostly what we did was soak in the atmosphere of a place that is different.

It was an excellent trip and a great relief from the elder management issues we are currently dealing with in Pasadena.  You can see all of our pictures from the trip here.

You can see more of our Santa Fe pictures Here.

Our comfortable middle class world is full of caring groups that want to for instance: stop genocide in Darfur without armed intervention or end the use of animal testing in drug development.  These groups use code words that if you know them indicate that they are powerless but are unwilling to admit it.  Here are three examples for your consideration:

“Educate yourself” Means: you are without influence in this matter give us money.

“Raise Awareness” Means: The entire group has no influence give us money.

“Core group” Means: Not many people came to the event give us money.

Caring groups tend to disregard the real trade-offs that changing outcomes will entail. They focus on the benefit not the cost.  Caring is over-rated as a strategy. For instance: if there is a genocide in Darfur, although Doctors without Borders says there is not, the way to end it is with an army poised to invade and take out the perpertrators.  Caring couldn’t stop Stalin or Hitler and it can’t stop the generals in Sudan.

Lillian saw this one in San Diego:

The fares are the same as the “Grumpy Cab”

Don’t let the pessimists get you down:

“History shows that things get better not worse over time.”

Robert Harris

Author of 101 Things Not to do Before You Die

I have often said that: “The Key to Happiness is Low Expectations.”

It is an excellent conversation starter and a reasonably applicable mantra.  Yesterday at LAX I said it to a  Southwest Airlines pilot while waiting in line at Starbucks.  He though for a few seconds and then retorted: “except with regard to airplane maintenance.”

I stand corrected.  Posts from Santa Fe, the reason we were at LAX,  to follow.

Go Postal is a free app for sending picture postcards via the U.S. Postal Service to friends and family from your iphone. At present it can only be used to send postcards to U.S. addresses. You can use your own pictures and it only cost $1.29.  This is very similar to Postcards from Anywhere an idea I had a few years ago that would have been much more retro.

a postcard from the Philippines

I’ll give this idea a try and see if it works and of course report to you.  Via postcard or blog.

thanks to Matt Geldin for spotting this new Iphone app for me.

This is an idea for an organization to get visible, create a fun image and raise some money.  I had the idea while thinking about how to help my local Jewish Federation.  What they should do is sponsor a Drag Racing event on a Thursday night at the Irwindale Speedway.  The 1/8 mile drag strip at the speedway has street legal racing for all licensed drivers on Thursdays.  They already have a club program and you can drive your own cars.

We could have sections for Lawyers, Doctors and Businessmen.  Maybe clergy, women and professionals.

The idea would be to get the Federation some publicity in a non traditional way that would be fun and attract people who usually don’t go to Federation events.

The first year it could be small with a very limited goal.  There is an In-n-Out on the premises so the food would be easy.  The trick would be to get two groups to “challenge” each other to create the excitement that would get people to attend.  Maybe PJTC against Pomona or Doctors against Bankers.

I’d drive my Smart Car and win the weight adjusted speed category which I invented.

I have achieved another milestone.

Fiona the daughter of my lovely neice Kara had a baby last week making me a Great Great Uncle or perhaps a Great Grand Uncle.  But certainly very pleased.

Congratulations to Fiona and Jonathon on the birth of Rylen.

It is an event that fills me with pride even though I had nothing to do with it.

I have built a new bridge in the stream above the pond using Bamboo Pipes.

Hopefully it will be more stable than the old one that you can see here.

This isn’t my final bridge which I hope will be a stone arch that can take a wheelbarrow.  It does indicate a bit about my personality.  I take great pleasure and pride in making small improvements while still planning to make things perfect in the future.   My old bridge was not a failure it was a learning experience.