A few random items this week:
• This is a good time of year to have a strong friend pick up a couple of large pails of sand to have by your back door this winter – think icy walkways. Some towns offer free sand to residents. Check with your town. Many years ago, one of the service organizations in my town “adopted” a senior housing facility and provided free cans of sand to each housing unit at the beginning of winter. I think they used big coffee cans, which are very handy for this use.
Other things to do pre-winter include making sure all your storm windows are closed and tight. Get some of that “rope” caulking and fill in all those air spaces. Remember, if you can feel cold air coming in, warm air is escaping somewhere.
• Ever heard of a Death Cafe?? Linda Hopkins, volunteer and bereavement coordinator for VNA Home Health Hospice, sent a note that she is hosting a Death Cafe? on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 2-3:30 p.m. at VNA Hospice, 50 Foden Road, South Portland. For those who haven’t heard of it, she explains: “This is an opportunity to meet with others who are open to talking about death and issues that arise related to end-of-life. At these meetings we enjoy refreshments while sitting in small groups for conversation. For those of you who are curious, here is a link to an interesting website: www.deathcafe.com. These cafes are being offered all around the country. Anyone who is interested in learning more is welcome. Registration is required. Call Linda at 400-8714. There is no fee. Coffee, tea and delicious treats will be provided.”
• I’ll be glad when the election is over and the robo-phone calls stop. I can think of nothing that turns voters off more than these nuisance phone calls. Does anyone in the halls of marketing (or do they call it branding these days?) really think this is effective?
• Speaking of “branding,” that’s a fairly new way of describing “identity.” Back in the old days when I worked in an ad agency, we’d spend many hours (and dollars) developing a new client’s identity – everything from logo to letterhead, business cards and billboards. Branding makes me think of cattle being wrestled to the ground and the application of a hot branding iron.
Another of the “new” or recycled words is “repurposing,” which means recycled. Not sure why the need of a different word, but inventing words seems to be an American trait. I think the housewives of the 1940s-’50s were the queens of repurposing. After saving for six months, a new dress would be ordered from the Sears catalog, and given to the oldest daughter. The dress was handed down (recycled) to two younger sisters; then, all the “good parts” would be made into a quilt, which, when it was worn out, would go into the rag bag hanging in the cellarway. Cloth in the rag bag was used in the garage for wiping up spills, sometimes for a mop head and sometimes for stuffing in a rag doll.
As Boyd Packer said: Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.
Kay Soldier welcomes reader ideas for column topics of interest to seniors. She can be reached by email at kso48@aol.com, or write to 114 Tandberg Trail, Windham, ME 04062.
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