LA Life After 60

LA Life After 60
Well we figured out the photo thingy. Lemme tell ya about how to improve your chess playing. I have about 50 books on chess. I have played in tournaments and despite my extensive study my rating just hangs in there at dead average. Really frustrating. Then recently I got BookUp by Mike Leahy (and Sally, too). He used to do it for Macintosh puters, but he said he could not keep up with that (chicken) and gave up on it about 6 years ago. I kept watching his progress even though I couldn't get the software because it would be a cold day in Los Angeles before I ever gave in to (yeech) Windooze.

Well my my how times change. With my teaching stuff now I have to use PowerPoint. Now MicroFlaccid makes Office for the Mac. But Apple makes Keynote which imports and exports to PowerPoint. Well all my teacher colleagues are females so guess who gets the last word. I could not convince them that I should use my iBook with or without OfficeMac .... sooooo... I went out and bought a used Compaq laptop at discountpeecee.com (I can't believe I'm writing this) and well I'm just tickled pink with the darn thang. So I emailed Mike and now I can study my chess with his marvelous BookUp software and actually make some progress. Now that Kasparov has retired there is finally room at the top so ...watch out for the up and coming drkennyg.

drkennyg sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial which was his favorite thinking spot in the 1960s when he was in Graduate School at Georgetown University 

picture trouble

Trying to figure out how to post photos. I have the software but it won't post the chosen jpeg. Guess I'll figure it out later. Tonight was good; spent good time with many friends.

Today made more progress on my lectures for next years classes in Physical Science, Chemistry and Geometry (all high school level) and it is great fun making these. I work one day a week at H.O.P.E. Academy in Monrovia,CA which is a Christian based option for parents involved in home schooling their kids when they bump into subjects that are hard for them to teach. We provide that service for a decent fee. I am truly amazed that home schooled kids are really great and do very well later on in college and other endeavors. I'm very happy I can do this with my limited capacity because of the emphysema. I can easily handle 1 day a week and the kids are not freaked out by my occasional "sit-downs" to catch my breath. Using pursed lip breathing silently I can recover within 30-60 sec.

another day in paradise

Part of the general topic "Life In LA After 60"
I'm pretty much ready for Medicare and have made my choices. Man is that stuff difficult to follow. You younguns out there do NOT give up - despite all you hear it WILL be there for you. I started hearing junk about it being kaputt back in the 60s so that should let ya know how long they been saying this garbage. Fortunately we have limited our Presidency to 2 terms and checks and balances still work despite Tom Delay and his ilk. What goes around comes around. Hold a gun to my head and not pull the trigger, better watch over yer shoulder for the rest of your days. Remember the Charles Bronson character in "Once Upon A Time In The West"? - Henry Fonda got his just desserts, right?

LA Life After 60

LA Life After 60
Lemme tell you about Susan. My sweetie. Well I've known her 15 years. She has epilepsy which can be controlled by medication and a good neurologist because the dosage levels change a little bit over periods of a few weeks and if she accurately reports her symptoms the Dr. can stay on top of it. Occasionally there are breakthrough seizers every few years and we deal with them pretty easily.

The tragedy which we now face involved a broken blood vessel in her brain that happened 5 years ago - she was living with a bunch of drug addicts and they were just watching her die. Had I not arrived in time to call paramedics she would be gone. The surgeons worked all night and saved her life. The police were brought in to investigate but nobody copped to shaking her nearly to death in an effort to make her seizure stop. I knew that they did this despite my instructions not to do that - all they had to do was gently craddle her head so she doesn't injure herself and then the episode stops. Anyhow she was drug free and alcohol free at the time and epilipsy does not cause blood vessels to break so somebody did something. I learned long ago to just forgive 'em and move on. Susan will spend the rest of her life in a nursing home/physical rehad center but she is getting betteer. I visit every day and we talk. She remembers much but not all. She still can't walk on her own but with modest assistance is coming along. What else ya gonna do when ya love someone. More to come....