Zooming Right Along

For many of us  Zoom has lately been the only real connection to the outside world. And so to PAFC it seemed important to assist isolated older adults unfamiliar with Zoom to use it to communicate with family, friends, service providers and fellow travelers. We are now in the midst of a short term project, funded by the Larimer County Office on Aging, to identify isolated individuals who have yet to meet up with this free, easy to use program and get them on board.

We are in the process of showing folks how to subscribe to Zoom and then demonstrating its use through brief Zoom classes for the totally uninitiated. We are matching individuals up with volunteer neighbors/caregivers/friends who will attend classes with them and be available for ongoing support when needed. While access to wifi is essential, having the right equipment is not. Part of the grant enabled us to purchase a limited number of Kindle Fire notebooks to distribute to those who are unable to purchase their own devices.

If you or anyone you know is interested in participating as a volunteer (no expertise required, just a kind heart and interest in learning) or  recipient, more information is available on the PAFC website at https://www.pafclarimer.org/tech-project-info.  Our mission is that no one remain isolated from the outside world unless they choose to be.


By: Partnership for Age-Friendly Communities

A Happy Mother's Day

It’s not even mid afternoon and already I’ve had an amazingly wonderful Mother’s Day—one of the best I can remember.

It began with a Zoom gathering with my two sons and two daughters, ages 55 through 60. I could not be more proud of them. They have produced six granddaughters and six grandsons, 11 of them between 21 and 31 and a “caboose,” who will be 15 this summer.

This morning my kids each shared the good things that have grown out of the lifestyle they have been living for the last couple of months. Most of their children have returned home and are working or studying remotely. The families have been having a blast!. They play cards, piece together enormous puzzles, cook, garden, do crafty things, and run, bike, golf, and hike together.

Fortunately, none of them have lost their jobs though there has been a pay cut, and there are changes afoot. One had to furlough 200 people. Painful. Another is investing in a farm produce-food truck business. And two are looking at new opportunities—in a law firm and in an online teaching position.

They report sleeping a little later, learning to “go slow,” spending less time in their cars, and gaining new insights into work activities, sorting out those that are the most important and letting other things go.

To one degree or another, all of them are extroverts who thrive on their relationships with others. But for now, they are thriving on being at home and enjoying their offspring.

It will be interesting to see how this episode will change, and perhaps enrich, their lives.

Here they are 50 years ago!

By: Libby James

Avoiding the Risks

It seems as we 'open up' to more potential exposure to this virus we are to be increasingly dependent on our own judgement. Walk into any public arena and it is clear how widely varying those judgements are. Even in my own home. Several days ago I announced my attention to return to an exercise class which I dearly miss. I know that the trainer is taking every precaution including limiting the number of students to a few who know each other and have shown no symptoms, sanitizing the area, creating the appropriate physical distances.

This morning my husband Terry forwarded me this link to an article about what is risky and what is not so risky as you might have thought and why. Very helpful information. But in addition to wanting me to be informed I think he also wanted me to re-consider my first public activity beyond grocery shopping. I have been sneezing for weeks and just the description of what happens to a sneeze was enough to change my mind about exposing/terrifying my friends even though I have no other symptoms. I also realize that he and I need to consider each other's individual concerns. If one of us becomes ill, the other is likely to become ill as well. Apparently contagion occurs before symptoms are obvious. When you live with someone the risks you take are no longer entirely up to you.

I really do miss that class.


https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them By: Bonnie Shetler

Conversations with my cat

Living alone during the pandemic is challenging to say the least. Introvert though I am, I find I need to be with people from time to time to nourish my spirit. Zoom is great, but it's just not the same as in person. So I find myself talking to my cat, Shadow. He is 15 years old, a gray ball of fur who sits on my lap just about every time I sit down. I tell him what's happening and he looks at me with his catly stare, rarely responding. Sometimes, he starts washing himself vigorously. Inviting me to stop talking? Then, later, he will begin meowing at me. He has a wide repertoire of meows, from plaintive to demanding, and I can often interpret them reasonably well. The most puzzling is the silent meow, when he opens his mouth and no sound comes out. What is he trying to tell me? I expect he is asking himself the same question: "What in the world is she yammering about?" Still, we both persist. I look to the day when I can have two-way, in-person conversations with another two-legged creature, but in the meantime, Shadow and I are endeavoring to keep calm and carry on. At least we have each other. By: Barbara F

Online grocery shopping

     Today I reflected on all of the new ways my day works and what I conquered! Ordering on line for me used to be limited to Amazon, flowers for out of state family, airline tickets, etc. Now I can proudly shout that I can order groceries online.  For some reasons, I am willing to admit my errors, the errors of the store, a new system for all and misinformation, yet I have ordered and picked up groceries. More on that below.

     Then the whole takeout routine. I have done okay with that way of life. Ordered and picked up food, or used one of the food delivery services successfully, even one day getting breakfast. Yes, we were tired of our own eggs!  With each new site, new apps, new passwords, new ways to pay. We even have started playing cars online with friends.

   Back to groceries though. As a young child, I remember going to one grocery store with my mother on Mondays and Thursday’s. Never did we go on a Tuesday. She had some coupons, and then there were the S&H stamps that we licked, or wetted down, put in books, and redeemed for some good items. Perhaps what I am saying, it was the routine. Now I don’t even go in the store.  I have friends my age who are still shopping. We each have to decide our own comfort levels and our own levels of risk. I am tempted to go the stores that don’t have online shopping,  yet I am not ready to be with so many people.

   So, what have you learned how to do? What is your level of risk to obtain food? Will you continue to be an online shopper when you can? What’s it like to have someone shop for you?

     
             
               

By: Kirsten Hartman

Time for some limericks

 April 16 and it’s snowing like a banshee!  After a lame attempt at shovelling the heavy wet stuff, I returned to my new occupation—making masks.  My trusty Bernina sewing machine gave up the ghost and spent a few days in the sewing machine hospital before returning as good as new.  I have been given so many scraps of material that I will never be able to use them all. The donors seemed so happy to be rid of their scraps that I may have to find some new uses for these leftovers.

I have permission from my grandkids, now hanging out with their parents in Fort Collins, to share a bit of their at home recent creativity.

Abby is 26 and will attend graduate school at Columbia University to study Latin American language and culture this fall.

There once was a girl very fine

Who said, the future – it’s mine!

She applied to grad school

And felt quite the fool

It seems it will all be online!

Henry is 24 and coming down the home stretch majoring in oceanography and GIS at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He’s a food lover and made us a great dinner the other night.

There once was a man from the West

Who put his body to the test

He ate a whole pot of chili

Then felt rather silly

And decided he’d best get some rest. 

Mason is 22 and a junior at Middlebury College in Vermont majoring in Spanish and economics. He spent a semester in Chile and had planned to be in Cuba for spring but….

There was once was a young Matey-Moo

Who thought, one year abroad, I’ll make it through! 

In Chile he found 

He was mostly house-bound

And that is his current fate too. 

 There was an old lady who thought

 This virus may have been brought

To offer a lesson or two

About the best thing to do

When all of the world's so distraught.

Well I can't complete with these kids!

Here they are -photos from quite a while ago. Top to bottom: Mason, Abby , Henry

By: Libby James

A friend sent me this. It so completely expressed my own hopes for this current challenge that I had to share it.

Here's a poem by Irish poet Kathleen O'Meara, poet laureate of the pandemic:

And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped
and listened deeper
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their shadow
and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
even the earth began to heal
and when the danger ended
and people found each other
grieved for the dead people
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of life
and healed the earth completely
just as they were healed themselves.

By: Bonnie Shetler