Grandma Goes to the Casino - A Good Bet!

Grandma Goes to the Casino - This is one of grandma's favorite thing to do. So an outing is due. We chose the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, WA. Good News - they had free under cover valet parking (we did tip)and a wheel chair quickly available! The isles were generous to get around in - and - tucked in the back in the keno corner there is a generous size family bathroom! What a great improvement over our visit when they first opened a few years ago - this gorgeous million dollar work of art had no wheel chairs or much else to help our loved ones get in to spend their final dollar. If your looking for an outing under cover in the wet NW this place would be a good bet!

I give the Tulalip Casino an A!!

If By Chance WE Should Meet

The book was written and published as a labor of love. It is so important to document peoples important events as it is amazing how quickly people move on and we soon forget:

If By Chance We Should Meet


It is so important for people's stories to be told and to be shared - people's most precious life's events. It is very powerful for people's life's stories to be told, their voices to be heard, and their feelings validated. This was a powerful project to assist others in collecting and sharing their own or others life's stories.

3rd Place Books - Seattle - No Wheel Chairs!

3rd Place Books -

Shopping with grandma - a nice outing to take the grand-kids out to 3rd Place Books - but a book store this size and no wheel chairs!! What a disappointment. We didn't last long. Grandma was not able to scale a place this size to look at books - we soon had to go - and we so wanted to buy some books. Not even a chair inside by the door to wait for the car.

Again - hello businesses - wheel chairs are clunky and cumbersome. People can bring their own - but it sure would be convenient if one was available. -- Please, help us get into your store to spend our money!

I give 3rd Place Books a C-

"I Have A Dream"

According to one report, the elderly have literally trillions of dollars to spend. So why, oh, why do businesses make it so difficult to get in to spend it? This I must scratch my head about. I continuously have to ask for wheel chairs, often times there are none to be had - how can this be? If they can send a man to the moon, then why can't we have wheel chairs readily available for those who need them? Wheel chairs can be cumbersome and heavy. Not everyone is able to lift them, particularly little old people who are often times trying to assist each other. Many larger businesses and stores do have electric carts, but not wheel chairs. Not everyone is able to use an electric cart. It is not only those who need a wheel chair, but those who are with the persons with limited mobility. Even the electric carts can be a pain to haul around. Why not make it as easy and fluid as possible to get from the car into the store or place of business?

"I have a dream."

I have a dream that one day we will be able to drive up to a button to press at a place of business, such as a grocery store or department store etc. indicating we need a wheelchair or some kind of assistance, then someone will appear with a chair for us or to help us. We will then get into the store fluidly thereby readily able to spend our trillions.

Remember businesses, it is all about you! We would spend our trillions if only we could easily get in to do so!

A brand new store opens - this is an international market - sprawling with many choices. My mother and I had much shopping to do, but alas, no wheelchairs available. We sat outside at a bench while my niece went in to the store for a couple of items. I asked for the store manager who said, "We have a lot of electric scooters." I explained that not everyone is able to use an electric scooter and we did not have our wheelchair packed for such a large store. The store manager did not seem concerned. I would happily given her much money in exchange for our goods for the day.

You'll Find it at Fred Meyer's (if you can get in)

Out and about shopping with the next generation.

We left the walker at home this time and took the wheelchair. To-date our experience has been such that most places don't have wheelchairs. They may have a few electric-carts, but not everyone can use one.

Maybe I should take a few people with vision and coordination problems out to shop and let them cruise around the store in an electric-cart to make a point.

The wheelchair worked out pretty good. I had mi-mamma (see the movie Pecker) push the chair until she was pooped out. Then she sat in it unless she wanted to walk around again. The difficulties were trying to find a handi-capped parking spot close enough such that she could walk in pushing the chair without too much difficulty, however, there were not any spots available.

My mother is one in a billion out there. If stores want the senior generation to spend their trillions at their place of business, they should get-on-board.

While I was in the store there were at least two elderly couples who brought in their own wheel chairs and were also trying to push a shopping cart (!?) I did help one customer by pushing his cart at least from the check out line to the door while he pushed the woman in the wheel chair (what is wrong with this picture?). Where is the customer service?

Wheel chairs are cumbersome and heavy. It would help to have wheelchairs readily available at stores (at least the stores who want the trillions that the baby boomers and their parents have to spend). Also provide baskets and bags to attach to the back of the wheelchairs as well as a cup holder for the Starbucks drinks.

Walking around, shopping, and snacking at Fred Meyer should be something to look forward to. This is a great place to get some exercise and do some shopping. Fred Meyer may want to entice the senior shopper with a special day with special discounts, coffee at less than $5.00 a cup and treats.

With the trillions at stake, businesses will want to be the first on their block to lure in the shoppers with the money to spend. Often times seniors are accompanied by a care giver such as a family member, also hoping to conveniently spend money - don't make it so hard.

I Give Fred Meyer a C-

The Lost Art of Teasing

Teasing -- thought it went out with the 60's? Guess again. There are still many little ladies who like a good tease. However, it is getting harder and harder to find it. If you or someone you love still likes a good tease, if they are not getting it, you may need to kiss a few frogs before you find what you are looking for. Be sure to tell your hairdresser that you like a good tease, give them an opportunity to show you what they know. If you particularly like the person, offer them another chance. If you clearly are not getting what you want, don't be afraid to try a new hairdresser. Teasing is becoming a lost art, you can still find it, however, it may take a bit of work. If you see someone who has a nice tease that you like, don't be afraid to ask them where they get theirs. Most people are flattered that you noticed their hair.

Teasing is a lost art, however, it is not extinct, you can find it with a bit of detective work and luck. Remember, ask and ye shall receive, you might be surprised!

Too Short to Get Your Head Into the Bowl?

My mother seemed to be getting shorter and shorter. Then one day, she could no longer get her head down into the hair bowl at the hairdresser to wash her hair.

Rx: We started scrubbing her head prior to the trip to her hair appointments for the shampoo/set. Now we merely do the set.

This helped to avoid that awkward and uncomfortable, scrunching, pushing, and pulling to get her head washed and the ensuing puddle of water on the floor.

Next -- the lost art of teasing.

Swollen Appendages

Swollen and diabetic feet are all the rage, yet, it is very difficult to find socks and shoes to fit them. There are a few places with wide shoes or even a couple of pairs of double-wide tennis shoes in stock. However, it is next to impossible to find double and triple wide shoes at local main stream stores.

We gallivanted about in swollen feet donning bright red Christmas slippers to main stream stores throughout the NW. In search of triple wide shoes to places such as Sears, JC Penny’s, and Fred Meyer. We finally came up with some wide and unbinding socks at Fred Meyer, but still no shoes. I even checked out some of the larger specialty shoe stores, but to no avail. J.C. Penney’s did have a catalogue I could order from, but that would mean sloshing about in the puddles in bright red fuzzy Christmas slippers for 3 - 5 more days waiting for a pair of shoes which may or may not fit. Although people said my mother was cute in her bright red slippers, you try going out in your bright red Christmas slippers and see if people think you are cute. Do we suddenly become cute-as-a-pope (picture Andy Rooney in bright red Christmas slippers hiding behind his desk) after 80?

We still have an over-priced pair of shoes from a small specialty shoe store that the sales person insisted they could stretch to fit, yet they never quite stretched far enough, very expensive paper weights.

After a visit to my mothers hair dresser (where I learn a lot about this sort of thing) the other ladies told us they had gone to a small obscure shoe store. There we found a few double and triple wide shoes to choose from as well as that tight compression stocking hose thing to wear (so much to look forward to) to keep the fluid from seeping into the feet and ankles (another attractive and cumbersome item to wear along with the hearing aids).

If medicine can’t figure out how to “fix” our flaws and pump the fluid from our swollen appendages before I get there, I hope the University’s can pump out some decent ergonomic designers who can make a good fitting shoe which is also attractive, should I be so lucky to live that long. Do the manufacturers of these “bricks” think that ladies no longer care about what they look like once their feet are the size of bratwurst sausages?

We have now traded the cute-as-a-pope bright red $10.00 Christmas slippers for a pair of $100+ black bricks and a pair of ted hose (hmmmm maybe cute isn’t so bad). I am sure these shoes will wear like iron and last a “life-time”. Maybe cute-as-a-pope slippers should be the hot fashion trend.

It is all the rage to have diabetic and swollen feet – you would think that stores would want to accommodate the millions of people who need them and are willing to spend e-gads amount of money for them. When you need them, you need them. You don’t want to take days prancing about the NW in your cute-as-a-pope fuzzy bright red Christmas slippers sloshing about in mud puddles in search of them. It is time for main stream stores to accommodate this fast growing fashion trend. This is not mere kindness, just good business sense.

By the time you roll up the compression hose, strap the triple wide bricks onto your feet, figure out how to find the hidden trap door for the hearing aid battery, and figure out where you left your walker, BINGO is over anyway.

Mayhem with Meds...

It is important that people know that if a loved one should live long enough to go to the home (or any where they may receive help with their medications) Be sure to follow-up once they check in and even a week later as well as periodically. Sometimes directions with medications are misconstrued.

My mother once decided to try assisted living. She started to pass out quite regularly in the mornings. I would receive calls at work that my mother was on her way to the Emergency Room. One morning when I rushed to the assisted living center, the young nurse said that she thought my mother was having seizures. I told her that she is 82 and has never had a seizure prior to entering their establishment.

My mother did not feel well during her months in the home and decided she had had enough. For many reasons this place was not all it was cracked-up (to be). When I went to retrieve her plethera of medications. I found that instead of giving her blood pressure pills in divided doses as prescribed by the Dr., the nurses were giving her all of her many, many BP medications all at once each morning causing her to pass out on a regular basis.

Rx -- make sure that you follow things up carefully where ever you go... this is not the first time that she has survived such mis-haps with meds.