$$$

Emeritus told me yesterday that,for no actual reason, they are raising their fee. (Not for everyone - just for me.) The level of care I receive is currently called 4. From now on, they will call it 5. I will get no corresponding additional care, mind you. But my same amount of care will cost an additional $600.00/month.

I've been here 4 months now, or, in other words, long enough to be sorry to have to leave. But I will leave!

Apparently Emeritus originally offered a lower fee to get me to move here from Sunrise. My pastor ccalls this "the old bait and switch.

Metro

Rather than using Metro Access, I took the regular Metro train to the Newseum yesterday, There are several reasons why I did this. First and foremost was flexibility. On Metro Access, travel times have to be arranged by 4:00 p.m. the day before the trip. On the subway, of course, passengers come and go at will. I preferred the freedom from timetables that the train gave me.

The train is quite convenient. I live immediately next door to the Virginia Square Station.

And, for people with Metro Access cards, the train is free! This creates problems of its own, though. It's easy to get in the station - you just show the Metro Access ID card to the Station Manager, who then lets you in. The problem is that, once you get in, there are gates scattered throughout the pathways of the station. The gates require insertion of a fare card before they will open, and a non-paying Metro Access customer has not got a fare card.

At first, this stymied me. When I arrved at a closed gate, I sat at the gate and looked worried for a while. Then I attempted to remedy the situationn by frantically travelling up and down the length of the station. When this solved nothing, I'd stare at the "emergecy" buttons and wonder if this was an emergency. I'd also yell "HELLO!? HELLO!?" up to the balcony above the platform.

Finally, though, I figured it out. Now I just force the gates open by prying them apart. A loud alarm goes off, and a Metro guard rushes over, but who cares? I get through the gate!

Once in, its time to ride the train. In a wheelchair, this is presents many challenges. For example, in my experience (and I believe I'll spare you the details of my exact experience!), a wheelchair must enter the train while moving absolutely straight forward. Any angle causes the tires of the wheelchair to get caught in the gap between the platform and the car. It's pretty hard to get exactally straight in front of a moving door.

Once the door opens, getting through it and into the car is the next problem. This is es[ecially true if the car is crowded. A crowd of riders is easy to handle. They are generally curteous and make space. What is frightening is manuvering into a car filled with contraptions.

On my trip to the Newseum, directly inside the door of the car I was riding was another person in a wheelchair, 2 men with large rolling carts of luggage, 1 man with a big double baby carrage, and 2 bicycles!

I think that probably it is always a wise decision to take Metro Access!!

This just in...

I went to the Newseum again today. Once again, it was fascinating.

There was no mention anywhere in the Newseum, though, about the hacking scandal that shut down the "News Of the World". Apparently The "News of the World", the highest circulation English language newspaper in the world, was obtaining a lot of the information it printed by hacking it.

I wish that the Newseum had incorporated the scandle and closing somehow.

But, then again, a museum is not a breaking news story. It probably takes a museum many months, and many committees, to change anything. And this closing just happened in the last couple days.

I asked the security guard if the had any volunteer opportunities, and he gave me a nice printed brochure on being a volunteer. Maybe...?

newseum

I went to the Newseum yesterday. It was fascinating! It has 6 floors, and I only went to 3, so I'm going back today. (The ticket one buys to get in is good for 2 days.). There is one hall lined with televisions showing different famous broadcasts of notable events through the years. You know which screen had a big crowd gathered around it? The one showing Tina Fey doing "Weekend Update"!

I'll go if ever I get a care manager to help me prepare to go out. One blew in and tried to turn off my call button and then blew out again without helping me at all. That is what they do here - they reset the button so that they can say, "We always respond within 5 minutes", but it turns out that all that "respond" means is that they come reset the call button and do nothing else and then leave. That's one really frustrating aspect of life in Emeritus.

4th of July

4th of July this year was a tame family affair, but was quite enjoyablele. Sue and Ron are newly returned from their vacation in Tennesseee and it sounds like they had a good time. Ron was actually on a business trip, though, so, if any of his bosses are reading this blog, he had no fun on the trip at all. He just worked like a Trojan from dawn until dusk. (Not that kind of aa Trojan. Get your mind out of the gutter, please!) Martha, a friend from Park Towers, and Ron's across the hall neighbor, was there, too. Every one left after dinner but me. I went up to the penthouse with Mom and Dad and a bunch of Hermitage residents. They have a beautiful view of the Washington Monument. You couldn't have asked for a better view of the fireworks.

It's July 3rd today, so I went down to the Mall this afternoon to see the Folk Life Festival. The themes this year are Colummbia, Soul Music, and the Peace Corps.. I saw the first two, but it was just too hot out for the Peace Corps. Besides, both Columbia and Soul Music had music performances, which made them quite enjoyable. The only music I associate with the Peace Corps is that they maybe all hold hands and sing "Kumbuya" sometimes.

You know, that last comment was not nice of me and was totally uncalled for.

The Columbia exhibit was enhanced by knowing a pequino bit of Espanol. It was fun to try to translate what the speakers were saying before the translator did.

I saw one really bizarre presentation in the Columbia section. Two woman, wearing authentic native costume, had a doll in a box. It represented a dead baby. They sang a song with the lyrics, "Oh little baby, now you are dead, You were once pretty but now you are dead." Seems bizarre for a festival celebrating the culture, but maybe Columbia has a high infant mortalit rate?

food

I think we are going to focus on "food" in this blog post, because I saw a TV show last night that featureds marvelous cakes, and that got me in a "food" frame of mind.

The food here sucks. The only really good meal they serve is breakfast. You can get anything you want for breakfast.

The old lady who eats with me always gets some of EVERYTHING f0r breakfast. The help doesn't even ask anymore, they just bring it! She has oatmeal, French Toast, 4 slices of regular toast, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, sliced fruit. She eats maybe 2 bites of egg, total. The rest she has them wrap in a napkin and she carrries it to her room.

Maybe she thinks she'll starvee before noon!

Anyway, the bill of fare here is nothing to brag abouut. It is, of course, nutritious and bland, and it is certainly nothing to get hungry about. BUT (and this is a bad thing!) THEY SERVE ICE CREAM WITH EVERY MEAL! That keeps families from complaininhg about grandma wasting away to nothing, I guess, but sure isn't healthy.

But, actually, upon further consideration, I'm not being fair. If you don't want what is on the menu, there are a variety of other selections that can be ordered - hamburger, omlette, pb&j, etc.

I've found a fantastic restaurant down the street. It is Sweet Green, and for about $10.00, you can construct yourself a great big entree salad with any veeggies you want.