351st Bomb Group

One of the great things about my job is I get to talk (duh!) to my patients and get to know them and life and history!  I always ask where they were born, where they grew up, and I ask them what they did during the War.

One of my patients who currently lives really close to me grew up in Dayton, Ohio!  He didn't recognize the family name, and I guess he lived there later than our family members anyway.  I got to talking about the war, and I asked how he served.

"I was a navigator in a B-17," he asnwered.

"Really?  What bomb group were you in?" 

"The 351st."

Cool!  So, we talked a little about the 351st.  I told him about Jack.  "He must've been a little guy," he noted.  That's the comment I get every time! 

Again, he didn't recognize the family name, but as he said, "It was a long time ago."  I got curious and decided to do a little research and found this site:  The 351st bomb group website.  If you do a search, you won't find Jack.  Search instead for the common misspelling.  There, you'll find his missions.  I've already contacted the person in charge and asked him to correct the spelling.

My patient was in Polebrook a few months before Jack.  His last mission was in August, 1944 and Jack began in October of that year.

Hats off to the Veterans!

One hundred and what?!

I was at a patient's house the other day to check on her swallowing.  Mrs. W is a lovely lady.  She didn't say much, but she did answer questions and followed directions appropriately.  I asked her how many kids she has. "Two," she said, as she looked off in the distance to remember, "but I think my daughter died. Yes, she died."

Her swallowing was pretty good, and I chatted a bit with her husband and their caregiver.  One of the things I do during my evaluation is to see the person's mouth and teeth.  I routinely give a lecture about oral hygiene.  Mrs. W didn't need much of a lecture.  Her teeth were in great shape!  The caregiver said, "Ask Mr. W to see his teeth.... he keeps them in his shirt pocket!"  I had to laugh, and I told her about Jack.

I had been in a bit of a rush that day, and I had gone into the house without looking closely at my facesheet.  As I left the house, I thought to myself, "Gee, that lady seemed pretty old.  I wonder how old she is."  I picked up the facesheet.  Her year of birth:  1902.

"1902!" I thought.  "Wow, she is old.  She is 98!"  Wait a tick.  "1902?!  Wait.... Does that say 1902 or 1920?"  Hold on one minute....I had trouble processing this.   1902.  This lady is 108 years old!  One hundred and eight!  My oldest patient ever!

I'm always amazed at the centenarians.  They are always in great shape.  In the occasional instances that I am referred to visit one, I am very rarely needed to do any intervention.  Some people just have amazing genes. 

Knock on wood.

She is preety good,

It was Back-to-School night this week.  Our last one!  Wow, those years slipped by.

We didn't have back-to-school night when I was a kid, but we did have parent-teacher conferences, and those continue for this generation.

I was reminded of this self-evaluation that I did in the third grade for my teacher-parent (and I assume -student) conference.  Transcription follows.

Karen E

Karen is preety good, she talks a little bit,
and she always brings gum, shes very good
in math. she draws excellent. shes not very
good in P.E. nor art. she talks to Anne
alot. she does her drawing very excellent
in art. and besiads all that she goes and
comes riet on time. and she fallows direction
s very well. she reades not very good and
not very bad. she is pretty good at asenbell

ys. she is silly. but good.

(Mom's notation at end)

Karen pretending to be the teacher at parent-teacher conference, Nov. 1971

I'll take "Tarts" for three dollars, please, Alex.

per·sev·er·a·tion  (pr-sv-rshn) n. 1. Psychology a. Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder. b. The tendency to continue or repeat an act or activity after the cessation of the original stimulus. 2. The act or an instance of persevering; perseverance. Perseveration is a common occurrance after a stroke, and I often see it in speech therapy sessions. Today I was working with a 90-something-year-old retired physician who has expressive language difficulties after a stroke.  I was having him formulate sentences with a given word.  He was tending to perseverate despite my cues to try to vary his responses.  Some of his sentences were: using hummingbird:  "The hummingbird ate the cake." using camera:  "The camera photographs the bird." using basketball: "The basketball photographed the cake." At that point I stopped him and pointed out that he was using some of the same words and the last sentence didn't make sense. So we went along and sentences seemed to be better, until the following: Me:  "Make a sentence using dollar."   Dr. S: "It's only a three-dollar doll."  Me:  "How 'bout using tart."  Dr. S: "She's a three-dollar tart." Luckily, he has macular degeneration so he couldn't see the shuddering as I tried to stifle my giggles. I love my job!

Here They Come!

Our babies have started to arrive!

Remember I told you about the Mud Dauber that made a nest on our garage doorway?  Her babies have started to emerge! On Saturday I headed out to get Erin and saw that a few of the holes had been opened, and a wasp was walking around on the nest.

I took this shot, then went to get Erin and came back about 20 minutes later.  She was still there, walking around.  Was she studying and measuring the nest so she could make one of her own?  Was she resting before she went off in search of a mate and more food?  Only she knows!

As we watched her, she flew away.  No others have emerged yet.

The Front Yard in Autumn

BobBIE asked me to post pictures of the front garden.  OK! 

This spring I'll post more when more stuff is blooming.  The Monkeyflowers are looking a little sad, as is the Woolly Blue Curls.  But I love my year-round bloomer, the red Dancing Embers Sage, which the hummingbirds love.  In fact, after I took the pictures I was standing around waiting to see if a hummingbird would come along.  Two of them zoomed by, one chasing the other.  After the one had been run off, the winner turned back to me to tell me a thing or two.

And then, I was still standing around when a beautiful red-tailed hawk circled overhead.  They are so pretty!  Prettier than these photos, of course!

Sage and Fuchsia

BobBIE asked me to post pictures of my Whirly-blue sage and California fuchsia, both native plants that I have in my front garden.

I bought both of these less than a year ago as 1-gallon plants.  They have grown like crazy in the months since.  The sage even seemed to break, but that branch just kept a-growin'.  I'm glad I planted them in close proximity, cuz I think they are pretty together!

Cops keep busy

Shooting on Eastside last night.