Today was The Seneca Meadows Second Annual 5k "Run for Hunger". It is a fundraiser for House of Concern. The entry fees are a contribution to our food pantry and people were asked to bring canned goods also.It was a huge success!
It was a beautiful morning and while hot now, it was comfortable then. Okay, admittedly it was probably a bit easier for me to feel comfortable as I was sitting under a tent with a stop watch at mile 2 . I have to say that all the runners looked hot.
So my job was to yell out their time for the racers as they flew by me. The first guy was by in 11 minutes. Two miles in 11 minutes! I was impressed. He did end up winning the race which did not surprise me as by that point he already had quite a lead.
Anyway,all and all it took about 34 minutes for everyone to go by me. That was amazing to me. In 34 minutes in that heat I wouldn't have been much past the 1 mile mark.Actually pretty sure I would have been laying on the trail in a big heap. Heart patients don't love the heat.
So I waited for the jeep to come and retrieve me because I was not walking back. I mean since they were giving money to House of Concern they most likely did not want to kill the Executive Director so I figured they would be along.
After awhile I hear on my little radio that everyone is in and the guys would be around to clean up. So now I am wondering if I should remind them to get me as I did see the people from the water station near me walking back but I am not pushy and very patient and I figure that they will remember me eventually.
Then I hear "Okay I think we have everyone"...So then i speak up and of course they came right out and all was well.
BUT, it occurred to me as I was sitting there waiting for them that this is part of the problem for food pantries in the summer.
Everyone gets busy.
There is always so much to do at all times for most people. So things get forgotten. Like food pantries. Its way easier to think about them at Christmas or Thanksgiving.
I reminded myself that sometimes you need to announce yourself.
Occasionally you need to remember to shout out "Wait...don't forget me...I am here!"
So this is my shout out to all of you no matter where you live.
The pantries need you more than ever now. School is out and so more families are coming in for services.
Think about it... If you are used to your children getting breakfast and lunch at school and now you have to provide that all week it means your grocery bills are going to shoot way up. Unfortunately your income does not.
I was speaking with a woman on Friday that is now providing care for her granddaughter and she said " I work 40 hours a week and I have never had to ask anyone for help but I lost two weeks of work settling my granddaughter in and I don't get paid when I don't work and Wow,forgot how much that 12 year old girls eat!"
I hear many many stories like that.
At the House of Concern on Friday we had 5 new families and most said the same thing...kids are home and the paycheck just doesn't go far enough.
Here are a few facts for you...
In July we had 340 families in for food.
That broke down to 945 people that we try to help feed for a 5 day period.
We receive Foodlink but we had still needed many many trips to the grocery store and we spent.. just in the month of July...$3,800.99 on food.
August 1st we already spent $869...so we are off to another expensive month.
As I told one of the board members..its gonna be a very long summer.
So my thanks to Seneca Meadows for a wonderfully timed fundraiser and also The Cayuga Nation for the Mini Golf tournament they held two weeks ago.Great job and I am sure a huge amount of work. You have no idea how much it helps.
My thanks to all the runners... as you all ran by my thought was thanks be for helping stock our pantry shelves. I truly said a little prayer for every one of you.
Thanks to all of you who always remember your local pantry.
We need you... we count on you...we would not be able to continue without you.
It is always a community effort.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
"There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys...
There's only you and me and we just disagree".
Ah..would that it were actually all that simple.
My sister and I are in a disagreement. Now I write this knowing that she will probably not read this and most likely nobody will tell her to read it. Not that I would say anything any different if I knew she would read it.
This is not a piece where I try to tell you that I am right and she is wrong.
I will tell you we disagree but I will also tell you that there is no good/right answer.
We have spent the last 7 years of our lives dealing with parents with Alzheimer's/ Dementia.
Parents...plural...the freaking jackpot..BOTH of them.
I am the one who has lived close to them, I am the eldest and I am the one who has had the most hands on work to do. That does not for a second mean that I think my sister has not suffered every bit as much as I have. She is still their child.
Anyone who has had this experience of watching a parent lose all sense of who you are, who they are, what anything is, knows that it is a really horrific experience. I have likened it to Night of the Living Dead.
That has never been anything my sister wanted to hear and the fact is that she has always tried to will them into knowing "stuff". Maybe its because she was not around like I was. But really I tend to think it is more her personality. I am probably more of a realist. She has always been the one who figured if you think hard enough about what you want then it will happen.
I might think that is true to a point but not with Alzheimer's or any sort of Dementia.
NOBODY gets what they want.
All the positive thinking in the world does not change the reality.
The reality is that the whole thing SUCKS.
So once again I have had to put a parent in a nursing home.
Not just a nursing home but a lock down facility. You know, like prison.
You need a code to get in and out. They put a tracking device on them.
Probably not what they call it but call it what you will, indeed that is what it is. And they aren't getting out. Its a life sentence.
Now as hard as it was with my mom, not nearly as tough as with my dad. She was very agreeable and frankly way to far gone to know where she was or to care.
My dad that is a whole other story.
He knows he is not home. He knows that there are people in the home that are... in his words," in bad shape" He asks me to " get him out of there."
But, he is not safe alone and he needs 24/7 care and...there is no money.
Money is a big huge factor with elder care.
Basically this is what you do... go through every single cent that a person ever made in their whole life and then sometimes do a reverse mortgage and when it is all gone you put them in a nursing home and sell their home and the bank takes their cut and the nursing home gets the rest and then..well then its time for Medicaid.
It is outrageously expensive to have any kind of elder care. Home care or placement..the money flies out the door. I have known people who I am sure thought they were set for anything that happened, my parents, my aunts being a couple that come to mind but that just wasn't so.
They didn't know. I do not blame them. Used to be people just didn't generally live long enough for all of this to be an issue.
But now it is. Modern medicine keeps us going and going...but at what cost?
I mean really,what is the point of living into your 80's or 90's and not having a damn clue about anything that is going on? If you cannot tend to your own basic needs?
Walking Zombies.
So my mom is gone and had no idea who i was...thought I was the Avon lady for the last few years of her life...my dad is in a nursing home and knows he knows me but does not know why, often thinks I am his sister and soon very soon will probably not even know that much and my sister isn't speaking to me.
Did I mention that sometimes life blows?
Sometimes there are no good answers.
There is only what is the best choice of a bad situation.
Thats what Alzheimers is, a series of constant decisions between what is bad and what is worse. Sometimes, often, the choices seem pretty much identical.
I guess the good news is that I got my dad in where I wanted him to be. It is close to me. I can run in several times a day. It is the best choice of this particular difficult decision.
My sister will either stop being mad at me or she won't. I think at this point its way easier to be mad at me then to be mad at the fact that parent number 2 has Alzheimers.
I am to tired to be mad at anyone for more than a few minutes.
So thats the way it is.
No good guys, No bad guys, and nobody gets to be a hero.
It is just the way it is.
Ah..would that it were actually all that simple.
My sister and I are in a disagreement. Now I write this knowing that she will probably not read this and most likely nobody will tell her to read it. Not that I would say anything any different if I knew she would read it.
This is not a piece where I try to tell you that I am right and she is wrong.
I will tell you we disagree but I will also tell you that there is no good/right answer.
We have spent the last 7 years of our lives dealing with parents with Alzheimer's/ Dementia.
Parents...plural...the freaking jackpot..BOTH of them.
I am the one who has lived close to them, I am the eldest and I am the one who has had the most hands on work to do. That does not for a second mean that I think my sister has not suffered every bit as much as I have. She is still their child.
Anyone who has had this experience of watching a parent lose all sense of who you are, who they are, what anything is, knows that it is a really horrific experience. I have likened it to Night of the Living Dead.
That has never been anything my sister wanted to hear and the fact is that she has always tried to will them into knowing "stuff". Maybe its because she was not around like I was. But really I tend to think it is more her personality. I am probably more of a realist. She has always been the one who figured if you think hard enough about what you want then it will happen.
I might think that is true to a point but not with Alzheimer's or any sort of Dementia.
NOBODY gets what they want.
All the positive thinking in the world does not change the reality.
The reality is that the whole thing SUCKS.
So once again I have had to put a parent in a nursing home.
Not just a nursing home but a lock down facility. You know, like prison.
You need a code to get in and out. They put a tracking device on them.
Probably not what they call it but call it what you will, indeed that is what it is. And they aren't getting out. Its a life sentence.
Now as hard as it was with my mom, not nearly as tough as with my dad. She was very agreeable and frankly way to far gone to know where she was or to care.
My dad that is a whole other story.
He knows he is not home. He knows that there are people in the home that are... in his words," in bad shape" He asks me to " get him out of there."
But, he is not safe alone and he needs 24/7 care and...there is no money.
Money is a big huge factor with elder care.
Basically this is what you do... go through every single cent that a person ever made in their whole life and then sometimes do a reverse mortgage and when it is all gone you put them in a nursing home and sell their home and the bank takes their cut and the nursing home gets the rest and then..well then its time for Medicaid.
It is outrageously expensive to have any kind of elder care. Home care or placement..the money flies out the door. I have known people who I am sure thought they were set for anything that happened, my parents, my aunts being a couple that come to mind but that just wasn't so.
They didn't know. I do not blame them. Used to be people just didn't generally live long enough for all of this to be an issue.
But now it is. Modern medicine keeps us going and going...but at what cost?
I mean really,what is the point of living into your 80's or 90's and not having a damn clue about anything that is going on? If you cannot tend to your own basic needs?
Walking Zombies.
So my mom is gone and had no idea who i was...thought I was the Avon lady for the last few years of her life...my dad is in a nursing home and knows he knows me but does not know why, often thinks I am his sister and soon very soon will probably not even know that much and my sister isn't speaking to me.
Did I mention that sometimes life blows?
Sometimes there are no good answers.
There is only what is the best choice of a bad situation.
Thats what Alzheimers is, a series of constant decisions between what is bad and what is worse. Sometimes, often, the choices seem pretty much identical.
I guess the good news is that I got my dad in where I wanted him to be. It is close to me. I can run in several times a day. It is the best choice of this particular difficult decision.
My sister will either stop being mad at me or she won't. I think at this point its way easier to be mad at me then to be mad at the fact that parent number 2 has Alzheimers.
I am to tired to be mad at anyone for more than a few minutes.
So thats the way it is.
No good guys, No bad guys, and nobody gets to be a hero.
It is just the way it is.
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