Driving Home According to AAA, nearly 80 million Americans travel over the Thanksgiving holiday. It is the busiest travel week of the year - more than Christmas or the Fourth of July. The vast majority of us travel by car. The good news is that gas prices are lower. The bad news is that there are more... Read more
Another Day Older. . . . . .and deeper in debt. Merle Travis wrote the song Sixteen Tons about the life of a coal miner in eastern Kentucky. He first recorded the song in 1946. Travis attributed the chorus’ “another day older and deeper in debt” to a letter from his brother about being a coal miner. Written nearly a... Read more
The Corner Drug Store Last month, the drug store in my neighborhood closed. As part of its bankruptcy and reorganization, Rite Aid closed 181 stores across Ohio. Fifteen of those stores were in Cuyahoga County, including the one that was within walking distance from my home. Walgreens recently announced it may close as many as 2,150 underperforming stores by 2027. CVS has also closed hundreds of stores in communities across the country. Industry analysts point to a variety of reasons for this: the entry of big-box stores into the industry, a trend toward consolidation and fewer independent operators, the expanded use of telemedicine and mail-order delivery of medications, and the rising influence of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), all have contributed to the reduction in the number of neighborhood pharmacies across the country. Read more
A new GUIDE for Caregivers The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that dementia affects more than 6.7 million Americans. Many of those people have multiple chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease or Parkinson’s. This may mean increased rates of hospitalization and fragmented care. Caring for a loved one can become complex and exhausting for the caregiver.... Read more
Summertime Summer days are long in Cleveland. Our northern latitude, and daylight savings time, mean that during June and July, daylight lingers past nine o-clock. For several weeks, I don’t need to turn on the lights in the kitchen while I make my morning coffee. And there is plenty of time for an evening walk before it gets dark. Read more
Volunteer Volunteering and volunteerism are integral to society and institutions in the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville noted in Democracy in America what he saw as a uniquely American bent toward establishing associations. “. . .as soon as several inhabitants have taken an opinion or an idea. . . they seek each other out and. .... Read more
Death and Taxes “. . . in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin This year I helped my mom file her taxes. It was something that my father always used to do. Dad had a system. He kept receipts and pay stubs. One drawer in an old filing cabinet in his workshop had... Read more
Health and Human Services Levy This March, the health and wellness of Cuyahoga County is on the ballot. Issue 26, which will be brought to voters in the coming election, is a renewal levy that will maintain funding for critical Health and Human Services. The levy provides about half of Cuyahoga County’s entire Health and Human Services budget. Those funds... Read more
A Place to Call Home “Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than any magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.” — Charles Dickens, The Benjamin Rose Institute was one of the first charitable organizations in the United States established for the benefit of older adults. Its story begins with... Read more
Looking Forward Looking Back Predicting the future is hard. Predicting the recent past can be even harder. What seemed significant or important in the moment, upon reflection, may not have been. Something trivial or random turns out to be consequential or life altering. Picking out milestones is easier if you have traveled a great distance. Looking back over one year in an organization that has been around for over a century is a bit like describing a trip based on backing out of the driveway. Read more
