Opportunity Nation is a broad-based, cross-partisan coalition of organizations that wants to ensure that every American that works hard can achieve their full potential.

AARP addressed the struggles of Americans over 50 at last Friday’s summit. AARP Founbdation President Jo Ann Jenkins said: “Older Americans are hurting in this economy. They remain out of work longer, struggle to put healthy food on their tables and make the heartbreaking choices between health care and mortgage payments. The Opportunity Nation Summit directly aligns with AARP Foundation’s vision of a country free of poverty, where no older person feels vulnerable. We’re proud to support this effort as leaders from around the country work to put opportunity back on the agenda.”

Other high profile leaders and foundations were also present at the summit, including: Ford Foundation, Time and United Way Worldwide. Each addressed ideas for how Americans can break down the barriers to success. Opportunity Nation has brought together over 200 businesses, non-profits, educational institutions and military organizations to build a plan for making better communities, jobs and skills.

Opportunity Nation is part of Be The Change, Inc, a nonprofit that creates national issue based campaigns.

More information about AARP Foundation and Opportunity Nation is available at www.aarpfoundation.org and www.opportunitynation.org.

The defense for the trial has now submitted written arguments that Rosie “infected the trial with such unfairness”, stating that the defendant’s constitutional rights were violated by the presence of the Golden Retriever. In a New York Times article on the incident, the defense lawyers objection to Rosie raise questions as to how the jury was to know if Rosie was comforting the young girl as she confronted a guilty defendant, or if the dog were responding to the stress of lying under oath. One defense lawyer raising the further point that he was unable to cross-examine Rosie.

The case was Rosie’s first court appearance and ended in a guilty judgement in June, the defendant sentenced to 25 years to life for the rape and impregnation of his 15 year old daughter. Since June, Rosie was part of a second case where she provided companionship to two girls, ages 5 and 11, who’s mother had been murdered. The defendant plead guilty to the killing, when, according to his lawyer, it became clear that the children were going to testify.

The Times article also brings up a case of a developmentally disabled man in his late 50′s who was aided by another courtroom dog in testifying against a man that tried to steal from him. The dog in that case, a Labrador retriever, has made over 50 appearances in court. The dog provided companionship to the man in a situation where he felt completely alone save for the comforting Labrador.

Dogs have been proven to provide comfort. They do not judge people, they do not have any of the judgmental opinions that a person might think other people might feel toward something that is said. They keep secrets whispered to them with unparallelled mastery.  And they have an ability to make people feel more confident in themselves, simply by the silent gentle aura of their own strength supporting the person who reaches out to thread their fingers into the dog’s soft coat.

I think that legal assistance dogs for witnesses is a great idea, most especially when it comes to traumatized children, and would love to hear anyone else’s perspective on dogs in the witness stand.

A few days ago I made my dad some orange marmalade. Canned six 4 oz jars of it. It was made using a basic sugar recipe, taking equal parts of fruit mixture and sugar to make the marmalade.

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ORANGE MARMALADE

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 45 min

2 larges Oranges Thick skinned variety

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

2 cups Water

3 cups Sugar Approx amount

Today is the day when all of us singles should take a few hours to indulge our desire to be pampered. To give ourselves an excuse to relax and not stress. To soak in a hot tub with candles and aromatherapy. Prepare our favorite meal and put on a movie that we adore.

This is the day when we might treat ourselves to a new soft bathrobe or comfortable pajamas. Indulge in a home perm. Maybe have a girls night out with friends that will end in a slumber party and a night of games and pampering reminiscent of our teen years.

I took my dad to the doctor’s office yesterday. Had an appointment for 4 pm to see his doctor for general stuff and cause he wanted to find out if she could help him with getting to see a more specialized eye doctor that might be able to help with the trouble he is having seeing the television. And he wanted to talk about pains he is having on occasion in his right arm and his leg. (I think I have that pinned down to being caused by fast temperature drops outside causing draft through the front door, but we wanted to be sure that was all it was), and he wanted to have her get him a referral to a driving school in Anchorage saying that he can drive a car.

So, anyway. The appointment had been for 4 in the afternoon, but I had some trouble getting a ride for me and him so called and asked if she was running late. She was. So nurse rescheduled dad to 4:30 instead. Turned out the ride we had got was not going to be able to get us there by then, so I called back to see if I could move time out a bit more. Rescheduled to 4:45 with note I might be 15 to 20 minutes past that.

I had known from past experience that we would be sitting in the lobby for a while still so I had asked about being late just to be sure we would not miss our appointment time and the nurse had said that was okay, but she said not much past that.

Ended up getting there at 5, which nurse said was great. Place closes at 5 and nurses go home at 5:30.

My dad and I settled in to the chairs to wait. And we waited, and waited. After one hour of waiting I realized that we would not make it to the AmVets meeting that he had wanted to attend at 7. After two full hours of waiting we were shown into the back for the nurse to take vitals. After that was finished we were shown back to the room to wait.

That was at 7:15 based on the text message I sent someone when we were shown back there. And we waited. And waited. Finally right at an hour after we were shown in there the doctor arrived.

My dad had slept through the hour wait, just as he had mostly slept through the wait out in the waiting room. By the time the doctor was there we had forgot most of what we had gone in there for. Which is why taking a list is always a good idea. I had forgot the list though.

I at least remembered that dad wanted to ask her about if she could recommend anyone that might be able to look at his eyes and see if there was a way to correct his vision or not. She is going to try to get him an appointment with the people in on the base in Anchorage that told me they were not seeing retirees at the moment. She’d also mentioned someone that might be able to help with coming out to the house. I’m not sure on that one though, since that is just a person that sells glasses and would be coming from 80 miles away.

I also remembered that he wanted her to say he can still drive and get him a referral to a place in Anchorage that would get him back his driver’s license. Now, I could understand my siblings all encouraging him since they all want to be good little children that he adores, but I had thought his doctor at least might side with me on his inability to drive. Nope. She told him it was a great idea and she would set up the appointment for him.

What. The. Hell????? He can not see, has no vision to the left and minimal to the right. He can not stay awake for more than an hour at a time. He slumps to the side when he sits. Has no use of left side. And is prone to loss of control of his good hand so he can’t hold onto things. And his doctor says it is a “Great idea!” when I say he wants a note from her that he is fit enough to be driving? My brother noted that she just did not want to be the baddie, was passing the buck, but come on! Give the caregiver a bit of a break here and help her out a little. Now when I take him to be told no by the other guys he is going to scream at me to find someone else because his doctor said that he can drive. How is a caregiver supposed to cope when not even the doctors will help? She won’t even help me coax him to stop smoking. It all just makes me want to cry.

We finally got out of there and headed for gas station at 8:55 pm. Missed his American Veteran’s organization meeting and I could not go to the store as I had planned, so we just came home.

Then he spent all night grouching at me, I suppose because the naps in the doctor’s office chairs had been non restful and he was cranky. Or because he realized half the things he had wanted to ask her about were forgotten or lost under her wanting to share stuff about how bad President Obama was.

I hate having to waste four hours, not including the hour driving time or the 3 hours to get me and dad ready to go, that a doctor’s appointment takes.

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The assistant gal I talked to said that when taking a calcium supplement, the body will only absorb 500 mg at a time, so when taking over 500 mg of calcium you need to spread it out throughout the day so that the body can absorb the proper amount of prescribed calcium.

I’ll share my resolutions tomorrow and would love to hear what your resolutions as a family caregiver are.

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