I asked my daughter in law why her text messages were so cryptic.  She said simply, “ t and r don’t work on my phone so I just try to do without them..”  I sympathized.  In the last week I visited the Geek Squad, had a house call to have hinge surgery on my flipflop laptop fliptop, had tech support talk me through a hard reset  of my pocket pc and last but worst, fell asleep on hold and missed my turn with second level support.  I can’t remember many weeks this year without ...

I knew planning for old age was a good idea.  I did not know that there is entire organization for AIPs (those who have decided to Age in Place).  It’s a choice not to downsize, not to move further south or halfway back north, but to stay put and make your current accommodations accessible, adaptable and safe.  It works for me.  Actually the split bedroom design of most of the houses I have seen lends itself pretty easily to having a place for live in help. 

I recently presented “Managing Workplace Conflict” to front line managers at a medical conference in Sarasota.  By sad coincidence, just the week before an office manager had been shot and killed by an employee who was anticipating being fired.  Health care workers are at a higher risk than most.  They are exposed to the patients, the families, the public and their own.  But no worker is immune.

News reporters have an uncanny way of interviewing someone who “never saw it coming.” This compels me to set the record straight.  It’s true that some risk factors are invisible.  Many abuse alcohol or drugs, come from violent homes, or have trouble with authority.  Bur more often the troubled worker has given signals of high risk that have gone unaddressed.    They may start by intimidating coworkers with verbal a ...

On a recent visit to Scotland I noticed several hill ridges with wind turbines. It got me to thinking about energy production. According to some sources, the US is ranked third worldwide in wind generated electricity capacity, behind Germany and Spain, both vastly smaller countries. Turbines require high up-front investment costs and relatively low long-term maintenance costs. Understandably, wind turbines are limited to areas that have constant flow of non-turbulent wind. Wind projects have been providing energy for agriculture and rural areas for some time. Ideal locations for turbines are on ridgetops, near shores, and offshore. While Florida has many miles of shoreline and vast offshore areas, it may not be ideal for wind turbines because of its seasonal turbulent weather. There are many other areas in the US that are ideal and the grid system of energy distribution means larger areas can benefit from wind energy.

Which brings me to think of Florida& ...

I’m making a concerted effort not to take an apocalyptic view of the times.  They are what they are.  True, service isn’t what it used to be, but we really need a lot less of it – self serve pumps, microwave dinner, bill payment on line, direct deposit, tickets to anything on the internet.  If I don’t want to interface with those annoying humans (oh, wait, that’s MY species) I really don’t have to.  I can choose for my contact time to be with people I like…or should I say &ld ...

I’m surrounded by aging issues.  The CFCC Public Policy Institute is wrapping up its recommendations for a community response to access to health care.  The Gerontology Symposium speakers today spoke about the aging population, the Baby Boomers, and the “waves” of population shifts.  Baby Boomers (like me) will be a force to be reckoned with as we will be more educated, more demanding, live longer, be more likely to do more things after/in retirement, and the information goes on and on.  I’m turning 60 next year and I think ...

Today I visited teslamotors.com and was impressed!  Tesla Motors is an up and coming California startup developing and producing the first truly high performance electric sports car (see http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1 ). The car, the Tesla Roadster, is making quite a stir. The Tesla Roadster is capable of 0-60 acceleration in close to 4.0 seconds and has the completely cool sports car look, matching its world-class performance. The look and performance place it in the same rarefied strata as legendary $300,000 autos bu ...