What’s New in December

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*-Do you want to get a personal email notification of a new Complement issue or new material?   Email us at openinforvm@gmail.com and we will put you on the mailing list

Past articles are all on display;  If there is a “Load More” link at the bottom of the page, clicking it will bring up the older articles. 

If there is something you missed in the November issue, just click the link

 

And in this month’s Complement:

NEWS & VIEWS

The Herrons’ Peace Corps Adventure in Belize….. and The Gambia, by Joni Johnson
      – A double-header Peace Corps experience

Russy and Anita – As Young As The Peace Corps, by Joni Johnson
      – A view from the very beginning

Surviving Winter: Driving on Ice and Snow, by Joni Johnson
      – How-to videos for brushing up slippery-surface skills

The RVM Campus Snow Route, by Bob Buddemeier
     – Now that you know how to drive in snow, this is where to drive

         in Big, Borrowed, or Both

3550:  the Portland Mirabella quarterly magazine (most recent issue)

Mirabella Monthly, Newsletter of the Seattle Mirabella (December issue)

 

ARTS & INFO 

Holidays at the Manor, by Connie Kent
      – Outcroppings of seasonal spirit

Fuzz — a book review, by Anne Newins
      – Stories of collisions between humans and other species

RVM December-March Event & Entertainment Schedule

December Library Display, by Anne Newins
       – There’s no book like a snow book

Elf Mischief, by Connie Kent
       – Not soft and fluffy!

Nit-Wit Newz: Medford to Paris — by Rail, by A. Looney
      – World-class recreation at RVM

Our Holiday Poem to You,
     – A sentimental poem for a sentimental season
     

PREPARE

The RVM Campus Snow Route (map): SNOW ROUTES-022411

The following two articles are cross-listed with the News and Views section

Surviving Winter: Driving on Ice and Snow, by Joni Johnson
      – How-to videos for brushing up slippery-surface skills

The RVM Campus Snow Route, by Bob Buddemeier
     – Now that you know how to drive in snow, this is where to drive

 

Billiards at RVM

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by Tim Miller

BILLIARDS (aka POOL) AT ROGUE VALLEY MANOR

Gosh, it sure is a lot of fun to play Billiards here at Rogue Valley Manor!

Well, here’s my story and how I got involved.

I arrived at the Manor a little over a year ago; so many fun things to do here…tennis, pickleball, bocce ball, golf, lawn bowling, table tennis, line dancing, exercise classes and soooo many board games and other activities. All designed to keep us healthy and happy!

What else to try out? As I was visiting the Manor downstairs, I came across some folks playing Billiards.

I remember in my youth playing “pool” and some hit and miss pool at other times in my life. In fact, we had a pool table in our attic for few years. It was nice, but boring. I seldom had anyone to play with.

Just before arriving at RVM, I was playing pool quite a bit where we lived at the Eagle Crest Resort.

I said to myself “what the heck.” Let’s start playing pool again. So much fun and good folks to help me along, thanks to Dan, Butch, Rita and Diane. Very soon I started researching and practicing pool again.

Now I go down and play pool any old time I like. Who cares if it’s rainy, too hot outside or 5am in the morning? The tables are always available. And, WOW, what great tables. I feel like I am playing in a very luxurious Country Club. The tables are the highest quality and they were just refurbished to “like new”.

I can remember as a kid playing on a table in the back room of my barber shop. The table was ancient and I think it even had bumps on it, and it sort of leaned to one side.

Sometimes it’s just a lot of fun to go down and play a solo game by myself or maybe just practice a little (I can sure use the practice). The other day I called a friend I hadn’t seen in a while and we are going to get together soon and play some Billiards. Maybe we will contact a couple of other players listed on RVM Billiard website and play some team Billiards.

After playing for a few months in the “Ole RVM Billiard Parlor,” pretty soon I was playing a fairly decent game again. No expert, but I was having fun and feeling a certain degree of proficiency. I have always enjoyed my passion for sports by sharing (instructing) with others whatever expertise I had learned (Judo, Tennis, Boating and Pickleball). Living in a Senior community…Billiards was the ideal place to start lessons in Billiards.

Beginner Billiard Lessons have started at Rogue Valley Manor! Over the next few months, we had about 20 students complete the 2-hour Beginner Session (learning the fundamentals). Interestingly, 14 of these 20 students were women. The great thing about pool is that the male has NO physical advantage. There have even been a few students who wanted to take their lessons a step further…6 of them are now enrolled in an advanced pool mentoring program (3 ladies & 2 men).

In a couple of months, we will have open enrollment of our next Beginner Lessons…watch for it on MyRVM. STAY TUNED!

For more information about Billiards at RVM, contact:

Dan Curtis (X6899) dbcurtis@gmail.com Co-chairperson for our Billiards community; or

Butch Findley (X6161) bf6695@gmail.com Co-chairperson for our Billiards community; or

Tim Miller (6891) tennistim2@gmail.com Instructor

Visit our Website at: RVM Billiards

Interesting History of Billiards

It evolved from a lawn game similar to the croquet played some-time during the 15th century in Northern Europe. Play moved indoors to a wooden table with green cloth to simulate grass, and a simple border was placed around the edges. Initially, the balls on the table were hit with a mallet. Later the “pool cue’” evolved which allowed more precision hitting.

The term “poolroom” now means a place where pool is played, but in the 19th century a poolroom was a betting parlor for horse racing. Pool tables were installed so patrons could pass time between races. The two became connected in the public mind, but the unsavory connotation of “poolroom” came from the betting that took place there, not from billiards.

In the 1920’s, the poolroom was an environment in which men gathered to loiter, smoke, fight, bet, and play. The rooms of today bear no resemblance to those of the earlier times. Until very recently, billiards was completely dominated by men. In the past, it was very difficult for a woman to develop billiard skills because male players, her family, and friends usually did not support her efforts. These situations have changed…women are now accepted as equals with men in Billiards today.

“Billiards” is an all-inclusive term. It includes any game played on a billiard table, with or without pockets. These various games include snooker, pocket pool, etc.

How to post a pdf

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A pdf file can be linked from a post in two slightly different ways — with very different results

This post is intended to step through the two, using screen grabs to illustrate the key differences

To start with, you upload your pdf to the media library.  We are going to use the RVM Snow route figure as an example

go to Media library (or upload)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will get the following page

 

If you paste in the permalink,

SNOW ROUTE

You will get this when you use the link

if you paste in the file URL

SNOW ROUTE

You will get this

Down the Shore

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By Eleanor Lippman

Two things always governed what my family did: financial and lack of imagination.

So, when it came to vacations, the only out of town location my family ever considered was Atlantic City, New Jersey, or as we in Philadelphia called it, “Down the shore”.

The financial part determined whether we even saw Atlantic City during the summer or whether we actually vacationed in Atlantic City and how long we stayed.

Preparing for a down the shore vacation, my father would empty out his delivery truck, moving its contents to the basement of our house, and we would pile in, three and eventually four children, two adults, and all of the paraphernalia needed for a beach stay. After unloading and settling us in at our temporary vacation house, he would return to Philadelphia to work. If our stay included a full weekend or two, he would join us late Saturday morning and on Sunday afternoon, he’d leave to go back home. He’d spend the two half days bravely sitting with us on the beach under an umbrella with several towels covering his legs completely. You see, my father, with his corn flower blue eyes, had skin the color of milk, skin that was so sensitive to the sun, any exposure would lead to misery. With one exception. My father drove his delivery truck with the driver’s side window down and his left arm resting half outside and half inside ready to signal his turning directions at all times. By the end of summer, the skin on his left arm was nut brown from his fingers to where his sleeve ended with a white band permanently there under his wrist watch. That arm never feared the rays of the sun. His right arm was always milky white.

During one of our beach summers, when we probably rented a place for two or three weeks, my father showed up briefly during the weekends as usual and on the day of our departure with the truck emptied out, he was ready to haul us back to Philadelphia. When he arrived to take us home, he had a big surprise, but, we had to guess what it was. No clues other than “something new”. All during the packing and loading the truck we pestered him with guesses. All during the ride home there were more, millions of ideas of ‘what was new’. We’d yell out a new guess and watch him grin and shake his head no.

We reached home and still hadn’t figured it out. After unloading our beach things and loading up the truck with my dad’s merchandise and still flinging guesses at him, my mother called us into the kitchen for dinner. I was probably about eight years old at the time and I remember my very last idea for what was new. As I stood in the doorway to the kitchen, I was certain the answer was “a new toaster”. Who knows what prompted that thought, but it was the best I could do.

I’ll never forget his big reveal. As his four children gathered around him, he was ready to tell. The answer: he had shaved off his bushy mustache. To this day, I still don’t know if my mother had guessed correctly.

Pain Management

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By Liz Argall, contemporary cartoonist

Our Holiday Poem to You

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Surviving Winter: Driving on Ice and Snow

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By Joni Johnson

Even though we don’t experience much snow in winter, we still get days of snow and ice. It is wise to review the important dos and don’ts about driving in winter conditions. This is certainly true for anyone new to this area, but also a good reminder for those of you who have been around a while.

We’ve come up with some important tips for driving in winter conditions and then have found various you-tube videos that will explain more thoroughly how various conditions affect your braking capabilities, how a 4-wheel drive affects driving in difficult conditions and most importantly, how to deal with skids on icy and snowy roads.

The five most important tips in driving in the winter are:

  1. Plan Ahead- know what the weather conditions might be- even if you are just going to Ashland or Jacksonville. What is the predicted temperature? Is snow or rain expected?
  2. Accelerate and decelerate slowly. Otherwise, the tires will spin, even if it is a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
  3. Slow down. If the speed limit is 55 or 65 mph, you may only want to be going 30 and certainly no more than 45 mph.
  4. Increase your following distance to double or even triple the distance you usually allow so that you can decelerate slowly and not have to brake abruptly, which will quite probably send you into a spin or into the vehicle in front of you.
  5. Try to avoid coming to a complete stop on a hill, and if you have to, leave lots of room around you. However, it is better to continue moving slowly rather than coming to a complete stop if that is possible.

 

Here is a video that explains how various weather conditions affect the grip of your tires to the road and therefore how fast you can stop.  It is very interesting.

 

 

The next video explains how a 4-wheel drive can affect your driving in wet and snowy conditions.

 

 

Certainly, while going over the passes would be better in a 4 wheel drive, the most important thing would be using snow tires and /or chains.  In difficult conditions, one or the other is required in order to avoid a ticket or a fine.

In typical winter conditions, vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight (GVW) or less, and not towing or being towed, are allowed to use traction tires in place of chains. However in very bad winter road conditions all vehicles may be required to use chains regardless of the type of vehicle or type of tire being used. This is known as a conditional road closure. A conditional road closure may occur on any of Oregon’s highways and is frequent in the winter on Interstate 5 through the Siskiyou Pass south of Ashland.

“Traction Tires” are studded tires, retractable studded tires, or other tires that meet the tire industry definition as suitable for use in severe snow conditions.

And finally, one of the most important things to know when driving in bad weather is how to avoid sliding on slippery roads, and if you are caught in a skid, how to correct  one without damaging yourself, your ego or your car.

 

 

I hope these tips and videos have helped.  If you need any more suggestions, there are many YouTube videos out there just for you. Put in “driving in icy or snowy conditions” and take your pick.

December Library Display

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by Anne Newins

The library volunteers have identified an eclectic group of nearly eighty books for your holiday reading.  Spanning a variety of genres, one common feature in the collection seems to be snow.  Below is a sampling of some of the books on display.

Cindy Bollens and Julie Mahoney

Romance:

The Snow Bride, by Debbie Macomber

Nantucket White Christmas, by Pamela Kelley

The Wish, by Nicolas Sparks

 Historical:

Log Cabin Christmas Collection, various authors

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
Mystery:

A Fine and Bitter Snow, by Dana Stabenow

Blood on Snow, by Jo Nesbo

Arctic Chill, by Arnaldur Indridason

Books about polar exploration, poetry, and short stories are also included. The display is located in front of the fireplace near the main entrance to the library.

RVM Campus Snow Routes

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In mid-November, drivers at RVM encountered barricades and detour signs on some of the campus roads  The reason — a dress rehearsal for snow-and-ice season, with the  employees practicing getting onto campus via the “Snow Route.” The Snow Route (shown in the map below) is designed to keep traffic off of the steepest streets, which experience has shown are difficult or impossible to negotiate under slippery conditions.

Traffic control is set up and manned by the Security Department, while road clearing is handled by the grounds team of Facilities Services. Jens Larsen, Director of Security, explained that Transportation is also involved in shuttling staff up or down the hill when RVM Drive is closed.

When asked about the decision and set-up process, Jens said “We sometimes pre-stage road barricades that direct this route if we know bad weather is coming, but the timing always depends on the time of day and what staff is on the hill when the weather hits.”

The plan is to divert all employee traffic in and out through Mira Mar and the South Village. Conditions may dictate closing parking lots and additional roads depending on the nature of the event. Ice is typically a bigger challenge than snow, because it just hits without any visual clue that it has arrived.

RVM has a snow hotline (extension SNOW-857-7669), primarily for staff to call before driving to work.  However, residents can also use it to determine current conditions. The road controls help ensure the safety of residents as well as staff. When conditions are poor, One Call Now is used to try and warn staff and residents to NOT venture out unless it is an emergency, and notices are also programmed on Channel 900.

The Grounds team is well equipped for plowing, scraping and salting, but the time required to restore normal safe travel conditions will depend heavily on the nature of the event and the staff available to work on it. When roads and walks are treacherous, residents are urged to stay home if at all possible, and to use Manor Transport if they must go out.

 

If you would like to download a PDF of the map, CLICK HERE

COVID UPDATE

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What to do:  if you haven’t already, GET A BOOSTER.  It significantly increases immunity and decreases disease severity.

For information, contact  Aaron Williams, RVM Infection Preventionist, x7409, awilliams@retirement.org

 

What to wear: a well-fitted high-quality mask.  In order of effectiveness, N95, approved KN95, layered surgical and cloth masks, surgical mask, and do NOT rely on a cloth mask only.

For more information, see:  https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/24/health/cloth-mask-omicron-variant-wellness/index.html

 

What to know:  Current data and statistics on the local COVID situation.

For information, see:  https://jcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/324ac6f9a39e4121a2ee4f04156856ca