As we all know, and many have experienced, during the winter it can be challenging to stay upright when there are snow-covered walkways and parking lots, and that devious black ice. 

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program provides free, confidential advocacy for residents and their families, and investigates and resolves complaints related to care, rights, and quality of life.

Do you have any dreams? I mean the wide-awake dreams, the dreams of what you want to do and experience in the future.

It’s the end of another year, and at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark greeting card, may this year bring you new happiness, new goals, new achievements, and many new inspirations to your life. Okay, that was a Hallmark greeting card!

The holiday season is a special time to gather with family and friends and enjoy all the holiday excitement. But many find this time difficult: grieving the loss of a loved one, financial stresses, isolation, and loneliness.

Each week, I include a Brain Tease to challenge that three-pound lump of gray matter hiding behind your forehead, since brain teasers can stimulate multiple areas of your brain, especially those responsible for working memory, pattern recognition, and problem-solving.

Understanding Medicare is not a walk in the park. It’s more like crawling through a dark, damp cave: disorienting and challenging. And every year during Medicare Open Enrollment from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 you get to explore that cave again!

Life is full of risks: stepping out of the shower, driving down I-84, walking around the neighborhood, flying the friendly skies, speaking in public. Many of those risks we try to avoid, others we find ways to reduce, and still others we ignore and proceed full steam ahead.

I’ve been back from the family reunion in Georgia for more than a week now, and it was quite a trip. All my worries turned out to be null and void: No noticeable humidity, temperatures comfortably in the mid-80s, and mosquitoes? Not even one, but I did see several varieties of colorful butterflies.

I wrote this column a few years back, but if I know my readers, I’m sure you don’t remember it. I mean, I don’t remember it, and I wrote it! So, I hope you enjoy this “summer repeat” with a new Brain Tease and “Remember When” question.  

Memories. Those recollections from the past — including the embarrassing moments, which I would like to forget unless I want a good laugh at myself.