| Fighting the good fight
Separated by generations but joined in solidarity in the battle against a disease experts say affects more than 4.5 million Americans, hundreds converged Saturday for the Alzheimer's Memory Walk. The two-mile march held at Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells drew more than 500 participants of all ages and brought in more than $50,000 to fund programs and services for Coachella Valley families struggling with the disease. Richard Bozanich, 49, a Cathedral City resident who was recently diagnosed with dementia that he said will probably turn out to be Alzheimer's, said the event "is really important because there needs to be awareness." "When people look at me, they don't think I have it or that they can get it," he said. "When there's memory loss, they need to see a doctor and get on medication as early as possible." With the event in its eighth year, organizers said they were pleased with the turnout and had hit their goal of $50,000 before the 10 a.m.
And we're off and running (literally)...
We had our first workout together last night. For the first time I was able to meet all but two of the women in this challenge and what a great bunch of women they are! Our trainer, Kim, had us do a full body workout on the machines and then ab exercises on the floor. We finished with a nice workout on the treadmill. To quote Jan Gray, "It was invigorating" and made even better by good company. Today is Tuesday so there is no gym workout for me. Instead, I did my 2 mile walk up to my horse (pushing 70 pounds with two babies in a stroller)and mucked her paddock. Tonight is my first weight watchers meeting. It will be interesting to see what goes on at these meetings. Guess there won't be any cookies or desserts at this meeting...
Johnson: Brutal cold calls for extraordinary acts of compassion
I saw her on the way into work, just lying there on the sidewalk beneath a thick blanket that covered everything but a portion of the orange watchman's cap from which her long hair flowed. I'm guessing it was a woman because of the hair and that she was lying in front of the Denver Rescue Mission, which doesn't normally take women. And save for her, the sidewalk out front, which normally is clogged with men, was empty. The temperature gauge inside my truck said it was 8 degrees outside. It felt like minus 30. And the thing is, I just drove on. All of which is how I ended up at the Gathering Place, a daytime shelter for women temporarily housed at Montview Presbyterian Church in Park Hill. I have written of it before. When I told the story of the sidewalk lady to Terrell Curtis, the shelter's spokeswoman, and Mary Ellen Arthur, its vice president, their eyes lit up and quickly turned into glares.
Round the bend at Mdina and Zurrieq
In MEPA's Landscape Assessment Study of the Maltese Islands, Mdina is described as the jewel that characterises the traditional Maltese landscape. "The skyline of Mdina is synonymous with the identity of the Maltese skyline and its qualities can be appreciated from substantial tracts on mainland Malta." In spite of this, views and landscape values have been swept aside. On the flat plain at Ta' Qali, from which point Mdina's majestic outline has been enjoyed since the old city was first built, an exhibition and convention centre is proposed. This threatens to compete visually, at certain points even obliterating, the panoramic view of Mdina dome and bastions. The impact runs both ways. Ta' Qali was declared in the original 1999 Action Plan as an agricultural and recreational area of high landscape value in which "high-level views of and from Mdina were to be safeguarded".
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