June 2023 – Me and the Doods.com

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Usually when I write about a birthday, it’s for one of the Doods.

ELBEE Or for herself

This time it’s for my husband Doug. He’s not a big fan of birthdays but the people he works with love to celebrate. Although it’s the Tarzana Wound Care Center, I truly think of it as simply a care center. Everyone on the staff is so warm and welcoming.

They all love it when any of the dogs visit so I decided to bring Stanley to the party. They were extremely helpful when I was training him for his Pet Partners testing. Now that he’s been volunteering in the hospital for a few years, it feels like a full circle moment whenever we come in.

Stanley didn’t disappoint. There was so much joy when he arrived, it was as if he was the guest of honor. The birthday accessories didn’t hurt either. Even Doug wore a “celebrate” headband.

Gus and Henry are also favorites. Recently, when the center was short staffed for a day, I came in to help out with assistant Gus in the morning and assistant Henry in the afternoon. Let’s just say that the dogs were more helpful than I was.

ELBEE Amen to that.

There were a lot of pleasantly surprised patients that day. One woman was visibly distressed when she walked in. As soon as I brought Gus into the waiting room, I could see her body language relax.

As for the roses in the title, anyone who knows my husband well, knows how much he loves roses. He grew them for years. A few weeks before his birthday, rose bushes started appearing all over the area outside of his window at the wound center. We were convinced that someone was planting them as a very special, birthday surprise.

Turns out it was just a happy coincidence. The building manager thought it would be a nice touch.

ELBEE Get ready. Here comes the Debbie Downer part of her post.

A few nights ago, someone dug up two of the rose bushes and stole them. Speaking with a man who works security in the neighborhood, I found out that’s a “thing” now. The next morning, a little old lady, not me, with a pair of clippers was caught taking enough roses for a huge bouquet.

ELBEE So guard your rose bushes.

On a more positive note, thank you so much to the entire staff at the center. You touch me with your kindness. And a very happy birthday to my husband Doug. You are an amazing human being who has dedicated your life to helping others. The Doods and I love you.

The Post That Almost Wasn’t

I was about to write a post about why I wasn’t going to write a post this week.

ELBEE That makes no sense whatsoever.

Then the universe sent me a sign. I picked up two packets of Truvia. One read, “Share Your Voice.” The other read, “Challenge yourself.”

ELBEE I don’t think that her idol, the late writer Erma Bombeck, got her inspiration from artificial sweetener.

I also heard someone say that gratitude was the right attitude, so I decided to share a totally random list of positivity, most of it inspired by the Doods.

June gloom has become joyous. It’s the perfect weather for walking the dogs any time of day. Plus, despite the gray skies, the mountains, my happy place, are more beautiful than ever with bursts of color from the flowers.

2. In another added touch, people have been building cairns, stone markers, all along the trails. I have no idea how they do it, but they’re like art installations.

3. The racing bike riders may be my nemeses at times, but thanks to Stanley I had a sweet encounter. Someone heard Stanley’s name and wondered how I’d chosen it. After I shared about my late, wonderful brother Stan, he told me that was his middle name. His buddy was named Larry, just like Stan’s treasured dog.

4. Dressing up the dogs is one of my favorite pastimes. Thanks to the UCLA calendar photo shoot, I had a legitimate reason to put them in costume. Sending photos to my daughters, who think I’m crazy for doing it, makes it that much better. They’ve threatened to report me to PETA but I think they’re kidding.

ELBEE They’re not.

5. A man saw me walking Henry by his house and asked if I took my dogs to the hospital. When I said “yes” he called for his wife to join us. Elbee and Charley had visited her at Tarzana Hospital twelve years ago and she felt they had helped save her life.

6. Last week Gus and three of his canine co-workers were stress busters for UCLA students taking finals. Over a hundred grateful kids stopped by the library to take a break.

7. Talk about random, thanks to the Doods I have become casual friends with several mail carriers in our neighborhood, the nicest group of people. The other day I suggested to one, who parks his truck and walks his route, that he could start a fitness class and let people follow him around.

ELBEE Sadly, she’s not kidding.

8. I was saving the best for last. My grandson Ryan graduated from high school and his sister Samantha graduated from middle school.

Try writing your own list of random positivity. It’ll make your day!

“Anti-Aging”?

When I started hiking as a youngster in my forties, my friends and I would frequently see an older woman, probably in her late seventies, walking all over the mountains by herself. She was sort of a local legend. I’ll never forget one morning when she emerged from a dense fog. It was almost supernatural.

The problem is, I think I’ve turned into her! The other morning some “kid” saw me hiking and said, “Wow! You’re still up here. Good for you.”

ELBEE That’s an age crack if I’ve ever heard one.

Maybe I’m more sensitive to it, being a senior, but it seems that lately there’s an obsession with anti-aging. There are magazines, newspapers and tv shows devoted to the topic, not to mention a proliferation of products guaranteed to help. I hate to be a buzz kill. You can drink all the green juice you want but you’re still going to age.

My friends and I spend hours talking about issues like crepey skin but strangely, I never remember my grandmothers giving it much thought. My paternal grandmother’s nickname was appropriately Tiger Lil. The only aging advice she ever gave me was that if I stood up straight with my shoulders back and walked fast, no one would know how old I really was.

ELBEE This from a woman who wore high heels in her eighties!

My mom passed away before my daughters were born, so my maternal grandmother would stay with us to help out after each one arrived. She never complained about her age or said she was tired, even after she’d been up in the middle of the night comforting a crying baby.

Recently, a young man at the gym saw me using fairly heavy weights, and he, my husband Doug and I got into a conversation about what it takes to keep going as you age. I think we’re now his old person role models.

A few things immediately came to mind. You should keep challenging yourself, both mentally and physically, although I don’t think my daughters would feel that this trail was the best choice.

Aside from exercise, you need positive interactions with other people, even if they’re brief. Walking the dogs, always leads to conversation. Last week I was out with Henry when a woman stopped to tell me how much it had meant when Charley and Elbee visited her dying husband thirteen years ago!

If possible, find a passion, something that fulfills you. Volunteering with the Doods does that for me. Actually, I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for helping me with exercising my mind and body, socializing and having a meaningful purpose.

ELBEE It’s fairly obvious. If you want to “anti-age,” get a dog.

Connection & Coincidence

I recently read an article that said the key factor that determines life satisfaction and health isn’t money or even achievement. It’s “warm connections with other people.” As a basic loner who got even more so after Covid, I knew I was in trouble.

ELBEE Sad but true.

**Greeting people at the wound care center**

To make matters worse, it was a years long study by a Harvard psychiatrist. On the bright side, he determined that even casual connections can have real benefits. That’s where the dogs come in. Thanks to them, I interact with more people in an hour than I might in a week.

For instance, a few days ago I had a wonderful conversation with a man at the gym who always seemed very nice but generally kept to himself. Somehow, we got onto the subject of dogs.

ELBEE Maybe because someone asked her in a loud voice “Aren’t you the crazy dog lady?”

He smiled when he heard that and quietly told me he volunteers at a shelter. I commented on how difficult that must be and thanked him for doing it. Then, of course, I shared about the Doods. What are the chances that his thesis was on the human/animal bond. To make it even crazier, he’d gone to school in Ithaca, just outside of Syracuse, my hometown.

As we chatted about New York, I mentioned that I was born in Liberty, a small town in the Catskill Mountains. Growing up, I’d spent summers there at my grandparents’ resort. I couldn’t believe it when he told me that he spent his summers in the Catskills too! His family stayed at Grossingers, only a few miles away. I still don’t know his name but we had a warm connection of nostalgic coincidence.

The ending of this post is kind of a P.S. that wrote itself. My husband Doug and I decided at the last minute to go to the gym last night at a very random time. Talk about coincidence. As we walked in, I saw the man I’d been writing about. He had been just as amazed about our conversation and had shared it with his girlfriend.

By the way, his name is Ian and his thesis was more specifically about animal assisted therapy, exactly what the Doods do.

On a totally different note, a belated happy birthday to Stanley who turned five in May and to Henry who turned two.

ELBEE Belated? Seriously?