The Passing of a Dear Friend - Walter Leach

July 2, 1932 - Dec 12, 2015

 

(c) 2015

I met Marge and Wally in 2002 when I started attending Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church. Since then, Marge has become one of my best friends and along with her, Wally.

Wally was a stellar father, a loving and respectful husband, a dear friend, and sounding board for the last 13 years. I learned a lot about how an equal-partnership marriage should be from watching both of Wally and Marge.

He was generally a serious person but after Doreening him all these years, he teased me back this summer – twice! Little sister Doreen can now rest in peace.

Wally and Marge have “saved” me many hundreds of times. The most memorable Wally rescue was back in 8/23/2011 when DC area experienced an earthquake. God blessed me in many ways that day. First, I was able to get a cell phone signal while no one else around me did. And, of course, the first call is to the Leaches. Next, I caught the last Metro train from DC to Shady Grove station before all public transportation had been shut down. And then the last and the greatest was that Wally was able to pick me up from the Metro and take me to my car at the Gaithersburg MARC station without a hitch.

You know you have a real friend if they pick you up from public transportation in the middle of an earthquake! Thank God he’s a California boy!

He will be greatly missed but as a faithful Christian, I know he is in heaven looking down on us. We send up loving thoughts and memories.

Amen.

See his bio on Legacy.com: Walter Dennison Leach III

ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet Rating and Review

Product: ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset CPAPA

Manufacturer: ResMed, Corp.
Rating: Fair to Good

(c) ResMed, Inc.


For over five years, I used the ResMed S8 CPAP. Back in June 2015, my insurance provided me what is supposed to be ResMed's latest and greatest, the ResMed S10 AutoSense CPAP machine. Per their web site: "The AirSense 10 AutoSet is a premium auto-adjusting device for treating sleep apnea." I don't know what goes through the minds of manufacturers. What I do suspect is they don't test them on real people. 

While it is great at adjusting the air pressure during the course of the night, it has several other features that are less than helpful or just plain annoying.

The hose connection is in the back of the unit using up valuable cord length. The connection is in the middle meaning I do not have enough machine surface to drape the tube over the device as I used to do with the S8. And, you need an extra attachment to connect the hose to the machine. God forbid you lose it because I have not seen it anywhere to purchase a replacement. Finally, if you turn the machine around to get more hose length, then you can't access the CPAP settings. 

(c) ResMed, Inc.

It's hard to press the Start button if you have any "hand" issues. With an overall aging population in the USA and associated arthritis and other repetitive motion disorders, it boggles my mind that manufacturers keep using recessed type buttons and everything is Touch.I miss the soft press buttons on the S8.

Although there are more Patient-accessible settings than with the S8, adjusting them is kludgey. Press, rotate, scroll until you hit bottom. When you want to get back to the top, you have to scroll backwards all the way. It's a long list so it should be round-robin.

Unless you get your tech to change this setting (it's one of a few settings you can't change from the Patient Menu), as soon as you attach the mask, the air starts blowing even if you haven't pressed the On button. Why this is designed this way is unclear. I find it very annoying and had it turned off.


The machine defaults to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi whether you want your private sleep info known to the world or not. If you put it on Airplane mode, it double-checks with you EVERY time you turn the machine on just to be "sure" you want to turn keep it in Airplane mode. This is the only way to disconnect if from the Wi-Fi.

ResMed has set up a separate web section called MyAIr to collect your daily usage data. Note it counts against your perfect sleep score of 100 if you take the mask off more than once a night. And, who doesn't want to score 100? But if you get up a couple times a night, then you do not get a perfect score. This calculation likewise does not take into account that people may use their CPAP for naps and there will be more than one on/off in a sleep period.

It's also noisy as all get go - even with my slight hearing loss, it took several weeks for me to get "used" to it.

For some reason the S10 humidity settings don't do what I need. After a week, my sinuses were very dry but if I raise the humidity level to max (I only had to go 1/3 the way on the S8), it "rains". That's their term, not mine. I told the tech it sounds like a tea kettle whistling but in these days of K-cups, it was clear from her expression she had no idea what a whistling teakettle sounded like.

If I put it at a lower humidity, I do not get enough moisture. After two months of using the S10, I had severe nosebleeds and had to have one of my nostrils cauterized. This procedure was a wicked experience producing over two weeks of Hell! ResMed's solution is to add yet another ritual to my bedtime preparations - put petroleum jelly (AKA Vaseline) in my nose. Yeah, like cleaning the equipment and buying distilled water weren't enough "extra" things to do in my little life.

The S8 filters lasted six months. For the S10, the filters have to be replaced EVERY month. You better have good insurance to afford these planned obsolescences.

The other annoying thing is it's impossible to completely drain the water chamber. This is a good way to build up mold and, again, it's hard to believe they tested this new design on real people.


While S10 has some benefits it is offset by a lot of annoying new items.

Product Review: Maybelline Brow Drama - Keep Your Money

Product: Brow Drama
Colors: Auburn, Blonde, Deep Brown, Soft Brown, Transparent
Manufacturer: Maybelline
Rating: Poor



(c) Maybelline, LLC

One of the things they don't tell you about getting old is women's eyebrows starting going bald. Yes, folks. That's why we slather eyebrow pencil all over what's left of our eyebrows like we are playing a raccoon for Halloween. We also try using mascara to simulate individual hairs. But, that has issues too. It's the other end of the spectrum or unibrow.

When I saw the commercial for Maybelline's new product - Brow Drama - I thought my time had come.Their web site touts it as "Our first Brow-Enhancing Mascara."



It was hard to find in my area at first but I forged ahead and finally found it. It was a couple dollars more than I felt was reasonable but I was desperate to try something to alleviate my daily wipe and swipe eyebrow painting routine.- more like Picasso than Rembrandt. I rushed home and pried open the package and began to apply it.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The only thing "new" was the shape of the brush. However, the shape didn't do much to accurately shape an eyebrow no matter what angle I tried.

I chose Deep Brown and that was a good match, if I could get enough out of the bottle. The amount of liquid dispensed was infinitesimal. I dipped and re-dipped it but all that did was leave clumps on my forehead.

When all is said and done, this was not a very satisfactory product.

Shingles Vaccine - What's the Scoop?

My bias:
I am a believer in getting vaccinated for communicable diseases or life-altering diseases.
 
Shingles:
Shingles is a life-altering, communicable disease. It can't be cured. It's painful. It's contagious when active. Three strikes and you're out.
 
What is Shingles? According to the CDC "Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a painful skin rash...caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox."
 
Their US Shingles occurrence estimate is very high - One in three people can develop Shingles later in life and the risk increases with age as immune systems wane.
 
Because it's contagious, the one in three includes those who get it from others with active infections.

Prevention is Better than Cure:
There is "no" cure for Shingles. 
 
Doctors can only treat the symptoms when it flares. Current medicines can only "shorten the length and severity of the illness." However, modern medicine produced another marvel - a Shingles vaccine.

The only debate is when to start vaccinations. That is a discussion for you and your doctor. However, a friend of mine got a non-traditional form. Instead of skin rashes, the virus went into her brain. She was hospitalized for months and spent many more months in rehab. While she's coming home soon, there is still another year to go before she will be back to her old self.

Gaithersburg’s Indoor Flea Markets

(c) City of Gaithersburg

Indoor Flea Markets

The City of Gaithersburg announces the Indoor Flea Markets winter season is in full swing.

 

Winter 2015 Dates
       January 10
       February 7
       March 14

Flea Market Hours:
       9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Attendee Admission:
       Free.

Vendors are sought to sell gently used and new items. Spaces are 15’ x 8’ and registration cost is $25 per space, $20 for City residents. Vendors must provide their own tables and chairs. Electricity is available upon request. Registration begins September 15. Click Indoor Flea Markets Application & Fact Sheet

Location

     Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds
     16 Chestnut Street, Building 6
     Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877

 

Contact Information

     Parks, Recreation & Culture
     301-258-6350; parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov

Source:

http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/leisure/markets/indoor-flea-markets-and-baby-bazaar