July 13, 2016
The Julian News 5
EAST OF PINE HILLS
My Thoughts No I Don’t
by Kiki Skagen Munshi
I Need A What? So we need an apostille. No, we hadn’t heard of it/didn’t know what it is either. An apostille is a certification for a foreign government by a (here, US) government agency (in this case two, the states of California and North Carolina) that a document is really valid and true and issued by that government. Oh, my. Fortunately, there is the Internet and once you pass all the ads for apostille services (no kidding, there were several) the respective state tells you clearly, more or less, how to get their very OWN apostille. With North Carolina it was easy, an original document on hand, so we wrote the obligatory cover letter, put it in an envelope with a check for $10, and sent it off. So far there has been no answer. Two documents needed certification from Sacramento and one is a copy which needs to be notarized as a true and valid etc. etc. and issued from the registrar of whatever at the County Building in downtown San Diego. Then both documents together with Notary certification will be sent off to Sacramento which, in addition to the check (California is more expensive than North Carolina, who’s surprised?) wants a letter explaining what country the apostilles are for. Romania, where else? In Romania, a Notary’s office will translate the documents and apostilles (for a tidy sum of money, of course) and certify they are real and that they prove this and that and the other thing. And THEN, on the basis of these documents the Notary will certify that we own the apartment located at 16 Ady Endre Street in Bucharest AND will translate and certify the (Notarized, of course) Power of Attorney we give to a friend so he can deal with utility services to the apartment. Said friend will then spend the better part of the day getting the gas contract put in our name instead of that of the last owner/inhabitant of the apartment. You can’t do it online or over the phone and the lines are long. How do we know? We already tried and gave up after waiting three hours with only closing time in sight. And….at the end of the road…? The gas company will carry out the biannual inspection of gas lines that has been languishing for some time because… And it all goes back to apostilles. Live and learn. And don’t complain about SDG&E for at least 24 hours.
State Dealing With Dead Trees As F___ Season Heats Up Officials announce over 66 million trees dead in California Coordinated effort continues to remove dead trees . As wildfires burn across California, new estimates on the number of dead trees in California were announced, prompting continued concern for California’s forest health and wildfire danger. Today the US Forest Service released the outcome of its latest aerial surveys over California forestland, finding that over 66 million trees have now died due to drought and bark beetles since 2010. That number is up from 29 million dead trees in 2015 and 3.3 million in 2014. "The sheer number of dead trees is hard to imagine, but it’s real and what we have been anticipating for some time now,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE director and state forester. “We must continue our work to remove dead trees around roadways and critical infrastructure, while homeowners remove dead trees around their homes." In October, 2015 Governor Brown signed an executive order due to the tree mortality, which created the state’s Tree Mortality Task Force. Over 80 local, state and federal agencies, as well as utilities and various stakeholders make up the task force, whose efforts have continued to focus on the coordinated response. The task force has been working to provide for public health and safety, as the dead trees pose a serious public safety and wildfire threat. continued on page 10
HOME SERVICES
by Michele Harvey
By Michele Harvey For over 30 years I have had an Essential Tremor. My head has been shaking mostly when I am exhausted and overly tired. Early on, I learned to cock my head a little bit sideways because that somehow kept my head from shaking. These days, my head shakes the most when I have exerted myself beyond my normal limits. On these nights, I go to bed and feel my head bounce all over my pillow. If I lay on my side, I can even hear my head bouncing. This is mildly frustrating. Mostly it’s my body’s way of telling me to slow down, so it’s good when I pay attention. In the last few years, my hands have begun to tremble. At first they barely trembled; now the trembling gets in the way of tasks that I try to accomplish. My left hand trembles more than my right hand, so I mostly eat with my right hand. I can use my left hand to stab food, but getting a spoonful of soup from the bowl to my mouth is not one bit easy and sometimes it’s entirely impossible. I always raise a cup of hot liquid to my mouth with both hands. I have trouble threading my sewing machine. With a trembling hand I occasionally find the hole in the needle for my thread right away and sometimes it takes me about a minute, at times more. I create jewelry by threading semi-precious stones, metal and glass beads. Last week I was finishing a necklace by adding a clasp. My hand began to tremble and 26” of beads slid off the thread and landed on the carpet at my feet. I could go on, but mainly I want to emphasize that having some symptoms is not the same as having all of the symptoms. Friends of mine who have Parkinson’s disease were certain that I show enough of the symptoms to actually have Parkinson’s. But according to the neurologist that I saw this past week, I don’t. Parkinson’s disease is named after the English doctor James Parkinson, who published the first detailed description in An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in 1817. Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement, often including tremors. Other health problems can also affect movement and tremors, so it’s best to get an exam by a qualified neurologist. That’s what I did. The Mayo Clinic publishes signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s. I’ve added some of my own words here. The symptoms may include: • Tremor. A tremor, or shaking, usually begins in a limb, often your hand or fingers. Worse on one side, with Parkinson’s the tremor may continue when your hand is relaxed. • Slowed movement (bradykinesia). Over time, Parkinson's disease may reduce your ability to move and it may slow your movement, making simple tasks difficult and time-consuming. Your steps may become shorter when you walk, you may shuffle your feet, or you may find it difficult to get out of a chair. Also, you may drag your feet as you try to walk, making it difficult to move. • Rigid muscles. Our muscles may seem stiffer as we get older. My doctor checked the movement of my head and neck while my head was in a relaxed position. In my case, movement was good. Rigid movement is more than a stiff neck. • Impaired posture and balance. I do occasionally have problems with balance. However, if I move slowly enough, I don’t feel like I’m tipping. A person with Parkinson’s will develop a stooped posture and will have problems balancing. • Loss of automatic movements. I interpret automatic movements as those that we do without thinking. Swallowing is an automatic movement. When we decide to walk, putting one foot in front of the other is my idea of an automatic movement. • Speech changes. According to the Mayo Clinic, you may have speech problems as a result of Parkinson's disease. You may speak softly, quickly, slur or hesitate before talking. Your speech may be more of a monotone rather than with the usual inflections. Many of us think we have problems speaking when we can’t seem to pull up a word from our brain to our mouth. This naturally comes with age, but speaking in a monotone or slurring words while sober is not normal. • Writing changes. In the past few months my writing has changed dramatically. I can barely read my handwriting because of the tremors in my hands. I have to write small in my work, so that is especially a problem, though my normal handwriting hasn’t gotten smaller. Sometimes my hand just seems to go on its own without regard for what I’m trying to write. My doctor told me that a person who has Parkinson’s experiences all 4 of the following symptoms, fatigue, trouble with speech, lack of balance and stiff or rigid muscles. I have some, a little bit, but not all and none all of the time, so I don’t have Parkinson’s. So why do my hands tremble? Over 30 years ago a neurologist diagnosed me with an Essential Tremor. My head shakes. This may or may not be an inherited trait like eye color or body type. My current doctor told me that many thousands of years ago, all animals had tremors. However, hunters couldn’t catch prey when they tremored and prey couldn’t get away from predators fast enough with tremors. Brains didn’t get rid of tremors, instead they minimized them. However, in some people, like me, that section of my brain is not robust, so my head tremors have spread to my hands. Well, it took nearly 30 years, so I’m not majorly upset. My left hand trembles more than my right hand. With Parkinson’s it’s also normal for one hand to tremble more than the other. My doctor asked me a lot of pertinent questions. He tested my balance, eye sight, ease of movement, muscle strength and coordination. It was through these tests that he determined that I do not have Parkinson’s. He gave me a prescription for a medication that will help lower the size of my tremors. I make crafts, stringing beads, machine sewing and hand sewing. To me it’s important to continue my crafts so I can sell them in my gift shop, so I don’t mind taking medication as long as it works. A lot of people find their bodies changing as they get older. I know this can present lots of major problems, but for me, so far, it brings me new challenges. No, I don’t have Parkinson’s. However, I do have a better understanding of it and I’m glad I got a firm diagnosis from a highly qualified doctor. These are my thoughts.
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Perspective
Pelican Memories
by Greg Courson
I remember growing up at the beach, near Los Angeles, with sand and water only a fifteen or twenty-minute walk away, along quiet streets lined with palms. And I can still remember quite vividly the many friends and family members with whom I shared those early years, a portion of whom were quite the motley bunch. A humorous grin spreads across my face while remembering that long–ago assemblage of personalities, with our long hair, baggy trunks, and garage-made surfboards. I remember as a young teenager, sitting out in the water, waiting for another set of waves to roll in. While waiting, one experienced the various forms of life inhabiting the coastal waters: jellyfish, seagulls, pelicans, and, at times, schools of dolphins. Of course there was much more out there as well, but the above four were a common and even daily experience. I remember how the pelicans, circling overhead, would pull their wings in to become lance-like and dive for fish. And often very close. They were used to us surfers, and if it meant a meal, they wouldn’t hesitate to take fish quite close to us. And we became used to them. As I grew older, I gradually lost all sense of alarm when one of these large birds began plummeting out of the sky for something near me. As the years went by, those of us who frequented the water on a daily basis developed a bond with all of these wild creatures, with whom we shared the coastal waters. I recall, too, when the pelicans disappeared. Yes: disappeared. Over time their numbers waned, and, finally, these large gentle friends with whom we’d shared day after day of rolling swells and sunshine were gone; a sad chapter in our lives no doubt. And why? What had happened to the pelicans? Migration? Disease? In this case, disease had very nearly killed them all. A strange physiological anomaly was producing egg shells so weak and thin that incubation under Mom’s weight broke the shells. A broken shell meant the life of a chick broken, never to fully grow . . death. Researchers working on the issue finally published their findings. What had thinned the shells so severely were agricultural pesticides, which accumulated first in shellfish and fish, and then in their predators. Research finally zeroed in on DDT, commonly used in those days, yet in 1971 DDT for household and garden use was banned in California. Then in 1972 the federal EPA banned most uses of DDT in the U.S. A lot can be said about the matter of DDT, yet this being a personal story I really don’t want to express anything other than my own experience. After graduating from high school, I did some traveling and then moved to the Pacific Northwest. Occasional longings found me returning to the Southland, to Manhattan Beach, visiting family and friends. And during these returns I, in wonder and surprise, beheld my old feathered friends! They were back, in smaller numbers, their gradual return attributed to the ban mentioned above. Bringing the story to this point, it will now shift into related, relevant memories. The story will also become more controversial, building continued on page 7