TWO MEMORY ISSUES

A.  TAXONOMY AND NOMENCLATURE

When I was a pre-med biology major at Temple, I took Histology, Protozoology, Anatomy, and a bunch of courses where exams consisted of identifying what we saw (Genus, Family, Species), or labeling body parts and parts of parts.  I studied like hell. I got all A’s cause I was an Ace at memorizing and pleasing teachers. 

Can’t do it now.  I can blame four concussions and being 74+.  The psychologist who interpreted the four hour memory test I took said my Executive Function was terrific but my short-term memory was dreadful...  that trying to learn a new language would be very frustrating for me.  

Photo of a Sign in Norway

 I had been thinking of “language” as English, Spanish or Norwegian.   But last year I sat in a class on Georgia Geology hearing about Ultra-Mafic, Amphibolite, Gneiss, and Igneous rock.  This is a new language!   Much of science involves learning the lingo.  So that’s why I feel like such a dunce! 

I go on weekly Nature Rambles and woodland hikes where we focus on trees, flowers, moss, grass, mushrooms, insects and spiders.  I hang out with knowledgeable folks who like to tell the difference between kinds of red oaks, who can name hundreds of wildflowers and insects.  

Here’s Bill who turned a mushroom upside down after he excavated the base.  He’s  photographing the gills to identify the exact name of that mushroom.

Since I can’t remember crap, I concentrate on looking and finding, just to enjoy this beautiful world.  But now and then I actually remember something. 

Amanita

Here’s a mushroom named Amanita.  Wikipedia’s first sentence is:  “The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide.”  I’ve actually learned this name because we see it fairly often and there are specific ways to identify it that, magically, I’ve remembered!  Why this one and not the other 57 different kinds we’ll see?  Who knows!

Turkey Tails

I remember this one, too, cause it looks like its name:  turkey tail.  



 



Here are a few mushrooms I’ve named myself cause their "real" name eludes me.  Do you think the mushrooms care?

Three Little Maids From School

Freckles

Parasol

Pink Ruffles

Red Guy

Sunny Side Up

B.  Memory Trick #1

Sing a Song

When I’m in the loo and see the toilet paper roll is nearly gone, I can forget all about it walking the 15 feet to where it’s stored.  To keep it in my mind, I sing this song from South Pacific: 

Toilet paper is the thing I need, bomp bomp bomp bomp
Toilet paper is the thing I need, bomp bomp bomp bomp
Toilet paper is the thing I need, And I will get it soon.

 

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LAVA AND VOLCANOES

My Lava

A few months ago I came home from a three-hour trip doing errands.  Gruesome surprise on the stove:  I accidentally made LAVA while I was gone!  At least it looked like lava.  Apparently I was careless when I left, not quite turning off the hummingbird syrup I was heating on the stove.  The pot was so hot it scorched the porch banister when I put it out to cool.  After it cooled, I touched it.   Hard as rock.  And the lid was glued to the black concoction.

After I prayed in gratitude that the house was still standing, I took the pot (lid attached at a jaunty angle) out behind the garage. 

When Marguerite and I were in Iceland, August 2012, our guide said it took 200 years for moss to begin growing on newly formed lava.   So I decided to do an experiment.  Every month or so I’d photograph my lava to see when something began to grow on it.

Cooled Lava Ripples

When we toured around Iceland, we saw dark pointy fields of lava with hardly a green thing to be seen.  Bleak.  Hard to walk on.  Iceland was formed around 25 million years ago, which makes it one of the youngest landmasses on the planet.   Like the islands of Hawaii, it was formed by volcanoes.  There are 35 active volcanoes on Iceland.

 I inquired on-line about moss and Icelandic lava fields, asking whether my memory of the guide’s report was correct.  “Depends on conditions and altitude. It has taken the moss in Eldhraun 232 years to become what it is today. But it has taken the moss in Svínahraun (just east of Reykjavik) 1016 years to be what it is today. In many places you can see moss begin to grow after only 4 - 10 years (Eldhraun). But in other areas there is no moss after thousands of years.”

Moss is beautiful and soft and green.  I think it allows soil to begin growing on lava because it holds water like a sponge.  Maybe someone can write more about that in the “Comments” section below.  

On a forum about Icelandic moss, a writer was incensed because s/he thought Justin Bieber had run rough shod over their moss.  You can check out this little video he released to see whether you agree:  http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/11/02/justin-bieber-releases-music-video-shot-iceland.

Recently Erupted Eyjafjallajokull

 Molten rock below the surface of the Earth that rises in volcanic vents is known as magma, but after it erupts from a volcano it is called lava. The magma comes from tens of miles underground.  Some volcanoes become mountains.  The USGS reports, “Volcanoes are mountains but they are very different from other mountains. They are not formed by folding and crumpling but by uplift and erosion. Instead, volcanoes are built by the accumulation of their own eruptive products.”

Another reason to be thinking of lava is my January 2016 trip to Hawaii.  We’ll go for an evening field trip to see an erupting volcano: “Halemaumau continues to thrill visitors with a vivid glow that illuminates the clouds and the plume as it billows into the night sky.”   Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire, lives there.

Naturally I wondered whether our North Georgia mountains started out as volcanoes.  Nope.  Our Georgia mountains were formed by the plate-tectonic collision of continents that built the Appalachians about 300 million years ago. When North America and Africa collided, the compression where they met shoved sheets of sedimentary rock over each other.

Marguerite and I in Iceland.  Whale-watching in August on the Sea.

I hope I’ll learn more about the differences between Hawaii and Iceland beyond the obvious difference in temperature. I’ll be sure to make notations in this blog so stay tuned.  Meantime, there’s a narrative by David Merrill on differences between Hawaii and Iceland:  http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dam/Writing/Hawaii_Iceland.html.

By the way, I saw my neurologist this week.  She said I do not have a demented brain, just one injured by four concussions.  

Still No Moss But the Lid Fell Off

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IN TRAINING

I put on my snorkel mask.  Does anyone look good in these?  The pool at the Y has no fish, turtles, or sea plants.  But it’s the easiest place for me to get into shape for January’s trip to Hawaii. 

 Our Road Scholar group will be snorkeling in Lanai.  “Thousand foot sea cliffs line the shore and ancient volcanic plugs sit both above and below the water surface as host to a wide diversity of marine life.”
 
We’ll "skiff to Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook was slain in 1779, for some of the island’s best snorkeling."  Presumably the current residents have gotten over their animosity. 

But here’s the most exciting snorkeling we’ll do:  “anchor at an offshore location for a thrilling night snorkel with Giant Pacific Manta rays. Underwater lights attract plankton, which in turn attract feeding Manta Rays.”

So it’s not just getting my muscles in shape.  I need to work on the relaxing rhythm of breathing in and out through my snorkel, remembering how to blow out water that comes in the snorkel tube.   I want to use my underwater camera without flailing around in semi-panic. 

Awkward at first, I begin to meditate on the gift of breathing, in and out.  In...  Out...   I am thankful that my eyes can see through the water, that my arms and legs can do a strong frog kick.  I snorkel 30 minutes before the Water Arthritis class.  I’ll gradually increase that time.  My goal is to become so comfortable and confident that I will be able to concentrate fully on what I’ll see in Hawaii’s waters.   

 We’ll also be kayaking along Hawaii’s shores.  A year or two ago I kayaked in Florida while looking for manatees.  My life-long strong arms helped me keep up with experienced folks as I began mastering kayak skills.  

When we went to Jekyll Island in February, after about 10 minutes of crashing into shore bushes, muscle memory kicked in.  I’ll have to learn all over again since I can’t practice between now and January.  

On the other hand, I’ll be able to hike a lot before I go.  Fall and Winter are terrific here in Georgia.  The woods are beautiful and the weather is cool.  In Hawaii we'll climb slippery slopes.  I'm thinking of getting telescoping hiking poles.  

 NO DEMENTIA:  For those of you who read my last blog, I’m glad to report my psychologist and physician both agree:  The Big Forget was an age-old reaction to extreme stress.  Compartmentalizing memory.  PTSD reaction.  So it was in my head but just the normal fruitcake response I have now and then.  Whew!

Working Two Adventures At Once: Am I Too Old To Multi-Task?

Quotes from this Sunday morning's UUFA order of service:
Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.  — Ansel Adams

Turns out I have a prejudice against adventures I don’t choose for myself.  I was happily spending time deciding where I want to go and what I want to do in my special year of 2016.  On June first I’ll be 3/4ths of a century old and want to have some exotic adventures.  Even reading about possibilities is exhilarating.   

I want to start off the year with a bang so I looked at Road Scholar and Hurtigruten programs for January.  This’ll sound weird but these two programs appealed to me: 

    A Hurtigruten trip to Antarctica (penguins!) and
    A boat trip around some Hawaiian Islands, including snorkeling, hiking, and kayaking.

I love cold weather and a certain amount of adversity.  But the physically challenging Road Scholar Hawaiian trip is a few thousand dollars cheaper.   So after breathing deeply I forked over $5600 for Hawaii.  This removes a big chunk from my savings account — the account which is supposed to be for emergencies or health problems in my old(er) age.  Suddenly I’ve got two new worry lines between my eyes!

 
I have a bit of physical training to do in the next two months.  I’ll increase my water exercise and add more walking and hiking which will be fun since the Fall weather is perfect for that.  And increase my knowledge about volcanoes and how they create islands.  I already did some glacier walking near Icelandic volcanoes and learned how long it takes for soil and plants to be created and grow after an eruption — very long.  But Iceland is newer than Hawaii. 

I’m procrastinating about describing the second adventure I might be on — the one I did not choose.

To offset the damaged brain I have after four concussions and hemiplegic migraines, I learn new and difficult things.  This year I am trying to learn how to set up a blog that is fun (and possibly educational) for other people to read.  It’s also excellent practice in writing, finding the right words.  My passive vocabulary (recognizing words I read) is still excellent.  Coming up with the words from scratch, however, is not easy for me.  I can enjoy Sudoku because of the logic,  but Crosswords are way too frustrating! 

I was working on a new blog describing how I came up with a Plan B Adventure in Portland when my Plan A trip to Hood River, Oregon became seriously uncomfortable. 


 
It took me nearly a week to explain that philosophically.  I didn’t want to be too specific about what went wrong with Plan A because another person was involved.  When I’d worked on it enough, I selected a few photos to add.  Then I went to Google Blogger to start adding the new blog.

 I almost went into cardiac arrest with a giant Brain Freeze.  I had already posted a blog like that September 7th.  Jeez!



This is not like forgetting a name, or failing to buy something at the store.  Writing that blog had been a  time-consuming and complicated activity and I’d forgotten the whole bloody thing! 
 
First thought:  “I have the beginning stages of dementia.”  This is not an adventure I want.  I know people have written books on their personal mental decline but that is not a goal of mine.  Crap, crap, crap!

When I calmed down, I figured that on the plus side, it means the $5600 adventure is a good choice for January.  I should have as many exciting adventures as possible while I can think and move.  Older, wise friends reassure me of that.

Then I looked at when I posted that earlier blog:  September 7, immediately after the stressful time in Hood River.  Maybe that stress effected my memory.   Or maybe it’s because I was still recovering from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a summer tick bite.  

Okay, I’ll make an appointment with a counselor who knows me and see my neurologist.  I could be reassured or …   What? 

Fortunately I had a massage scheduled for the day after this discovery with Elizabeth, who does healing activities with color and light.  I’m not much of a woo-woo person myself, but have benefited from energetic activities my friends can do.  She looked in my eyes, held my hands, and said, “You’ve had a big shock, haven’t you?  I already picked out a color to use even before you told me what happened.”  I became a little teary but felt much better afterwards.

Then at church this morning we read and sang about not being alone when we have problems.   Tears were running down my face.  I hate that! 

I will further investigate whether the big memory loss was an anomaly.  And will get some cranial-sacral work done by Wanda, who has already done good things for my head. 

In many ways I am such a lucky person to have so many resources for healing.  My house mate, Toni, and I just hiked one hour at Heritage Park.  Walking is good for your brain.

 

 I made two videos about the Plan B days:  

Lan Su Chinese Garden   https://youtu.be/Dt_hwh-DLqg 

Two Perfect Portland Parks    https://youtu.be/_F_qkGmyDW8

Hood River and Portland

A.  Adventures in Hood River Oregon

When I was five years old, I met Monica.  That means we've been friends over 69 years.  We both look like we've been living a long life and having adventures.  Different ones, for sure.  Monica negotiates the Portland freeway while her 99 year old boyfriend shouts out directions.  It's the tiniest bit hair-raising.  

We arrive at the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States  Multinomah Falls is a popular attraction because of its beauty and restaurant, where I have my first delicious local salmon.

 

Monica and Sherman in front of the Falls

Hoping for Rain

 Hillsides on the road to Hood River remind me a bit of the Sierra Nevadas but there are evergreen trees as well as the brown grass.  The air is smokey from fires in the North West.  We all hope for rain.  The Columbia River Gorge is dramatic and beautiful.  Out the right window I see ferny forest with birch and dark evergreens.  On the left is the Columbia River, showing wavelets from the wind.  Beyond the river are the craggy hills.  

Monica is currently living in an assisted living facility called Hawks Ridge.  Having visited friends in Athens who have decided to live in an independent or assisted living place, I see many similarities.  I will have no problem making my home in such a setting if needed.  Many interesting men and women keep me good company while Monica and Sherman go on various errands.  We have only breakfasts there:  terrific coffee, juice, egg casseroles, toast and prunes.  

Downtown Hood River has the most upscale Goodwill I could begin to imagine.  Set up by someone like my friend, Eleanor, who knows about merchandising like nobody else, everything is enticing.  But, Jeez, I can't afford a single item of clothing!  I look at one of the five wet-suits (yep, you read that right!), hoping it would be a bargain for my next snorkeling episodes in cool water, I'm shocked to see a price tag of $79.  Well, maybe that's a bargain.

Hood River Downtown

If you don't count the nearby you're-definitely-in-the-West hills, Hood River is a lot like Athens.  Coffee and beer joints with clever names.  Shoppers.  Diners enjoying burgers and quiche outside or in crowded restaurants.  Feels like home.

 
A small, very small, hiking trail in Hood River Heights yields some pretty wildflowers.  It's too small for me to get lost.

Kite-Boarding on the Columbia River

The three of us have a marvelous time watching kite-boarders on the Columbia River.  The wind is huge: I had to brace my legs not to get blown over.  These young people, wearing wet-suits, became airborne several times.  So colorful and exciting!  A peak adventure just watching.

It's actually a water meter.

   My last solo walkabout.  I don't get lost but I obviously am somewhat off kilter because I think someone's head is in the hole of this turquoise box on the lawn of a Hood River park.

B.  Portland

A delightful Kurdish engineering student drives me from Monica's place to the hotel I picked out in Portland.  We have an enthusiastic and, I think, intelligent discussion about national politics, world affairs, "joys" of academe, and the best food to find in Portland.  I'm a lucky girl!

The Mark Spencer (name reminds me of stores in the U.K.) is quite wonderful, located in the artsy-fartsy Pearl District, near downtown.  View from the window does tell me about the weather.  The bathroom and bed are marvelous.

It's Not Raining

Enticing Bathroom

"Temptation"

Soon after arriving, I go for a walk.  Close by are food carts with delicious international options, even Transylvanian, Polish, and Hawaiian bar-b-q.  Tonight I pick Halal, bringing the lovely lamb gyro with all the fixings back to my room.  What luxury:  eating tasty food, looking at an old James Bond movie, and then a good night's sleep in a fluffy bed.

 

On the Way to Portland Oregon

All 79 alarm clocks rang at 1:00 AM Thursday morning September 3.  The Groome shuttle took three of us to the ATL airport.  Except for the driver we took naps.  Now it’s 5:00 AM and I’m sitting in Gate D3.  Alaska Airlines will start boarding us at 6:20 AM. 


LATER:  What a beautiful plane!  The inside design looks like someone’s comfy living room.  It couldn’t be leather on those ergonomic chairs but it looked and felt silky and warm.  Especially nice headrest so I unexpectedly napped -- again -- for half an hour or so.  I so dread being seen drooling from a gaping mouth, I was too vigilant to sleep long on this five hour trip.  Also, the crew is very attentive bringing all kinds of things to drink or eat.  We even got a gourmet bag of pretzels:  “apple cinnamon pretzels, caramel macchiato soy nuts and honey roasted sesame sticks”.  I charged a large $7.25 egg/ham/cheese/veg casserole in a bowl.  Much tastier than anything I could have gotten at the Atlanta Airport before boarding.  That is, if anything had been open.  Even the Plane Train doesn’t start until 5 AM.  If you ever need to know...




Quite a different mix of fellow passengers than those who fly to London or other points North.  College students, young families, folks going on to someplace Asian.  The three guys in front of me just came off a Georgia river.  Camouflage caps, plaid shirts, sunburnt necks.   They’re going on their annual salmon fishing trip on an Alaskan river.  The crew that will provide all their fishing equipment up there will also freeze the fish they catch and mail it to them back in Georgia.

Next to me are a mother and daughter who are going on a five day Alaskan cruise.  They’ve never been on a cruise and decided it would better than going to the Bahamas or Caribbean.  Good choice but I’ll be they wish it were longer!


It’s 10:30 AM western time.  I must be in Seattle.  The airport has folk music playing in our gate area.  Folks are wearing jackets.    I’m nibbling on the gourmet pretzels.  If the plane to Portland is on time, we’ll leave at 12:15 PM.  But so far most of the planes are arriving late because of air traffic control problems.  That might work out well cause Monica left voice mail saying she’d forgotten her 99 year old boyfriend, Sherman, has a medical appointment at the V.A. so she might be late to pick me up.  She said I could have a light lunch or snack while I’m waiting for her.  But not to eat much because they want to take me to lunch at a beautiful waterfall location.
  


Even though I’m sure I’ll have more adventures later today I may not be able to write so I’ll prepare this now.