Friday, October 8

Up at 6:30, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready to go to an AARP program in the conference room of our local hospital. The event began at 8:30 a.m., and lasted until 1 p.m.

Mother, Hubbie, and I arrived just before 8:30, and although we'd all eaten breakfast, we still indulged in the coffee, fruit, and pastries provided. I only ate a few small bites of my pastry, but Hubbie and Mother finished theirs off. I wrapped mine in a napkin to take home, and later collected three huge muffins to take home, as well, since there were so many left.

A large crowd of senior citizens attended to hear six speakers give very interesting power point talks about Medicare fraud, senior insurance issues, estate planning/Medicaid eligibility/long-term care, managing retirement income, securities frauds, and consumer alerts.

We were given lots of good advice about avoiding identity theft, not falling for the sales spiels of insurance representative at free-lunch or dinner seminars (we go to these, but only for the free meals...we never buy anything), not being seduced by e-mail and telephone scams, etc.

The event included several information booths, where we picked up lots of literature and little trinkets, like purse-size magnifying glasses, pens, letter openers, and decks of playing cards (each card has a hint for protecting yourself against frauds and scams, plus web sites for further information).

The ace of clubs, for instance is titled "Persuasion Tactic: Fear," which is "scaring the customer into accepting the offer, by creating an unattractive scenario if the customer doesn't comply, or by badgering or threatening the customer into agreeing." Or the Persuasion Tactic: Comparison: "Comparing two amounts, in order to make one of the look better: "This lists for $20,000, but I will give it to you for $15,000." It's a clever way to get information across to seniors.

After the lectures, we were served boxed lunches, with choices of either 12-inch ham or turkey
sub sandwiches on either white or wheat rolls, along with baked potato chips and a large cellophane-wrapped chocolate chip cookie. Drinks were tea, water, or soft drinks.

Hubbie and I ate our whole sandwiches, but Mother ate only half of hers. We brought the other half home, along with the muffins and half my pastry. Hubbie also managed to grab another boxed lunch. I didn't know he'd done that until we got home.

Back home, Mother went to her house, and Hubbie and I pursued our own activities. I spent time at my office computer working on family tree information that will be added to a genealogy being gathered by a relative in a northern state.

Around 6 p.m., Hubbie and I had a supper of the remainder of the split pea soup, with oatmeal muffins.

Mother came over at 7 p.m., and we went to a brass ensemble concert at a local college. The ensemble has been performing since 1964. One of the members has performed with Leonard Bertstein and Igor Strovinsky, as well as other great muscians and composers. The group has performed all over the world, mainly at colleges and universities.

The first part of the program included music from the 1600s, but then progressed to an interesting piece called "Aesop's Fables." For this one, various of the musicians recited fables, as the others did sound effects.

The stories were "The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox," "The Monkey King," "The Two Friends," and "The Fox and the Billy Goat." Each tale has a moral, of course. Like the "The Lion, The Bear, and the Fox," which tells the story of a lion and bear who capture a goat and then fight to exhaustion over it. While they are lying on the ground, too tired to move, a fox comes along and steals the goat. Moral: sometimes one man does all the labor, and another gets all the profit.


The printed program says that "Aesop was born into slavery, but earned his freedom by telling tales about the foibles and failings of human character through "beast tales." In the year 560 B.C., when Aesop was 60 years old, the telling also earned him death while on a mission to the Oracle of Delphi. The Delphians, deeply offended by critical sarcasm directed at them in one of his fables, hurled him to his death from a cliff outside the city."

The first half of the program ended with a rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown." At intermission, cookies and punch were served. Unfortunately, half the audience left at this point (mainly college students).

Those who left missed an interesting second half of the program that included Spanish folksongs, Argentine Tangos, and a hilarious selection of short tunes, like "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," and "Happy Birthday," performed on unorthodox musical instruments. It was called "an irreverent, though (fairly) accurate tour of the history of brass instruments." The funniest one was called a "Gar.don Jose' " (a garden hose with a kitchen funnel attached.

The program ended with a series of pop tunes..."Hello Dolly," "Basin Street Blues," "Struttin' with Some Barbecue," "What a Wonderful World," and "Mack the Knife."