Date Your Mate Month takes place every May and we are ecstatic to cele-brate this unique and fun way of bringing people together! Relationships take work, be it standing up for your partner, understanding them, or keeping the romance alive. You have to continue doing what you did before you started dating and having busy lives is not an excuse. Why not come up with creative ways to treat your partner? Go out of your way and show your significant other how special they are to you. This can be in spontaneous, fun, and inexpensive ways. The goal is to bring back the romance and reignite that spark to strengthen your relationship. ​

https://www.seniorvoiceamerica.org/featured/make-a-date-with-your-mate
​https://www.seniorvoiceamerica.org   813-693-5511

​ 
Lake Seminole Square Celebrates 33 Years
 
Seminole, Fla. – Lake Seminole Square celebrated its 33rd anniversary this month with a week-long celebration marking the occasion.
 
“It is incredible that Lake Seminole Square has been in the community for 33 years, and we are so thankful to share the celebratory spirit with so many of our residents for an entire week,” said Daniel Martins Morgado, resident programs director. “We took this opportunity to create joyous memories together, and we look forward to creating even more memorable experiences for our residents in the coming 33 years.”
 
The celebration began Sunday, March 5, with a gala dinner that featured surf and turf, rosemary braised lamb shank and many delicious desserts. On March 6, the community’s new boat, Lady of the Lake IV, had its official christening, which included resident boat tours on beautiful Lake Seminole. On March 7, the anniversary champagne toast, along with the slide show, exemplified three decades of excellence. 

https://www.seniorvoiceamerica.org/featured/lake-seminole-square-celebrates-33-years
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Dear Property Owners, Business Owners, and Interested Persons: 

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), District Seven, invites you to attend and participate in a Construction Open House for the US 19 New Interchanges and Roadway Improvements Project from SR 580 to the north of CR 95/CR 39 in Pinellas County, Florida on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. 

Ask a smoking male about his greatest risk due to smoking, and you’re likely to hear things like lung cancer, heart attack and stroke. But it’s rare that anyone would mention an abdominal aortic aneurysm. 
 Known as AAA, abdominal aortic aneurysms are weak spots in the aortic artery, and they can be silent, deadly killers. Consider these statistics:
   *   Over 15,000 people in the U.S. died last year from ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms.
   *   AAAs are the tenth leading cause of death in men over 60.
   *   An estimated 1 million men and women worldwide are living with undiagnosed AAAs.
For a little background, most people know the aorta as the main artery that starts in the heart, but as it travels through the chest it’s called the thoracic aorta, and when it reaches the abdomen, it’s called the abdominal aorta. As a main part of the body’s vascular system, it carries oxygenated blood away from the heart, and then splits into the two iliac arteries that supply the legs with blood. 
                                        What are the symptoms?
According to the Society for Vascular Surgery, many people do not feel symptoms at all. However, the following are warning signs that might prompt a screening for AAA:
   *   A pulsing feeling in your abdomen, similar to a heartbeat.
   *   Severe, sudden pain in your abdomen or lower back. If this is the case, your aneurysm may                    be about to burst. 
   *   On rare occasions, your feet may develop pain, discoloration, or sores on the toes or feet.
 AAA can be life-threatening if the aneurysm bursts, so if you experience any symptoms you 
should consult with a vascular specialist right away. Typically, the aneurysm can be identified through an abdominal ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
                                          What is the treatment?
If an aneurysm is confirmed, there are two pri-mary types of recommended treatment, since no change in lifestyle will make the aneurysm go away.
Endovascular Surgery: Some patients can undergo a catheter/stenting surgery, which is less invasive, involves a shorter hospital stay and a quicker recovery overall. However, not all patients qualify for this type of surgery based on the location and shape of their aneurysm, and this option does involve more follow up, future scans and possible maintenance to ensure the stent inside the artery is still working. 

Open Surgery: As the name implies, open surgery requires an incision in the abdomen. Then, instead of placing a stent inside the artery, the surgery actually removes the damaged part of the artery and replaces it with a graph, which is a plastic tube the same size as a normal artery that allows the blood to flow through. 
While there are some occasions where the aneurysm is small enough to merit a “wait and see” approach, whereby it is monitored every 6-12 months, a neglected or undiagnosed aneurysm can be dead-ly. If the aneurysm bursts, patients may suddenly feel intense weakness, dizziness, or pain, and may eventually lose consciousness. This is a life-threatening situation that requires immediate medical attention. 

Senior Voice America Publications 
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DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 78; I had a hysterectomy in 1976 due to excessive vaginal bleeding, but I still have my ovaries. I have had hot flashes since undergoing menopause — they usually last three to five minutes, and I have them about every two hours around the clock (which obviously interferes with my sleep).
Over the last 28 years, I have tried Premarin (which gave me bad head-aches), gabapentin, venlafaxine, Bellergal, melatonin, black cohosh, clonidine, DHEA, Pro-Gest cream (chamomile, hops and valerian root), progesterone and estrogen (together), avoiding caffeine, and eliminating dairy products. None of these has helped.
I would appreciate it if you could offer any suggestions. — L.E.
ANSWER: I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties. You have certainly tried about all the available therapies.
There are two additional ones you might want to consider: Megesterol is a hormonal therapy that is helpful for some women, but the fact that you haven’t responded to estrogens and progestins is not promising. The other is called a stellate ganglion block. You can ask your physician about it.
                                                                                    ***

DEAR DR. ROACH: After a patient has had megadoses of IV and oral antibiotics, is there any-thing they should do to restore the balance in their body, such as eating probiotics or yogurt? Or is that all nonsense? — N.W.

ANSWER: The idea makes perfect sense: Antibiotics not only kill the bad bacteria that is infecting us, they also kill many of the healthy bacteria that help us with digestion and other functions. (The whole suite of healthy bacteria living in our gut is termed the “microbiome.”) Why not help the gut return to normal by giving it some healthy bacteria, such those found in yogurt with live cultures, or specific probiotics, which are just the healthy bacteria?
The answer is that it has been very hard to prove that there is any benefit in doing so. In people with no symptoms after finishing an antibiotic course, there probably aren’t any benefits.
At least one study showed what researchers called a “very severe disturbance” in the person’s microbiome and actually slowed the return to a per-son’s normal microbiome, which they had prior to antibiotics. Worse still, very rarely, infections have been transmitted through probiotics.
Symptoms after antibiotic therapy, especially diarrhea and fever, could indicate a very severe infection called Clostridioides difficile (“C. diff”), which does not respond to probiotics and usually needs powerful antibiotics to treat. Pro-biotics have not been found to prevent C. diff.
                                                                                  ***
DEAR DR. ROACH: Why are older patients always asked, “Have you ever fallen?” It is annoying, and I wish you would stop asking.  — L.M.B.

ANSWER: Falls in older adults are a major cause of disability. Falls can lead to fractures, and fractures lead to poor movement, sometimes to a progressive decline.
A history of a fall is a major risk for future falls, so any person with a history of indoor falls should undergo a comprehensive evaluation as to why they fell and see what can be done to prevent future falls. This includes, of course, managing any chronic illness, but also correcting vision as much as possible; evaluating the home for risks such as poor lighting and area rugs; and evaluating gait and balance, with a referral a physical therapist for exercises to improve these, and for assistive devices if necessary.
Falls may also be the first indication of a significant medical or neurological condition that may benefit from treatment. I’m sorry you find it annoying, but it’s an important question.
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual questions, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@ med.cornell.edu.
© 2023 North America Synd., Inc.
All Rights Reserved

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February 2023

By Olga R. Rodriguez
 
​The population of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has rebounded for a second year in a row after a precipitous drop in 2020, but the population of orange-and-black insects is still well below what it used to be, researchers announced Tuesday.
Volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 330,000 butterflies, the highest number of these insects counted in the last six years. It was a promising rebound after the annual winter count in 2020 recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies. In 2021, the number recorded was 247,000.
“I think we can all celebrate and this is really exciting,” said Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates. “We were all so relieved last year when we had about 250,000 butterflies, and to see that number tick up even modestly this year it's really a good sign that we've got a second chance.”
Pelton said it’s not clear why the population has rebounded but one explanation could be that eastern monarch butterflies, which tend to spend the winter in Mexico, could be mixing with their western counterparts.
“Some of that kind of leakage could be occurring and I don’t think we fully understand the system enough to say what it is," she said. “But I think one thing it’s not is that all is well or that we all made human actions that magically made it all better.”
The population is still far below what it was in the 1980s, when monarchs numbered in the millions.
Scientists say the butterflies are at critically low levels in western states because of destruction to their milkweed habitat along their migratory route as housing expands into their territory and use of pesticides and herbicides increases.
Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarch’s threatened extinction, disrupting an annual 3,000-mile (4,828-kilometer) migration synched to springtime and the blossoming of wildflowers.
Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster to keep warm. The monarchs breed multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles before reaching California where they generally arrive at the beginning of November. Once warmer weather arrives in March, they spread east of California.
On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States across thousands of miles to spend the winter in central Mexico. Scientists estimate the monarch population in the eastern U.S. has fallen about 80% since the mid-1990s, but the drop-off in the western U.S. has been even steeper.
The western monarch count is conducted by trained volunteers over several weeks around the Thanksgiving holiday. It dates back to 1997 and has observed a loss of more than 95% of a population that according to earlier studies once numbered in the low millions.
This year the insects' wintering habitat along California's central coast was also battered by heavy rains and volunteers reported more monarchs blown from their clusters and vulnerable to the cold, wet conditions and predation, the Xerces Society said in a statement.
The group normally also conducts a second count after the New Year. This year's results will be announced in February and shed light on how much winter storms impacted the butterflies, said Isis Howard, an endangered species conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.
Howard said the follow-up New Year’s counts usually show a 30% to 50% decline in butterflies from the Thanksgiving count.
“Because the storms were so intense and so back-to-back this year, it seems reasonable to assume that there might be increased mortality this winter, leading to a smaller population that’ll kick off the breeding season this next spring and summer," she said.

By Audra Christian 
​
In response to the tragedy of  the Champlain Towers South collapsing that  caused the death of 98 people the Florida Senate and legislators had an emergency session in May of 2022 and passed Senate bill 4-D, we refer to it as SB 4D for short. This senate bill has caused quite the stir in the free state of Florida because it inadvertently created a few unintended consequences. 

I have attached what the stellar management company for On Top of The World has posted on their website, which is definitely the easiest explanation of the bill. 

“Florida’s Senate Bill 4D, which was passed in May 2022, made it mandatory for all Florida condominium and cooperative buildings, three stories or higher, to undergo milestone inspections, structural inspections, and submit specific information to the DBPR.

In addition, regarding the funding of reserves for the continued maintenance and repair of condominium and cooperative buildings, among other things, the bill prohibits waiver of reserves by associations for certain structural components.

Your Association needs your support in making legislators aware of what impact this law would have on residents of On Top of the World Condominium Community here in Clearwater.”
-On Top Of The World HOA management company

This emergency “fix” has many residents and potential buyers worried about possible looming assessments creating an unlivable and unsustainable reality for retirees in Florida. With many retirees on a very fixed income any sort of normal assessment can create a problem let alone a massive assessment to obtain the sort of reserves this bill can allow. Many people think this bill was a knee-jerk protection for insurance companies not homeowners. Some people believe this bill to be a land grab by developers since land is at a premium in Florida. Some people believe that the assessments being required should be covered by insurance companies that the condo owners have been paying insurance payments to for so many years. I guess we will see how this issue resolves. 

This brings up one major question for Florida residents. “Do you know who your legislators, senators, county commissioners and school board members are for your area?” You should. These are the people who are making these decision. Whether their decisions are good or bad you still need to know who they are. They need to know who you are. The new normal since the covid lockdowns is to know these people…because that is what they are, people. Not only am I a very successful real estate professional I am a person who thoroughly enjoys helping homeowners meet and work with their local office holders. They need our direction to make the best decisions they can as they work for us. We must be actively involved not just for our sakes but the next generation of Americans. Set the standard now of being involved. If you would like to have more information feel free to reach out to me.
For Real estate help audra.christian.ef@gmail.com
For getting involved TownHallAmerica@gmail.com

​https://www.seniorvoiceamerica.org/

  By PatZi (with a Z!)
The other day I was interviewing a writer about her book. It’s about gratitude, and I told her a story about that happened to me when I was a child. Since she liked the story I thought I would share it with you. 
Recently for some reason I had a craving for an orange. I don’t actually eat oranges very often and I don’t think I had eaten one for several years. Definitely it was before the pandemic when I would go to Yellow Bank Groves a seasonal store open from October to May. I don’t know if they were open during the pandemic, but then I didn’t get out during those bleak and blurry years.

Anyway, I decided I wanted an orange. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that my local supermarket wanted $1.69 for one orange. It was outrageous! As much as I wanted an orange, I just couldn’t spend that kind of money. It’s as bad as spending $5.50 for a dozen eggs.
 
At the time here in Clearwater, Florida we were going through a bitter cold spell. There was even sleeting rain and wind that I felt certain my brother was sending down from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula just to tease me. He thinks it’s funny that for a Yooper, I don’t like the cold. He loves it and every year he hopes that they will break the snow record of 342 inches. 

The next day I decided to brave the bad weather. I was determined to have an orange. So I bundled up and realized that I didn’t have a pair of gloves. I don’t think I’ve had a pair in thirty years. With my hands stuffed in my pockets I headed for the vegetable market. 

Surely the price for oranges would be more reasonable, I assured myself as the wind ripped through my thin jacket. Not by much I discovered. Two for $3.00. Saved myself a whole 18 cents. When I got home with my two precious Navel oranges, I sat down at the kitchen table and admired them. They really were beautiful. When I was a kid, we didn’t shop in supermarkets.

Mostly everything came from my grandfather’s farm. In the summer my aunts bottled fruits in Mason jars. So, all winter long we ate apples, peaches, pears, and plum but no oranges. Except in December when my Uncle Waino, who was a wrestler and lived in Port Richey, sent us a wooden crate of them. They would arrive on a train from Chicago and the station master would 
call us to pick them up. 

We were so proud; No one else in our little town got a crate of oranges. And I did love those wooden crates. For years they were my only bookcases. 
As I sat admiring the sheer beauty of a perfect orange, I remembered how my sister, Natalie, and I would sit by the window to peel them in the sunshine. Outside the snow would be up the edge of the window sill, but inside we were snug and warm. We liked to pretend we were in Florida. As we slowly peel the orange, because we had to save the rind for my mother to candy, we would marvel at the mist that would escape when we opened a section. We could see it in the rays of the sun. It was almost like magic as we breathed in the scent that was so exotic to us.

We would talk about a trip we hoped our parents would one day to Florida where we could see Uncle Waino wrestle and alligator. He had sent us a photo one year of him doing it. He was called the Fighting Finn. Or sometimes the Mad Viking. Florida sounded so heavenly. You never had to wear a snowsuit or galoshes and you could pick an orange off a tree whenever you felt like it. 

I am grateful for that memory. I am grateful to my Uncle Waino. He was a big tough guy, a wrestler with a heart of gold. And I am grateful for so much, especially for my sister Natalie and my baby brother, Thom. I am grateful to my mother who would make orange cake in the middle of winter. And for all the neighbors who just happened to drop by because the knew she would have cupcakes that she would give them to take home.

I shared this story with Kristine Newell, the author of a wonderful book called: The Habit of Grateful: A Handbook for Gratitude. She tells the amazing story of her own life and about the lessons she learned along the way about the importance of gratitude. A great read and wonderful book to get you thinking about how you can express your gratitude for the blessings in your life. Her book is available online or go to her website: www.guidetogratitude.com
And I am grateful to all of you. 

​ABOUT: PatZi Gil hosts “Joy on Paper” (radio-joyonpaper.com) a nationally syndicated program for writers and those who dream of writing. The program can be heard in the Bay area