Each year about this time, I get that special tingle, followed by an irresistible impulse. Soon I’m dancing madly around the house, racing from room to room, jumping and gyrating on pieces of furniture...
Let there not be light
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 17, 2022
It’s the first command in the Biblical creation story — let there be light. But if you’re working a night shift in a long-term care facility, I need you to stop reading this right now and go turn...
Seniors — more than shadows of former glories
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 19, 2019
It would be one of those sympathy shows, I figured, the kind where you go home acknowledging the performer more as a historical artifact than as a still-vigorous artist. “How good could she really be...
A simple thank-you
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 20, 2018
Thanks for being the supercharged superheroes of love and compassion you become every December.
When the fog lifts
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 16, 2021
I fancy myself a brave and intrepid hiker, and a couple weeks ago chose a particularly daunting trail that was rumored to lead to some of the best possible views of Mount Hood, the 11,249-foot peak that...
Too much TMI
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 05, 2012
“Too much information.” That’s a phrase I hear the kids using a lot these days as they menace the sidewalks on their long-boards. They actually say “TMI,” apparently because...
Cue the banjo player (you won’t regret it)
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 28, 2016
So anyway, speaking of aging, I got to spend Sunday evening with a delightful old guy named Steve — a spry, perfectly adorable gentleman with a Mike Pence hairdo who plays the banjo and seems to have...
Leveraging the obvious
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 29, 2013
Three things we’ve learned from long-term care news so far this month. Angry Facebook rants can get you into trouble at work. Republican lawmakers would love to defund Obamacare. And nursing home...
Uninventing the wheel in the nursing home
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 27, 2013
Better watch your back, people. Gangs of angry, wheelchair-bound residents are screaming at high speeds through our nation’s nursing homes, pursuing their mobile vendettas with brutal demonstrations...
Sacred moments in the therapy gym
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 14, 2018
I haven’t perched in a tree waiting for Bigfoot, or spent a morning with binoculars in a rowboat on Loch Ness. But I recently had a ringside seat for one of those elusive rehab therapy triumphs —...