Every year about this time, I tell you eagerly and often weepily about “The Trip.” The one where 12 veterans, many of them from World War II and living in long-term care, get to hop on a plane...
Squirrels vs. LTC: The Final Battle
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 01, 2016
While we’ve been focused on trivialities like HHS and CMS appointments, declining U.S. dementia rates and electing an orange President, rabid squirrels are terrorizing long-term care communities...
Plantar Fashionitis
Oct 27, 2016
The many ways we angrily resist all perceived attacks on independence and image, even when it clearly comes at the expense of our own comfort and safety, has clearly been manifest in my bout with plantar...
Accept and connect
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 22, 2016
Thanks to the inadvertent generosity of Starbucks, I didn’t have to climb a mountain in my bare feet or learn to speak Tibetan to discover the secret of peace and happiness. It was delivered personally...
Senior sex — the lethal irony
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 08, 2016
Of all the forces in the universe, I fear irony the most. It’s lethal, and is eventually going to find and destroy me.
Up in the air, and up on the ground
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 25, 2016
This isn’t just a story about the World War II veteran who got to fly again, inspiring though it most certainly was. I know, because I was there — holding a video camera, unsteadily at times, as...
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...
Jumper cables and stethoscopes
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 14, 2016
After posing questions ever since the bitter childhood discovery that I would never be an astronaut or Bobby Orr, I finally got my answer this week. Why do I exist? To be the guy with jumper cables.
Anonyholics Anonymous
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 21, 2016
It’s about time someone is pushing back against all the vitriolic nonsense and baseless accusations people are willing to spew when they think no one will know who they are. Illinois lawmakers are...
Spring up, down or sideways
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 10, 2016
Benjamin Franklin didn’t work in long-term care. Look it up. It’s a historical fact. If he had, his hair-brained daylight saving scheme never would have seen the light of day.