MY SUN DAY NEWS
I have always been a sucker for a good love story, no matter the kind. First, last, found, unrequited; it is like candy to a five year old for me. But it so hard to get love right in film.
Nancy is scheduled to go “under the saw” and have her knee replaced, and as a result, things are very busy around the Dining Duo household. I am stocking up on leftovers and trying to bulk up to survive her recuperation period. After all, it’s all about me…
As Valentine’s Day approaches, I find myself more and more down and gloomy. I knew this holiday would be difficult since losing my spouse, but I hadn’t realized just how challenging it will be for me to get through this day. Do you have any suggestions for how I can face this day without the love of my life?
The Village of Huntley is so busy with economic development these days that it is being sued and pursued by corporate America at the same time. Nearly 20 business and industrial building projects are proposed, underway, or about ready to open as the year 2020 dawns. The “Friendly Village with Country Charm” is welcoming and expanding throughout the community. The village and landowners at the former Huntley Outlet Mall property are battling in a Woodstock court on the question of industry or retail at the site.
The Village of Huntley is so busy with economic development these days that it is being sued and pursued by corporate America at the same time.
Nearly 20 business and industrial building projects are proposed, underway, or about ready to open as the year 2020 dawns. The “Friendly Village with Country Charm” is welcoming and expanding throughout the community. The village and landowners at the former Huntley Outlet Mall property are battling in a Woodstock court on the question of industry or retail at the site.
No, you didn’t miss Parts I and II. Read on.
I am glad we no longer have debtor’s prisons as England did during Charles Dickens’s day, because my friend Carol might be sent to the slammer because of that huge debt she owes to her insurance company. Her finances are tidy and orderly — or at least she thought they were. She bundles her mortgage, property tax and home insurance into an escrow account, and when they all come due, the bank writes a check. Done and done.
I am glad we no longer have debtor’s prisons as England did during Charles Dickens’s day, because my friend Carol might be sent to the slammer because of that huge debt she owes to her insurance company.
Her finances are tidy and orderly — or at least she thought they were. She bundles her mortgage, property tax and home insurance into an escrow account, and when they all come due, the bank writes a check. Done and done.
Becoming an optimist in 2020 will have many valuable health results for your body and mind.
And the games begin … the Oscar nominations are out. Who is gonna take home those coveted gilded statues? To be honest, I haven’t seen all of the selections the Academy deemed worthy of praise. So maybe I am not the best to judge them. Already we have seen Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger bandied about for the top acting awards. This is all fine and good, but does one good performance make for a best picture?
My dad, age 83, is currently in the hospital due to pneumonia. His doctor wants to keep him for a few more days to monitor his oxygen levels. In the meantime, I’m a daughter feeling helpless. My mom, 79, insists they don’t need any special treatment, even though I can see her age starting to slow her down. Do you have any suggestions for how I can help, without it coming across as help, so that my dad can recover fully from pneumonia and my mom not wind up in the hospital from overexerting herself?
The Dining Duo has lived here in the beautiful confines of Del Webb for 10 years now. We have seen restaurants come and go, which makes our job so much easier. The location for the restaurant we are reviewing today was once Mimi’s Cafe, then Lume’s Pancake House, and now it houses El Niagrara Mexican Restaurant in Algonquin. The holidays are over, the leftovers are gone, the resolutions broken, and it’s the dead of winter. There is no better time for a Mexican fiesta than now. We jumped into the Dining Duo mini-mobile and off we went.
The Dining Duo has lived here in the beautiful confines of Del Webb for 10 years now. We have seen restaurants come and go, which makes our job so much easier. The location for the restaurant we are reviewing today was once Mimi’s Cafe, then Lume’s Pancake House, and now it houses El Niagrara Mexican Restaurant in Algonquin.
The holidays are over, the leftovers are gone, the resolutions broken, and it’s the dead of winter. There is no better time for a Mexican fiesta than now. We jumped into the Dining Duo mini-mobile and off we went.
The campaign battle for the seat in the 14th Illinois Congressional District could become one of the most expensive in the U.S. based on the importance of the seat in the balance of power for the U.S. House of Representatives. In the latest election, Lauren Underwood, a Naperville Democrat wrestled away the seat from longtime Republican Congressman Randy Hultgren setting the stage for an all-out Republican attempt to win back the seat in 2020. This district takes in parts of Kane, McHenry, Lake, Will, DeKalb, DuPage, and Kendall Counties.
One of my readers who has Merillat cabinets was able to diagnose a manufacturing problem that caused his cabinet doors to not close properly. He was able to recreate a defective hinge detent by punching it with a pin punch and get his cabinet doors to close.
Letters for the week of January 30
The sound of excited barks and meows echoed all throughout the innovative Young at Heart pet adoption center in Woodstock as Sun City resident and long-time volunteer, Allen Podraza, demonstrated the home like environment created to limit stress for the senior cats and dogs residing at the center.
As usual, one of my goals for 2019 was to read 24 books. I would be lying if I said I came anywhere close to that goal. Some years, you just have to face the facts and admit defeat. (2020 will totally be my year, right?) Below is a little review of the books I did read over the course of 2019.
The greatest gift of any holiday may be to remind us how far we have traveled down the road since the last time that holiday rolled around — or even over the past half-century or so of holidays. Last Christmas was the first Christmas I spent without my wife in almost a half-century. She had passed away from a Valentine’s Day stroke in 2018, and I spent last Christmas day in Florida, paddling alone in my kayak, feeling the tides change. But this Christmas, almost two years after Gail’s passing, I had other thoughts on my mind.
The greatest gift of any holiday may be to remind us how far we have traveled down the road since the last time that holiday rolled around — or even over the past half-century or so of holidays.
Last Christmas was the first Christmas I spent without my wife in almost a half-century. She had passed away from a Valentine’s Day stroke in 2018, and I spent last Christmas day in Florida, paddling alone in my kayak, feeling the tides change.
But this Christmas, almost two years after Gail’s passing, I had other thoughts on my mind.
SUN CITY – Dennis O’Leary thinks that thirty people attending Sun City board of directors meetings is a very good sign.
Sun City resident Janette Dennis resurrected “The Golden Age of Radio” with the show Vintage Voices on Huntley Community Radio, but her time as director is coming to a close. “Vintage Voices was established under the leadership of then-President Myron Shellist and assisted by Bob Gienko, a board member. Allen Pollack was executive director of the station and first recording engineer for Vintage Voices shows. Jim Eggers has succeeded him.”
Sun City resident Janette Dennis resurrected “The Golden Age of Radio” with the show Vintage Voices on Huntley Community Radio, but her time as director is coming to a close.
“Vintage Voices was established under the leadership of then-President Myron Shellist and assisted by Bob Gienko, a board member. Allen Pollack was executive director of the station and first recording engineer for Vintage Voices shows. Jim Eggers has succeeded him.”
Walking around with a set of specialized sunglasses over your eyes and fluffy gloves with rubber bands around your fingers looks strange, but serves a purpose. This is the method in which you can personally experience what life is like for someone with dementia. Dr. Jennifer Stelter gives lectures on what it’s like “In Their Shoes,” as she did recently at Alden of Huntley where Stelter serves as operations director of clinical programs.
Walking around with a set of specialized sunglasses over your eyes and fluffy gloves with rubber bands around your fingers looks strange, but serves a purpose. This is the method in which you can personally experience what life is like for someone with dementia.
Dr. Jennifer Stelter gives lectures on what it’s like “In Their Shoes,” as she did recently at Alden of Huntley where Stelter serves as operations director of clinical programs.
Let’s try a resolution for 2020, to combat the constant stream of bad news involving politics, world military combativeness, economics, and health. Sun City: Let’s go on a Low-Bad or Positive Diet of Thinking!
One year after Jim retired, we finally closed on the selling of our industrial building. This required us to deal with several banks. Somehow things like this never go easy for the Dining Duo. You can write a check on a paper airplane, fly it through the bank lobby, and they will snatch it up and take your money. Asking for a withdrawal is another story.
I am a senior living alone. My adult children and I are close relationally, however, two of them live far away. My one daughter that lives nearby is an accountant and is very busy this time of year. My closest friend spends the winter months with her daughter in Florida. December always keeps me busy as I prepare for the holidays and have opportunities to spend quality time with my children and grandchildren. January leaves me feeling empty and isolated, even though I just had a wonderful holiday season. Do you have any suggestions for those struggling with the post-holiday blues?
This column is now in its tenth year, and one item that is in the top five asked about is the 911 flasher switch that came with each Sun City house. Houses built before 2004 have a switch built by Leviton. They no longer make that switch. Houses built after 2004 have Pass and Seymour switches. If you need a replacement these switches are still available.
One of the biggest complaints about Hollywood is the lack of originality. The endless parade of recycled intellectual property and soulless sequels have always been par for the course. As the adage goes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” But many filmmakers have taken concepts and tropes used in the past to great effect. Directors like Quentin Tarantino have made a career of this kind of cinema pastiche. The trick is to arrange them with care and style to make them feel spontaneous, allowing for an air of mystery about these elements. And mystery is what we get here from Rian Johnson’s Knives Out.
Letters for the week of January 16.
Quick now, Sun Citians, how long does it take to decorate Sun City’s Prairie and Meadow View Lodges for the holiday season? The job includes about twenty-five trees of different sizes throughout the building’s interior, plus decorations on fireplace mantles in Fountain View Lodge and the social lounge, hallways and galleries, Drendel Ballroom, fitness center, etc. The answer? The Sun City Garden Club can do it in two hours with 200 of its members.
Quick now, Sun Citians, how long does it take to decorate Sun City’s Prairie and Meadow View Lodges for the holiday season?
The job includes about twenty-five trees of different sizes throughout the building’s interior, plus decorations on fireplace mantles in Fountain View Lodge and the social lounge, hallways and galleries, Drendel Ballroom, fitness center, etc.
The answer? The Sun City Garden Club can do it in two hours with 200 of its members.
2020 is right around the corner and that just blows my mind, especially since I learned recently that some teenagers today refer to the 1980s and 1990s as “the late 1900s.” As if we were all riding around in horse-drawn buggies. I grew up referring to the 1880s and 1890s as “the late 1800s” but I was born very nearly a hundred years after those decades. So I don’t know what gives with these kids.
Never trust everything a fisherman tells you. His story may start believable enough, but always hold on to the tag-end of suspicion, just in case his tale plummets past plausibility, pulling you into the gulch of gullibility. That’s why, as I stood in Southwestern Michigan in October, listening to the guy casting into the Black River as it flowed into Lake Michigan, I kept listing for the moment his tales started to stretch beyond believability.
Never trust everything a fisherman tells you. His story may start believable enough, but always hold on to the tag-end of suspicion, just in case his tale plummets past plausibility, pulling you into the gulch of gullibility.
That’s why, as I stood in Southwestern Michigan in October, listening to the guy casting into the Black River as it flowed into Lake Michigan, I kept listing for the moment his tales started to stretch beyond believability.
It may be easy to put you in the holiday spirit by watching the classic movie Miracle On 34th Street or driving around neighborhoods on the lookout for lots of holiday decorations and lights. But pressure from the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas over such things as financial stress and demands on your time can bring on the holiday blues.
In Huntley these days, letters of interest apparently work better than requests for proposals when it comes to business development.
