The construction projects have been moving along at an accelerated pace during the last

month. However, that does not mean we have not experienced some delays. Much of this delay is due to PNM and Comcast pedestals which must be relocated since they are in the middle of the sidewalk along East De Vargas and the parking lot on the east side. This must be completed before we can receive our Certificate of Occupancy. Yes, I did say sidewalk. The City is requiring a sidewalk the length of the memory property as well as along the rest of our Health Center building on East De Vargas. The furniture will have been delivered and placed in The Garden at El Castillo (memory center) over the last week of October and the landscapers will be completing their work. It is now projected to be completed by mid-November and ready to receive our Certificate of Occupancy and to have the State Department of Health inspect, then issue our license. The Health Center addition is going up quickly and will soon be enclosed. We are working on the schedule for the various phases of the

El Castillo LifeCare Community

Around El Castillo Allen Jahner, CEO Administrator

NOVEMBER 2013

Newsof theCastle

project and it appears that we can wait until about March 1 to begin the solarium on the second floor. This means that the main dining room will remain intact until well after the holidays and hopefully through most of the cold weather. I attended the hearing at the New Mexico Court of Appeals during which they heard oral arguments on our Property Tax case from the attorney for the Assessor and our attorney Carol Clifford. I believe Carol made an excellent presentation and was articulate in answering their questions. But, as with all cases, what counts is the opinion of the three judges. We should get their decision in the near future. Kay, Helen and I met with Dr. H. Huson Middleton III who is the CEO of Geriatric Associates. Some residents have advocated that El Castillo contract with his group to act as our Medical Director and provide some other services. It was readily apparent that what I have heard from residents about the service differs from what his group actually provides. For instance, they work 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. They are on-call by telephone on nights and weekends for emergencies and consultation or advice. They would not set up an office at El Castillo but a doctor or nurse practitioner would come to our Health Center one day a week to provide services to residents who choose them and to deal with staff issues concerning Health Center residents. They are based in Albuquerque and have no immediate plans for offices here in Santa Fe. We talked at length and Dr. Middleton said he would let me know their thoughts after he consults with his staff about their own staffing issues and whether they could provide the service to El Castillo. The holiday season is again upon us. I hope you and your families have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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Welcome New Resident!

E ffie tells a wonderful story about how she met her husband. It happened in Buena Vista, Colorado, when she was a senior in high school. The railroad main line

came through town, and although Buena Vista was small, it was turning into a “hot spot.” She happened to be working as a soda jerk in a drug store one day when a nice, young, and handsome telegraph operator for the railroad walked in and ordered a strawberry soda. Effie says she fixed Floyd Crider “the strawberry soda of all strawberry sodas,” and that was how the romance began.

Effie was born the youngest of ten children. Her father died when she was thirteen, so at that early age she had to start working to help her mother. Life was very difficult until Floyd came into her life. They married in March 1943, right before she received her diploma. She says, “he looked after me all the rest of his life” until his death in 2000. Floyd, Effie, and their three children—Mary Kay, Russell, and Polly—moved many times as Floyd rose in seniority with the railroad. Early in their marriage, they lived in Salida, Colorado, and liked it, so when he retired they moved back there. This past August, Effie moved from Salida to Santa Fe. Mary Kay lives here with her husband, Alan, so they handled the remodeling of Effie’s El Castillo apartment and the moving process. These days, Effie enjoys taking part in activities at El Castillo and getting to know the residents. She specifically mentioned how much she appreciated Pat Trumbull for taking her on an outing to the Rancho de las Golondrinas. She misses her friends in Salida, but two of them recently came here for a visit, and she knows she can go back there for visits too. Her family owns a one-room cabin built by her grandfather in Winfield, Colorado, when it was a bustling silver-mining town in the 1880s. Now it’s a ghost town with just four original cabins left. Effie, her children, and her three grandchildren enjoy gathering there whenever they can.

Effie Crider, Apt 105

Martha Marks

FROM FIRST FLOOR WINDOW:It all started with a spray paint can and orange colored lines and numbers on what had once been parking spaces; but, in fact, also covered hidden utility lines … problem number one in the construction of additional space to El Castillo’s Med-Center and Assistant Living Units (good old Murphy’s Law will see to it that many more are to happen before all is over). In time, orange markings gave way to uprooted spaghetti-like utility lines; then came: a back-hoe, a Bob-cat front loader, and a telescoping fork lift to be joined later by a heavy duty ball and chain crane; holes were dug, and dirt was in constant movement; an “auger cast pile” crawler drill rig moves in; 14 (30ft deep) cylinder pile holes were drilled, and back filled with grout plus added re-bars; dirt was removed from around cured buried piles to a measured depth, and a 4x4x2 (my guess) square footer form was constructed around each; re-bars were extended from tops of buried piles to above-footer forms; concrete poured, forms removed, and dirt returned to ground level. Next, round column forms were erected on the 14 concrete platforms, over the buried pile’s extended re-bars (which, in turn were then extended into the round forms), and concrete was added.

From The WindowsEl Castillo’s new addition

Gene Oliver

continued on page 3

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HealthSPOT

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According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “‘Memory’ labels a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which we retain information and

reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes.” We know that it is essential to all of our lives but how do we build our memories? Memory is the term given to the processes used to acquire, store, retain and later retrieve information in an intricate maze of neurons and paths in our brain.

• We form new memories through the process of encoding. Information from the environment comes into our memory through sensory input. It is changed into a form our system can cope with and is then stored. The main types of encoding are visual, acoustic, tactile and semantic.

Where we store the information affects the way we retrieve it: • Storage in our short-term memory (STM) is small, holding about seven

independent items at one time. We hold short-term facts for about 30 seconds. • Storage capacity in our long-term memory (LTM) is thought to be unlimited

and can last a lifetime. on semantic encoding for LTM.

It is believed that our brain relies primarily on acoustic encoding for STM and on semantic encoding for LTM. Because memory is associative, we are better able to remember a piece of information if we associate it with some previous knowledge. The more personally meaningful, the more effective the encoding and recall.

Memory

What is memory?

Construction view, April 12, 2013

FROM THE WINDOWS, continued from page 2

After curing, the forms were removed leaving 14 off-white upright pillars, majestically standing alone. Meanwhile, cement block walls (up to pillar height) were laid on the east and north boundaries of the new addition. What with the main activity now to move up a floor, it was also time for me to move up a window.

FROM SECOND FLOOR WINDOW:On first sight, the new Memory Center fills one’s vision. There is activity around new wall construction for stuccoing later, and a roof being prepared for solar panels; but with those activities over, all else moved out of sight. Not so for the new additions. Scaffolding and scaffold boards arrive by the car load; are unloaded; scaffolding is erected (making for an impenetrable forest of scaffolding and support timbers) to hold up the frames that are to form the many concrete supporting beams and the new addition’s concrete ground floor – with all things therein being monitored by a platoon of white hard hatters and their ubiquitous tape measures. With the forms constructed, now begins the back-breaking labor of installing the rest of the 25 tons of re-bars used– with miles of tying wire to be used in the hand tying of re-bars into their proper positions (from coils strapped to their carpenter’s belt, a strand of wire was pulled, doubled then rapped around a bar, and finally twisted with pliers to tighten it into place; to be repeated, bent over, time after time, hour after hour, for several days). Finally, with all re-bars now in direct connection, from finished forms to thirty feet below ground, all was ready for the “big pour.” continued on page 7

Health Program:

To be announced!

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November BirthdaysBirthday Celebration:Wednesday, November 20

Committee Meetings

Buildings & GroundsFriday, November 1, 9:30am

Finance CommitteeMonday, November 4, 10am

Food CommitteeMonday, November 4, 2pm

Marketing CommitteeTuesday, November 5, 2pm

Health CommitteeMonday, November 11, 10:30am

Program CommitteeMonday, November 11, 2pm

Residents’ AssociationThursday, November 14, 2pm

Ongoing ActivitiesExercise Classes 9:30amMonday Creative MovementTuesday QigongFriday Strengthen & Stretch

11:15amWednesday Fitness Training with Kari (Fitness Center)

4pmWednesday Balance & Strength

Banking 9-10amWednesday First National BankThursday Los Alamos National Bank

Health 10:30am & 3:30pmWednesday Blood Pressure Clinic

Worship Services 10amFriday Catholic Service (Health Center)Sunday Holy Faith Episcopal (Health Center)3rd Thursday Unitarian Universalist service

GamesWednesday 2pm Cribbage

Thursday 9am Mah Jong

Art Class 10am-noonWednesday Community Room

Miscellaneous 10am-noonWednesday Seamstress (Pat Haeuter)

Writing Class 10-11:30amThursday Community Room

El Castillo Singers 2-3pmFriday Community Room

Cinema El Castillo 7pmSaturday

All activities meet in the Community Room unless otherwise noted

Mary Utton, November 2Patt Berardenelli, November 3Georgia Davis & Eileen Souder, November 4Lee Warren, November 5Bernie Mark, November 14Mel Mecker, November 16Amanda Nordblom, November 23Isabella Froman, November 24Conrad Coffield, November 26Kate Streeper, November 29

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Cinema El Castillo Saturdays, 7pm, Lounge Transportation

ProgramsFriday, November 8, 2:30pm: El Castillo Singers Assisted Living Dining Room (watch the bulletin boards for possible room change)

Wednesday, November 13, 7pm: Robert Jones Trio

Dry CleaningTuesday, Nov. 12 & 26. Bring to Anna at the Front Office by 9am

Unless otherwise noted all programs meet in the Community Room

Saturday, November 9MetLive OperaToscaVan leaves 10:30am

Thursday, November 21Lunch OutingVan leaves 11:30am

Sunday, November 24Santa Fe SymphonyVan leaves 3:30pm

Save the DateTuesday, November 19, 2-4pm November Tea Party

Friday, May 16, 2014White Elephant Sale! Start clearing out your closets!

November 2: A Shot in the Dark (1964) This zany comedy is almost as crazy as a Keystone Kops movie, with one hilarious misadventure after another. Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer & George Sanders.

November 9: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)In this comedy, a jewelry robbery romp pits thief against thief. John Cleese & Kevin Kline.

November 16: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) One of the best old-time musicals tells the story of life in a wealthy family in St. Louis in 1903. Judy Garland & Margaret O’Brien.

November 23: Impromptu (1991)A farcical period piece about 19th century novelist George Sand and her love affair with Fredrick Chopin. Judy Davis & Hugh Grant.

November 30: Best Years of Our Lives (1946)This story of three servicemen of WWII adjusting to the civilian life when they return to the states won seven Academy Awards. Myrna Loy & Fredrick March.

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Large numbers of donations have arrived in the past two months. Check out the shelf under

the window for the current month. The library has also acquired 10 Large Print (LP) Agatha Christie mysteries. These are on display as recently acquired LP books on the counter top. The other change is that the library is offering a service to download talking books from the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind (BARD) database to audio cassettes that can be played in the cassette player provided by the New Mexico State Library. The State Library provides a catalog of audio books that may be selected and sent by mail. The service is excellent, but the selection of books is only a subset of the books available for download from the BARD database. The El Castillo library staff will assist you in selecting books from the BARD database

Library News

Mark your calendars: Tuesday, November 19th, 2-4 pm

for our Afternoon Tea Party. Check the bulletin boards for all the details! Come to the party

and join the fun!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Landscaping News

We hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall weather and the recent nourishing rains. The irrigation systems are currently off and drained for the winter. As the fall temperatures continue

to drop (as do the leaves) the landscaping crew is busy completing winter fertilization and lots of raking!! The last of the the perennial pruning continues and what vegetation remains will feed root systems this winter. After all of the leaves have fallen we will use a composted bark mulch to nourish and protect root systems and offer a pleasant aesthetic through the winter months. Shrubs will receive their annual heavy pruning in the late winter.

Arlena Teitlebaum

Barbara Divers

and downloading them onto a reusable cassette provided by the library. You will then check out the cassette just as you do a book. Elkie has the National Library Service for The Blind registration form available. Pat Reibel or Barbara Divers will be happy to fill out the forms and explain the audio disks download and how to use the player to anyone wishing to apply. There is no cost for this program and it can enlarge the horizons of those who are sight impaired. There have been a number of questions about the magazines. The magazines and newspapers are donated by residents. Newspapers should be read in the library and there are reading machines available for the sight impaired. Magazines can be read in the library or borrowed for up to a week and then returned to the magazine shelf under the returned book cart.

Roast TurkeyBaked SalmonStuffingMashed Potatoes and gravyCandied Yams

Just a reminder we will close early

on Thanksgiving, at 4pm.

AsparagusLattice Cherry PiePumpkin PieFall CookiesRustic Potato Soup

AFTERNOON TEA PARTY!

Elkie Reminds You…Shred it will be here Friday, November 15.

…Please remember to get administrative approval BEFORE putting anything (art, flower pots, etc.) in common areas such as building lobbies, gardens and the community room.

…Please remember to relinquish your parking space when YOU are no longer driving your car. You may not retain a space if family or caregivers are driving you around.

…Please remember Daylight Savings Time is Sunday, November 3. Turn your clocks BACK one hour Saturday night before going to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving from Elkie!

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It’s a little after 4am, portable halogen lights blazing, ready-mix trucks lined up with their “whole nine yards” of mix turning, booster pump humming, delivery hose craned to recipient standing above finished forms, and the words “Let er rip,” or something similar, said: the booster pump bin fills, and the concrete begins to flow.

For the next four to five hours, some 15 men direct concrete flow into forms, move vibrators up and

down to distribute concrete, sans air bubbles, distribute concrete using shovels and long 2x4s, and check for level and thickness with laser beam, while all the time wading in ankle deep wet cement. The pour over, the “finishers” move in: first with hand trowels, later with walking, power-driven fan-bladed trowels, followed with a riding trowel (and, wouldn’t you know, despite the urging of my “Yetser Hara,” try as I might, I could think of no way to leave my Hoveround and scoot over to scratch my initials in the wet cement). In any case, time was now needed for the reinforced concrete to cure – and, for me, to move up a window.

FROM THIRD FLOOR WINDOW:What a sight! One continuous slab of off-white-glass-smooth concrete (add some piped in music, said I, and what an ideal spot for some roller skating, huh?); but, as yet, not cured enough for the next page turn of architect’s drawings. What a difference a few days make; now that the concrete has cured, there is “bee-hive-activity” everywhere: in one corner, cement blocks are moved in various stages of constructing a fireproof stairwell; a crane lifts structural steel studding along with steel beams to anchor floor joists are placed in piles here and there; three self-rising, caged go-carts are in up and down motion installing outer wall steel studding while the ball-and-chain crane is lifting steel beams into position (with steel worker spot welding same: two men walking on two four-inch beams as if they were three-foot sidewalks). All in all, it’s “ant colony frenzy” everywhere (while below, all that supporting scaffolding and wooden frames were being removed). So many things to watch! As each day passes, the structural steel outline of the new addition becomes more and more visible (and more and more obvious that it would take a mighty wind, indeed, to “huff and puff and blow” this structure down). But, in that outline, the window view becomes more and more restricted. In fact, the “go-carts,” with their steel framing parts and cordless gun riveters, going up and down, have now reached the third floor window’s connecting point and all the restrictions that brings. Since there is no fourth floor window from which to view any roof construction, I, too, and reluctantly so, will soon have to bid adieu to a time of some very interesting viewing … which, as I have often repeated, “Surely did beat watching grass grow.” Vidi per fenestram …Gene Oliver

FROM THE WINDOWS, continued from page 3

Construction view, October 3, 2013

Construction view, August 6, 2013

250 East Alameda • Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501505-988-2877 • FAX 505-983-3828

ElCastilloRetirement.com

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