Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, March 6, 2021

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Mountain View News Saturday, March 6, 2021 

TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN HELP YOU LOCATE THINGS YOU MISPLACE 

Dear Savvy Senior,:Can you recommend any good devices 
that help seniors with tracking down misplaced items? 
My wife misplaces everything including her car keys, eyeglasses, 
cell phone, purse and more.
Always Searching 

Dear Always:
There’s actually a wide variety of tracking devices that 
can help you and your wife find items that are commonly misplaced. Here are some top options to 
consider depending on how tech savvy you are. 


Bluetooth Trackers 
If you or your wife uses a smartphone or tablet, you can easily track down lost or misplaced items 
like keys, a purse or wallet, remote control, smartphone, tablet or even a laptop with a Bluetooth 
tracker. While there are several different types of tracker products on the market today, the best is 
Tile (TheTileApp.com), which pairs with Apple and Android apps to help you locate missing items. 

All you do is attach a small battery-powered Tile to the items you want to keep track of with an adhesive 
sticker, a key ring or you can just slip it inside the item. 

Then, when a tagged item goes missing, you simply access the app on your smartphone or tablet to 
see how far away you are from the item or last known location on the map. If you’re within 150 to 200 
feet, you can make the Tile ring so you can follow the sound to easily find it. 

Or, if your wife loses her phone, the Tile work in reverse, allowing her to double press the button on 
her Tile to make her phone ring (even if it’s on silent) as long as it’s nearby. 

Tile also works with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Siri to find misplaced items. All you have 
to do is ask. 

To fit your tracking needs, Tile offers a variety of different sized trackers including the Tile Mate 
($25) that’s ideal for keeping track of keys, purses or backpacks; Tile Slim ($25), which is the size of 
a credit card that can be put into a wallet or attached to a laptop; Tile Sticker ($40 for a 2-pack), the 
smallest finder that can attach to things like remotes, bikes and more; and Tile Pro ($35), which is 
the most durable tacker that has a 400-foot range and extra loud ringer. 

Glasses Tracker 
Since Tile doesn’t offer a glasses tracker, a great product to help your wife keep tabs on her eyeglasses 
is Orbit Glasses (FindOrbit.com; $40). This is a tiny rechargeable Bluetooth device that sticks to the 
inside arm of the glasses so it’s not noticeable. 

So, when your wife’s glasses aren’t on her head, but are nearby, she can use the free Orbit app to make 
them ring so she can find them quickly. Or, if she’s out of Bluetooth range, she can check the last 
known location that will be shown on the map. 

Radio Frequency FindersIf you or your wife don’t have a smartphone or tablet, there are also radio frequency devices like the 
Esky Key Finders (EskyNow.com), sold through Amazon.com, that can help you find misplaced 
items. 

These devices come with an item locator remote and four to six tags with prices ranging between $20 
and $30. Attach a tag to the items you want to keep track of with a key ring or adhesive. Each tag is 
color-coded and corresponds to a colored button on the finder. 

When an item goes missing, you simply press the colored button on the locator remote and the 
tag will flash and beep. The signal will go through walls and cushions and have a tracking range of 
around 100 feet. Make sure you keep the finder fob in a safe spot, because if you misplace it, you 
won’t be able to find the tagged items. 

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.
org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. 

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett 


IMPORTANT ESTATE PLANNING LESSONS 
FROM LARRY KING’S DEATH—PART 2 

Legendary TV and radio 
host, Larry King, 
died at Cedars-Sinai 
Medical Center in Los 
Angeles on January 
23rd, 2021 at age 87. 

Last week, in part one 
of this series, we discussed how Larry’s decision 
to create a handwritten will, rather than take the 
time to consult with legal counsel to properly update 
his plan for his impending divorce, is likely 
to result in a lengthy court battle between Larry’s 
seventh wife, Shawn Southwick King, and his surviving 
children. Moreover, we also noted that Larry 
would have been far better off using a Lifetime 
Asset Protection Trust, instead of a will, to distribute 
his assets to his children upon his death. 

Here, in the second part of this series, we’ll look in 
depth at the different ways a Lifetime Asset Protection 
Trust would have benefited Larry’s children—
and the planning lessons we can take away 
from his mistake. 

Lifetime Asset Protection Trusts: Airtight Protection 
for Your Child’s Inheritance 
A Lifetime Asset Protection Trust is a unique 
estate planning vehicle specifically designed to 
protect your children’s inheritance from unfortunate 
life events, such as divorce, debt, illness, and 
accidents. At the same time, the trust gives your 
children the ability to access and invest their inheritance, 
while retaining airtight asset protection 
for their entire lives. 

For someone with as much wealth and as many 
heirs as Larry, a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust, 
built into his Living Trust, would have been an 
ideal vehicle to protect and pass on his assets. To 
see why, let’s break down how these unique trusts 
work. 

To avoid the court process of probate that’s inherent 
with a will-based plan, most lawyers will advise 
you to put the assets you’re leaving your kids 
in a revocable living trust—and this is the right 
move. But most living trusts are structured to 
distribute your assets outright to your children at 
certain ages or stages, such as one-third at age 25, 
half the balance at 30, and the rest at 35. Giving 
outright ownership of the trust assets in this way, 
however, leaves them at serious risk of being lost 
or squandered. 

You see, once the assets are distributed to the beneficiary, 
all of the protection previously offered by 
your trust disappear. For example, creditors could 
take their money if it’s paid to beneficiaries in an 
outright distribution. The same thing would be 
true if a beneficiary got divorced after receiving an 
inheritance, only it would be the ex-spouse who 
would claim a right to the funds in the divorce 

settlement. 

In contrast, a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust 
gives a Trustee of your choice full discretion on 
whether to make distributions or not. The Trustee 
has full authority to determine how and when the 
assets should be released based on the beneficiary’s 
needs and the circumstances at the time. And 
you can even choose to make your beneficiary the 
Trustee of their own trust (with some restrictions) 
for even more flexibility and control. 

For example, if a beneficiary is in the process of 
getting divorced or in the middle of a lawsuit, 
the Trustee could refuse to distribute any funds. 
Therefore, the Trust assets would remain shielded 
from a divorce or an order to pay damages resulting 
from a lawsuit. 

And because the Trustee controls access to the 
inheritance, those assets are not only protected 
from outside threats like ex-spouses and creditors, 
but from your child’s own poor judgment, as 
well. For example, if a beneficiary ever develops a 
substance abuse or gambling problem, the Trustee 
could withhold distributions until the appropriate 
treatment is received. 

What’s more, you can write up guidelines to the 
Trustee, providing him or her with clear directions 
about how you’d like the trust assets to be 
used for your beneficiaries. This ensures the 
Trustee is aware of your values and wishes when 
making distributions, rather than simply guessing 
what you would’ve wanted, which often leads to 
problems down the road. 

In addition to airtight asset protection, a Lifetime 
Asset Protection Trust can also be set up to give 
your child hands-on experience managing financial 
matters, like investing, running a business, 
and charitable giving. 

And asset Protection Trusts are not just for the 
super wealthy. Indeed, these protective trusts 
are even more useful if you’re leaving a relatively 
modest inheritance, since the smaller the inheritance, 
the more at risk it is of getting wiped out 
by a single unfortunate event like a medical emergency 
or lawsuit. 

Dedicated to empowering your family, building 
your wealth and defining your legacy,

A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is on a 


mission to help parents protect 

what they love most. His

office is located at 55 Auburn 

Avenue, Sierra Madre, 

CA 91024. Schedule an 

appointment to sit down andtalk about ensuring a legacy of love and financialsecurity for your family by calling 626.355.4000 orvisit www.GarlettLaw.com for more information. 

SENIOR HAPPENINGS 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! …MARCH Birthdays* 


Cathy Flammer, Clare Marquardt, Karen Blachly, Carla Duplex, Ella Guttman, 
Viky Tchatlian, Mary Cooper, Sun Liu, Helen Wallis, Joan Crow, Nancy Fox, 
Martha Cassara, Rita Johnson, Mercedes Campos, Dorothy Webster,Terri Elder, 
Carol Cerrina, Amy Putnam, Sally Contreras

* To add your name to this distinguished list, please call the paper at 
626.355.2737. YEAR of birth not required 
SENIOR ACTIVITIES IN SIERRA MADRE 

CHAIR YOGA Every Monday and Wednesday, 10-10:45 am Chair yoga with Paul is coming back! Class will 
begin on Monday, August 10th and will be held in the Covered Pavilion in Memorial Park in front of the Senior 
Center. Please join us for some gentle stretching, yoga, balance exercise and overall relaxa-tion. Class size is limited 
so please call 264-8923 to reserve your spot. 

HAWAIIAN AND POLYNESIAN DANCE CLASS Every Friday, 10-10:45 am Class will also meet in the Covered 
Pavilion in Memorial Park in front of the Senior Center. Join the class with instructor Barbara as she leads 
you through the art of Hula. Please call 264-8923 with any questions. 
Classes will maintain a distance of 6 ft between participants. ALL participants must be wearing masks for the 
duration of the class. All equipment used will be sanitized after each use before it is stored. Each participant is 
responsible for providing their own water, masks and needed equipment or sup-plies for each class. Please call the 
Community Services Department at 355-5278 with any questions or concerns. 

OCTOBER CRAFT 

Wednesday, October 21, 11:00 am. Please join me as we try our hands at making Wooden Owl Orna-ments. This 
will be a new type of program as we create our masterpieces via Zoom to ensure all of our safety. I will have all the 
supplies individually packaged and ready for pickup on Monday, October 19th pickup will be between 10:00 am


2:00 pm. I will have enough supplies for 10 participants. Reservations are required so please call 355-5278 x 704 
to secure your spot. Please note that this is an ONLINE class that will be held via Zoom. We will not be meeting 
in the Hart Park House Senior Center. 
IDEAS

 Do you have any ideas for programming? Is there a class or club you would like to see in our Senior Community? 
Please call or email Lawren Heinz with ideas or questions. 626-355-5278 x 704 lheinz@cityofsierramadre.com

 City staff are monitoring email communication daily, and although employees are minimizing direct engagement 
and interfacing less with the community, please note that voice messages, emails, and social media responses are 
being addressed in the most efficient and timely manner. If at any time additional information is needed, please 
contact City Hall Administrative Services at (626) 355-7135, Monday-Thursday from 7:30a – 5:30p, as they are 
taking messages and e-mailing the appropriate per-son. For messages that may trickle in otherwise, please note 
our team is remotely checking voicemail daily at the Community Services Department, (626) 355-5278 x702. 

SIERRA MADRE SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 
The City of Sierra Madre is following these procedures to provide current communication in light of COVID-19 
and keep the Senior Community and families informed of essential information and resources. City staff are 
monitoring email communication daily, and although employees are minimizing direct engagement and practicing 
social distancing in the community, please note that voice messages, emails, and social media responses are 
being addressed in the most efficient and timely manner.
If at any moment additional information is needed, please contact City Hall Administrative Services at (626) 3557135, 
Monday-Thursday from 7:30a – 5:30p, as they are taking messages and e-mailing the appropriate person.

For messages that may trickle in otherwise, please note our team is remotely checking voicemail daily at the 
Community Services Department, (626) 355-5278 x702.

Community Services Department will continue email communication with Senior residents and aging community 
members.

If you know of family members or neighbors who may benefit from accessing information electronically, and 
to receive the department’s Seniors Newsletter via email but may not otherwise have been included on an email 
group list, please send your request with email address to the following team members: Lawren Heinz Lheinz@ 
cityofsierramadre.com and Clarissa Lowe Clowe@cityofsierramadre.com.

City Social Media will continue via Facebook as well as Instagram, and information sharing will include updates 
as details becomes available. 

Mater Dolorosa - Sierra Madre Meal Pick-Up Program provides seal-packaged frozen meals, 5-per person 
every Thursday, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. at Hart Park House Senior Center 222 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. Donations 
are accepted. Call (626) 355-5278; x702 or 704. YWCA Intervale Meal Program - Effective 
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 

YWCA has transitioned their distribution of take home meals at the Sierra Madre Hart Park House 
Senior Center to a home-delivery meal program. Participants previously reserved for meal pick-up 
as of Wednesday, 3/25/20 were informed that they would begin to have their meals delivered to their 
homes, beginning Wednesday, April 1, 2020 until further notice. 

OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

WHAT'S SO PEASY ABOUT EASY? 


I am nowhere to be found 
when it comes to crafts, remodeling, 
and just plain fixer-

uppers. My car-pentry skills are nowhere to be 
found even though I've looked for a long time.
If I try to fix something, I make it worse than it 
was. Fixing is not my strong suit.
On the other side of the parsonage, we have a different 
scenario. 
If the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage cannot 
fix something, it cannot be broken. No matter 
what it is, it doesn't take her long to figure out 
how to fix it. 
Often she will spend time on the computer 
searching out a particular project and getting to 
know what needs to be done to fix it and get it up 
and running.
I must say, and this is just between you and me, 
she has saved me quite a bit of money by fixing 
things up that would cost a lot to have them 
fixed at a professional place. If there is something 
wrong with my vehicle, I first present it to my 
wife. I have yet to find something broken in my 
ve-hicle that she cannot fix. 
Once there was a fender on my vehicle that was 
loose and almost falling apart. The Gracious Mistress 
of the Parsonage looked at it, thought about 
it, and then went into the house and got a huge 
paperclip, brought it out, and fixed the fender. 
That was five years ago, and it’s still fixed.
When she fixed it, she said, "Well, that was 
easy-peasy.” 
She says that every time she fixes something and 
then looks at me and smiles. 
The first 100 times she said that, I didn't think 
too much of it. But as of late, I've been trying 
to fig-ure out what in the world she means by 
"easy-peasy.” 
I know I could sit down and ask her to explain it 
to me. I tried it once, and she just looked at me, 
smiled, and said, "Oh, you silly boy. You know exactly 
what I mean."
I returned her smile even though I had no idea 
what in the world she was talking about.
If I ever find out what the phrase "easy-peasy" 
means, I may be able to understand my wife a 
little better. No matter what she puts her hands to 
do, it's easy-peasy for her.
This has been a wonderful relationship for us. 
If there’s something I can break, she can fix it. 
If there is something that she cannot fix, I simply 
cannot break it. That has made life rather 
easy-peasy.
Once in a while, she will ask me to come and help 
her with something. My job, of course, is to move 
something too heavy for her to move. And then 
after I sweat my neck off and move that thing, she 

will always say, "Well, that was easy-peasy, wasn’t 
it?” 
I thought about that for some time and began 
to realize that sweating my neck off is what she 
means by “easy-peasy.” 
The other day I was sitting in my office reflecting 
on a few things. The wife was out doing some 
shopping, so I had some quiet time. Sitting there, 
I looked around and then began to walk through 
the house, and I couldn't believe how many 
things had her fingerprint on them.
When something breaks in our home, we don't 
call a repairman; we just call Ms. Easy-Peasy who 
can fix anything and everything.
Even when the situation calls for the AC technician 
to come and fix our AC, she tells him what’s 
wrong and how to fix it.
The last time the AC technician came and fixed 
our AC, and as he was leaving, she said to him, 
"Well, that was easy-peasy, wasn't it?" As he went 
out the front door, he smiled and said, "Yes, it certainly 
was."
Not everything in life is “easy-peasy." Many things 
are very difficult, at least from my perspective.
Having someone in the house who can fix and repair 
everything is quite remarkable, not the least 
in saving money.
Then I had an excellent thought. How much 
money could we make if we started our fix-it-up 
busi-ness? I think I would call the business "Ms. 
Easy-Peasy Unlimited." I could hire her out to fix 
eve-rything in our neighborhood and beyond.
She could fix everything, and I could count the 
money she makes. I can count the money; I just 
can't make money. I think it would be a great 
business, and every time she would come home 
from a job, I could say, "Well, that was easypeasy,” 
as I counted the money for the day.
Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I 
realized that with such a business I would not see 
her very often. So much that needs to be fixed out 
in our world, and she would be gone all the time.
To me, that would not be "easy-peasy." No matter 
how much money we could make with "Ms. 
Easy-Peasy Unlimited," it wouldn't be worth not 
having her around the house all the time.
As I was thinking of this, a verse of Scripture 
came to my mind. "And the Lord God said, It 
is not good that the man should be alone; I will 
make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18).
I’m wondering if maybe that is the reason God 
gave Adam his Eve. 

Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God 
Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. Email 
jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site 
is www.whatafellowship.com. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 
Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com