Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, February 18, 2023

Mountain View News Saturday, February 18, 2023 13 Mountain View News Saturday, February 18, 2023 13 
ASSISTED LIVING OR NURSING HOME? 

There are many myths about Assisted Living being like 
Nursing Homes. This is not true at all. Nursing facilities 
are for those with chronic health issues who require care 
around the clock from medical professionals. 

In Assisted Living, one will get the support as needed, 
such as getting help with showering, grooming, and 
dressing. Again, these services are based on the seniors 
needs. 

There are many reasons in working with us. At Safe Path 
for Seniors, we will assess the senior and depending on their care needs and budget, make recommendations. 
For example, we may suggest that the right fit is a Board and Care Home (normally a 6-bedroom house) as 
opposed to an Assisted Living Community or a Memory Support Facility. You will work with an experienced 
agent who 
knows the industry well and will give you recommendations. The good news is that there is no cost for this 
service. 


If you have any questions about placing a loved one, visit www.safepathforseniors.com or call Steve at 
626-999-6913 

COULD YOU HAVE A THYROID PROBLEM AND NOT KNOW IT? 


Dear Savvy Senior:
What are the symptoms of thyroid disease? I’ve 
been dealing with a number of health issues over 
the past few years, and a friend of mine recently 
suggested I get my thyroid checked because it might 
be causing my problems. Almost 66 

Dear Almost: 
If your thyroid is out of whack, it can cause a number 
of health issues that can be tricky to detect because 
the symptoms often resemble other age-related 
health problems. In fact, as many as 30 million 
Americans have some form of thyroid disorder, but 
more than half aren’t aware of it. 

What to Know 
The thyroid is a small butterfly-shaped gland located 
at the base of your neck that has a huge job. 
It produces hormones (called T3 and T4) that help 
regulate the rate of many of your body’s activities, 
from how quickly you burn calories to how fast 
your heart beats. It also influences the function of 
the brain, liver, kidneys and skin. 

If the gland is underactive and doesn’t produce 
enough thyroid hormones, it causes body systems 
to slow down. If it’s overactive, and churns out too 
much thyroid, it has the opposite effect, speeding 
up the body’s processes. 

The symptoms for an underactive thyroid (also 
known as hypothyroidism) – the most common 
thyroid disorder in older adults – will vary but may 
include fatigue and weakness, unexplained weight 
gain, increased sensitivity to cold, constipation, 
joint pain, a puffy face, hoarseness, thinning hair, 
muscle stiffness, dry skin and depression. Some 
patients may even develop an enlarged thyroid 
(goiter) at the base of the neck. However, in older 
adults, it can cause other symptoms like memory 
impairment, loss of appetite, weight loss, falls or 
even incontinence. 

And the symptoms of an overactive thyroid (or 
hyperthyroidism) may include a rapid heart rate, 
anxiety, irritability, fatigue, insomnia, increased 
appetite, weight loss, tremors of the hand, frequent 
bowel movements, sweating, as well as an 
enlarged thyroid gland. Too much thyroid can also 
cause atrial fibrillation, affect blood pressure and 
decrease bone density, which increases the risk of 
osteoporosis. 

 
By Marc Garlett 

Will Your Estate Plan 
Work When Your Family 
Needs It?
Like most people, you 
likely think estate planning 
is just one more 
task to check off your 
life’s endless “to-do” list. 
You can shop around 
and find a lawyer to create 
planning documents 

for you or create your own DIY plan using online 
templates. Then, you’ll put those documents into a 
drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do 
list, and forget about them.
The problem is, estate planning is more than just a 
one-and-done type of deal.
It will be worthless if your plan is not updated when 
your assets, family situation, and laws change. Failing 
to update your plan can create problems which actually 
leave your family worse off than if you’ve never 
created a plan at all.
Ideally, an estate plan should keep your family out of 
court and out of conflict after your passing. But a bad 
plan, or one that’s not updated as needed throughout 
your lifetime will likely not keep your family out of 
either. 
A Game Changing RealizationLet’s take the case of a divorced father who died. He’d 
done his estate planning—or at least thought he had. 
He paid a law firm roughly $3,000 to prepare an estate 
plan for him, so his family wouldn’t be stuck with the 
hassles and expense of probate court or drawn into 
needless conflict with his ex-wife. 
And yet, after his death, that’s exactly what did happen. 
His family was forced to go to court to claim assets 
that were supposed to pass directly to them. And 
on top of that, they had to deal with his ex-wife and 
her attorneys.
It’s almost unfathomable. If he paid $3,000 for an estate 
plan, why were his loved ones dealing with the 
court and his ex-wife? Well, because his planning 
documents were never updated, and his assets were 
not correctly titled.
The decedent created a Trust so that his assets would 
pass directly to his family when he died, and they 
wouldn’t have to endure probate. But some of his assets 
had never been transferred into the name of his 
Trust from the beginning. And since there was no 
updated inventory of his assets, there was no way for 
his family to even confirm everything he had when he 
died. And anything unaccounted for wound up in the 
state’s Department of Unclaimed Property.
Did the family at least have a malpractice claim against 
the law firm which prepared the estate plan? Unfortunately, 
no, instead of malpractice, this kind of outcome 
is common practice within the legal industry.
Will Your Plan Work When Your Family Needs It? 
We hear similar stories from our clients all the time. 
In fact, outside of not creating any plan, one of the 
most common planning mistakes we encounter is 
when we get called by the loved ones of someone who 
has become incapacitated or died with a plan that 
no longer works. Yet by that point, it’s too late, and 
the loved ones left behind are forced to deal with the 
aftermath. 
We recommend you review your plan at least every 

Those with the greatest risk of developing thyroid 
disorders are women who have a family history 
of the disease. Other factors that can trigger thyroid 
problems include: autoimmune diseases like 
Hashimoto’s or Graves disease; thyroid surgery; 
radiation treatments to the neck or upper chest; 
and certain medications including interferon alpha 
and interleukin-2 cancer medications, amiodarone 
heart medication and lithium for bipolar disorder. 

Get Tested 
If you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, 
or if you’ve had previous thyroid problems or notice 
a lump in the base of your neck, ask your doctor to 
check your thyroid levels. The TSH (thyroid-stimulating 
hormone) blood test is used to diagnosis 
thyroid disorders but depending on what they find, 
additional blood tests may be necessary. 

If you are diagnosed with a thyroid problem, it’s 
easily treated. Standard treatment for hypothyroidism 
involves daily use of the synthetic thyroid hormone 
levothyroxine (Levothroid, Synthroid and 
others), which is an oral medication that restores 
adequate hormone levels. 

And treatments for hyperthyroidism may include 
an anti-thyroid medication such as methimazole 
and propylthioracil, which blocks the production 
of thyroid hormones. Another option is radioactive 
iodine, which is taken orally and destroys the overactive 
thyroid cells and causes the gland to shrink. 
But this can leave the thyroid unable to produce 
any hormone and it’s likely that you’ll eventually 
become hypothyroid and need to start taking thyroid 
medication. 

For more information on thyroid disorders, visit 
the American Thyroid Association at Thyroid.org. 

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. 

WILL YOUR ESTATE PLAN 

FAMILY MATTERS 

WORK WHEN YOUR 

FAMILY NEEDS IT? 

three years to ensure it’s up to date and immediately 
amend it following events like divorce, deaths, births, 
and inheritances. You don’t want your family to have 
to deal with any messes you’ve overlooked as your 
family situation, the law, and your assets change over 
time. 
A Law Firm That Keeps Your Plan CurrentYou don’t want a law firm that just creates legal documents 
and sends you on your way without any followup 
support.
For example, look for a firm that proactively prevents 
two of the biggest mistakes made all too often by 
many lawyers who create estate plans. These mistakes 
include: 1) not keeping assets properly inventoried 
and 2) not correctly titling assets held in Trust.
Maintaining a regularly updated inventory of all 
your assets is one of the most vital parts of keeping 
your plan current. Your lawyer should not only help 
you create a comprehensive asset inventory, but they 
should also help make sure the list stays consistently 
updated throughout your lifetime. 
Start creating an inventory of everything you own to 
ensure your loved ones know what you have, where it 
is, and how to access it if something happens to you. 
From there, ask your lawyer to incorporate your inventory 
into a comprehensive set of planning strategies 
and work to keep everything updated throughout 
your lifetime.
To properly title assets held by a Trust, it’s not enough 
to list the assets you want to cover when you create 
a Trust. You have to transfer the legal title of certain 
assets—real estate, bank accounts, securities, brokerage 
accounts—to the Trust, known as “funding” the 
Trust, for them to be appropriately disbursed.
While most lawyers will create a Trust for you, only 
some will ensure your assets are properly funded. 
Don’t settle for a firm not willing to make sure your 
assets are properly titled when you initially create 
your Trust, and able to ensure that any new assets 
you acquire throughout your life are inventoried and 
properly funded to your Trust. This will keep your assets 
from being lost and prevent your family from being 
inadvertently forced into court because your plan 
was never fully completed.
For The Love of Your FamilyYour lawyer’s planning services should go far beyond 
simply creating documents and then never seeing you 
again. Your lawyer should develop a relationship with 
your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but 
for the lifetime of your children and their children if 
that’s your wish.
You’ll get the most value from a lawyer who supports 
you in not only creating a plan that keeps your family 
out of court and out of conflict in the event of your 
death or incapacity, but who also ensures your plan 
is regularly updated to make sure that it works and is 
there for your family when you cannot be. 

To your health, wealth, and family legacy, 

Marc Garlett, Esq.
Cali Law Family Legacy Matterswww.caliLaw.com 
626.355.4000 

SENIOR HAPPENINGS 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY! …FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS* 

Tracy Verhoeven, Beatrice DaRe, Catherine Adde, Hilda Pittman, Anne-
Marie Stockdale, Susan Henderson, Allie Attay, Ursula El-Tawansy, 
Gladys Moser, Sylvia Lorhan, Ana Ptanski, Winifred Swanson , Janet 
Gillespie, Marian DeMars, Vickie Vernon, Mary Beth Knox, Sharon 
Lefler. 

* To add your name to this distinguished list, please call the paper at 626.355.2737. 
YEAR of birth not required 
DOMINOES TRAIN GAME 
1st & 3rd Wednesdays 11:00 am— 12:30 pm Hart Park House 

The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from their hand onto one or 
more trains, emanating from a central hub or “station”. Call Lawren with questions that 
you may have. 

TEA AND TALK BOOK CLUB 
Wednesday, 2/15 9:00 am Hart Park House 

Staff has launched a new book club series, Tea and Talk, which meets twice a month 
to discuss the fun, suspense, intrigue, love and so much more that each selection will 
have in store! 

FIBER FRIENDs 
Tuesday, 1/17 10:00 am Hart Park House 

If you enjoy knitting, crocheting, embroidery, needlepoint, bunka, huck, tatting or 
cross stitch then we have a group for you! Bring your current project, sit and chat 
with like-minded fiber friends. 

HULA AND POLYNESIAN DANCE 
Every Friday 10-10:45 am 

Bring a lei, your flower skirt or just your desire to dance! Hula in the Park is back 
and waiting for you to join in on all the fun! Memorial Park Pavilion. 

CHAIR YOGA 
Every Monday and Wednesday 10-10:45 am 

Please join us for some gentle stretching, yoga, balance exercise and overall relaxation 
with Paul. Classes are ongoing and held in the Memorial Park Covered Pavilion 
or the Hart Park House. 

BINGO 

Thursday, 1/19 Hart Park House 1:00 pm-2:00 pm

Please join in a fun and lively game of BINGO. Several rounds fun will be had with 
prizes for each rounds winner. 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

IF I'M NOT CRAZY, NOBODY IS 

Last Sunday, we were driving to our Sunday morning church service 

and encountered a lot of crazy drivers. As The Gracious Mistress of 
the Parsonage was driving, I kept my cool and, more importantly, my mouth closed.
Every once in a while, she would say, “What’s wrong with these crazy drivers?” 

I could tell she was a little agitated by these drivers swaying in and out of the lanes.
“Why are people so crazy when they are driving? How did they get a driver’s license?”
Certainly, I could have enhanced the conversation, but I knew I would not come out 
on the winning side. There are times when a person should just keep their mouth 
shut. After all these years as a husband, I am learning more about keeping my mouth 
shut. The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has often looked at me and said, “Are 
you crazy or what?” 

You don’t know how often I wanted her to define what she meant by “or what.” But, of 
course, I’m not sure I would have liked her definition at that time. 
I’m unsure if I was born crazy or just learned it as I grew up. But the facts remain that 
I am crazy in a variety of ways. 

It would be nice to sit down with The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and get her 
to explain how she thinks I am crazy. I’m not sure she could ever stop talking about 
it if I did. 

Some people’s crazy is another person’s lifestyle. So I’m leaning towards the latter.
Not long ago, she had to go thrift store shopping which would take up most of her 
day. I was rather excited because I’ve been thinking about getting an Apple Fritter for 
several weeks. These are not on my diet, and I’m not allowed to bring them into the 
house. 

A few minutes after she left, I jumped in my truck, went, got an Apple Fritter and 
brought it home. I was in Apple Fritter heaven. 

On my third bite of that Apple Fritter, I heard the front door open, and in walked The 
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. She stopped, looked at me with both hands on 
her hips, and said, “Are you crazy or what? You’re not allowed to have Apple Fritters, 
especially in this house.” Well, when you’re crazy, I guess you’re crazy. 

I’ve been thinking about this, and the thought that has dominated my thinking is, 
what’s so wrong about being crazy? Some of the best people I know are crazy.
Driving home from church about three weeks ago, some old man on a motorcycle was 
weaving back and forth, passing cars. When he passed us, he was smiling like a really 
crazy man. When my wife saw him, she looked at me and said, “What is wrong with 
that crazy man?” I laughed and wanted to say, but I didn’t, “Well, that crazy man is 
just having fun. He’s enjoying his life.” Looking at me, she might have said, “He better 
enjoy it now because that crazy guy isn’t going to last very long.” 

I would have loved to stop him and query him, “Sir, what does your wife think of your 
driving like a crazy man?” I would have loved his answer about that. I probably could 
have learned a lesson or two about being crazy myself. 

The wise man was pretty close to accurate when he said, “Crazy is as crazy does.”
I remember once getting in trouble with The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.
I was in my easy chair reading a book, she came in very anxious and said, “Have you 
seen my glasses? I can’t find them.” I looked at her and assumed this was a trick question 
and she was setting me up for something be-cause her glasses were on the top of 
her head. I didn’t know where this “joke” was going, but I thought I would just play 
along. Looking at her, I said, “Are you crazy or what?” Then I laughed hysterically as 
she stared at me. “I am not crazy; I just cannot find my glasses.” She wasn’t laughing. 

Looking through the living room, she finally reached to the top of her head and said, 
“Oh, here they are on top of my head. Why didn’t you tell me? Are you crazy or what?”
It’s crazy people like me that have all the fun in the world from people who don’t think 
they’re crazy. There’s not a day in the week that I would ever suggest to The Gracious 
Mistress of the Par-sonage that I thought she was crazy. I do think that way, but I will 
never expose that thought to her because I love my life as it is. 

What would life be without a little bit of craziness? 

From my long experience with being crazy, I have concluded that being crazy is an 
art. It takes a long time to learn how to be crazy, and I think I am very close to a Ph.D. 
in crazyolgy. 

I couldn’t help but think of my favorite Bible verse. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord 
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge 
him, and he shall direct thy paths.” 

No matter how crazy the world around me is, I can trust God to lead me in the right 
direction. 

Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 
1-352-216-3025, e-mail jamessnyder51@gmail.com, website www.jamessnyderministries.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