Residents participate in Healthiest State walk

Active Aging Week was observed this week with classes for people of all ages. Wellness and Fitness staff asked residents to complete the following sentence with reasons that they choose exercise classes and an active lifestyle. I stay active so I can…play sports, stay active, shop for myself, live, volunteer, help with kids, golf, dance, walk my dog, do Tai Chi, do Yoga, walk, still be active with my grandchildren and future great-grandchildren, live well to 91-92, live on my own. All are excellent reasons.

Stefanie Tschantz and Hanna Brenneman led residents on a mile trek around the Mary Cottrell Walking Path Wednesday as they participated in Iowa's Healthiest State Walk. Residents from 60 to 86 participated in the walk on a breezy but warm October day.

Leadingage Iowa met for a networking workshop at the United Presbyterian Home on Wednesday. Leadingage Iowa is an organization of non-profit organizations dedicated to making Iowa a better place to grow old. This group of professional and business people from across the state work to support and promote policies that allow people to live fully as they age. Following their morning meeting the group toured the new Garrett Health and Wellness Center on the UPH Campus before traveling across town to tour the new additions at Halcyon House.

Duretta Niemeyer shared cookies with residents and staff on Thursday in celebration of her birthday.

Max Smith enjoyed a visit from his brother-in-law JD Longsdale this week. JD lives in Arizona and spent a couple of days in one of the UPH guest rooms while visiting Max.

Max Smith shared with us this week a cartoon drawing which hung in his house for years. The autographed pencil drawing is an original print of newspaper cartoonist, Frank Miller. It is an almost child-like sketch of a very round boy, dressed for winter with hat and scarf blowing in the wind. The two by three foot piece of art with large sweeping lines appears that the artist may have completed the drawing in about five minutes while adding endless character. Frank Miller is famous for his work as an editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register from 1953 until 1983. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1963.

Classics Et Cetera for October 4, 2018 included the overture to 'The Impresario” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 'Autumn” from 'The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi; 'Habanera” from 'Carmen” by Georges Bizet (Rïsa Stevens, mezzo-soprano); Waltz No. 7 by Frédéric Chopin (Arthur Rubinstein, pianist); 'Polonaise Brilliante” by Henryk Wieniawski; 2nd Movement of the Grand Sextet by Mikhail Glinka; 'His Excellency,” march by Henry Fillmore.

In 1786, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II invited 80 guests to the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna for a private performance of two new operas. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) were each bidden to compose an opera to be performed simultaneously that afternoon, one at each end of the room. 'The Impresario” was Mozart's entry. With an overture and four vocal numbers, it lasts about 30 minutes. The plot concerns two sopranos auditioning for an impresario and arguing over who would get the best role and pay. After a tenor intervenes in a hilarious trio, they both end up getting equal roles and large salaries. Salieri's entry on the other end of the room seems to have been forgotten.