Right around the corner
One welcoming sign of spring are its sounds. The lovely morning bird sings a melody starting at around 5-6 a.m. Then shortly after the sparrows are in full chatter. And the mocking bird joins in the chorus at times along with the red flicker woodpecker who puts out a distinctive call. Of course, once and awhile, one can hear the "cheeseburger" or "hey sweetie" chant of the black capped chickadees at this time of year.
Then the lawnmowers and trimmers are heard grooming yards. Nice to listen to wind chimes clanging with the breeze and kids playing outside.
It's been a long, cold winter and we humans need springtime to lift ourselves out of the blues and into renewal and hope going forward. Can't wait to garden and soak up some sun. I encourage all who can to get out and walk while listening to the wonderful echoes of spring awakening.
Ann Burke
Carson City
Advice for caregivers
I would like to share with all the caregivers of loved ones with a terminal illness my experience. My husband has Alzheimer’s and at first I called RSVP in Carson and they sent a wonderful man to spend four hours a week with him to give me a break. That helped so much; but it got to the point I had to put him in a memory care home.
They suggested I call hospice, which I thought just sent someone to visit with my husband. I was so wrong. They have taken over his health care and a nurse comes twice a week and is on-call in case of an emergency. They also send an aide to help with bathing, grooming and the aide spends time with him.
Had I had them while he was home it would have been such a great help and perhaps I might not have had to put him into memory care. So please do yourself a favor and look at hospice care. I am using Gentiva but there are many out there to choose from.
Thelma Rogers
Minden
Walker Lake traffic issue needs state help
Being that we are located a couple of hours away from the Reno/Carson City area, are we being ignored? Our little village of Walker Lake, located on the Highway 95 Reno-to-Vegas corridor, has two turn on-off lanes located at a deserted state beach and a residential area that’s one house. We do have school-aged children here and have had the major school bus route paved at the residents’ expense. The biggest problem here is that the route used by the school buses doesn’t have a turnoff lane. We have had several accidents due to these turnoffs.
The local advisory board has contacted Nevada division of highways only to be told that the village of Walker Lake has a frontage road, therefore there is no need for speed reduction through our little village, nor a third turnoff lane.
After a very bad accident where a semi-truck hauling potatoes rear-ended a local resident, tipping over on top of the resident and trapping them in the crushed vehicle. The local residents showed up in force, digging out the victims from beneath the load of potatoes. A petition was created and signed by 95% of the residents to lower the speed limits through our little peaceful village. The Nevada division of highways decided to then raise the speed limits for some morbid reasons.
Now 25 or so years later and many accidents from semi-truck traffic among other wrecks concerning the lacking turnoff lanes and the raised highway speeds the Nevada division of highways seems oblivious to our concerns for highway safety. Will it take our school kids getting killed before our concerns are considered by our state officials?
Lawrence Worthen
Walker Lake