JimR – Not the Final Chapter

Halloween

I gotta say, I didn’t see this one coming! When we lived in a house in a nearby town, we would get maybe 50 or 60 trick-or-treaters on a Halloween on a good, warm night. If it rained, perhaps 20 kids maximum. Here at Otterbein, there are no children, so we didn’t expect any visitors to show up.

I heard rumblings of plans for the villa courts, and now recall that somewhere a message was seen or heard that residents would not have to buy their own candy, that Otterbein would provide it. But nothing popped up on my radar to move me to action. I imagined a few residents dressing up and giving each other treats. Boy, was I wrong!

The old Boy Scout in me told me to do something, even though I doubted anything needed to be done. We had a flyer from the Big House that told us something vaguely like, “It’s going to be from 4:30 to 6:00.” What “it” was, well, I hadn’t a clue. However, I went to the local store at 2:00 and bought six bags of miniature candy bars. Not very large bags, and even at that, I imagined we’d be eating candy all winter until the chocolate got that white sheen on it that tells you it’s time to toss it out.

Our neighbors, who had moved into Otterbein in November last year were equally clueless and poo-pood my purchase as unnecessary.

Well, I should have guessed what was coming. Otterbein is not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but, as some pundit once quipped, you can see nowhere from your front porch. Houses out here are so far apart that trick-or-treaters would be lucky to score two candy bars before being run off the highway by all the trucks carrying the soybeans that are being harvested right now.

The onslaught started right at 4:30. By 5:00 we were completely out of candy, and the main body of marauding children was still two courts away and advancing rapidly. The staff in the Marketing office had been by at about 4:20 to offer us candy, but we had no idea at that time what was coming and politely turned them down. They were off elsewhere on campus when we ran out.

We had no choice but to retreat to our villa and pull the blinds! Talk about feeling cheap!

So, here’s the lesson learned… Otterbein is a gold mine for the kids. It’s safe, with plenty of parking for families bringing their little gremlins, there’s absolutely no speeding traffic, and certainly no trucks hauling soybeans to the elevators. The residents in the villas (I can’t speak for the apartments) were only too happy to pass out handfuls of candy to the waiting containers, and the children were only too eager to show off their costumes, most of which were assembled with painstaking care and pride.

And Kiki had a ball. She had been petted and fussed over to the point of collapsing. She put herself to bed at 8:00 and is snoring as I write this. Everyone had a fantastic time. Next year, I WILL be prepared!

Otterbein Pemberville

I recently got permission from the corporate headquarters to use the real name of our CCRC, so I will use the real names of the streets and buildings, but not of the staff members and residents I write about. For the humans, it’s a matter of their right to privacy.

Otterbein Pemberville, officially Otterbein Senior Life Pemberville, is a full-fledged Continuing Care Retirement Community located in rural Northwest Ohio. What that means is that it comprises independent villas and apartments, assisted living apartments, and a skilled nursing facility, commonly known as a nursing home. The facility boasts an on-campus physician, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, free cable TV, complete snow removal and lawn care, walking trails, onsite banking, and many, many social and learning activities. It even has a chef with his own commercial-grade kitchen and an adjoining dining facility, where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served at modest prices.

Otterbein Pemberville sits on 162 acres of old farmland. A large portion of it, perhaps one-third, is forested and has apparently never been farmed. The area is peaceful and quiet, though numerous CSX trains pass daily along the western border of the property. There is no thru-traffic or overhead aircraft. Fire and rescue services are provided by a nearby town. Another nearby town offers a butcher shop and small grocery store, both owned by the same family, and all their meat is fresh and local.

The Otterbein Pemberville campus is large, clean, well-manicured, and, most important, it is safe. As part of the lease signing ceremony, we were presented with our very own emergency pendants, which are monitored everywhere on campus, including along most of the walking trails.

Otterbein Pemberville encourages, but does not require, residents to participate in the governing of the facility. There are three committees that answer to the governing Board: Development and Marketing, Finance and Human Resources, and Quality (includes nursing and resident services). Committees make recommendations too, but do not have a vote on, the Board; two elected Resident Director Representatives are actual Board members and each has a vote.

Our campus is made up of 75 independent living villas in five separate courts. The villas range in size from a one-bedroom to a large two-bedroom with a sunrooom. Configurations are as varied as the residents living in them. Rent is based on size of unit, and the Marketing Department handles all queries related to rent.

In addition to the villas, there are approximately 50 independent living apartments in the main building. Sizes range from studio to one bedroom, with one two-bedroom also available. As with the villas, rent varies with the size of the apartment.

Otterbein Pemberville has a brand-new assistant living wing with about 40 apartments on two floors. These apartments are designed for residents with more care needs who generally cannot live independently or who need a temporary residence after an operation or severe illness, such as stroke or heart attack.

Finally, there is a skilled nursing wing for residents with the most acute needs. This is essentially a nursing home, and needs no further description in this blog.

The Dreaded Pendant

Now, here’s something that left me a little gobsmacked… On the day we signed the paperwork to take possession of our villa, one of the last things that Brooke, the marketing person, gave each of us was the “pendant,” a device that dangles on a lanyard around your neck and is designed to save your life if you fall or get attacked by a bear, or whatever. It has a button on it that can be pushed in an emergency, and each and every pendant is monitored 24/7 while you’re on campus. It works like that Life Alert (c) device that you see advertised on cable TV. Well, both Carolyn and I almost went into shock when Brooke handed us our pendants! No, I thought, that is something for old people, and not for me!

There is more to this story… Upon arrival at our villa after leaving the marketing office, we discovered an emergency cord in the bathroom, in case one of us falls in the shower and his or her pendant is dangling on the doorknob, where it generally resides. Okay, I expected to see pendants in every room of the villa, and perhaps in my sock drawer, in case I collapsed while reaching for a clean pair of socks! Well, there are really only three, so my fears were somewhat overblown.

And there is even more to this story… About three months into our occupancy, I had to make a solo trip out of state, leaving Carolyn and Kiki to fend for themselves. Guess what?! Carolyn wore her pendant while I was gone! She said she felt safer wearing it while she was the only adult in the villa. So, the “dreaded” pendant may not be so loathsome, after all, and it could save lives. It has other uses, too, but that’s a subject for a future post.

Making New Friends

Early in the evening of our first day in our new home, there was a knock at the door, and our dog, Kiki, made sure we knew there was someone standing outside. That’s how we met Jackson and Betty, our neighbors on our left. In an instant, we had new friends. When you meet kindred spirits, it’s almost magical how quickly you can bond with them. Jackson and Betty were just completing their fifth year at Otterbein Pemberville, and needed us as much as we needed them, as the residents on our court were getting a little long in the tooth. Within days, the four of us were setting up activities and planning future outings. Jackson is a retired contractor/builder and has considerable handyman skills that helped us negotiate the usual hiccups that go with any move. Carolyn has written in a separate post of how we met our other neighbors, Debra and Paul, so I won’t go into any detail about that here.

When I joined the Army after high school, I was thrown into a mix of every race, creed, and education level, and all of us got along fine, because we were “soldiers.” In a CCRC, all residents are essentially equal, kinda like the Army, though without the regimen and drill sergeants! The rule I live by to get along with all my neighbors is to leave religion and politics at the front door. Friendships without politics or religion can be deep and rewarding. What really counts is intellect, and there’s plenty of it in a CCRC. What you have in common with all the residents is that you made the choice to live there.

You’ll make new friends easily, and you don’t have to give up your old ones. A CCRC is a great equalizer, because basically nobody has any more than anyone else. You’ll be surrounded by people of pretty much the same social and economic class as you, because your fellow residents have probably the same amount of money as you, and in the USA, that’s what defines you, like it or not. Besides, the rich will go their own way.

Storage

Storage will always be a problem for renters, and our villa is a rental. The house we moved from had a large crawl space, which we did not use, and lots of attic space. Funny how quickly an attic can fill up. After all, you’re taking stuff up there only one box at a time. When it came time to move, I spent two afternoons pulling the stuff back down and then vacuuming the entire area. Not fun.

Much of what I pulled down went to auction or into the dumpster. Actually, dumpsters, plural. The city we lived in dropped off a 3-cubic-yard dumpster, which I filled, and later another, which I also filled. Some of the items I tossed probably could have gone to the auction or a yard sale, but it was January, and I didn’t have the patience for any of that.

Our villa has a one-car garage with a single shelf on each side, extending the full length of the garage. A lot of storage space, but nowhere near enough. So, multiple trips to Lowe’s for plastic storage shelves that couldn’t be more than 14 inches deep, or the car wouldn’t fit in the garage!

If you’re going to be buying new beds when you move into your villa or apartment, consider one that has storage space underneath. One of our beds has just such a thing, and we’ve put its storage space to good use. The other bed has about 3 inches of clearance underneath, and probably will be replaced in the near future.

The lesson to be learned here is, as I’ve written before, downsize BEFORE you move, and bring bookshelves with you, if you have them. Unlike moving from one house to another, moving to a villa/apartment will most likely be about a four-month process to get completely settled in. Even with tremendous planning, you’ll probably be making multiple trips to Goodwill, a consignment store, or the local landfill after your move.

Downsize First, Then Move

Thanks to our downsizing BEFORE we moved, the recently-emptied moving van pulled away from our villa by mid-afternoon. Nothing to see here, folks, just a bunch of boxes and two exhausted renters. Truth be told, the place was a disaster! The kitchen was totally inaccessible and the TV sat, unplugged, on the living room floor. We should have gone out to eat, but didn’t want to abandon our dog, Kiki, after uprooting her from the only home she had ever known. We knew that setting up the villa would go so much more smoothly with only half of our possessions.

CCRC villas and apartments are smaller than you might like. Our villa is half the size of our previous home, though the kitchen (pictured at left) is comparable to our old one, and possibly even a little larger. Getting rid of half your possessions isn’t as hard as you might think. Decide what you want to take and auction off the rest! To accomplish this, draw a schematic of your new villa/apartment and lightly draw furniture in the rooms with a pencil. I used a software program to do this and got a computer virus for my troubles! When everything has been placed, you’ll quickly see what must be auctioned or sold. The money we made from the auction was used to buy new smaller pieces of furniture that were more appropriate for the villa.

What to Bring With You

This post is kinda personal, as it shows a major failure on my part to consider everything that I might need at our new home. Chalk it up to my being a guy, thus not likely to ask around the new neighborhood before our move to find out what sorts of things I might need. When we moved, we auctioned off every last garden tool I had, and believe me, I had one of everything. I didn’t realize, nor did I even ask the question, that each villa has an area in front and in back that is the owners to do with what he or she wants. The person who lived in our villa before us was not a gardener, so I had basically a blank slate to work with.

For a small fee to cover the cost of the lumber, the maintenance staff at Otterbein Pemberville built me two 2’x6′ flower/vegetable boxes. At the local nursery, I found a wide assortment of hostas, spireas, tomato plants, and annual flowers. And, you guessed it, I had to buy new garden tools to plant and care for them.

So, the advice I have in this post is to take a close look at the new villa or apartment, ask the neighbors lots of questions, and find out BEFORE you downsize your household what you are likely to need when you move. I didn’t think it through, and I really regret it.

What?! Free Yoga and Cable TV!

As part of the registration process, Otterbein Pemberville included a form for us to list all our current expenses at the house, for example, taxes, utilities, cable TV, repairs, etc. These figures were written in a column, beside which was another column of what those costs would be at Otterbein, which were all pretty much “Free” or “No Charge.” Bottom line, Otterbein bears the expense of cable channels, utilities, taxes, and all repairs. When we compared the two columns, we saw that it was essentially a wash — we would be almost breaking even in the bargain! (That’s not quite true, but close enough.)

The cable TV is a real bargain, and among the channels is Otterbein Pemberville’s own internal channel (more about that in a future post), but it doesn’t include the Internet, which is a small expense for a blindingly fast connection (over 100 mbits, for you geeks). What we didn’t fully realize is that the Village offers all kinds of free programs, such as concerts, excercise classes, and my favorite, yoga four times a week. The yoga instructor, Cassandra, teaches in the local university’s music department, and she and her significant other perform in a live concert once a month here. She’s even had some of her students perform, as well. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, as far as musical performances go, but more about that in a future post.

It seems like every week Otterbein Pemberville has a tour arranged at a nearby tourist attraction, transportation provided, often meal included (for a small, extra fee). These are first-rate tours, and the food is prepared by local restaurants. The bus is air-conditioned, the tours are guided, and the experience always unforgettable!

This is just a sampling of the perks at the Village. I bring them up here for two reasons — 1) There’s plenty to do that would cost a lot of money if you did it in your old life; and 2) Every time you take a class or go on a tour, think of it as lowering the cost of living at a CCRC. You just might learn something new in the process.

Moving to a Retirement Community

Carolyn and I had been thinking about downsizing for several years, but we never seemed to find the time to actually carry out that crazy plan. We thought about a condo, but the tight housing market where we were living ruled that out. So, how do you downsize when there are no condos available and moving to another house would be just trading one set of headaches for another? Renting made no sense, as our house was paid off. If moving to a rental would give us more cash flow, it would also probably give us bad, and possibly psychotic, neighbors!

Enter the Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). So, you might well ask, “What the heck is a CCRC?” Well, the official definition is: A continuing care retirement community, sometimes known as a life plan community, is a type of retirement community in the U.S. where a continuum of aging care needs—from independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing care—can all be met within the community. Ok, it’s a nursing home, right? Wrong! That’s only one component of a CCRC. The emphasis is on “continuing,” from independent living (villas and apartments) to assisted living to skilled nursing, all there if (actually, when) you need it.

So, one big decision, lots of small decisions, one pandemic, a sale of the house, and an online auction for all the stuff we no longer needed, and on a cold Febuary day, a moving van, and the die was cast. For better or worse, we had made the move.

Here we are, in a two-bedroom villa with a sunroom. We think we made the right decision, and that’s where this blog comes in. Over the next weeks and months, we hope to use a good deal of humor while consuming perhaps a glass of wine or two to show the lighter side of life in a CCRC. The people, the culture, the perks, and the the quirks. We don’t see a downside, so we’ll skip that for now. We believe that this is the future for the post-work population, sometimes called “retirees,” so the more you know…