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July 2024
Reminiscence Road I haven’t always lived on the East Coast, where you can travel from one state to another in a few hours. When I moved to Massachusetts as a young adult, it was incredible to me to be able to say, “Now I’m in Massachusetts, now I’m in Connecticut, now I’m in New York.” As a child growing up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I knew that wherever we went, it was going to be a LONG drive. July was the season of family road trips when my parents took my sister and me to visit our grandparents. Every time, we had to settle in for a long, long haul across flat, open land. In the eight- or nine-hour drive to my grandmother’s house in Cody, Wyoming, we saw more antelope than people. I think it was good for my sister and me to stare out the car window and not be entertained. Just seeing the landscape passing by and hearing our parents talk in the front seat about boring, mundane, or logistical things — that’s what a road trip is. It wasn’t exciting in the conventional sense, but it still had a rhythm and a cadence that were enjoyable and, I think, good for humans to have. I don’t know that we have those things in the same way today. My grandmother’s home near Yellowstone was far from the “big city” of Cheyenne. I still feel nostalgia for those How Family Road Trips Shaped My Life WORKSHOP Have you (or your clients) “been meaning” to get a plan in place? It’s easy to get started with our 7 Hazards to Your Estate Plan Workshop . This free workshop explains the key planning concepts, documents, and the factors in selecting a plan that is right for you. Plus, workshop participants receive a complimentary consultation with no obligation to retain our services. The workshop is available on demand or in person, so stop thinking about a plan and create one. Register online at PromiseLaw.com/Estate-Planning-Workshop or call (757) 690-2470.
We’re enjoying a ride on Foxfire, one of the best among my grandmother’s show horse Appaloosas!
visits, just sitting around making meals and seeing the folks. Of course, for us as kids, it was horribly boring. We didn’t have devices or 1 million TV channels. But immersed in that landscape, I gained a sense of how vast the world is. I enjoy the East Coast, where the greenery is like a snuggly hug that envelops you. But in the West, I could almost always see the horizon. I think that is basic to my philosophical approach to life: Whatever is happening around me, I can still see the horizon. I was once told that I have a high tolerance for ambiguity. Perhaps that comes from the experience of being out in wide-open spaces and not knowing exactly where you’re going next. And the grandeur of the mountains! I appreciate each mountain range for its unique topography and wildlife. But when you have driven in the Rockies and the Grand Tetons — those are mountains ! Traveling over a pass, you feel that same excitement and exhilaration you feel on top of a roller coaster. And I always have done better after time outdoors. That was what I missed most when I left the West — walking outside, seeing the mountains, and just being in the landscape.
This month, in this rare window of unstructured time between the end of school and gearing up for fall, I hope you have a chance to take a road trip to a landscape you love. It just might change the way you see the world. –Geneva N. Perry, Esq.
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Cleveland’s Catastrophic Balloon Fest THE GREAT DEFLATION
While you may have heard of Fyre Fest, the disastrous music festival that became the subject of documentaries on both Netflix and Hulu, you may not have heard of its record-setting older cousin Cleveland’s BalloonFest ’86. The event was supposed to improve its reputation. Instead, it became a notorious example of an event planned with good intentions that ended in disaster. More Than Just Hot Air On Sept. 27, 1986, Cleveland held the 1986 BalloonFest as a fundraising event for United Way. This charitable organization works to provide access to health care, education, and economic mobility for underprivileged communities. The idea was simple: For every dollar donated to United Way by Cleveland schoolchildren, two balloons
would be added to the celebration. At the end of fundraising, the tally was 1.4 million balloons: a world record. Shadows From Above After volunteers spent a full night and morning preparing the balloons and the net meant to contain them, they were released in front of Terminal Tower in Cleveland’s Public Square. With more than 100,000 people filling downtown, events quickly went from majesty to misery. The launch went well, but as a storm swept in, the cloud of multi- colored balloons turned into a giant plastic clump blocking air and street traffic and littering nearby Lake Erie. What the Helium?! In addition to shutting down a local airport, helicopters could not operate
over Lake Erie. Tragically, a boat carrying two fishermen had
been overturned that day, and the balloons made it impossible for the Coast Guard to mount rescue efforts in time to save them.
The largest balloon-related disaster outside of the Hindenburg is also notable for setting a Guinness world record, as 1,429,643 balloons were released at once. Unfortunately, that record only makes the event more notorious rather than giving Cleveland the prestigious victory it sought. No wonder no one has attempted to break it since!
WHAT’S THE SCOOP?
TRACING THE HISTORY OF ICE CREAM
While fables exist of Marco Polo returning from his adventures in the Far East with a recipe closely resembling modern-day sherbet, that was not the inspiration for the treat we’re exploring here. The history of America’s favorite dessert is as varied as a cone of Neapolitan ice cream! Beginnings in Europe While people have enjoyed iced desserts for thousands of years, sources tell us that the origin of ice cream dates back at least four centuries , with written records from 1600s Naples boasting that everyone in the city was born with the gift of making sorbet. While this was similar to the dessert we enjoy today, it was still quite different. A typical 18th-century ice cream maker was the sorbetiere , a bullet-shaped pewter mold filled with cream or custard, immersed in a salt and ice slush, and twisted
back and forth with a handle on the lid. Every few minutes, you had to remove the lid and scrape away at the sides to keep it from freezing into a hard block, making it a labor-intensive process. Crossing the Atlantic Our favorite treat likely made its way across the pond sometime in the early 18th century. Our first president, George Washington, was an ice cream fan. In 1784, presumably as a reward for winning the Revolutionary War, he bought a mechanical ice cream maker for his home in Mount Vernon. However, until refrigeration was invented and homemade ice became accessible to the masses, the dessert remained a rare delicacy reserved for the wealthiest Americans. However, by the 1940s, ice cream production flourished, and ice cream shops popped up just about everywhere. The dessert has remained popular ever since, with the average American eating roughly 20 pounds of ice cream yearly!
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TAKE A BREAK
The fast-paced modern lifestyle many subscribe to nowadays has lasting effects on our mental health — from broken sleep to chronic multitasking. A graduate student at the University of Arizona has ideas for protecting our brains from stress created by life’s hustle. Emily McDonald, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience who posts health advice as EmonTheBrain on TikTok, lists these three things to avoid. Avoid your smartphone when you wake up. The brain is highly suggestible upon awakening, and “the content you consume … will have a greater impact on your mindset,” says McDonald, who is also a mental health coach on top of her doctoral work. Studies show that while waking up, the brain transitions from theta waves, a deeply relaxed, inward-focused state, to alpha waves, which promote alertness. Reaching for a smartphone to look for texts or other content often triggers a dopamine release in the brain, encouraging the user to repeat the activity. If this occurs first thing in the morning, it can disrupt your dopamine levels for the rest of the day, leading to a continuous need to check our phones. Resist negative self-talk. Repetitive thoughts about ourselves get wired in over time, and “what gets wired in is what we manifest,” McDonald says. A 2021 study in Scientific Reports shows that brain scans of people who recite scripts expressing self-respect and self-confidence exhibit stronger connectivity in regions associated with motivation. Guard Your Mind, Ignite Your Life BRAIN BOOST
ALIEN BALLPARK CHERRY FIRECRACKER FLAG INDEPENDENCE ORCHID PADDLEBOARD PATRIOTIC SUNDAE
SUNSCREEN TRAMPOLINE
SUMMER PIZZA
Inspired by AllRecipes.com
Ingredients
• 1 lb pizza dough • 1/4 cup pesto • 1/3 cup shredded quesadilla cheese • 10 thin slices of zucchini • 10 thin slices of summer squash • 2 mini bell peppers, thinly sliced
• 1 thin slice of red onion, diced • 1 strip cooked bacon, chopped Butter Glaze (optional) • 1 tbsp butter • 1 tsp steak seasoning
However, it’s important to note that positive self-talk can also trigger overconfidence, leading to impulsivity and inaccurate responses on cognitive tests. Avoid highly processed foods. “There is plenty of science to show that what we eat affects our brains,” McDonald says. An eight- year study of 10,775 people showed that the cognitive functioning of people
Directions 1. Preheat grill to high heat on one side. 2. Reduce the flame on half of the grill burners to low. 3. Roll out pizza dough into a circle. Place dough on the grill over high heat. 4. Close the cover and let dough grill for 1–3 minutes until bottom is slightly cooked and shows char marks. 5. Use tongs to flip crust over and move it to the low-heat side. 6. Brush dough with pesto, sprinkle with cheese, and evenly distribute veggies and bacon. 7. Grill for about 3 minutes until cheese is melted; then carefully remove. 8. Optional: Combine butter and seasoning. Brush crust edges with butter glaze and place pizza in broiler until golden.
who ate highly processed foods, including hot dogs, pizza, pastries, white bread, cakes, and instant noodles, declined 28% faster than that of people who ate more fresh and unprocessed foods. A diet of highly processed foods speeds the aging of the brain, which no one wants.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
Memories of Western Road Trips With Family
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When Balloons Caused Chaos in Cleveland
The True Story Behind the Invention of Ice Cream
Summer Pizza
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3 Tips to Protect Your Mental Vitality
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Tips for Meditation Novices
FINDING SERENITY Start Your Meditation Journey
Modern life is filled with distractions; while some may be harmless, others are negative and draining. Tuning out the noise and focusing on what’s important can be difficult. However, meditation can help focus your mind, combating stress while improving attention. If you want to improve your memory, attention span, and awareness, consider
investment. You don’t need dumbbells, ellipticals, or resistance bands — just time, a quiet space, and patience. Get started with the basics. First, take a seat somewhere quiet. Once settled in a stable position, close your eyes and focus on breathing in and out. While the goal is to stay focused on your breathing,
meditating. Meditation is easy to attempt and difficult to master, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Here is how to start your meditation journey. What is meditation? Before you start, understand that meditation is an exercise for the mind. It has been used for millennia to relax, focus, and de-stress. There are many forms of meditation, from contemplation to mindfulness, each with different objectives. Unlike other workouts, there is no upfront
it is natural for your mind to wander — when it does, the key to successful meditation is to be kind to yourself, notice the thoughts, and then quickly refocus . After 5–10 minutes, you can open your eyes again and go about your day. The more you practice, the less your mind will wander, and the more effective the meditation will be. Like all forms of exercise, it is most effective when built into your daily routine. Best of all, it is easy to get started, and the benefits grow over time.
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