Ready or not, here it comes. The end of daylight saving time (DST) is fast approaching, perhaps for the final time if legislators vote to permanently end switching clocks an hour backward in the coming months. The seasonal time change will occur on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 a.m. and along with it, an extra hour of sleep. DST returns on March 12, 2023.
By Daniel Dunaief
I’ve been on a long journey that’s taken me around the world for more than two and a half years. Many hosts have provided for me, enabling me to grow and, in some cases, make changes.
I don’t recall the beginning. The first host I remember was an incredibly kind doctor. She spent countless hours caring for others, looking into their eyes, assuring them she would do everything she could for them.
She was so focused on helping others that she didn’t even know she was hosting me. I stayed quiet just long enough to make the jump to a famous American actor who was working in Australia.
He and his wife didn’t enjoy their time with me. They warned the world about me and my extended family.
My next host was a businessman. He had been in a hospital with his son, who had a broken leg. The businessman stayed in the waiting room for hours, trying to do his work but unable to focus because he was so concerned about his boy.
Finally, after hours of surgery, the doctor came out to talk to him and that’s when I found a new host.
This businessman worked hard. Once he discovered his son was safe, he ignored me and my needs.
I developed without anyone noticing me. At one point, I heard someone come looking for me, but I hid just far enough away. I traveled a great distance on a plane with him. Once we were in a new country, I had so many choices.
Realizing it was time to go, I jumped to an elderly bus driver. He was a gentle man. The lighter laugh lines near his eyes looked like waves approaching the shore on his dark chocolate skin.
Before he collapsed into bed the second evening we were together, he seemed to be staring directly at me. In his house, I had a choice of other possible hosts, but decided to hitch a ride with his son.
That one almost cost me my life. His son soon realized I was there, and he stayed away from everyone. I was curled up alone with him. He barely moved for long periods of time, except when he coughed or sat up and sent text messages and emails. One night, when he was finally sleeping, a man came into his room to clean it. That’s when I escaped.
This man didn’t even know he hosted me. He wasn’t stuck in bed, and he didn’t cough. I traveled with him to several events. After other trips, I found an important politician. We took a ride in a helicopter and went to a hospital where doctors provided all kinds of new medicines.
I became like a game of telephone, passing along from one person to the next. And, like a game of telephone, the message changed, as I demanded different things from my host.
I found myself at a concert with a young woman who sang and danced for hours. She looked so vibrant and full of life.
She was a friendly enough host, until I set up camp with her mother. Then, she shouted at me, praying to keep me away. She took me to a hotel, where she seemed to stare at me while she prayed.
When someone delivered food and walked in the room to wait for payment, I made the jump to him. During the day, he was a student with a full and busy life. I didn’t stay long, moving on to his girlfriend, her roommate, and, eventually, to a professor.
I stayed with the professor for over a week. She spent considerable time grading papers, writing at her computer, talking to family members, and taking medicine.
I have made some changes along the way. I don’t travel with as much baggage as I used to. I know people think I’m not as much of a burden as I was in the early days. My most recent host would disagree. He couldn’t talk, had trouble sleeping and was exhausted all the time. I’m getting ready to travel the world again this fall and winter. You can ignore me all you want, but I’m still here, making changes and preparing to find more hosts.
St. Johnland recently held a celebration to commemorate the newly completed Assisted Living Facility on their Kings Park campus. The Assisted Living facility is the newest addition to St. Johnland which was founded in 1866 and since then has been providing care and support for the community.
Located in a serene woodland setting, the 100-bed facility will provide homes for individuals that are Medicaid eligible. They will also accept residents who are depleting their resources to become Medicaid eligible. The focus is to provide a residential and social setting where all residents can receive the care they need in order to maintain their optimal level of function and freedom while knowing they are supported by the residential services, medical supervision and personal care assistance they need.
The facility, which came about to meet the pressing need for expanded Medicaid Assisted Living Program capacity, will welcome residents who are ambulatory but may need assistance with daily care and medical services. The newly-formed St. Johnland Licensed Health Home Care Service agency will help secure treatment and services for residents. Residents who need more care as time passes will have the option of transferring to the Nursing Center, allowing the opportunity to age in place and have continuity of care.
For information about admission, please call 631-663-4444.
In a bitterly fought match that went scoreless for 100 minutes of regulation and overtime, the Smithtown West Bulls beat the Northport Tigers, 1-0, in the Suffolk County boys soccer semifinal on Monday. The game was decided by penalty kicks — the last of which coming from a surprising source.
In a game that saw five yellow cards and countless hard tackles and collisions, West goalkeeper Landon Schneider came out of his net, where he played brilliantly the entire match, to score the game-winning penalty kick. After five successful penalty kicks by both teams, Northport missed on its sixth attempt.
Having been replaced in goal for the penalty kicks by backup Brendan Madden, Schneider stepped in for the sixth and game-winning kick and calmly drilled it into the left side of the net.
Schneider and Northport goalkeeper Tommy Pace both made a number of acrobatic saves, but none was better than Schneider’s save of Richie Bender’s point-blank blast in the 95th minute that would have been a sudden-death victory for Northport.
Smithtown West (12-4-1) will now battle Connetquot (14-2-3) for the Suffolk AA Championship on Thursday Night at Comsewogue High School. Northport finished 12-6-1 on the year.
— Your friends at TBR News Media
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney has announced the indictment of George Swanton, a 62-year-old man accused of robbing a Teacher’s Federal Credit Union in Commack earlier this month.
“This defendant allegedly entered the bank, threatened a teller and decided to steal cash that did not belong to him to finance a drug fueled binge and now he will be held accountable for his actions,” said Tierney.
Based upon the investigation from the Suffolk County Police Department, on Oct. 7, Swanton allegedly stole a minivan from a group home and used it the next day to drive to the Teachers Federal Credit Union branch on Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. Once there, he allegedly handed the teller a note threatening the teller and demanding money. The teller gave him $10,400 and he fled.
Swanton spent the next two days at the Bay Shore Inn where he allegedly spent the money on drugs. On Oct. 10, he allegedly called 911 claiming that he had a bomb strapped to his chest and allegedly admitting that he had robbed a bank. After officers responded, he let them in the room and told them that he had recently robbed a bank in Commack and that the money was in his pockets.
At the time of the robbery, Swanton was allegedly disguised in female clothing when he took the van and robbed the bank. The clothing was recovered from the motel room where he turned himself in.
At his arraignment Swanton was held on $50,000 cash, $100,000 bond or $300,000 partially secured bond. His next court date is Nov. 14.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Down by two sets, Smithtown East girls volleyball rallied in set three to tie the game, 22. All were looking to stay alive but Ward Melville’s relentless offensive attack was too much to handle on Oct. 27.
Sophomores Emma Bradshaw and Alexa Gandolfo delivered 19 kills between them, powering the Patriots to a three-game sweep, 25-13, 25-19, 25-22, in the quarterfinal Class AA playoff round. The win propels the No. 2 Patriots to the semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 1, where they’ll square off against No. 3 Bay Shore at home.
Game time is scheduled at 4 p.m. Admission tickets can be purchased online at gofan.co/app/school/NYSPHSAAXI.
The Smithtown Historical Society, 239 East Main St., Smithtown will light up the holiday season with Suffolk County’s FIRST immersive Winter Lantern Festival from Nov. 4 to Jan. 8, 2023. The walk-through holiday light show will feature lanterns and displays in the shape of flowers, mushrooms, farm animals, dinosaurs and many more, all handmade by artisans with decades of dedication to their craft.
The event will be held on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Be ready for photo ops with friends and family, as this will be an unforgettable experience! Tickets are $22 per person, $12 ages 3 to 12. For tickets, visit https://www.showclix.com/tickets/suffolk-winter-lantern-festival. For more information, call 631-265-6768.
Gurwin Healthcare System recently held a celebration to commemorate the newly completed Fountaingate Gardens Independent Living complex, now fully open on their Commack campus.
The $115 million. 129-luxury apartment Life Plan Community is a unique concept in senior living, the newest such community on Long Island, and the final piece in Gurwin’s full continuum of care for seniors. Fountaingate Gardens opened for limited occupancy in May with the completion of The Terraces residential building and the 20,000+ square-foot Clubhouse. The Parkview, the largest residential building on the complex, was the last to receive a certificate of occupancy, representing full completion of the project.
With more than 200 guests in attendance, Stuart B. Almer, President and CEO of Gurwin Healthcare System offered a champagne toast, celebrating the milestone for the organization.
“We are thrilled to celebrate with our community members, staff, board members and those who have worked tirelessly to bring Fountaingate Gardens to life,” said Almer. “We have worked so hard to complete this long-envisioned Life Plan Community for Gurwin and we are honored to be offering Long Islanders a way to truly age in place with peace of mind.”
Throughout the celebration, which took place within the state-of-the-art Clubhouse, guests toured the facility by following a “wellness path” through a variety of rooms demonstrating the community’s Blue Zone-inspired lifestyle. The Blue Zones — areas throughout the world where people live the longest — encourage a lifestyle aimed at improving health and longevity through specific habits. Each room also featured giveaways, various Blue Zone-inspired menu items prepared by the talented in-house culinary team, and activities including a performance by the Aqualillies, synchronized swimming entertainment, in the Clubhouse’s heated saltwater pool.
“It is amazing to celebrate this official opening,” said Ryan Grady, Executive Director of Fountaingate Gardens. “It’s wonderful to see members proud of and excited to show off their new home, thrilled to start this new and exciting chapter of their lives. We are pleased to be able to offer this unique retirement lifestyle to help Long Islanders live the best of their lives!”
Pictured in photo in stofrom left, Ryan Grady, Executive Director of Fountaingate Gardens; Jennifer Kennedy, Vice President of System Integration at Gurwin Healthcare System; Stuart B. Almer, President and CEO of Gurwin Healthcare System; Bert Brodsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Gurwin Healthcare System; and Cary Wolf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fountaingate Gardens.
Visit www.FountaingateLI.org or call 631-715-2693 for more information.
This fall and winter, several infections have their sights set on your lungs.
Amid threats from diseases that affect other organ systems, three of them — COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus — can and often do attack the lungs.
While the current strain of COVID isn’t as lethal as the original, the virus continues to mutate, leading to new strains and, potentially, to different strains later this fall.
At the same time, the flu and RSV have been waiting for an opening after COVID protections like masks also kept them at bay during 2020 and 2021.
“How bad is the winter going to be?” asked Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. “It will be based on more [COVID] variants coming through, with a strong flu season, which is never something you want to see.”
The number of cases of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu has been lower in the last few years. The lack of exposure to those viruses, however, may give them an opening for a stronger return in the population.
These viruses “didn’t paddle along for a while,” Nachman said. “Now, they are paddling furiously. Everyone is seeing them.”
People’s immune systems may not be prepared for the threat from these recurring viruses.
When people arrive at the hospital, health care officials often see the same symptoms, with coughing and sneezing.
“It could be one, two or three” causes at the same time, Nachman said.
The combination of contracting more than one virus at the same time could lead to prolonged and painful illnesses.
COVID reality
Much as people would like to return to a pre-pandemic reality, the SARS-CoV2 virus not only continues to infect people, but it also remains something of an evasive target, with mutations leading to new variants.
While area hospitals don’t test for the specific COVID strain when patients are sick, doctors expect that some of the people who have contracted the disease have the modern variants.
“Undoubtedly, many cases that are coming to our Emergency Department are due to the new Omicron sub-variants,” said Dr. Sunil Dhuper, chief medical officer at Port Jefferson’s St. Charles Hospital. “Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that Omicron BA.5 cases are trending downwards and the cases due to the sub-variants are on the rise.”
“The purpose of the vaccine is to attenuate the symptoms from the virus and reduce the severity of illness, hospitalizations and/or death.”
— Dr. Sunil Dhuper
Symptoms of the newer variants are similar to others, with fever, chills, cough, runny nose, fatigue, muscle or body aches, shortness of breath, loss of smell or taste, sore throat, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea, Dhuper explained.
Doctors said it was difficult to gauge how effective the new bivalent COVID vaccines are against the latest strains.
The latest booster may “not be active against all the coming variants,” explained Dr. Phillip Nizza, attending infectious disease physician at St. Charles Hospital.
The new booster was designed to enhance the reaction to the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
“We don’t have enough data” to determine the effectiveness of the booster against current and future threats, Nachman said. “How effective it will be depends” on differences between the booster and the strain someone contracts.
Still, the vaccine is likely to provide some benefits, doctors said.
“The purpose of the vaccine is to attenuate the symptoms from the virus and reduce the severity of illness, hospitalizations and/or death,” Dhuper wrote. “And I think the vaccines would be very successful in accomplishing that objective.”
Even for people who have been infected recently with COVID, Nachman urged people to get a booster.
The combination of an infection and a booster “Is always better than not getting a vaccine,” Nachman said. “You should get a vaccine. The timing is tricky” and could involve getting a dose two weeks after contracting the virus or waiting.
The viral threat during the December holidays, in particular, is higher, so Nachman urges being as immunized as possible before then.
With people not wearing masks and not even testing for the virus even when they get sick, Nachman suggested that it’s “highly likely” the country will see new variants by the spring.
Nachman urged people to take steps to protect themselves, which includes eating well, exercising, receiving the latest vaccination and limiting exposure, particularly for those who might be vulnerable.
“Take care of yourself,” Nachman urged.
At Stony Brook University Hospital, the wards are busy, with a steady stream of patients coming in, receiving treatment and getting discharged, Nachman said.
“We’re seeing a lot of other viral illnesses,” she added.
She sees a ramp-up in RSV, which she doesn’t expect to peak until Thanksgiving.
Dhuper remains concerned about viral threats this fall and winter.
“We do anticipate a worse flu season this year as the herd immunity is at a lower level,” he wrote. “People should get their flu shots sooner rather than later as that is the only primary protection we have to offer. People with comorbidities should particularly be concerned as the likelihood of severe illness, hospitalization and even death could be higher without the protection from the vaccine.”
While Nizza hasn’t seen any major spike in the flu yet, he suggested in an email that “now would be a good time to get vaccinated.”
Got all that? Good, now, when you’re outside, far from other people and you want to give your lungs a break, take a deep, cleansing breath. Other times? Protect your health and the health of your family and community.
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