I’ve been meaning to buy a lava lamp for the Mansion residents, and this week, I finally did. It cost $21.36 and today, I brought it into the Activity Room and plugged it in, it will take two or three hours to warm up a bit and get the lava moving.

I always try to bring color to the Mansion if I can, and this is a simple and inexpensive way to do it.

Lava lamps are believed to be relaxing to the people who look at them, and just colorful and soothing to others. The Mansion residents were happy to see it on their table.

One of the Mansion parakeets died last week, and we are trying to figure out whether we should get another one, or wait until the survivor dies and get two. The parakeets were much loved by the residents, Mary, who cared for the birds, was deeply upset.

We need to gather more information and do more research before we replace one or both.

An aide told me today that one of the residents is walking in and outside of the Mansio with shoes that have large and growing holes in them. She has no family to help her, so I ordered a pair of Clark’s Slip-on loafers from Amazon. A local shoe store had nothing appropriate in her size.

The shoes cost $69.95. As some of you know, I am an advocate of small acts of great kindness. We don’t and can’t perform miracles.We fill the small holes in people’s lives and make sure they are comfortable and have the basic items of dignity – soap, brushes and combs, shoes, underwear, jackets and shirts.

We need your help to continue this work. You can contribute by sending a donation to this address: Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

Please mark  your payments “Mansion,” if that’s where  you want your money to go. You can also help Sakler Moo with his tuition payments (“Sakler Moo”) or the refugee soccer team (“soccer team”).

Thanks.