MAYTAG MOMENTS

(Living with Parkinson’s) ©

by

Sam and Phyllis Turner

October 19 – October 26

SYMPTOMS 

10.19.2020: 0730: PT at Body Central working on upper body strength and left arm.

1545: I have a smooth draft of Episode #2, thanks to PJ’s editing. (Is there such a thing as a smooth draft) We enjoyed watching THE VOICE.  Interesting how they have worked out the virtual audience. The program went smoothly.

10.20.2020:0500: Venus is rising in the east. I have three meetings, today.  I won’t finish until after 1500.


 Sorry, Marilyn. I couldn’t paste your poems (or the twins) in this. Don’t know what happened. I’ll get it in one of these MM eventually!

1400: Parkinson’s support group via Zoom. Still having trouble with PJ’s connection. She can see the group.  They can see her, but her mic echos.  I’m going to try my laptop for her. May have to buy her a different set of earphones. Programs are a problem if they don’t have closed captioning.   

1900: We enjoyed a second evening of THE VOICE while eating this Crispy Buffalo Shrimp Salad. (No leftovers.)

10.21.2020: 0600. 60º 0800: Ed changed the water filter this morning.  He also measured the hall skylight for repair. We found that the uprights in the North Room are filled with electrical wires.  We are going to go to Plan B (Tresha?) Parallel bars?

1630: I drove to Michael’s to frame a painting. Seemed like more traffic than usual. We watched our recording of Dancing With the Stars.

I’m missing a picture, here. I’ll include it in the next issue.

My drums hold a total of 1600 gallons (after ten minutes of rain). They take care of our front yard and part of the back. They are empty and I’m using city water. I can expect my bill to go up, of course.

I just finished a Zoom meeting by the Davis Phinney Foundation on Dyskinesia and motor problems with PD. (Excellent!) Given a hundred symptoms, one could have only one and find that it is related to Parkinson’s. The transcript will be sent to me in a few days.  I can pass the information on to those of you who are interested. One doctor-speaker has problems with her legs and toes. Otherwise, there is no visible evidence of PD. Another doctor-speaker has no control over her head and upper body movement. Her speaking voice was clear and controlled. I think it’s called “Previews of coming attractions.” 

I’m taking a new class on publishing. It is excitingly challenging! Thanks for the suggestion, Harvey.

1630: A glitch on my computer.  Shutting down. 1900: We watched the debate. The moderator did an excellent job of controlling the debate. Compared to the first disaster, this was closer to a debate. We finished the evening with Doc Martin; a “cleansing” experience.

10.23.2020:0445: Stretching and weights.

I can stand the North Yard and see bright Venus five fists above the Rincons. Spent the afternoon on electrical work. We are now with ADT security including cameras. Had a light lunch with leftovers from Thursday. We did the Culver’s Drive-through for a late dinner take-home at 1930! Everyone else must have had a late day. There was a line of cars at In’n’Out, also.

10.24.2020: 0445: Got a little sidetracked this morning. After reading Heather Cox Richardson, I finally decided to check her qualifications.  In summary: If you have never taken American History, or did and fell asleep, this lady will have you so excited about history that you’ll wet your pants!

She is a fine example of what enthusiasm and teaching can be. This from her bio: Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and Professor of History at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts. Richardson has authored six booksWikipedia

Born1965 (age 55 years), Maine

Academic advisorsDavid Herbert Donald and William Gienapp

EducationHarvard University (1997), Phillips Exeter Academy

She describes herself as a Lincoln Conservative. She teaches at least two video classes a week, as far as I know. (Free)  She probably teaches eight days a week.  She knows history! (As well she should as a professor.)  She makes history come alive. I’ll bet no one falls asleep in her class.  I got so excited watching her video that I fixed myself a cup of coffee! ( I drink coffee once a month!)  I’ll be wired all day.

She teaches with excitement!  That is what I hoped to achieve when I taught elementary and middle school for thirty-five years. My goal was to have the students so excited about the subject that they couldn’t wait for the next day’s class. 

I remember a student from my eighth grade (English) class at Townsend Middle School telling me one morning:

“Turner! This has got to stop! When we were having dinner, I found myself talking in sonnets!”

“Really?! I’ll add a hundred points to your weekly grade.  That’s the best result I could hope for.”

That’s why I often referred to my thirty-five years of teaching as a vacation. (Well, don’t count the first three years teaching fourth grade.  I didn’t know what I was doing. It took that long to figure out what my purpose was, as a facilitator, to the students.)

Doctor Ruby at Pepperdine, taught a Shakespeare class that was exciting.  I could have received an “F” and it would still have been a success because I found myself reading Shakespeare plays for enjoyment.  (I got a “B”.)

Bruce McGrew at the University of Arizona (watercolor) Douglas Denniston  (“The paint is stronger than the students in this room!”) made their Art classes exciting!

Dr. Paul Allan and his Teacher Self-Appraisal adventure for my Master’s set me on a path where I learned the meaning of facilitating vs. teaching.

Upon retirement, I took my first class in writing from Sheila Bender where I learned the difference between the term critique and response. And a group of writers called Pro Writers Writing along with a prolific writer of many genres named Harvey Stanbrough who pointed my way onto a new path where I began writing into the dark.

Of course, there is the Saguaro Chapter of RWA where now I write Romance with PJ’s editing, of course. 

But, enough of this.  Can you tell Heather pushed my button?  

10.25.2020: 0400 (!): Up before COX, who gave me a two-hour window (0500-0700) where the service will fix my new Gigablast Router! I upgraded by purchasing the new from the retail store; came home to replace the old, lost the internet, spent three hours with my landline on several holds before getting a live agent. Enough said. 0715: Guess who’s late! 

To: Quail Run Writers and guests.

From Sam in preparation for “our” little poetry challenge starting November 1.

Haiku  (5,7,5)

Using Yoda’s words:

“Writing poetry you are

when you write Haiku.”

Tanka (5,7,5,7,7)

Starting thirteen days

ahead of time is easy

as long as I have

no interrupting phone calls

and can count to thirty-one.

Prose Poetry (Limitless)

We can hardly wait for Beverly to spill

a mystery on us where

we will want to know the ending

and she will

quite honestly

tell us that she

has no

idea!

These are the three styles.  Use any style you wish, changing any time you wish. Your first deadline is November 9th, when we will share our best of nine poems.  (I have one guest who has already submitted a prose poem.)

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