MAYTAG MOMENTS

MAYTAG MOMENTS

(Living with Parkinson’s) ©

by

Sam and Phyllis Turner

11/ 9 -11/16

Goals

“Whatever is conceivable, and believable, is achievable.” ~Napoleon Hill*

11.09.0400: 46º and light rain. First appointment at 0800 with ADT. We wear our masks everywhere.

Lonely targets 15 and 20 yards on opposite ends of the North Yard. I keep them there to remind me of my goal: A. to (once again) shoot my compound & B. to shoot (with accuracy) my recurve.

In the meantime, all this PT is helping my Parkinson’s. I attend Body Central two days a week, and on Saturdays, Tresha works with PJ, Steven, Richard, and me on Parkinson’s Specific training.  PJ, who does not have PD, learns the system and keeps me on the task at home. Training my brain to keep my arms moving in rhythm and shouting out the beat (left, right-right, left, right, left-left, right) is one of my (our) goals. The treatment is for the whole body, not just one muscle, including the brain which needs Dopamine (at some point in the future?) to think and act.

11.10.2020: 0445: Moving around!  Preparing for BC this morning at 0800. Brandon added new moves for me. I’m noticing that my right arm seems to be giving me trouble.I did some push-ups on a crossbar and worked with 6# free weights. Sam grumbled for not being able to find Monday’s recording of THE VOICE. Therefore, we watched Tuesday’s recording or THE VOICE.

11.11.2020: 0545 Slept late. 40º.

 Today is Veteran’s Day. More important than rabbit day or ninety-nine percent of the other days.  Our Veterans made it possible for us to celebrate all of the other days! 

THANK YOU!

I peddled for 15 minutes this morning to loosen up the stiffness from yesterday’s BC training. I watched CBS Sunday morning (the first 15 minutes) on Wednesday while peddling.

0730: Like clockwork, the Sun casts its beams onto Jerry’s hedge and members of the Sunshine Bird Club appear – all facing east. (One of these mornings, I’ll have my telephoto ready.)

The left-hand tremor is bothering me this morning.  I may have to turn on Dragon.  I haven’t been using it for several days. But then, I haven’t been doing excessive typing, either.

When PJ awakens, we’ll walk at Udall Park.

The reality of Parkinson’s. Planning ahead. 0815: Constipation. Took ten minutes of patient concentration. I should be clear for 6-8 hours. That means I can walk the park without having to use their restrooms which may or may not be sterile. This is part of living with PD, folks.  As much as possible, I try to make PD adapt to my schedule. But when it rears its head, it can’t be ignored.

Palm seeds (sweet). I can no longer climb ladders so there is a giant tarp underneath to catch the seeds and the “honey” drippings.

I’m including a couple of  “history lessons today just to help you get “up to speed” on this special day.

Why did General Eisenhower threaten to quit his command and go back to the United States, just a few months before D-Day?

In preparation for the Normandy invasion planned for several months later, Eisenhower wanted the American and British strategic bombers to launch a sustained bombardment campaign against rail lines, bridges, and highways in France, to inhibit Germany’s ability to move their troops and tanks easily throughout the country and thus making it harder to shore up their defenses once the Allied assault was underway.

However, the head of the Royal Air Force‘s Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris, and his American Army Air Force counterpart, General Carl Spaatz, disagreed. They both believed that by focusing their sustained attacks on Germany’s cities and industrial factories, they could knock the Nazis out of the war more cheaply (in terms of Allied casualties) than the invasion could (although we now know that their estimation was mistaken and that despite the massive damage which their bombers inflicted, it did not cripple German munitions production to the degree expected, nor did the bombings of cities break the morale of ordinary Germans).

Although Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of Allied forces on the Western Front, his authority did not extend over Harris and Spaatz, so they were able to refuse him. Eisenhower then appealed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR was inclined to give Ike what he had requested, but Churchill was adamant in his support of Harris and Spaatz, and the issue was at a delicate impasse.

The reason for Churchill’s resistance was that he had never been an ardent supporter of an invasion into France, recalling all too well the bloody trench warfare of the First World War, and he was haunted by fears of history repeating itself in this new war. He had long promoted a plan to instead invade the Continent through the Balkans, and by intensifying the Allied offensive in Italy. He hoped that by denying Eisenhower his bombing strategy, he would force the cancellation of the Normandy invasion in favor of his own preference.

But Eisenhower and his staff believed fervently that Normandy was the only logical point at which the Allies could battle their way into Western Europe. Denying his bombing campaign would doom the Normandy plan, and he was certain that invading in the Balkans would simply trap the Allied forces in the mountains, unable to advance without suffering horrendous casualties (as was already the case in Italy).

Thus, to save Operation Overlord, Eisenhower played the only card he had: he threatened to resign his post as the Supreme Commander and return to the United States. This ultimatum shocked Churchill, who fully understood how indispensable Ike was as commander. Realizing he had no choice, Churchill relented. The planes were reassigned to bomb French targets, the invasion of Normandy came on June the 6th, and less than a year later Germany capitulated and the war in Europe was over.

Now, go back even further to World War I:

The temperature is now 58º.  1045: Let’s see if Swombo will go for a walk, now.

1145: We walked! We put another 1200 steps in our walking log.  I did 12 push-ups at a table off the track. The temperature was perfect at 65º.  We wore long sleeves.

I practiced drumming rhythm with PJ after dinner. Left, Right, Left, Right, Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left, Left. 

I found “THE VOICE” for Monday night which we watched. We also watched Season 3, Episode 3 of David Letterman.

11.12.2020: 0445: I am to have PT this morning at 0800.   0925 Finished and tired. Gavin gave me new moves concentrating on my arms and shoulders.  Now, to catch up with my Zoom recorded meetings. It didn’t go well.  I couldn’t get it. Why?  I could hear them, but I couldn’t speak.  This is the same group where Zoom “kicked” the leader/host out! Not Good.

We cooked our revised version of a Home Chef Talipia dinner since we didn’t care for all the sauces in their recipe.  Besides, we added fresh corn on the cob. I know: I should have taken a picture. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow with the leftovers.

After the News, we watched the recording of the CMA awards from Wednesday.  I am relieved that I had the sense to record it for the future. Again, we could skip the ads, and the three-hour program became less than 2-1/2 hours.  What a delightful program with songs I could beat out with my drumsticks. Left, Right, Left, Right, Left – Left, Right over and over.  We had light’s out by 2200.

11.13.2020:0500: Friday The 13^th comes on Friday this month!  Bike 30-minutes. Continued to watch the recording of CBS Sunday. Art in BLACK! and elections history back to the eighteen hundreds. (What a neat way to exercise on the bike. Since it’s recorded, I can zip past the ads.) Plus how book stores are surviving. I’m thinking of Beyond Books on Speedway and Wilmot. We order from them. Thirty-minutes of riding well spent.

Al and Dexter Dog stopped by for a visit on the back patio. Dexter had eight teeth extracted last Monday! He spent eight hours in ICU! One would never know it this morning. He explored his favorite sites and seemed just like his old self. With all the teeth missing, I wonder if he barks with a lisp?

Note the wind-swept beard. It’s blowing from west to east, this morning. We put 1800 steps in our books.

I see people about my age mountain climbing; I feel good getting my leg through my underwear without losing my balance.

Talipia dinner with corn on the cob. (We changed the recipe slightly, skipping the sauce.)

After the news, we started watching The Crown.  About half-way through, we realized that we had already seen it and we’re waiting for the next season. Lights out by 2200.

11.14.2020: I slept for seven hours last night.  That’s unusual.

0800: We did our Parkinson’s Specific training, this morning. I was not as successful as I had hoped I would be.

I’m not getting anything done on my “list” today. Tired.

1200: I had a long conversation with Virginia M.  We exchanged Netflix titles of programs we enjoy. Her choices were Merlin and Somebody Feed Phil. I found SFP! We started with Season 1, Episode 1, and are hooked immediately. Lights out at 0925.  I think we were asleep by 0930.

11.15.2020: 0330: I lost my night bag! I was able to catch it before the bed got wet. It’s easy to blame it on Parkinson’s, but this has to do with my total prostatectomy back in 2012. (See https://www.amazon.com/Living-External-Catheter-Want-Those/dp/1986061566©2018 by Sam Turner) Well, I’m awake. Might as well get up. I’ll take a nap after the TalkBack Zoom meeting at St. Francis UMC, this morning. It’s too early to watch CBS Sunday Morning. We finished last week’s program last night during dinner. It’s only 43º this morning. This coming week we may hit 90º again. Still no rain.

0700: Rode the bike and watched the first segment of CBS Sunday morning. 15 minutes; put in the laundry, got the breakfast things ready for Swombo, and added to my poem for today.  The plan is to write a poem a day, but today, I might write two or three. At the end of the month (The end of NANO and the end of my challenge.) I’ll post the site on Maytag Moments with my results.

Evening: Watched the SpaceX liftoff. Then, found ourselves watching Somebody Feed Phil. Educational and FUNNY! I wonder how this guy can eat so much and still keep trim.

11.16,2020: 0500: Stretching. 

* While teaching at Pistor Middle School, I had the good fortune to have  Jean Ethridge as my student teacher. The first day, she hung a hand-made banner on the wall with the Napolian Hill quote.  I still have that banner hanging on my office wall. Thinking of Jean this day. Sam

Birth is a beginning and Death a destination;

From childhood to maturity and youth to age,

From innocence to awareness and ignorance to knowing.

From foolishness to discretion and then, perhaps, to wisdom.

From weakness to strength or strength to weakness

and back again.

From health to sickness and back, we pray to health again.

From offense to forgiveness, from loneliness to love.

From joy to gratitude, from pain to compassion.

From grief to understanding, from fear to faith.

From defeat to defeat.

Until looking backward or ahead, we see that

Victory lies not at some high place along the way,

But in having made the Journey, stage by stage.

Yom Kippur prayer

Why are you waiting

to begin your life?

Do you think the world must care

and come soliciting?

Listen to the knocking at the door of your own heart.

It is only faint because you have not answered.

You have fooled yourself with preparations

Time left laughing

while you considered possibilities.

Wake up

you have slept long enough.

Wake up

tomorrow may be too late.

Judith Gass

I’m at that age where my mind still thinks I’m 29, my humor suggests I’m 12, while my body mostly keeps asking if I’m sure I’m not dead yet.