Living with Parkinson’s
Phyllis, B.A. & SamTurner, M.Ed. ©2020
June 1-6
06.01.2020: 0445: Rabbit!
On a lighter side:
This reminds me of:
Q…How do you keep your car from being stolen?
A…Buy a standard shift model
Q…How do you send a message in code?
A…Write in cursive
If you have a comment, please scroll to the bottom and use the comment space. OR if you wish to keep it less public, continue emailing us. Cheers, SET
A Cooper’s Hawk drops in for a late lunch. There are two clips: One is 2 minutes; the second one is 7 minutes.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUjuHzUB2ZPAiige6
This is the second time a hawk has dropped in for a meal. The other time was several years ago. Check your bird book. This looks like it may be an immature male. I don’t think it is a female. I wasn’t about to attempt to remove the rain gauge.
All we need now is the roadrunner (who made frequent stops last year to pick up a lizard or two.) and we’ll have the complete food chain.
1600: Our dinner. The Mongolian Beef was the most challenging for us. Chef Swombo cooked the rice while I chopped the peanuts, roasted the broccoli, trimmed and cut the green onions, chopped the garlic and seared the steak strips. All went well with the olive oil and garlic, brown sugar mix for the sauce. I killed it for PJ when I added the red pepper flakes. I should have held off on that until her plate was served. We wound up with enough for a second meal on Tuesday. The amazing thing is that it turned out as delicious as it did considering we were passing the direction sheet back and forth and (like my typing) I pressed the wrong button on the oven and almost started the self-cleaning cycle! Had not Chef Swombo been there, it would have been a disaster.
Evening: After watching the news, we found that Sweet Magnolias does not yet have a Season Two. (That is distressing.)
2100: “To sleep…Perchance to dream…Ah, there’s the rub.” Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1. (Just remembering my Senior year at George Pepperdine College. Yes, it was a college before it became a University. And it was in L.A. – Vermont and Slauson) They hadn’t finished the Harbour Freeway when I graduated in 1957. (PJ graduated the week before from the U. of A.) A week later, June 15th, we were married on the Rim of Grand Canyon.
06.02.2020: 0330: I just couldn’t sleep. o500: Still awake but fading fast. 75º already and YISKA! No clouds for color this morning. Parts of Tucson received an inch of rain in ten minutes before the cloud moved further west.
0730: Breakfast with PJ. Watching the birds in our north yard. We have three Zoom appointments today: (1) Family Brower (2) ALOHA at 1300 and (3) Parkinson’s from 1400 to 1530.
Amazing results. Helena Brower (age 12) (in Oregon) “walked” me through the sign-in process for Zoom. It worked. We had a great first-time family Zoom meeting. The maximum time limit is 40-minutes. Her family used to live across the street. If they still lived there, we’d be using Zoom anyway. From Browers, I moved to ALOHA where the discussion centered around new hearing buds and Hearphones and loops all designed to enhance the quality of sound discrimination. PJ is going to need new hearing aids soon. Like computers, every three or four years the technology improves and we have to upgrade. From ALOHA, I moved to (Zoom) Parkinson’s lecture which focused on caregivers and keeping them healthy. Carol Morris was the speaker. She has a book that our leader, Dr. Cynthia Holmes will share with us. THE SELFISH CAREGIVERS SUPPORT GUIDE. 30% of patients live longer than their caregivers.
1800: Dinner with SWOMBO enjoying a Pork BLT Lettuce Wrap. This dinner was easier to cook and serve. Chef Swombo continued to supervise. I didn’t set fire to anything.
Since we usually have enough leftovers for a second meal, these meals are costing us $5-$6 dollars per plate. Of course, we don’t have to tip, so it’s possible that after this lock-down is over we will continue with some of these selections.
We watched SongLand. Of the three finalists, we agreed with the judges and picked the winner.
We not only get letters, but we get pictures!
Ian in Santan sent these sunflowers to remind us of Nature’s ability to place beauty in one’s backyard. We didn’t get many sunflowers this year, but we had plenty of hollyhocks. Next year, it may be penstemons. If you figured out where Santan is, did you know that Arizona has a town named Why? Well, why not?
06.03.2020:0500: A more reasonable time to wake up. I did some exercises for my arms and hands. I still haven’t shot my bow. I’ll shoot tomorrow if I can shoot earlier.
Today, (1000) PJ attends Body Central for her back. I’ll have my tablet and will do some reading in the waiting room.
1200: We had leftovers for lunch. I have my CIP to write.
1300 – 1700: Wow! Four hours and 6000+ words and with my fingers! No Dragon! I thought I’d just see how much I could generate with no interruptions.
1730: Our ice maker isn’t working! I called our son, Joe who understands these problems.
2045: We are standing on the front sidewalk with our new neighbor, Lance, who lives one house east of us. We are watching the International Space Station fly overhead. It looks like a fast-moving star coming from the north-north-west and disappearing over New Mexico.
Megan is invited, but she was with an apiarist removing a hive in the east corner of her back yard. No stings, I hope.
0915:PJ and I went to bed.
06.04.2020: 0430: Checked the freezer and it still isn’t producing ice. I picked up a bag of ice from Walgreens yesterday afternoon and $180.00 worth of prescriptions for PJ and me.
0600: 80º Archery practice for the first time shooting 10 Ends (in 30-minutes) since meeting with my coach. 150/300. I removed the stabilizer which lightened the bow. It is good to shoot again. Left-hand tremor is evident this morning, clear down my leg.
0900: I drove PJ to Desert Sports & Fitness to peddle on the incumbents. We peddled for ten minutes keeping the speed rate at 0.99. That was the end. We didn’t move on to the elliptic walker. We were tired and came home. We have to work out a date with Tresha to drive to her studio. It might be Wednesday mornings as soon as we finish with Body Central.
1500: 105º This is not a good day to have the ice cube maker quit on us. The forecast is that we will have at least one hundred days over a hundred degrees starting June 1.
1800: We had a new Home Chef meal – roasted chicken and green beans – which was the easiest to prepare. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.
After the news, we watched Songland (a recording that we’d missed) featuring Boyz II Men. It had a surprising conclusion. Lance will have to see this. Thanks, Virginia, for recommending this program. Tonight we’ll watch The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
No archery this morning. I leave for the dentist in ten minutes. X-rays say no cavities. I need a new bite block, though. I have an appointment tomorrow at 1000! Talk about fast. I’m surprised and impressed
06.06.2020: 0500: The ice maker is working! It started working last evening. This morning, the container was 2/3 full. 0800: I have PJ’s breakfast ready. She rides with me to all doctor appointments as chief navigator. We have to drive to Ft. Lowell and Campbell to my orthodontist.
1200: Mission accomplished. I’ll need bite retainers for upper and lower teeth. The nurse is holding the lower mold down. How’s this for a selfy?
If you have a comment, please scroll to the bottom and use the comment space. OR if you wish to keep COMMENTS less public, continue emailing us.
Cheers, SET
We conclude this issue with two prose poems by my good friend, Margaret Ann:
A VIRUS, ISOLATING AT HOME, A MURDER, AND PROTESTS
Our whole nation involved in one event after another—
I will not bury my head in the sand—
I will keep myself informed
so that I, myself, can decide what I think,
what I believe, how I handle
all that’s happening at once—
one day at a time seems to work.
REAL LIFE AND DEATH
Yes, I used to go to cowboy movies
with my dad and brother,
in which cowboy actors shot with imitation guns
and other cowboy actors toppled off horses,
but I have never seen a man murdered before,
not an actor, but a real live man, caught on video,
gasping, “I can’t breathe, Man”
(which has special meaning for me)
as the real live policeman’s knee was crushing his windpipe
into the ground below, murdering him—
and with a steely-eyed stare which said Don’t You Dare!
to the video-maker,
who went right on making the proof.
“Let there be peace on earth—
and let it begin with me.”
Copyright © 2020 Margaret Ann Adams (used by permission)