Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks and Good News

Photo taken in Alaska May 2011.on our cruise

Dear Readers,


Happy Valentine's Day.  Fifty-four (54) years ago today, Don and I walked down the isle at our wedding.   Where have those years gone!!  How can it possibly be 54 years when in my head I'm still 40ish (not my body, but my head).  My body hasn't felt like 40 since - well - age 40.




The other morning I woke up with a good idea for a blog post.  I Should have written it down, but didn't.  Obviously, today I couldn't remember what it was. It's so frustrating when that happens.   


I don't know if you have been noticing the various headers at the top of this blog and Mario's blog or not.  But I recently took advantage of a 30-day trial program that PhotoShop Elements 10 was offering.   WOW, I'm not sure if this old dog is up to learning all these new tricks or not.  It's very complicated.  They only use video's as a teaching tool.   By the time I've watched the video and then try to put in practice what I have seen, I've forgotten half the steps involved to get there.  I guess I'm just going to have to view one video every 3 days, try to take notes as I'm watching, and than practice those techniques for the next 3 days.   Since I have shaky hands, it's not easy to take notes while watching the video, and what few notes I take, I have trouble reading.


Now on to the Fantastic News.  Last week, while reading the blogs, I happened on an update in the Parkinson's Disease Foundations's Blog written by James Beck, Ph.D., Director of Research Programs.

It seems that two different scientists have discovered independently that Alzheimer’s disease may spread from brain cell to brain cell much like a virus.

Now what does all this have to do with Parkinson's? Well, there are similarities in that their theory is whatever causes Parkinson's reacts much the same way - traveling from cell to cell (cell might be the wrong scientific term here). I'm not going to try to explain it here because it's way too scientific for this old brain and I might not use the right terminology which could cast an entirely different light on things. I suggest you take a minute to read Dr. Beck's interesting article.

There is now hope that perhaps a vaccine can be developed to stop the spread of the disease and maybe even prevent it. I had left a comment in his blog that I wouldn't mind being a part of that test group - whenever and if it reaches that point. Of course, in reality, that is a long way in the future and probably won't happen in my lifetime. So, I'm not going to hold my breath or get too excited about the possibility of being a part of scientific research. But it is the most hopeful thing I have read about this disease - ever. If interested in reading the article - just click here: Parkinson's Disease Foundations Blog It's a short article and easy to read.

This has been a half way decent week pain wise. I got my two shots in the sacroiliac joints one week ago yesterday. The shots also helped my back a little bit. I don't know how long this will help, but I can't get another set of shots for 4 months.   I'm going to enjoy this time now while I have it for however long it lasts.


Happy Valentines Day!


Mary