A Quarter Million Laughs

My little Parkinson's Humor blog hit a big milestone recently. The number of people who have logged in and looked at my stories is now over 250,000. Most people find my blog stories by doing internet searches, not by following links I have posted on Facebook or Twitter. The United States, United Kingdom and Canada are still the top three places where my reader's hail from. This makes sense as they are all English speaking countries. In the last few months, France, Russia and Ukraine have been very active, so I want to welcome all of them to Club Parkie, the club no one wants to join.

250,002

It has been quite a while since I had a party for this blog. The last one was almost three years ago when I was at 10,000 so I was overdue. We booked the big room at Da Boyz, our favorite Italian restaurant, and then had to change the date/time several times to accommodate my guests weekly events such as Bingo night, Jeeping day, and the Camera Club meeting. We finally settled on Monday at 2 pm.

The guest list was an eclectic group consisting of Parkie friends, current and former neighbors, Camera Club buddies and one or two other friends. We picked up the cake I ordered and headed down to the restaurant to meet everyone for a lunch.

One of the first things to greet me was a florist carrying flowers from one of my Parkie friends who had a bad cold and couldn't be there.

Do you like my Happy Parkie shirt???

Then friends came pouring in, carrying balloons and roses and congratulatory cards. Introductions were made, hugs were exchanged and we settled down and ordered lunch.

My Wonderful Husband made a small speech, several others did, too. I thanked everyone for helping us through that rough period a year or so ago.

Then we did what we do best. We ate and laughed. After lunch, we ate cake and laughed some more.

Then came the big surprise that no one was expecting. We picked up the check for everyone there. It was the least we could do. These friends have been there since before that first blog story, cheering me on, lifting me up, nagging me to walk, making me laugh, giving me much needed hugs, treating me like their favorite sister/daughter/niece. We are truly thankful for each and everyone of them.

And I am truly thankful for each and everyone of YOU who takes time to read my stories. Have a Happy Parkie Day!  

Parkinson's Disease; Fall in Winter

A few weeks ago, my Wonderful Husband and I were sitting on our back patio when we spotted something large and orange in the desert behind our house. We sat there trying to figure out what it was. We came up with some humorous possibilities, such as a discarded prison jumpsuit, or an inflatable Halloween pumpkin or perhaps a child's swimming pool. Whatever it was, we decided to go get it and put it in the trash. 

I was extra careful climbing over our low back wall and my Wonderful Husband held my hand as we negotiated a steep ditch created by runoff water. All that was left was a very shallow secondary ditch. The next thing I know, I was lying in the sand and my glasses were a few feet away. 

The steep ditch

The shallow ditch 

I was okay; I just had some scrapes on my leg and the palm of my hand, but my glasses weren't damaged. I was achy for a few days, but at least I fell in soft sand and not into rocks or on gravel. But why did I fall?

I've been replaying the fall over and over in my head; there was nothing for me to trip over and I was watching what I was doing, so how did I end up in the sand? The answer I have come up with is ... brake failure. 

Yes, brake failure.

It seems that if I get some forward momentum, I can't stop! Since the fall, I've noticed that if I step off a curb, due to the forward momentum, it takes a few extra steps before my gait returns to normal. The same thing happens if I walk down an incline. I have trouble stopping. No brakes! 

So, that's what happened when I tried to navigate the shallow ditch; my brakes didn't work and I fell forward into the sand. Now that I realize my brakes don't work, I adjust how I handle steep driveways, curbs and ditches. 

The large orange thing out in the desert? Yes, we went ahead and got it. It was a section of temporary construction fencing that probably got swept away in a rainstorm. We untangled it and put it in our trash. Just because I took a tumble, didn't mean we shouldn't pick it up, right?