[ol'cs]

What do you do all day? I think that this is an important question because it may give other "retired's" ideas of how to occupy those often "angry" hours, to help ward off lying down on the couch or "hiding in bed".
My awake hours are all over the place. Sometiems i'm up all day, sometimes's i'm up all night. I have a microscope and collect micro crystals of thousands of different minerals. LIke snowflakes, no two are the same and you get to see some really cool structures and wild colors. I also collect coins and spend hours scraping the oxide coatings off of unrecognizable ancient coins to reveal the old surfaces. I read a lot of science magazines and surf the net for pictures of other parts of the world (it's almost as good as being there) along with any old thing that comes to mind. I cook my own food, I clean up the house, while my wife works and if I can, I do a bit of yard work. That yard work usually gives me too much pain, so I avoid physical work. THere are times when i just have to lie on the bed and "squrm" with dyskinesia. I hate those times, but they always go away and i have a few good hours to do something productive.
So, what do you (who aren't still working ) do to occupy the hours in a day?

[Ronhutton]

Retired??, don't make me laugh, I am so occupied I can never understand how I found time to work!! I have a half acre garden to maintain. I keep it going with no outside help. Then I have a Labrador, young and frisky which needs a walk in the orchards every day. Then there is PD, my life revolves around it, I spend hours researching on the net, I am a Committee Member of the local branch of the Parkinson's Soc. and have to go out collecting for funds, attending meetings, etc. Today I go to their Yoga Class. The UK PD Society invited me to give a presentation recently, after asking me to write an article for their magazine. Now I am travelling to London regularly to their meetings, and I also go to London to visit a research group in King's College University. I do all their literature searches for them, and raise funds for them in my "spare time". I organised an auction last Nov. which raised $35,000. When I "retired" 10 years ago, the employees asked me to be Chairman of the Social CLub, "in my spare time". I have to chair the monthly meetings, attend all the functions, send out agendas, etc. I am a silversmith, registered with the London Assay Office, and make silverware, (when I have time). I have 3 married children and 5 grandchildren, and we are a close group, they all visit regularly, and we often have the grandchildren staying overnight, while the "children" go out and enjoy themselves. We travel a lot, holidays in Tahiti (total of 40 hours flying time) and Crete this year, and we go to France next week. This is to visit a French group of Parkies in Reims. I laid 80 heavy concrete paving stones a month or so ago. Yesterday I saw a specialist about my hernia!!! I am 70 years old now, and have had PD for 16 years, maybe that was a bit foolhardy...
Guess what I did last weekend, went out and bought a state of the art metal detector as a "spare time" hobby. First find in my garden was an old metal button, with the inscription, "Ne Plus Ultra". Apparently an old military button. There are many finds of Roman gold and silver coins up to 2,000 years old in the area, I will let you know if I find one!!!
Ron

[lou_lou]

I just go with the flow of the day -
so I have to learn to entertain myself, and do what I can while I can.
dont retire your life, continue looking forward -not back.

her's a quote from Mark Twain I enjoy, my friend Diana send it to me.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

[BEMM]

I putter.
I keep telling myself to write again, to draw again, but I don't seem to listen. I like to cook and to bake. I do laundry, dishes, and I was about to say dusting, but I leave the dust for the cleaning lady - even if she skips a turn - so you know I'm lazy.........
I read A LOT. Finally I have all the time I want to read all I want to read.
When we were young my husband was very busy, we had three children and no money to speak of, so I know how to make soup from a stick and clothes from thin air, and how it is not to have time to read until the late hours of the night and into morning.
And now my husband and I take walks, look at birds, he plants flowers which I get to pick, we play Scrabble, do crossword puzzles, travel.
We don't see the children and the grandchildren as often as we'd like. They all live too far away and are too busy. I miss them.
So I putter. I used to be a potter, now I just putter.
And read.

birte

[lou_lou]

What is wrong with you?
That answer was very much a kick in the pants -can you answer it
any more arrogantly?
sincerely,
tena

Originally Posted by Ronhutton

Retired??, don't make me laugh, I am so occupied I can never understand how I found time to work!! I have a half acre garden to maintain. I keep it going with no outside help. Then I have a Labrador, young and frisky which needs a walk in the orchards every day. Then there is PD, my life revolves around it, I spend hours researching on the net, I am a Committee Member of the local branch of the Parkinson's Soc. and have to go out collecting for funds, attending meetings, etc. Today I go to their Yoga Class. The UK PD Society invited me to give a presentation recently, after asking me to write an article for their magazine. Now I am travelling to London regularly to their meetings, and I also go to London to visit a research group in King's College University. I do all their literature searches for them, and raise funds for them in my "spare time". I organised an auction last Nov. which raised $35,000. When I "retired" 10 years ago, the employees asked me to be Chairman of the Social CLub, "in my spare time". I have to chair the monthly meetings, attend all the functions, send out agendas, etc. I am a silversmith, registered with the London Assay Office, and make silverware, (when I have time). I have 3 married children and 5 grandchildren, and we are a close group, they all visit regularly, and we often have the grandchildren staying overnight, while the "children" go out and enjoy themselves. We travel a lot, holidays in Tahiti (total of 40 hours flying time) and Crete this year, and we go to France next week. This is to visit a French group of Parkies in Reims. I laid 80 heavy concrete paving stones a month or so ago. Yesterday I saw a specialist about my hernia!!! I am 70 years old now, and have had PD for 16 years, maybe that was a bit foolhardy...
Guess what I did last weekend, went out and bought a state of the art metal detector as a "spare time" hobby. First find in my garden was an old metal button, with the inscription, "Ne Plus Ultra". Apparently an old military button. There are many finds of Roman gold and silver coins up to 2,000 years old in the area, I will let you know if I find one!!!
Ron

[ol'cs]

.. from the way you speak, it wuld appear that you were a PWP in the very early stages of prediagnosis, or that you do not have PD at all. However, since you've been around here a long time, i can't believe that you have PD, or if you do it must be the most "mild" case of PD ever to have been diagnosed.
DO you not believe that certain (most) PWP are severely compromised in what they are able to do in a day? Do you not fall, cut open the skin on your knees and bleed a lot, then get up and a day later do it again? Do you not have muscles that when put through a "working out" Seize up like an engine without any oil in the crankcase? Do you beleive that YOUR PD symptoms are the same as everyone elses? Do you think that the rest of us are just weak willed "complainers" who could do wel by just "stiffening the upper lip"? Do you have dyskinesia and dystonia that are so painful and life altering that you feel embarrassed to be seen in public, let alone "downed" from the pain and discomfort that is almost unimaginable to people without PD. Have you ever had depression over these horrible PD symptoms to the point that you want to take a length of rope and hang yourself in your garage? I say, how can you get out and about to all these places that you travel to, when many of us are shut ins against our will, because it is just too difficult to keep on our feet for more than 30 minutes without total fatigue? IT is just the kind of posting that you do which causes people without PD to make a judgement call that PD is not such a bad disease. Can't you put yourself in the position of some of the peole in your support group, or are you a General Patton who kicks the shell shocked soldier out of his bed in the infirmary?
I am only 50 yeras old and have have had a PD dx for 11 years. Before that I climbed mountains, swam miles, ran like the wind, and did extremely heavy labor jobs such as a welder and a sawmill worker to name a few. I was 5'11'' and 220 pounds, without any fat on me. I know what it is to be healthy, able to do almost anything and full of energy. Now , PD has reduced me to a shell of my former self. I just can't do things, even though i DESPERATELY want to. I WANT to cut the lawn, I WANt to work, I want to please everyone in my family, and would, if only for PD.
IT may seem like i'm chewing you a new butthole here, but i just want to know "what kind of PD do you have"; it certainly doesn't sound like the kind that i know about. cs

[harley]

first, a question..
is thie for what we do during our "up" time or "down" time? cuz when im up, im all over the place too. when i am down, i am down.

seems to me that ron is just commenting on his "up" time. no prob with that. if he has alot to do.. i say,, good for him. i do not see his reply as arrogant. just stating what his life consists of.

[Thelma]

What are you comparing here.

You are all saying each and every one is different and the disease effects all differently.

Would you have him lie to you and then pretend to be kindred spirits.

Unless you accept him at his word then you are judgeing him by your condition and living style.

This is what you profess to dislike. If you are.................

Then this forum will really die of the sweetness and lovey dovey sacharine mutterings of some.

You guys email each other and become the friends I know you can be.

Then come on back and attack me for the crap I put on here.

I welcome the attention as I don't love either of you but I do like you and for me that is as sweet as it gets lol

[Jomar]

I think my dad's form of PD is very similar to Ron's, most likely a mild version or slow progression of it.
Before adding the Mirapex his ankle was starting lock up and sometimes his wrist and he would get the shaky arm when he got nervous or stressed.

[chasmo]

I know that he is about as bad off any of us, He just never stopped living, even for a second, because once you give in to your PD, its very hard to get your life back.
My hats off to Ron!!! He subscribes to my motto.

"I may wear out, but I won't rust!!"


Charlie