[GregD]

Well, here I am for another week. I think. The big snow storm skipped right over us this weekend. Thank goodness. We had a little ice Sunday morning but it was gone by 8:00 am.
I've got to go right now. I'm working on a project that I'll tell you all about later on.

Keep on shakin'

GregD

[Todd]

Well, let's see...it's been awhile since I checked in.

Went to PAN and got to meet a number of people from this forum, as well as others. It was great to finally be able to say "hello" in person and get to know everyone a little better. And Jaye, you looked great...keep plugging along!

PAN was very interesting for someone like me who's never really been involved in politics before. I learned a great deal, and truly enjoyed the speakers and the up-to-date information they shared, especially Dr. Langston.

The trip to Capitol Hill was interesting as well. While we mostly met with aides, it was clear we had a positive effect on many of them. It was great to hear my fellow PD'rs tell their stories so eloquently and emotionally. Very powerful stuff. I did get to talk to one of our Senators, Diane Feinstein. I gave her a copy of my article that appeared recently in the NPF Parkinson Report Journal (Fall 2006) and the other day she called and asked for my participation in a PD project she's working on, so that was cool.

Getting home to California proved to be quite a challenge. DC got hit with an ice/snow storm that closed both airports for the first time in 11 years. I was at Reagan airport for 10 1/2 hours trying to get a flight home to CA, but they kept getting canceled. I think I stood in line for about 6 hours that day. Not fun for a Parkie! I finally managed to get a flight out of DC to Salt Lake City where I had to spend the night. The next morning, as my flight was preparing to leave to finally get me home, it started snowing in Salt Lake and we almost didn't get off the ground!

I finally made it home, where I was greeted with blue skies and 80 degree weather. If I never see another snow flake as long as I live, I'll die a happy man!

It took me four full days of sleep and rest to recover from PAN but I'm very glad I went.

Now if anybody knows someone near Manhattan who could put me up for a few days for the Unity Walk, let me know. I really would love to go but can't justify the insane hotel rates.

Hope everyone is feeling well. I'm off to the gym after a 2 week absence while my body recovered from PAN and the travel. Damn PD! lol

Todd
PDTalks.com

[wendy s]

I am so tired of ice and snow and cold after over four months of it. The worst is the ice, you just can't get out and walk with any speed. I finally broke down and bought a treadmill last weekend - if this "global warming" continues, I'll be using it 5 or 6 months of the year. It will be delivered this next weekend, and as long as my boys don't go camping, they'll get it down into the basement for me. Yes, camping, they think it's fun to snowshoe in somewhere with a bunch of stuff on a toboggan, and put on clothes in the morning that have frozen together. Craaaazy! But I guess that's the right attitude, if you're stuck with the white cold stuff, enjoy it!

I'm off to the big city in a couple of days to get another basal cell skin cancer removed. From the crown of my head this time, I just hope it's only a tiny bald spot I'm left with. I can't really regret all the fun in the sun I had as a very fair-skinned kid, but.....

I'm following the DM discussion with great interest. I'm trying to be a good "white rat" and not start more than one thing at once - right now I'm completely eliminating my food allergies to see what happens. Then I was going to check out Vit. B12 (as a vegetarian for 10 years, I could easily be deficient), but I think DM might come first.

[jeanb]

Todd,

It was very nice meeting you at PAN. And I felt like you did when I got home to Arizona - so happy to be out of the ice and snow!

"I finally made it home, where I was greeted with blue skies and 80 degree weather. If I never see another snow flake as long as I live, I'll die a happy man!"

[Jaye]

I have a good excuse: I had to go alone to pick up my new cell phone and take advantage of the extremely good sale on Sunday and reserve a phone for my husband, BBP, at the good rate. He couldn't be there because he had promised a friend in DC a ride out to BWI, which is minutes from our house. That was okay except for the amount of snowing that was going on, but the friend misunderstood BBP's message and found her own way to the airport. I managed to get myself to the shopping center anyway, since I'm a Midwest girl and learned to drive on the stuff, and fortunately it wasn't too far from the hotel we were staying in. Oh--we were in a hotel for four nights, ever since our 22-year-old furnace died on Friday at about 6:00 pm. Well, it's a good thing I got the phone then because it was in all the confusion that I had lost my old phone, and this way I could have it de-activated without changing my number. When BBP and I met for supper, neither of us had had lunch, so it made us both grumpy that the salesman wouldn't cut off BBP's phone earlier just because I had been standing there saying to, because while BBP had been driving around his old cell phone had died a natural death after several years of service, but we were glad we had coordinated everything up until we hadn't had to miss our parish election and the announcement of our new Rector, although we'd had to cut out of the luncheon afterwards. Oh, so yesterday we checked out of the hotel, but once we got home we realized I really wouldn't do too well at staying in the cold house alone all night, even though the utility company had brought over some space heaters. Oh, I was alone because BBP had signed up to work at our church's Winter Shelter overnight on Tuesday night, so I arranged to stay with a friend instead and sent with BBP the warm hat I'd made to give to one of the homeless men--with great sympathy on my part, believe me. BBP had even more sympathy, since he's been spending every day since Monday in the cold house with the contractor who is here to finish our bathroom remodeling job that was started last May. I couldn't fill for him and let him go back to work in because the flu was too severe, having started Sunday night, but now poor hubby has it and I'm glad I'm able able to answer the contractor's questions and those of the utility company guys installing the new furnace and air conditioner even as I write.

Still smiling anyway (well, most of the time),
Jaye

[paula_w]

So you are still not staying at home? Where the heck are you staying? You are still sick? Where is my phone - you are on overload. I'll call you and whine so you will feel better.

paula

[burckle]

Not much to report. It snowed several days ago and looks beautiful but winter is winding down and it appears that this may be the last major one. If we get anymore snow it will likely be wet snow which tends to weigh down branches and, in extreme cases, roofs. The night before last I was given an unusual sight. I was expecting the visit of a new post doctoral student who was going to spend some 3 to 4 weeks with me. Her plane was due to arrive at 10:15 in the evening (in Newark) so I stayed at my desk waiting for her call. It came, but her plane was stuck in Chicago waiting out some bad weather. She finally arrived at our Institute at 3:30 in the morning, too late to go home and too early to go to work. So I showed my new post-doc to her room and then wandered the grounds. It's interesting what one sees in the dead of night when night-time animals are out and expecting their day-time counterparts to be sleeping...and it's also very beautiful.

All the best,

Lloyd

[Ronhutton]

Well, tomorrow is my wife's birthday, 1st March, and we are going out for a big meal to celebrate. (I tell her she was born too early, it should have been April 1st!!!)
Then the rundown to next week, when on 9th March, we fly 11 hours to LA, on the ground 4 hours, then a 9 hour flight to Tahiti. We have booked 16 days there. I am really looking forward to temperatures of 32-34 C. I am also thankful that after 16 years of PD, and now over 70 years old, that I can still take demanding holidays. However, I am cracking up with other things. I have a dislocated shoulder (fall) they are talking about doing keyhole surgery on, I have a heavily swollen ankle, I have a mangled finger (fall), and just getting over the flu.
Hey, the weather is not so bad, last 6 months are the warmest since records began, and I got my tractor out today and cut the grass!!
Well, I have been all evening on the computer, and with my wife's birthday tomorrow, I had beter make an attempt at being sociable!!!
Greetings to all.
Ron

[jeanb]

Ron --

Have a wonderful trip to Tahiti! The travel there will be brutal - but oh being in Tahiti should make up for that!!

Sorry to hear about your aches & infirmities. But hopefully that warm weather and gorgeous surroundings will help them to heal.

Cheers!

[chasmo]

make SURE you walk alot at LAX. It probably would not hurt to ask your GP about low dose aspirin therapy for your trip.

Enjoy your trip!! I'm jealous!!

Charlie