We met with a realtor over the week end and officially put our house on the market. Hope things work out as far as timing goes. We are having a house built in Maine which should be available sometime toward the end of the summer. Selling a house and having one built requires good timing.

I got a note last week telling me that I'm being considered for inclusion in the next Who's Who in America. If you look at in one way (a million Americans are so honored) it doesn't sound like much, but if you look at it another way (one half of one percent of Americans are so honored) it sounds like a big deal. I'll settle for a big deal. I get so few big deals.

All the best,

Lloyd

Here here! Congratulations! Your humor and folksy posts reflect your intelligence and I am proud to know you.

blowing virtual party horn and singing "For he's a jolly good fellow."

Paula

Lloyd/Burckle - being in Who's Who is a VERY big deal!! Congratulations!!

and post one of my wandering commentaries. Yes I am still on the planet but the last month or so has been challanging and I seem to be going through some changes...I'm making a fundamental turn-a-round in my attitude wrt meds and and all the chemicals we put in our bodies. I've been taking my meds like a good little Parkie for the last ten years and I've decided that hasn'
t gotten me anywhere except closer to needing a walker, and I don't care for that idea much. So after consulting with my Neuro who had his pen poised precariously over his perscription pad when I finallly did get to see him, we were able to come to a concensus on how to decrease my meds rather than increase them (I'm not sure concensus is the word I'm really after) It was really more like I took posession of my body and said thats it! We are not adding anymore drugs -we are going to reduce my medication intake. And he said.."how are WE going to do that?". So I laid out my plan and he played the part of skeptic. I havn't had any sugar or high GI food for two weeks, and I've added some supplements of my own choosing including a commitment to take them. My Blood Glucose is stabalizing and except for a kind of debilitating fatigue, I think I might be doing better. Last night for the first time in as long as I can remember I could actually move around in my sleep. I'm looking at a more natural way to manage my PD. I learned that my antidepressant has a nasty little side effect of making my bones more porous (be warned all you who are on an SSRI...it increases your chances of osteoporosis by 50%...thats not small peanuts) I'm already in the highest risk catagory! I haven't touched a piece of meat in over a week and am getting my protien from "plant sources". I'm on a steady diet of nutrition manuals for my reading materials and firmly believe it will pay off. I have another appointment with Dr. Skeptical on the 3rd of April. To report on my progress. Tip #1: eat apples...theres a lot more to that old saying about an apple a day than we give the originator credit for. Well I'm off to get my beauty sleep...nobody wants to be old AND ugly!

Hey Rosebud, nice to see you around! Keep us posted on your progress. I've always been very reluctant to take meds for every little "boo-boo", because I feel like I'm slowly poisoning myself.
Now to apples - my pet theory. Apples and onions are the best antioxidants there are. Anything made from apples will make you feel better and if you're not hungry: cider (even hard cider, for those who like a little alcohol in their diet) or apple juice and vinegar. I get one extra hour of on-time when I drink cider or apple juice and my cramps are instantly relieved by apple vinegar. Keep pickles in the cupboard, folks!

Pretty uneventful week. Bad migraine kicked my butt for quite a few days. Other than that, enjoying the quiet and the unusually warm weather we're getting. It's been in the upper 80's and low 90's. Unfortunately that means that California starts to go up in flames.

I love the fact that we've changed the clocks and get that extra time with the sun. Hate when it gets dark at 3 or 4 in the afternoon during the winter time. Bring on summer!

I won an online essay contest about PD and fitness sponsored by the makers of Azilect, so my wife and I get an all expense paid trip to New York for the Unity Walk. That was pretty cool. Nice to have some good luck for a change. We're going a few days early to goof around and try to get in to Letterman.

As a result of my trip to DC for the PAN forum, one of my senators, Diane Feinstein, read my personal story in the NPF journal and called to ask me to help her with an op-ed about stem cell research they are looking to place into papers in California and other parts of the country. I thought that was pretty cool. It ran in an Oakland paper on Monday and there should be more. Anything I can do to help the PD community is fine by me!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Todd
PDTalks.com

I am going to try to make it for the walk in Central Park also..I'll talk to you when the date gets closer..Hopefully Birtie will be going too

It would be so nice and fun to meet you, Steve, and Todd too, at the NY walk. I am still mulling over it, and have not made any arrangement yet. It falls on our oldest grandson's birthday, he's turning 12, so our presence means something to him, and it is on a Saturday, so he has no school.
The walk is a really big event for me, an amazing, emotionally charged event. To be in such a huge crowd of people who either have PD, or whose loved one or friend or neighbor has PD, is overwhelmingly touching. To meet hundreds of people who all have their hearts set on helping to find a cure for us is absolutely uniquely heart warming and heart wrenching.

I will have to decide soon between NY or Virginia.

Bravo to you Lloyd, and bravo to you Todd. How exciting and how admirable!

All the best
birte

I'm having one of those days -- or a couple days... maybe three or four. I lost count.

Pardon my French -- but I am just SO F***NG TIRED today. I had a crappy night sleep Monday night -- just couldn't get a good "snooze" going. Then last night I slept deep and long and had one strange dream after another... including one in which I was watching an episode of The Sopranos that kept switching back and forth between some kind of fictional story line and the real life of star James Gandolfini. Just strange.

I have no energy, no motivation, no desire to GET motivated. My meds are "on" but only at about 2/3-strength it would seem. I feel slow mentally and physically.

Yesterday I almost started crying when my wife made a perfectly innocent joke.

Maybe I'm exercising too much now. I did my half-hour on the "dreadmill" yesterday and was a zombie for the rest of the day. I've cut back to 3 times a week. Not exercising today.

Staying on the diet although I pigged out on chicken patty sandwiches last night. Gonna have a Slim Fast, mango slices and Propel for lunch. I want to go down to the cafeteria and get several cupcakes and rub them all over my face.

Not a good day, not a good day, not a good day at all.

Here's hoping for a good sleep for you, Radioguy. For me, a good sleep pretty much equals a good day.

Last night we discovered a huge icicle coming down just outside our window, inside the roofline. Panic, wondering what was happening inside the attic. We were lucky and it was still dry, but my husband and son spent about 3 hrs. clearing up to 4 ft. of snow and ice off the roof, and they're only half done. We don't have a big house, so you can imagine what a horrible job that was. It doesn't look that bad at the edge of the roof, it's just when you get up into the valleys between two roof lines that it's so bad. It's finally getting up above freezing in the afternoon sometimes, and the sun has a bit of warmth in it so the problems are starting to show up. We've had record snow-fall this winter, so now will have record melting - lots of fun.