[stevem53]

Hi Everyone..And welcome to our new community members..I didnt name any of you by name because there are alot of old community members who joined BT-2 with different usernames, so Im not quite sure who is who right now..But welcome and please continue to join us here whoever you are!

Today was our annual "Race Walk and Roll" here in R.I...It was the first time Ive attended it..We managed to raise $22,000 today..Our NBC local news station weatherman John Ghiorse was the Grand Marshall..The race was a 5k, and the walk was 1 mile..After John Ghiorse blasted the air horn to start the race of, he instructed us walkers that we werent in a race..and I said.."Youre right..Its not a race..Its a challenge"....So I walked the mile, and after the first 500 feet my legs were killin' me..and I turned to the people on the side of me and asked them if we were there yet?....What was interesting and inspirational was that there were three folks from my support groups that did the mile who have had DBS surgery..And there was this other gentleman named Walter who is in his late 60's to early 70's who walked the mile with one of those walkers with the wheels and the hand brakes..Well when we were at the starting line Walter says to me.."Are you ready to walk this thing in 3rd gear?"..And I said.."Sure"..Walter has had pd for about 10 years, and he took off with that walker and left me in the dust.. ..It just goes to show ya, that truth is stranger than fiction..Well anyway..That walk trashed me for the rest of the day..And Walter?..He told me he hasnt felt this good in years..God Bless Him!

This past week I had the opportunity to meet another Braintalk Community member and a good friend..On Tuesday I took a 2 hour drive down to visit "ol'cs" aka cs3..I left at around 5:00 am and headed out after a good nights sleep..I had to actually go to bed early for a change!..I got to his place at a little after 7:00..We met, shook hands, and sat down and talked about pd and how it changed our lives and about treatments, etc..We talked about all kinds of stuff for about 5 hours..Some real language of the heart that only 2 parkies can understand between each other..The things we experience in this journey that the rest of the world sees..but doesnt know how it feels to be us..He also gave me a crash course in chemistry which I had never understood a bit of..When I was young and stupid instead of old and wiser, I never took on anything that looked like I might fail at..I willingly flunked algebra and geometry in school because I was to shy to ask questions, because I thought I was supposed to "know"..Then I became a fisherman and started designing and building trawl nets, and thats when it hit me.."So thats what all these letters and numbers are for".. ..Anyway, its always kinda surreal when you meet someone in person that youve developed a friendship with online..You meet and its like youve known each other for a hundred years..I also found this to be true at the WPC..Ol'cs is the humble, compassionate, down to earth guy that really cares about people, who I envisioned him to be online..but very much moreso in person..It was really a special pleasure to meet ol'cs!..Ive met some really great folks from our community this year, and the irony is that we probably would never have met had it not been for pd..Huh!..pd!..What a deal!.. I certainly am not thanking pd for any of this, because we can all do without that part..But I thank God for the friendships that Ive made here, because its really made a difference in my life..And a huge difference at that!!

I think Ive finally got my boat sold..The guy who I mentioned on the other thread..On the history thread who offered me alot less than what I was asking for it?..Well I thought about it later on that night and I figured that since April that was the only offer that I had got..So I decided to cut my losses and get rid of the damned thing..So I called him back an he says hes pretty sure weve got a deal..Its time to move on while Ive got a chance, because the winter dock space is due, and I dont want to babysit that thing anymore, and I dont want to have to haul it and paint it again..So thats it!

Well thats my week folks..How are you all doing this week?

Steve