20 May 2014: Tuesday ... meeting Anne Dunlap thanks to Gwen ... Katia and biking/brunch ... Bob and Alice ... bike rack & helmet

Gwen Hays, yoga and fitness instructor at the Western Y, introduced me to an extraordinary young woman this late morning, Anne Dunlap, who taught me about perseverance in the face of adversity and disability. She was injured severely in a car accident at age 18 in 1998 (she is a graduate of St. Mark's HS and Del Tech, where she earned her 2-year degree in four years -- she had planned to attend Virginia Tech until the accident with her boyfriend on Kirkwood Highway when their stalled car was struck by a DART bus). She asked that I write her an e-mail and I thought why not take a selfie of us on the tread mill. It does not do her justice as she she is an exquisitely beautiful young lady who could model with her looks. What a delight to get to meet her today thanks to Gwen's initiative. 

Hurried texts with Katia and her proximity to Bob and Alice prompted her request that I pick her up to visit my mom. She also mentioned riding bikes. her own. She wants to start getting some exercise. As a result, my mind went whirring and I called and then e-mailed Bob with the request to bring a visitor to brunch on Saturday. He responded right away and said bring her on, so I'll pick up Katia with my new bike rack (which I just ordered from Amazon) and my new bike helmet (also ordered from Amazon with 2-day shipping, so I should get it by Thursday). 

25 April 2014: Friday ... first law mowing in 40 years with new Honda ... short workout at Y but saw Jamie K. and Pamela ... Nielsen gear installed by Allen & Mike ... haircut by Debbie Leago ... picked up dry cleaned shirts (still out in the car on this rainy night) ... got soaked in walking Dancer thru Limestone Acres on 1.5 mile walk

Saw Barbara Ehrenreich's, a confirmed atheist with a rational, humanistic view of life, interview with Tavis Smiley, a confirmed Christian and believer, as I used the Nielsen view box for the first time in the TV room after Allen and Mike installed the equipment this Friday, 25 April 2014. He did not convince her to disavow her belief system.

I loved this post which I Shared from someone I did not know but the interaction between daughter and father was just precious and so in synch. This father is truly and literally (with the ukulele and all) connecting with his child.

Kristen Tosh-Morelli oh, that was beautiful. so sweet!

18 April 2014: Friday ... Good Friday ... Nick called, will be in Columbia w/Susan, Lindsay & Granny for Easter ... met Hanna, St. Mark's junior at Y ... good workout this AM ... doin' core work when Pamela walked into stretching room ... goin' to Riverfront Imax Theatre for "Grand Budapest Hotel" with Linda Lucero (7:45 p.m. showing) ...

The Y was open today but there were no group exercises today. The fitness instructors got the day off to be with their families, although I did see Pamela doing a one-on-one fitness instruction in the warm-up room as I did one of the routines (passing a large ball -- OUCH! -- between by legs and my arms). I told her that someone, who looked an awful lot like her, had taught me this exercise. "Do I have a twin?", she amusingly asked. "Perhaps," I said, "or a word I love, a 'doppelganger'". Also, used the "bosu" (both sides up) to do leg flexes and standing and lifting, but had to ask the older male instructor the name of the device, which had been told to me earlier in the week by the aforementioned Pamela, who taught me, yes, an exercise routine using it. An exhausting one but great for your core and your cardio.

         

25 March 2014: Tuesday ... Core Body workout (PHEW!) ... fantastic yoga w/Christine (no Brewed Awakenings due to daughter's illness - homemade soup v. Mrs. Grass) ... mom & Beth & Dr. Maged (solving symptoms) ... SNOWING AGAIN! ... .

Final snow of the extended 2013-14 winter, who knows, but we were slated to get 1-3 inches, which I doubt will take place, and as it fell at Delcastle Recreation Park on an early Tuesday evening, it was still beautiful at the conclusion of our walk (about 2 miles in total). It included my first circumnavigation of a lovely school, Brandywine Springs (middle school?) and its spacious grounds.

The day started with high hopes for a coffee & crumpet with Christine after yoga, but that did not materialize as her daughter was ill from school and needed her mother's attention, in particular homemade soup. Another day is suspect. 

Morning Core Challenge truly lived up to its name. Pamela had set up stations, about 10, I think, four-minutes apiece and boy did it "challenge". Thankfully, I had Josh, one of 3 males in the class, who inspired and directed me on each activity and we made it through. Very taxing and rewarding, in a way. I'll be back on Friday for a continuation of this physical endurance.

Yoga was packed and Christine was masterful. Got the heart rate up and I got to see two fitness instructors, Amy (lovely physique and superb yoga form) and Pamela, take the class. It inspired. She led us through a seamless progression of moves that challenged our body posture and our strength, within our own limits. By the conclusion, spread out in corpse, I did feel spent but invigorated. Afterward, I did get to speak with her (she is so popular, I really feel like I am intruding) and she told me of her daughter's illness. No mention of Brewed Awakenings was made. I do not want to intrude or be too bold. My intent for the class was the word resolve. And be it resolved that I will not be a "pain in the derriere" to her in my insistence. I want to become her friend first, but I do not know if I will ever get to first base. It still seems a distance away. 

On a more critical note, mom had a rough day. She really feared that she would die due to asphyxiation and it was good to have Beth visit today and contact Dr. Maged. The decision was that she needed more lasix and potassium for the next 4 days. We will double the dose of the "water pill" to see about lessening the build-up of fluid around her heart and give her the potassium for the tingling in her right foot. She will now be on 160 mg. of lasix or furosemide. 

Christine mentioned, in her words before yoga, which is her specialty, about the notion of letting go of stress and how describing, at the end of the day, through words and writing, what you are especially grateful for that day, is liberating and releasing. I agree. I am thankful for my mother, for the classes at the Y, for this snow, for my dog (sleeping on the floor in the TV room next to me as I type), and my friends (in particular, touching base again with Alice and Bob). 

Failed to mention that the Hayman/Eakin family will not be able to make the ballgame but I did leave a message with Delaware Hospice for Erica, PRN nurse, who has visited mom several times in the past week or so, and who mentioned to me that she'd been to an 87ers game at "The Bob", that the tickets were hers if she wanted them. I will wait to hear her response. 

18 January 2014: Saturday ... a call from mom at 4:25 this morning and a need for morphine (she has a cold) ... I still have a cough, at times, and a soar throat ... workout at the Y this a.m. ... changed water in humidifier of oxygenator

Listening to Brahms 1st piano concerto and learned that the activist Polish pianist, Krystian Zimerman, who travels with his
own Steinway had it confiscated post 9/11 by TSA who didn't like the smell of a glue that bonded
some sections of the piano and the destroyed it. 

15 January 2014: Wednesday ... When it rain, it pours, especially when you're napping mid-morning ... Carol, the Jehovah's Witnesses (who will come back), and Skeesha's call ...

Just had an idea for a daily entry on the blog ... why not, like I did in my classroom, have a Word Of The Day (WOTD). One of my FB friends, who I didn't know at Dickinson HS (she graduated in '75), Charla Larrimore, lives now in Hawaii (always wishing me 'aloha') and is a graduate of Stanford University. She is one smart individual. Well, she's sent me a WOTD for the past two days through instant messaging on FB.

Here's the first, or make that the second that she sent, which is part of the definition and not the exact word, but I love the definition offered up from the web site m-w.com. 

1. pecksniffian -- unctuously hypocritical
   
   
   
2. 
   

   
   
   I began this post with the phrase: "When it rain, it pours." Well, what did I mean? I was napping in my jammie bottoms and dad's leather slippers on the couch, listening to WHYY radio and the front bell sounds. It is the volunteer from Delaware Hospice, Carol, who has volunteered for 5 years as a companion and is a retired Special Education teacher from southeastern Pennsylvania for 10 years and happy to be so. It was hard and demanding work and her colleagues were not helpful. She has a wonderful visit with mom, who comments, initially on her name and its matching her sister. Mom loves people and it's good for her to have this companionship. She will return, weekly, to share some time with mom. I think it is good.
   
   Just moments later (here comes the rain), a couple of women, Jehovah's Witnesses, were at the door to talk about my faith. I stated, without equivocation, that I was "agnostic humanist" and a Unitarian Universalist. A lot of big terms, the woman said. And I was up front with my lack of belief and she wanted a conversation and I did, too. She left me with an interesting doc entitled Was Life Created? and it is surprisingly on topic and relatively unbiased. It's basis is the fact that ALL this complexity on earth, all its cycles and species and balance could not possibly have arisen by chance. There had to be a creator. Oh, if it were only that simple.

   

Had a good walk over 2 miles and avoided the mud on the sidewalks and circled St. John the Beloved School and Maplecrest in a mist that wetted Dancer and my jacket, pulled up over my neck (still have a lingering cold and tightness in my throat) and my hat over my ears, a necessity on this chilly, wet night, where the cars seem a lot closer on Milltown than they appear when I move to cross the road.

Some good PBS programs tonight. Fascinating piece on the German Zeppelins, made from cow's intestine (collagen) for its outer shell. It took a quarter million cows intestines to cover one zeppelin. They had a fleet of over a dozen and they flew over England and performed the first bombing runs, many incendiary. As a defense, the Brits put up the first rinky-dink fighters but they had to figure out how to shoot down these enormous, aircraft-carrier size structures. It didn't ignite with regular bullets. You needed to make a large hole to introduce oxygen that made the hydrogen explode and burn. A young pilot took down one and became an immediate hero. He made three passes and his last poured all his firepower into one section and opened up a large enough holed that ignited the gas and brought down the huge craft. Just incredible. 

The German commander in charge of the Zeppelins went on the last air assault and was shot dead in the craft going over the English Channel. Just desserts for a warrior who brought killing onto civilians during war, innocence on the ground.

*Something to note ... I did write Lindsay today!

1 January 2014: Tuesday ... got it right but had to look at the right numerical key and not press "3" ... but took advantage of Y offer and worked out today ...

We were actually dancing, with some encouragement from me, to the concluding waltz of the Vienna Philharmonic's annual New Year's Concert conducted for the second time by Daniel Barenboim. 

I needed to make a Dancer post, especially on January 1, 2014, so I grabbed her and she was not particularly enthused but I clasped and then held the iPhone out and shot away and caught at least a decent frame.

Is is serendipity of what ... I get an e-mail from Heide Harper. I read it. Respond to it. Includ my cell number. Think I have and I had in previous e-mails. I think, why not just call her. Go to iPhone and look up number for Heide. Not there. Why? Go to e-mails in the match.com file and find the number posthaste, go to, finally, place number in iPhone. Before I can save, I get a call from ... you guessed, it's Heide. We talk for a good 30 minutes. She's engaging. She's not an Eagles fan, of course, either am I to any great extent but she declares, hesitatingly, that they're in the playoffs, are they not? Well, I say, you didn't hear the loudspeakers in Kennett Square declaring that they'd made the playoffs. She then brought up a love of hers, along with yoga and being a Quaker ... more to follow, I'm sure, KNITTING. I said that I would love to learn and maybe she could teach me ... well, later, mom mentioned knitting and I thought I would bring Heide here to teach her.

Well, to make a long story short. She's having a yoga class at her studio tomorrow late afternoon -- 5:30 p.m. at Bliss Yoga (blissoutyoga.com) just outside of the public parking garage which has free parking after 5 p.m. I said I'd be there for the class, which is free for the first one. See if I can find my yoga mat. Not sure I can. She said there'd be some there. It should be fun.