Wel, well, welll…ThrowBack Thursday, you say? All right. If that’s the way it’s gotta be. This week, the Wayback Machine doesn’t have to go way back – just over a year, to the last trip I took before I started blogging. (But this shan’t be … Continue reading Arkansas, part one (June 2021)
When I was a mere toddler (not to be mistaken with a mare toddler, which would be a horse), I lived in Japan for about a year and a half. Living there while I was at the age when children develop language / speaking skills, I basically learned Japanese at the same time I learned English. I was as bilingual as a toddler can be, and often served as a translator for my parents, who only speak English. Fast forward a few years…I’m in 1st Grade…in Hastings, Nebraska. My speech (of course) seems completely normal to me, like any other Nebraska kid my age, but my teacher and my classmates notice something a little…off. The only language I speak in school is English…but apparently I speak it with a Japanese accent. So a decision is made that I need to work with a speech therapist. So, once a week for I don’t remember how long, I got to leave class to go practice talkin’ right. And that thar speech therapist gots me to talkin’ real good.
Fast forward a helluva lotta years…to the present. Ever since I got back from my South Carolina trip a little over a month ago, I’ve been experiencing voice problems. I’ll open my mouth and start articulating the necessary moving parts, but no sound comes out. There is only wind; it seems like my vocal chords just don’t engage. So far all I have to do is try again with more force (i.e., speak at an inappropriately loud volume), and then the words come out fine. But each time it happens, I am reminded of an interview I saw many years ago on 60 Minutes. They were interviewing Mohammed Ali, and I couldn’t make out a word that he said. Then I’ll remember that I’ve known at least two Parkies who had severe vocal issues shortly before dying. So when I went in to see my Parkinson’s specialist last week, I told him about the voice problems I’ve been having. He recommended I work with a speech therapist. So, once a week for I don’t remember how long, I will drop what I’m doing and practice talkin’ right. I have come full circle.
There is no ThrowBack Thursday post this week, as my DSL modem has died. I’m connected right now, using my phone as a wi-fi hot spot, but the connection is so slow I can’t upload photos to the blog server. Besides, nobody wanted to see pictures of Arkansas.
It’s looking like my next trip will be a return to Colorado. I’m thinking late September / early October. At that time of year, Denver may be 80 degrees or there may be nine inches of fresh snow on the ground. Or both. My last couple of visits to the state have focused on specific geographic areas: Western Colorado and Southern Colorado. This time will likely be more of a “Leftover Colorado” – a state-wide scattering of places I just haven’t been yet. The two main places that come to mind are Dinosaur National Monument and Crested Butte, which are nowhere near one another. Other likely destinations include:
Mineral Loop Trail (Leadville, Colo.),
Gunnison Pioneer Museum,
The “back side” of Black Canyon of the Gunnison,
and I will likely start and/or finish this trip with Doors Open Denver.
I’ve also started reviewing maps to identify stretches of US or state highways that I’ve never driven. But I’m finding there aren’t many such stretches left in the mountains of Colorado.
In last week’s ThrowBack Thursday, I mentioned having problems with my Old Cheap-n-Crappy(TM) camera, resulting in a sorry lack of photos from Mesa Verde National Park. Shortly after I posted that, I realized that I had also taken some photos with my phone’s camera. Sometimes … Continue reading Southern Colorado, part three (Sept 2020)
The North Carolina Lottery (and I suspect other state lotteries, as well) has a game called Lucky For Life, where the top prize is $1,000 dollars a day “for life”. I looked up the details on their web site and found that this top prize is “guaranteed for a minimum of 20 years.” What a spectacular bonus prize! Not only do you get an income of $365,000 a year, you’re also guaranteed to live at least another 20 years! And they aren’t even advertising that part of the deal! You’d think they would be aggressively marketing this game to old people. I bet there are lots of old folks out there who would throw down huge amounts of cash for a chance to extend their lives by 20 years.
On the other hand, young people should probably steer clear of this game. After all, once that guaranteed 20-year period is over, the North Carolina Lottery will have a vested financial interest in seeing you dead! So if you get a winning Lucky For Life ticket for your 20th birthday, you can probably expect to encounter a state-funded hit man on your 40th birthday. Truly, you are gambling with your life.
I think Bear has been inviting friends over while I’m not home. I was patrolling the yard with my Pooper Scooper today, when I came across some dog crap that was too small to be from Bear’s Big Butt. I asked him about it. He … Continue reading Balance Issues
After the Paint Mines, I spent a few days checking out various museums in the Colorado Springs area, and a little time gambling in the town of Cripple Creek. Each of the museums I visited (Miramont Castle, Western Museum of Mining and Industry, and Ghost … Continue reading Southern Colorado, part two (Sept 2020)
I managed to take three trips over the first five months of this year, so it seemed like I was finally getting onto the kind of schedule I had hoped for before I stopped working. But now it’s looking like the next five months will only include one trip. And that one may be dependent on forest fires.
Part of the reason for this lack of travel is that I still haven’t decided whether to maintain my current residence or to move away. House prices in Charlotte have been shooting upwards, so I might be able to make a serious profit if I sell my current home and move to a cheaper area – thus my initial inclination to move. I’d really like to move back to Colorado. Alternatively, I could return to my original homeland on the Great Plains. But I considered moving to these places a couple years ago, and decided against it, for reasons that still apply. Houses in Colorado aren’t cheap enough to allow me to keep the profit from selling this house. Lincoln and Kearney, Nebraska are sounding good; even the Des Moines (Iowa) area might not be so bad. But I would lose all the advantages of living in/near a big city, and there aren’t mountains (or beaches) nearby.
And now I’m hungry, so I’m done writing.
Regular readers (as well as those who suffer from occasional irregularity) have probably noticed that I travel to Colorado with some frequency. (If you wish to know the exact frequency, ask Kenneth.) This is mostly due to the fact that I lived there for 22 … Continue reading Southern Colorado, part one (Sept 2020)
Voyages with Parkinson's 