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12:18:00 AM EDT
Busy Day for the Dribblist
What a fantastic day. I started the day by playing my keyboard for the exercise class at the old folks home. We do our senior calisthenics, such as they are, in a huge circle in the parlor. We do exciting things like balloon toss and catch, stretching, and singing...to exercise the lungs and make sure we are all breathing.
I took my Casio keyboard, selected some of the automatic rhythms and played background music for the exercises, even actually playing the "Hokey Pokey" for our routines.
Next I took photos of staff members and put finishing touches on a photo idetification sheet of the entire staff/
In the afternoon a Physical Therapist came to my apartment and made me do some actual work. I haven't walked in years, relying on a wheel chair to get around. The Therapist got me on my feet with my walker and I actually walked... fifteen feet on one jaunt, and ten feet on another. He prescribed stretching exercises to get my feet under me again. Several years of disuse have made it painful to straighten my legs. That was good too.
But the most exciting was a two hour visit from my friend Wandering Dave Burke, the fellow who spent a year on a driving tour of the perimeter of the United States, visiting with senior citizens the nation over. He was upbeat and excited about his plans for Senior Development Corp, and his strategies to help people in senior centers keep mentally active. His enthusiasm was catching.
He had me excited about writing more and expanding Dribble. He is a fan, and very complimentary. He pointed out that Dribble follows several themes that are catchy and amusing. (I call it droll, but he called in interesting.) He pointed out that I find charm in shopping on my scooter. He laughed about my adventures finding Sardines for more than half off, limes for a dime, avocados four for a dollar. Remember the four for a dollar avocados...they were rotten.
Other themes include life in the old folks home. It is really an Assisted Living Facility, but I refuse to call it that...to me it is "the old folks home." Senior citizens develop peculiar quirks, and that is funny...if you look at it from a detached point of view. For instance this evening one lady, in her eighties, was trying to phone her grandparents. That is sad and sweet at the same time.
The state of my health is another theme. People are kind and follow my health issues with polite concern. Maybe it is a help to other seniors, who themselves are suffering bad backs, ulcers, and insomnia. Insomnia is a recurring theme since I write most of my entries in the middle of the night. I tell about my scooter adventures, my handicaps, and especially about my super-expensive new hearing aids. Nothing is unmentionable...not even when I report such mundane horrors as wetting my pants. (Are there any seniors who never do?}
And reminiscences make up many of my entries. I have had lots of adventures in eighty three years. I have been a soldier, a pilot, a boater, a driver, a radio operator, a community videographer. I was cameraman for the Oxnard City, CA, city council and produced the civic broadcasts for city meetings... manning three cameras and the graphics generator. I was the cameraman (men),the director, and the producer.
All of this, according to Dave, makes interesting reading and he has me excited about it.
Stay tuned
Written by chasferris Blog about this entry |
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An excellent summary of an excellent blog...and an excellent day!
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Be looking forward to you writing more. Paula
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I always look forward to journal entries from you. Definitely missed you while you were in the hospital recently !! Glad you're back ! Keep writing .... you inspire me :)
3/27/08 5:53 PM
I only wish today's sitcoms and other TV offerings would take heed of the gentle message between the lines and base their material more on classic writing and traditional values.
But, that kind of notion is GREEK to most commercial writers.
DB