Rainy early Saturday; scattered dampness for the rest of the weekend.

The weekend has arrived once more.  That simply means I've celebrated more than4900 weekends.  Wow!  That's a lot of weekends!

This one will see some rain and be generally unsettled into at least the first of next week.  I doubt my lawn will get mowed...it needs mowing...this weekend.

I've had a somewhat unexciting few days.  The only real activity has been my weekly visit to the Southern Maine Agency on Aging balance workshop.  That's really a fascinating workshop as it leads those of us participating into facing our fears of falling.  Anyone who know me knows I've been afraid of falling for several years.  I have a disease that would probably cause a bone to break if I did fall, and, indeed, I've broken some bones, most notably my hip, in a fall.

I've been a real hermit in some of those winter storms we've had.  I no longer go to senior exercise sessions at the physical therapy place, but I had a standing note there that if we had measurable snow or ice on the ground, I would be staying home.

The exercises we're doing at SMAA are totally different from those I did at the PT place.  The exercises I'm learning now are designed to strengthen muscles used in balancing.  They are also designed to get us into the habit of doing some, preferably each day, at home.  I have been a good boy and have done my exercises daily since I started.  Naturally, I do have a self-imposed rule variation as I have decided to take Sundays off from the routine.

The exercises are rather simple ones.  One, for example, is to stretch the left arm across the body several times alternating with a similar stretch by the right arm.  We have leg lifts and knee lifts and even a waltz step routine.  Altogether there about ten or twelve different simple exercises to be accomplished each day.  They do not have to be done all at the same time and may be split into three sessions if we want.

It's kind of funny doing them at home.  My Golden Retriever has never seen me do these kinds of movements before.  She tries to help out by bringing me toys to play with or tries to hold my arms still.  All just very friendly dog games, but they do get me chuckling.

I'm told there's an absolutely brutal bug going around.  Both my Fearless Friend and Mrs. FF have been bitten by it.  Mrs. FF seems to have gotten the worst of it this time around.  Apparently it is not the simple flu, if a flu can be simple.  They were mostly home contained for several days with the thing.  They have been under the care of their doctor.  I won't go into FF's description of what has been happening as a result of this little go 'round, but, trust me, it ain't pretty.  I hope you don't get it.

That leads me to hope you have a super weekend and I'll try to get motivated by something between now and Monday and be back then.

Dave