A New Life! Retirement at its Best 111

Good News

The best news is that there are several things wrong in my left shoulder but I do not need surgery! Two days ago I already started PT. The not so good news is that, because of the homework I have for PT of my shoulder and for my vocal cords and my own floor exercises to try and heal my spinal stenosis, I am running out of writing time. With ten days to go before my trip to New York City and all the preparations it will take to get ready, I won’t even be able to sneak in a paragraph or two.

So, I am hoping to return to my Mac and you during the second week of December, with a lot of glowing news about everything that took place during that time.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

A New Life! Retirement at its Best 110

CMS Raleigh

Community Music School in Raleigh, having just moved their location to the brand new Longleaf School of the Arts, invited us to a reception to introduce us to the new facility, honor the donors and showcase some of the students’ performances. Several people have donated grand pianos, a whole piano lab even, and a lot of money. Our son, since September 2018 has been the first  Executive Director, and is considered by all the best ever addition to the company. His wife is the Interim Program Manager, assisting him in many various programs. CMS enables underprivileged children to take after school music lessons for $1 per hour. They teach a wide range of instruments and musical styles; their Music Technology program teaches recording and production, and their Musical Theater Program provides valuable stage experience to budding actors. It is a fabulous organization with a growing attendance. Because the Longleaf School of the Arts is in the center of Raleigh, and it would be dark by the start time of the reception, and because nobody likes me to drive in the dark, we decided to ride with Uber. That was our second time, and it was a good experience. The first time, around Christmas last year, I could not open the app, and we ended up with a ride home from Raleigh arranged all the way from California by our daughter, who uses Uber all the time. But this time, one way only, was a success. The CMS reception was an elegant affair with piano music when the guests were arriving, beautifully decorated tables with petit fours, fruits, vegetables, nuts, small quiches and various other delicacies. Bubbling apple cider was served in gold-glittered champagne glasses. All that had been organized by our daughter in law, who is extremely artistic. Student performances, speeches and honoring various donors made for a beautiful evening.

Massaging my vocal cords

Have you ever massaged your vocal cords or stretched them? Have you even thought of doing that if you are not a singer? Well, I never did either one, until now. To my list of medical professionals like Internist, Ophthalmologist, Podiatrist, Orthopedic Surgeon, I have now added an ENT. For the past couple of months I noticed that my voice was changing. It got dark and rasping, like that of a chain smoker. So I went to see an ENT, right across the street. Everything is so nice and close (except dog training classes). My ENT concluded that I have age related loss of elasticity of my vocal cords. Ha! I never knew something like that existed! But if that was all, could I do something about it? He asked if I perhaps talked little, whereupon I told him the opposite is the case: I talk to my husband, (sometimes too much to his liking), I talk to my dog, I talk to myself and even to people I meet in a store. So I have plenty of practice daily! On Tuesday I started voice therapy, once every two weeks or so, for a couple of months, and then I should have my lovely voice back. Of course it involves homework several times a day, trills of a single note, trills sliding up and down the scale and so on, massaging and stretching my vocal cords. The first time I did it the dog started barking and Mike called, “What are you doing?” So now I do my trills in the office with the door closed, or in the car when I am driving somewhere, and the silent “s’s” I can do anywhere. With proper guidance, my body will heal itself!

MRI

The day before you are reading this, on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. (I am an early bird) I will have had an MRI of my shoulder. After six weeks and a cortisone shot it still hurts, and I hope to find out that it can be cured by physical therapy only and I will not need surgery. But with many other activities, two more weeks of dog training plus classes on Saturdays (and she must get that AKC Good Citizen diploma this time!) and a large sewing project coming up my posts will be shorter in the weeks to come. I love sewing and have not done it in ages. I still kept the ancient Singer sewing machine which I purchased from our neighbor (the little old lady in Pasadena) in 1989, and once in a while it comes in handy. In addition, in eighteen days, my trip to New York will become a reality, and preparing for that will take time. All fun things, that will mean I will not have the abundant time I have currently to write.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

A New Life! Retirement at its Best 109

Halloween!

In a senior community like ours, Halloween is not an event with scary masks and ghosts and witches. It is more a dress-up party and about ten people had donned a costume or a wig at our Halloween Social. A good witch in pink and purple won the prize. We as the Captain and the sailor girl had a good time with trivia, libations and taking pictures. The 101-year old lady, at our suggestion, came dressed as The Little Old Lady Of Pasadena. We used to live next to a little old lady in Pasadena, and know the term, but it was not until yesterday that I found out that there was a song in the sixties sung by the Beach Boys and others, and that image was completely different than the image we had of her, based on our neighbor. In the song, The Little Old Lady of Pasadena drove real fast and she drove real hard and she was the terror of Colorado Boulevard. Is there anyone who remembers hearing this song?

Another party took priority over writing more and posting on time!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny