Well, it's been over a year and a half since my fall. 2020 has been a super weird year for all of us. Between the pandemic, racial unrest, wildfires and hurricanes on steroids, I think all of us will be happy to bid 2020 farewell. Let's hope for a boring rest of 2020 and not a "retake" of 2020 in 2021! 

MEDICAL UPDATE:

Well, not much to report. I guess that's good and and bad news!

EYES:

Let's see (ha! excuse the pun!). I was under the illusion that my left eye could be "fixed" so it would look more normal (and look like it opens almost as much as my right eye or more). In August, after enough of the botox should've worn off from May, I saw two plastic surgeons who specialize in eye plastic surgery ( Two opinions better than one?)  They both concluded that since my left eye doesn't close all the way when I blink (something I didn't even know and was not happy to find out), it doesn't make sense to surgically fix my eye. There could be more problems with my left eye closing even less and getting too dry. So, I'm left with a left eye that's half open.

I had tried different contact lenses that would blur or eliminate vision out of my left eye to prevent  double vision, but I've decided to go with an "eye cling patch" which basically fogs up my left eyeglass lens so my brain doesn't try to see out of my left eye. If my eye looked like it opened like my right eye, I'd be up for putting  a contact lens in my left eye (to keep it from seeing and contributing to double vision). But, since my eye looks a bit "off", I'm happier wearing eyeglasses with a fogged up lens. I'm guessing it looks like my left eye lens is fogged up when I'm in a store with a mask on.

And, one more extremely promising update on my left eye. I friend asked me to send a video of me smiling, blinking, etc to show to her husband, a super bright doctor,  and his partner. Her husband called me and said that I need to work on shutting my eye (doing stretches and exercises) and then it may be able to be fixed so it opens like my right eye.  He said to work on closing my eye for about a month and then make an appointment to see his partner.  I started doing eye massages and stretches like a crazy woman!  After a few weeks, I made an appointment to see the doctor who may be able to fix my eye, and he says that I should meet back with him when my Botox is totally worn off from the May 2020 injections, in January 2021. He thinks my eye is  closing fine, and he may be able to do surgery on my levator muscle (in my eyelid) to make it work better and open my eye up. This is super exciting, and I'll keep you posted!

EARS:  Well, I've decided that I like my hearing aide and can hear better with it in. I still can't figure out where sounds are coming from a lot of time, but it helps! And, I've got it set up so it can be fine tuned for watching TV and driving.

FACIAL RETRAINING: I had another meeting with my facial retrainer. She thinks my muscles in my cheek have relaxed, but now I need to work on my forehead and around my mouth. So, I'm doing some new stretches and I'm hoping they are working. I also went to a website that was recommended by an excellent plastic surgeon with experience with people with synkinesis to see some other recommended massages, stretches and exercises and I've added them to my routine. I've ramped up my exercises, trying to help me get better. I have suffered the least of anyone having to wear a mask. It does a great job of disguising the fact that the muscles in the left side of my face aren't synchronized normally.

BOOK  WRITING: 

As the temperatures are dropping here now, I'm planning on dedicating a lot more time to writing my book instead of walking, golfing, and  hiking as much. I've been thinking about it but not getting anything written for too long. I have been continuing to fix up my cookbook. It's fun to remake the recipes, fine tune them, and update the cookbook, and it's a lot less challenging to refine a cookbook than a story about your life changing experience and beyond.  I do now realize that "the" book will have to be proofed and double proofed and edited before released to Amazon. 

HIKING :

My hiking group has continued to hike on, although I think we'll be transitioning to snow shoes soon. Our hikes vary from being just a few miles to the entire Flume Trail (14 miles). We add and subtract "members" depending on who is in town and available. I think we've all enjoyed getting to know each other better and explore some of the local hikes together. I've attached a picture from our Fall Colors hike.

GOLFING: Golf season is coming to a close. The smoke from the horrible wildfires nearby kept myself and friends from golfing for quite a while this summer. Almost all the local golf courses have closed with the falling of snow last weekend, but there are courses open just off the mountain.

I have a (now) funny story to tell you. I was golfing with a friend on the 2nd hole of our Mountain Golf Course (the hole is pictured below). I messed up my shot which was supposed to get to the green of the Par 3, and thought my ball was lost. So, my cart and I took off to hand wedge a ball onto the green. Well, on the way down the hill (kind of a steep hill with at least 100 feet of vertical drop), I spotted my golf ball on the side of the cart path. I put my brake on and got out of my cart to retrieve my ball. (Yes, the question is, what in the world was I thinking to park my golf cart on a steep cart path? and why didn't I curb my wheels like I would in a real car? ).  I got out of my golf cart and turned around to fetch my golf ball, which was about 5 feet behind the cart. Well, the golf cart started rolling toward the creek below. I took off after the cart to try to get the brake back on (I obviously hadn't waited for the parking break to click when I'd stopped the cart and gotten off.). I couldn't get into the cart so I grabbed the steering wheel. The cart successfully turned to go parallel to the creek, but the cart kept turning as I kept my hands on the wheel. All of a sudden, I realized that the cart would run me over if I stayed holding onto the wheel. So, I let go of the cart, fell to the ground, and watched the cart go and crash into some rocks. Other than a few small boo boos and feeling totally stupid, I was fine. My friend called the golf clubhouse and they sent someone with a first aid kit and the golf pro to rescue me and bandage me up. The golf pro said that I should've just let the cart go, but she was happy that I wasn't hurt badly and neither was the cart (just a bump on the front bumper). Believe it or not, they brought me a new cart and I was off to finish golfing my 9 holes. 

TRIP TO FLORIDA:

I got my long awaited trip to Florida. I got to spend some nice time with my parents visiting and catching up. While there, I got to cook them a few meals (ordered from SunBasket,  so I didn't have any shopping to do). A lot of our topics centered on what was real true news and what was "fake" news. I've talked about this with a few friends. I think the big takeaway is that we all need to check our sources of information in this day and age to make sure that they are really including all the facts. And, as a friend said, we all grew up (and even more so with our parents) with what we thought was well researched, true news,  and we could count on both sides of the story were presented when there was more than one side. News is not always like this now.

After a few days with my parents, a good friend of mine who I've known for over 27 years came in and we shared a villa for a few days. We golf carted around The Villages, Florida and managed to eat outside at restaurants and do some hikes. It was great to catch up with her.

TO WATCH:

Social Dilemma: Watch this! It's on Netflix and was just released Sept. 9 of this year. It's a must see and may explain quite a few problems in this world.

Yellowstone: There are 3 seasons. If you haven't watched it, do! It's a great show. Just make it through the first two episodes and you'll be hooked!

A Place to Call Home: There are six seasons and Steve and I are loving it. The show is set in the 1950's.

My Octopus Teacher: This is a documentary and truly a great show to watch.

The Queens Gambit:  I have not seen this but have heard from many a friend that it's great.

The Americans: I have not seen this but have heard it's great. It's a spy thriller set during the Cold War. On Amazon.

SOME HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS:

OK, I'm not a great shopper. But, I thought I'd share what I think are some great ideas.

1. These aren't a fashion statement, but I love them and anticipate wearing them all winter. They are fleece lined pants (feel so good!) with weather proofing on the outside and many pockets, some sealed with zippers. They come in men's and women's. I think almost anyone would find these live-in-able for winter.

2. Hey, if you like wine. A friend, who is a sommelier,  recommends using this site. They offer a wine a day at a great price and offer free shipping if you buy between 3 and 6 bottles (they let you know how many to buy to get free shipping).

3. One of the outcomes of starting to write "the" book, is that I started taking little notes on my life and lessons learned that don't belong in "the" book. On a friend's recommendation, I joined StoryWorth. It's a great little website that should yield a valuable book to me and may be my loved ones. The idea is that you write the answer to a question every week (for the next 52 weeks)....feel free to use their questions or questions of your own. (some examples of their questions:

1. How did you choose your children's names?
2. How did you feel when your first child was born?
3. How do you like to spend a lazy day?
4. What did you hide from your parents as a child?)

You can go back and edit anything, add pictures, etc. Anyway, at the end of the year, you've got a book! Mine won't be a best seller (or even be able to be purchased by anyone other than me), but I'll have a lot of my life stories and lessons in one book. I'm thinking it's a great gift idea for parents or yourself.

4. Oh, and my last gift idea should be fun for the winter. You find a picture and it becomes a paint by number acrylic painting! Click here to get some details. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it's a totally fun idea. The challenge will be finding the perfect pictures to paint!

That's it! The world is your oyster for holiday shopping.

THE SITUATION IN THE WORLD:

Well, this year started with the pandemic and then added  racial unrest, awful fires in the West, and awful hurricanes hitting many a state on the East coast. And, there's plenty of "news" going around that needs to be checked to make sure it's not "fake news".  I'm scared for how divided this country is, and I'm hoping and praying that we can start trying to see each other's sides and do what's best for all. 

Wishing all of you the best for the rest of 2020!
Lori