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Daily journal Feb. 13, 2020 (Let it Loose, Lose? edition)

I forgot to publish this yesterday. So I am publishing now, Friday, Feb 14 Happy Valentine’s Day (Fake thought it is). I will add new items for the next 24 hours to this post so keep checking. It’ll be stuff I remembered that I forgot or forgot to remember.

[UPDATE 2/15: A column is forthcoming either later today or Sunday morning on AL.com — may post here as well]

UPDATE 2/16: Click here for my just published ‘Losing it’ story.

There’s lot’s of stuff going on inside my head these days and that’s good. Sure there’s bad stuff like memory loss caused by the invasion of alpha-synuclein proteins. I just say my brain is streamlining.

Keep this post at the ready and go back over the course of the next 24 hours because my memory will be jarred and a new bit of news will appear on my blog. It will be a compilation blog.

My vinyl obsession now makes me forget of a lot of the great CD’s I accumulated in the 90s. Remember I went 20 to 30 years with my vinyl stashed in boxes as I did the digital thing. Anyway, it’s a long setjj-up just to play you a song. This oneis by Sufjan Stevens riffing off of “Sound of Silence” All Delighted People contains everything people love or loathe about this artist. (I’m on the love side.”

ONWARD: Here are some ICYMI’s.

I gave Mike Love a vinyl record on Wednesday. Then I went to see them in a moderately entertaining concert at the Alabama Theatre. I’m talking about the Beach Boys — although that’s a point of contention as several of the commenters pointed out.

Ear worms are a condition we’ve all experienced and I listed a dozen or so of my most ear wormy songs.

In yet another list — and I’ve promised that I’m going to do a best-of my lists list later — I compiled a line-up of top songs about the rain.

I still stand by my argument that nothing is something.

I still dislike ‘Seasons in the Sun’ by Terry Jack, both the music and the lyrics and any and all emotion it evokes: anger, sadness, bewilderment, and huh? (That’s an emotion in most states).

This is going to be big for me: I’m going to the Alabama Record Collectors Association show at Gardendale Civic Center on March 6. That means I am going to start selling my Countdown records I’m the guy in the booth in the back with a tear in my eye

Let it Loose.

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Daily Journal 4-26-2019

10 a.m.: It’s Friday, usually a good day, but I have some work to do before I can relax. Check-ins. Sleep Through the night, awesome. Diet. Had good low-carb lemon cilantro chicken last night Catherine made. Cheese stick for breakfast. Mental Health. Like I said today is Friday and that’s always an extra bubble of electricity of the positive kind. People in the newsroom feed off of each other — so when the newsroom is buzzing, everybody picks up the vibe. (And vice versa but won’t explore that right now). I’m currently trying to figure out how to channel my efforts into one big cohesive plan. I’ve got several, no make that many, avenues and ideas. And I’m excited about getting all cohesive. In another post likely today I am going to lay out some ideas, some specific, some broad about my vision for the July 20 Mike Madness event. I’m hoping and planning to make it bigger than ever. And I’ve got a few tricks which I will discuss later today or over the weekend. Happy Friday readers. From a broader standpoint, I will say that I can tell this thing is progressing, however slowly. With doctor consultation, I’ve added a small boost to my dosage of carbidopa levadopa medication which treats Parkinsonian physical symptoms such as tremor and the aforementioned fine motor skills skills such as typing or picking something off the ground.

Now wait, I’m going to do a joke here as I am wont to do.

So, you see one metric I use to determine fine motor skill deficits is the value of a coin that I will actually bend down and pick up.

I noticed this when I walked by a dime the other day. Will stop for quarters though. (This Parkinsonian/Lewy metric is not for everyone. Ask your doctor if you need to stick to dimes for a while, or maybe wait only for dollars.)

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Daily Journal 4-24-2019,

9::12 a.m: Typical start of the day spent about 10-20 minutes extra looking for stuff. I ended up forgetting my satchel of record albums. I usually take some records that I am working up reviews on, because sometimes liner notes are useful. The covers and the discs themselves often offer up the date released — although a surprising number do NOT do that which means an Internet search. There are also tidbits about who else joined the band to sit in on a song or whatever. Drummer Jim Keltner (Derek and the Dominos) is on half my records it seems, I swear, even a Peter Himmelman one. He must be in his late 70s?

Check-ins. Sleep. Fell asleep watching NBA so even though I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, part of that was sleeping on the couch. Pain. No spasms. No major tendonitis or arthritis or extraordinary Lewy sumptoms right now. Slow typing. Fine motor skills like typing are my most frequent unwelcomed symptom. I have basketball tonight. Mental Health. Good. No depression. No despair. Just middle of the road right now. Thinking with my brain about my brain, Albert Einstein and black holes. Played Dwight Twilley album before work. Great song: “Outta My Hands.”

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Daily Journal 4-23-2019

It’s nearly 8 a.m. I’m not typing well right now. It is increasingly taking awhile to get my hands working. This is my new Daily Journal. Every day I’m going to write about myself, most specifically healh-wise.. But there are no rules. The rest of my blog will continue as before, counting down my 678 vinyol records to bring awareness to this horrible brain disease I have: Lewy body demenia and I will still be filing longer form essays and ruminations and even news.

I was going to try to do this at night but I fell asleep in my bed with my fingers on the keyboard. NP is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Cry for the Bad Man.’ I’m in the L’s in my countdown alphabetically. I m also listening to Led Zeppelin. I am usually through three album sides before I get to work.

Wow. Zeppelin and Skynyrd. Two totally different groups but co-equals in virtuosity, popularity and influence. Free Bird vs. Stairway to Heaven. Love em both. (although I barely listen to them any more after hearing those songs 1 (yes) 1 million times each.

Oh and because the journal will be a lot about me and the disease and its erosion of me, I need some health touchstones.: Sleep. Has been good although I had two of those extremely painful rolling muscle spasms this last week in my calves. It happens at night and I usually wake up yelling. Eating: Officially on South Beach low carb diet although I had a chocolate bunny yesterday, solid melt-in-your mouth-chocolate. But constippation is a battle I fight with prunes.. Mental State:. If my mentality was a state it would have a bumper sticker saying ‘Thank God for Mississippi.’ In other words, it could be worse. Pain I’ve had two painful rolling muscle spasms this week. It’s the kind where I feel like the rodents that I sometimes hallucinate are somehow making their way under my skin, into my my calf, and running amuck. Most of the time I am not in pain,however, and feel fortunate about that. The brain itself does not have pain nerve endings — it is my understanding, and I am thankful for that.

Watch for these updates every day.and I’ll keep the music flowing. Thanks to Lori Oliver, my sister-in-law, for suggesting this journal feature, saying it would greatly enhance my regular but sporadic posts on my health. I just look up to the universe and say let me keep words and I’ll make sure that I try to string them together into something that makes sense. (His and Hurricanes is the exception).