Trippin' with Susan Straley

December 1, 2019 Today I get to go ride the Van Fleet Trail!  I don't know if anyone is going to be riding the trail with me.  It is one of the rides that the Withlacoochee Riders schedule during the winter season. I DO know that Will Byers and maybe Marie Adams will be riding toward me from Polk City.  (Remember I met up with Will and his group in the Everglades for a moonlight ride on the Shark Valley Trail?) I probably won't ride all the way to Polk City.  That is 60 miles and my hip doesn't like my trike seat much these days. I was thinking the other day that my hip started hurting after I changed the webbing on my seat.  The new webbing that Catrike has for the seats has more pockets in back of the seat, BUT it doesn't tighten as much.  The straps are pulled all the way and the webbing still sags.  I want to go back to the old seat!!!  I guess I will contact them and see if they still make them. Wouldn't it be great if all I have to do is change we

Happy Thanksgiving! Preventing Alzheimer's A fellow former caregiver told me this week that he thinks those who have cared for someone with dementia tend to worry more about getting the symptoms. I don't know if that is true, but I was comforted by an article I read recently. The Alzheimer's Association put out a magazine this fall that has a great article in about genetic testing. In the article it talked about the RESEARCH and the nature vs nurture, genes vs environment. I will post what they said further down in this post... but right now I have to post.... COUNT DOWN TO LAUNCH Well, the kindle pre-orders are still sitting at six (6).  Sigh.  It is what it is!  The thing is, it sure does keep me busy, promoting the books... video, Facebook, Twitter, events, emails.    After the launch I may send out my resume to places in Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota.  I want to find a seasonal job near a bike trail.  I think it will be good... but it is sca

 It is Tuesday, October 29, 2019 and my mind and body are all over the place. Before I get into what I have been up to, I want to share a statistic put out by the Associated Press.   More than five million people in the United States have Alzheimer's Disease. We have just over 329 million people in the USA.  So five million is a lot, but it is less than two percent of the population. Now that figure doesn't tell us how many have dementia .  Remember that dementia is the set of symptoms.  You can think of dementia as the umbrella of symptoms.  Under those symptoms are many reasons, diagnoses, or folders .   Debbie Selsalvage says the folder under the umbrella with the most papers in it (people or cases) is Alzheimer's Disease.   There are many, many causes of dementia symptoms.  Some of them are curable.  That is why it is good to get to the doctor if you or a loved one is showing symptoms.  Sometimes it is just a vitamin deficiency, a tumor, or a medication si

I am writing this from Starbucks in the Miami, Florida area on Monday, October 14, 2019. We are staying at the Midway Campground in the Everglades.  Located 1/2 way between Naples Florida and Miami.  The highway (highway 41) is called the Tamiami Trail.  It is named for the two cities it connects, Tampa and Miami. Jim McCrae said they are raising up Highway 41 in places so that the flat-flowing river that is the Everglades will be able to flow better.  So far the places being raised are on the Miami end.  I drove over them this morning. The campground has electric!  I am glad for that so I can cook my meals, make a morning coffee.  There is water at the bathroom.  The RV's don't have a sewer hookup or a dump station.  So their time here is limited. Also, being in the middle of a very large wilderness area, there is no cell service and no internet.  Once in a while my phone would ping and I would see a message come in.  Most often I could not reply because the service ju

Hi. I got back from my mini solo tour gone awry.  I was feeling ok about not going to Wisconsin.  I was already planning another trip to visit my sister and my son in September.  I had a wedding to attend so I had already had it on my calendar.  No big deal. But -- I came home.  Most of my friends had left town.  Even those that don't go north for the Summer were gone for a few weeks.   I went a whole week without a social dinner... well, almost a whole week.  And for me that is something.  I felt funny.  I started questioning all my life choices. Do I want to move? Do I want to get a trailer and travel the country? Do I still want to write and publish books? Am I really any good or are my friends just being nice? Maybe I should get a REAL job with a pay check. If so, then I will have to move, right? Since there are no jobs that pay in Citrus County, Florida. Maybe I need a house-mate to share this big space with me. Wa wa wa... I felt tears in me, wanting to get out.