First: readers have doubtless noticed a falling off in the number of posts this last six months, and in the number of adventures that leads to them. For all this time I have been having difficulty walking (which I initially put down to arthritis) and also sitting in the hard chair I had here.
It turns out it is all down to Parkinson’s, which was “formally” diagnosed last week, as some of you know. I have a great neurologist in Albuquerque and he has every hope that new medicines will make a lot of difference. Meanwhile I will be making some changes. I will sell some shotguns and most of my fly rods, though not my spinning rods (has to do with dexterity)– details provided to those interested. My pursuit falcon BB must go to a new home– two mile chases seem problematical. The little waiting on falcon, the dogs who will work close as well as far and retrieve, will stay. I am cutting back on pigeons slightly and going commercial on Thief Pouters for falconers. I am going to expand my collecting of native bees. In general I am looking for things to do that are interesting and don’t require as much physical effort– and maybe pay a little too.
One other thing to go must be Facebook– IMAO a time- waster par exellance. It collected a few old friends but also a lot of people who WOULD NOT understand my blog feed was from four people, and I got tired answering them. Also it lacked intimacy and I felt it was full of strangers– I did NOT want to announce my medical news there. While this is a site that is open to the public I feel that it is also a sort of community of common interests– I did not feel that at Facebook at all. I hope some of my Facebook readers move over here but if they don’t I can’t help them.
Finally some good news– Irbis has been given a clean bill of health and is racing around the yard. Interestingly Ray intends to take the plate out in a month, apparently a minor deal– he does this in hard- hunting field dogs lest the steel provide a lever for breakage. Pix soon!