Tai Chi benefits to the elderly and to me

I have been taking Tai Chi as a retired dude at Madisonville Community College from a friend Dr. Scott VanderPloeg with Diana for 7 weeks. I am still learning it and it is the kind of blessing where you never stop learning. I am actually better at the forms in the middle and weaker on the end and beginning turns since I hurt my medial meniscus with a wicked hay bale with my name on it. I am just back from Trover Clinic's Sports Medicine where Andra has worked me through the eliptical bike where my blue jeans caught on a bolt and tore a hole through my pants, then I stand on a step and raise my toe and lower down stretching, then stand on an angled board which feels the best, then a loop I step in and I hyperextend my left knee with weights on the end twenty times, then on a table I bend my right leg, and raise the left to be parallel twenty times with ankle weights, then lie on my left side, put my right knee in front of my left leg and raise my left leg up; then lie on my right side and lift my left leg up, then on my stomach and lift the heel up two inches twenty times, and then I lift my heel to my belt twenty times slowly. At home I do twenty moves with raising the leg, then pulling the heel back to my wallet, then stretching. In Tai Chi one move I do is also done at sports medicine where I stand on a pad and lift my right leg and balance for thirty seconds at a time four times. I got wiggly near the end. In Tai Chi there is a similar move but I stand on the right leg. One of the good things is I learned how to add breathing to the moves in Tai Chi and I have learned if I am stuck in a line I can do that while waiting silently. At home I actually push out harder and louder with a whoosh. I am trying to learn what I can in books and internet resources and tackled it like a research project and thought about it to get the reason behind the moves. Tai Chi has scientific evidence for improvements in fall prevention for the elderly, osteoarthritis help on joints, balance improvements, and some blood glucose leveling. It is especially good for reduction of stress which is the hidden killer in our civilization. I go tomorrow at 11:15 am and see what is different. The exercise program so far they have me on is getting me about 34% back to what I was before the accident and I was able to walk 14,000 steps Saturday after my 1/2 hour horse riding lesson. I take an hour lesson on dressage on Thursdays at 11 am at Trinity Stables in Robards Kentucky as an old retired dude. I am only really happy when I am learning new things. Mom fell last Monday bending over to push a rug under the crack of the new door that has weather stripping and does not need a rug and woke up with her glasses off and one shoe off. She fell 4 times last year and amazingly has avoided breaking bones. She is bending over a lot more now and at 91 is considerably more frail even with her good mind. I have had in my head what have I learned that would help her continue to be independent the way she wants in the home she wants and worked with her on fall prevention using the concept of not looking up at her mailbox without tucking her chin in first and looking up at it under her eyebrows to avoid tilting her head. I then worked with her to use her cane while leaning against the door to plug the rug into the crack without bending her head lower than her heart to push it in place. It seems to be helping. I get her to Dr. Dave at November 25th to see about an inner ear specalist to rule that out to see why she has been swimmy headed for two weeks now. Falling is her great danger on freedom. I am also working on getting her paper now coming to me and I bring it to her. It has the benefit of I get to have an excuse to come in and check on her without hurting her pride and I take the paper in to her to keep her from bending over on the cold front porch when it made it there. In the past I always had it come to her so she could read it first as part of her routine. As my friend Ed says, "Getting old is not for the weak." My main goal is to get her happy, with a good quality of life, and safety. I have necklace from Radio Shack that dials my cell phone, Diana's cell phone, my home number, and my office friends to try and hear if she falls or has a need and can't get to the phone plus I have phones all over the house now. When I have had a hard day working on moving books, or cleaning out our old home to donate it to the Trinity Stables, or worrying about Mom's quality of life, getting to do Tai Chi as a break in the morning as part of my walk helps. One way I have lost 35 pounds since I retired is I walk with a pedometer and do the Tai Chi near my orchard. My snack used to be to pluck an apple off my own tree and eat it as I walked listing to mp3 recordings of Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in the Creeper! It is a pretty time to walk with red crimson tips on green leaves, yellow leaves on the tree behind it, and the sun shining through the red and orange crepe myrtle leaves. Last night when feeding cats we had coyotes hollaring near Elk Creek and racoons going around the fence rustling in the orchard area. I am still trying to get used to being retired. It is not easy when you really cared about your coworkers and your job, but the state pension plan math I could not find in 6 tries how to not lose money if I stayed. We are sure losing a lot of good friends. Last week was John Martin's birthday, my old coworker who never ages like Charlie Basset and whose sick Mom needs prayer I think in Lancaster. John was always someone I worked with who was far more important than it might have been known in Frankfort, but always someone I looked up to as a coworker. I have been blessed many times in my career since I loved it and cared about my operators and solving puzzles so I really enjoyed it. I worked 33 years for the state and never had a bad supervisor and I was able to learn how to be a better person by knowing them as well. You are lucky in this world if you find a career where you are improved for the experience.  Live long and prosper, and go vote for who ever your heart leads you to vote. I am lucky to have had Paul Summers as a friend so I know there are honest politicians. One thing I do now is go into the booth for folks died so I had that right, and pray to do the least damage and follow the right pathway and then vote and no one ever really knows how I vote when I get done. I am pretty apolitical, but I do think we are blessed in this country no matter who wins since we are under the watchful eye of a higher power than us. I trust that judgement over any human's and I do not vote out of fear. One thing I am going to enjoy on the 5th is simply the end of commercials for a while. I like to watch and have less stress than get more! One comfort I have is reading the history of past campaigns where even dueling was a potential and even in the 1800's it was kind of rough in the supporters groups. I can't imagne a 2 hour speech without a megaphone with a crowd talking back and hawkers selling pies in the croud as a major entertainment. But whoever wins this election will need Tai Chi to recover. I recently had someone I cared about get a new job. There are times when folks win and I almost want to express my condolences because now the hard work starts to make it all work. One of the toughest jobs I have met in my career I have often thought was to be a mayor of a small town with big responsibilities, limited resources, and everyone knows you everywhere. I have learned one thing standing in line, if you simply concentrate internally on abdominal breathing like infants do where your belly pokes out on the inhalation and the exhalation has the belly get smaller you feel less stressed and get more oxygen to heal and recover inside. Sometimes reading headlines we all need that for the inner self. A horse I have learned never lies to you. My instructor at Trinity is so sharp she picked up that I was sitting in the saddle and giving to my bad leg because the horse was consistently drifting to the right. I only overcame by getting my legs out of the stirrups and riding with only my seat bones. Horse riding I have learned is also an internal art where you have to feel how the balance and the breath is located at all times because as you read the horse Sparky is also reading me. Sparky is better at reading me. All horses are I suspect and I must be thought of by Sparky as being deaf. I am trying to learn horse riding skills in my dotage so I can be worthy of Belle and not give her bad habits in my ignorance and to also learn safe handling and ground manners. Diana has decades better training than me, so I am only measuring myself by my progress and try to remain mentally open to learn from what Diana tells me she can see. Have a good time voting tomorrow, hug a teacher when you can since we all owe them like our parents, and remember I am a lucky man to have good friends and coworkers to be also part of my family.

Trinity Stables in Robards Kentucky horse show

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/trinitystables/index.html

Today I was able to attend my first horse show as a gate keeper and picnic table jump judge for riders far advanced to me and ladies from Saddle Club age and up riding, jumping, doing tests for certification, and advancing in arena and in cross country. It is a neat thing to see an outreach program for young people in a positive environment. 

It starts with riders warming up in the pasture where Destiny and Sky hang out in usually, and then riders and their horses are hand walked over the bridge, to the gate on deck, and with a whistle and a prayer in they go. As a new rider with an old body that gets an MRI on the left knee Wednesday from hay bale attack off a pick up at the dairy barn, I was very impressed on how brave they all are and how confident. It is a lot to keep on the mind and a lot to keep in mind out there. The lady's jump little, high, medium, water jumps, and triple posts and then in the advanced cross country do things like picnic tables, drums, cross ties, and run trails and around ponds. It is rather amazing to see. I really like seeing riders that meld with their horse mentally and emotionally with physical balance when it is not easy. That kind of poise I think will serve these lady's well later in life and is a positive atmosphere for a young person in this day and age. The web page shows many services available for horse loving people with a dream.

I am taking Tai Chi at Madisonville Community College under Dr. Scott Vanderploeg and I find many of the breathing, balance, and flexibility concepts are in both disciplines. Dr. Mesa at Trover Clinic seemed to think the riding and Tai Chi has been doing physical therapy for me since the injury. I have the kind of injury that lets me function using my right leg like lifting a bale, and if I stand on my right leg and rest the left I can function. Aspirin is your friend. I watched a young lady take a warm up tumble with a good horse, and she was so brave and such a good rider, she popped right back on and kept her concentration and when the time came to do the arena test she was right on the mark. That is the mark of a courageous young lady with concentraion, focus, and poise, and bodes well for her future as a good human being. Nature and animals can bring out the best in people and having a stable barn family with good positive influences is a good thing. Having been NIMS certified for emergency incidents, I watched our instructor manage logistics, incident command, operations, and finance and was impressed to still see a smile with that much churning in the head. Having dealt with train derailments, truck spills, leaking hazardous drums, and evacuations from releases for 33 years in th environmental field I can appreciate folks with that skill. It is one of the reasons I liked my job, my fire marshal friends, my EMT's, and operators so much. Quality people are like getting a good rush of fall air in your face when you need refreshing.

 My Diana is coming home after attending her Aunt Geneva's funeral this weekend, and I have a clean car, another two loads moved out of our old place, scrubbed floors and walls, and washed three loads of glassware moved like our tupperware and corning ware so I have the place ready to see my baby soon in more style. The apples are still coming in my orchard and Diana's humming bird feeder functioned until it got colder and the bees loved it for a day then. There is something nice about doing Tai Chi after class under a full October moon in an orchard swaying in the breeze smelling of apples.

I may not be good enough yet like my last class where all the students were advanced while I am a beginner at MCC's class, but being a college student again after my career is good for me, and some things you enjoy for their own sake and how it makes you feel inside and less about how many forms you have in your head correctly. It is kind of neat to have been the person who 35 years ago gave the open house tour of the science department at MCC having moved in my old car trunk the skeleton and specimen jars to the new laboratory and now I am back at college again as a student.

I have discovered the neat taste of a pomegranete and blueberry juice with antioxidants as I searched for ways to try and heal faster while shopping at Krogers and it seems to help. I add blueberry's to my oatmeal in the form of a smiley face now since I have been on the Eat Right for your Bloodtype Diet and watching everything I eat since I retired. I have so far only lost 32 pounds on it and I have more to go to keep my doctor happy. After I retired I ended up seeing Trover Clinic a lot, but I have better blood pressure and blood glucose readings now and I can document the diet, horse riding and Tai Chi benefits to my health. Hay bales falling towards you off a pick up truck stacked 5 high may not be in the group for health benefits or my lack of being able to dodge isn't!

It is rather nice to have an interesting day learning new things even if I ended up standing on one foot a lot. Moving around actually keeps the knee warmed up and I think by keeping up moving it I have kept it from locking up. I will not know if I have to have surgery until Dr. Mesa sees the MRI results. I can already move it better daily from all the work I have been doing on it, but I have a ways to go yet.

Old folks heal slower! ;^)

I was lucky Thursday to get to visit with my friend Scott Wagner at Olney's area on my way back from the hour long lesson on horse riding.  I was always lucky to work with quality folks. I met in the produce section getting stuff for Mom tonight my old coworker in DWM, Anthony Cox, who was interested in coming back to work in UST and was going to Frankfort to take the merit exam for UST. I always like to keep in touch with folks I knew from work. I was so blessed with good folks in my job to get to know.

Madisonville Kentucky is a great town

Madisonville is a great little town with small town values and a lot of really good folks. James Madison days is a local celebration, near the town of Hanson with its Mule Days always on the day of the Kentucky Derby. I was blessed to have very good water operators near this area to work with for years. We have Green River water entering Lake Pee Wee as a drinking water source locally with Lake Beshear's fed by Clifty Creek and Lake Pennyrile for the south part of the county.