Posted 5/10/20
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. –1 Peter 5:10
Happy Monday, to all! I am not given to hyperbole when I say that writing these little electronic birdcage liners for you is one of the highlights of every single day and today will be no exception. 🙂 My weekend went well and I hope yours did too. I am blessed with a three-pack of great mom’s in my world: my beautiful, talented, sweet, and amazing wife Susan, the mom to my kiddoes (her very favorite job); my mom, who, despite struggling with hospice-visiting end-stage mixed dementia can still light up the room; and my step-mom who is a wonderful, nurturing, and kind person and who makes my dad happy in a way I have never seen before. How blessed am I???…let me count the ways!
I had a nice run Saturday, in preparation for my fundraising run 5 weeks from now. I only ran 13.1 miles, but I got in my first time with a hydration backpack. Curious what a hydration backpack actually is (beside the obvious descriptive name)? It is a small, regular-looking backpack with a bladder inside it that has a bottom-drained siphon hose that comes out, up and over to drink out of while you run long distances, especially those not supported with beverage stations and the like. Mine holds 2 liters of water/ice and was very helpful. My fundraiser’s match has raised another $175 which will be doubled to $350. 🙂 The whole fundraiser sits at a total of $2200 give or take (plus another $85 in the actual Alzheimer’s Association Longest Day site). My goal of $5280, while a challenge, is achievable. 🙂 Here is the link if you can contribute: LINK Here (mark.applegate@senioragemo.org ) is my email address if you are in the Springfield, MO. area and would like to participate in Komputer Kleanout day this Saturday. I will tune up/clear your computer if you like. I will dispose of computers and other electronics and guarantee your data’s destruction (or I will just hand you the hard drive and let you do it). I will do whatever else is appropriate in the theme of the day. Mom always loves to tell me that “The only thing I know about a computer is it starts with a K”, so I will hold this day in her honor. It is all donation-based…give what you can. 🙂
Back to the run…sorry for the constant pitches for money. 🙁 I know it gets tiring…it does for me too. 😉
So, I was running while concluding a very interesting audiobook called Robin. This biography of comedian, actor, and sometimes Orkan Robin Williams was written (VERY well) by David Itzkoff. Williams passed away in 2014 from suicide in many complex ways brought on by the debilitating effects of Lewy Body Dementia. (That is the best way I can describe the end of this wonderful man’s life, not fully knowing the most sensitive way to list it.) Williams was such an interesting person. He was dual-natured in every sense of the term; he was extremely confident, especially on-stage, and pushed the boundaries of the field (and comfort) with a reckless abandon…yet he was incredibly self-conscious and lacked self-assurance that he was anything more than lucky. He appeared a “natural” at the craft of comedy, as if ad-libbing everything in a free-flowing, stream of consciousness was as easy as breathing in and then out…yet he worked tirelessly and very hard learning, practicing, and strengthening himself. He loved being alone (he required a specified amount of time alone before every standup event…yet despised being alone, a fact that likely increased his depression. His career pinballed this double way too. He was involved in 15 movies that grossed in the over $100M and had a similar number that were more in the 6-figure (or less) range, which could also be called flops. (Link). Even what brought about his terrible end was dualistic: Robin had an amazing memory and ability to join ideas together in unique ways. He could read a script once and know it well enough to wing it…to near perfection…yet his Lewy Body Dementia took much of that away physically and mentally. Such an interesting and wonderful man…and one sadly missed. Was he ideal for a conservative Christian like me to enjoy? Nope…imperfect to say the least. However, he was certainly in my top 3 favorite comedians of all time. To this end, I share this little clip from Dead Poet’s Society as a tribute to one of my favorites, gone way too quickly:
Here is a great, quick explanation of LBD:
I would highly recommend this book to you is you too are a fan. He had such an interesting life and there are many things that can be learned from the winding road he took.
#EndALZ
Update: Mom was ok Saturday. She was very tired and pretty much unresponsive….a norm these days. This week, what is dubbed as Nursing Home Week, sees us blocked from visiting even once because of all of the activities going on in her facility. Even my normal 2×15 minutes a week ain’t much, but it is something. Nothing, as in this week, is just nothing. 🙁
One of my very favorite members of the Sweet 17 had Lewy Body Dementia. Here is a mention of this sweetheart:
Dementia is terrible. LBD is the cherry on the top of the terrible sundae.
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