O'Rio and Me -- Our Story So Far - Winter 2018 Update

O'Rio and I met just as summer got in full swing three years ago (2015). He and his family needed help. A mutual friend, a colleague of mine, connected us. And now he is mine. And yours.....ours. To help us learn.

Above: O'Rio on a knoll at his home of origin. He was conceived there, born there, and kept simply because  all other puppies were taken from the litter and it was easier to let mamma dog have canine company than to figure out another home to ask to take yet another pup. Per my interview with the youngest, who had good recollection of his life. 

I have come to view it as divine intervention. They kept him for me until I was ready for him to become mine. In the spring of 2014 I needed to return to being an OT in order to afford my home and keep Lumigrate going until it could support those big costs.

I got an interested HR VP on the phone. Nonprofit so pay was only $65k but good benefits. I had seen from my mind's eye an older RV and that had me thinking my next step was sell my replaceable things and hit the road.

The first person I told of my private sale was who got me the nonprofit connection. What way will my life go? It was June 2014.

A year later I would arrive to meet the dog lo and behold THERE BY HIM on the tarmac.like parking area littered with broken down vehicles and campers and sporting equipment or toys was The exact RV I had haunt me until I got underway selling my things!

I was relieved. I had been through a lot from the time I became Mardy PopIns and nowhere did I find The Van of Inspiration. Now I had. Foolishly I thought the van and not the dog was my next big chapter. I was still learning this new guidance system opening up to me and how to interpret and utilize it. 

When my family of origin was at the point his was, they had my half collie half golden retriever who I could not afford to house while at University.  They traveled to their second home often and left a neighbor to come care.

I look back and wish I could have a do-over for my beloved dog. I know that's not good to dwell on, past regrets. Staying present and recognizing what I am doing NOW is the therapy for the past.

Maybe, in part, I am getting similar to a do-over by helping O'Rio and original family now. They tra vel. They eat out and go go go. They even go out for afternoon tea. He was left behind a lot.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share. The holiday season brings out such meditations in me. Maybe it's not the holidays, but the Earth and the solar system we are in at winter solstice time. Or both. And more.

Much of what we appreciate about the winter festivities that help get us through the short days and long nights has to do with our traditions.  That is certainly a factor.

I covered that from my first holiday season with Lumigrate, 2009. Facebook friends with chronic illness got real funky. By winter 2013 one very connected gal pal said 13 suicides so far that she knew of.  I knew Lumigrate was helping increasing numbers of people. I could not slow and stop growing it when my funds withered. I had to keep it going and growing even if it was slow and could help more if I had proper funds again. Phase 2 funds were planned to be in part from my father's end of life stash. But another squirrel had gotten to it, with his involvement, or so it adds up to be. Who would admit to it? He told me of being pressured 2 months before this photo was taken, shared below. 

Nothing about my life has been the same for the last ten years; the last meal and day I had with any normalcy was Thanksgiving 2008.

 I fortunately had someone with me learning a new camera, so a candid photo was taken -- the card was from us for having us to his house, and to remind and decorate after our too-short visit would be over.  My friend had to be the one doing the Friday report for his office by noon.

We danced at the historic and infamous Little Bear in downtown. Evergreen -- where O'Rio and I would stay in 2016 in order to meet with the owner of Chow Down Pet Supply company. That's their company's initial store location. And where I graduated high school  four decades before, 15 miless from home Of origin. Life was never easy being from where I originated. 

You may wonder why I'd bring this up here -- essentially it's because it seems there's currently REAL momentum now about to culminate in significant change!  Enough of us have done what we've done, in our very varied ways, to CREATE THE CHANGE WE KNOW NEEDS TO BE MADE IN THE US AND WORLD.  Funds he wanted me to have to help me in my older age, I opted to use to use for living expenses for four more years so I could continue putting information on Lumigrate.  I've now done four years living as "Mardy PopIns", in order to continue on building content and getting connections through social media (primarily Facebook).  

Additionally, I've been told that I don't seem believable about having serious health issues due to how I appear to function, so I'm needing to teach and remind people, in order to have my 'evangelical' type drive to reach people with information understood.  This has been my whole life! I've had symptoms, and was a child of a parent with life-long symptoms.  My teen years were affected by his severity of symptoms at that time and I'd later learn he threatened suicide to a physician, to do with pain medication they were getting him off of.  Which was a good move once he lived through the addiction withdrawal not properly addressed by simply not prescribing any more of a medication.  Today, this is a common story among those with chronic pain.  I'm here to DO SOMETHING about it, with Lumigrate. 

Finally , in my dad's case a decade ago with the sloppy "dementia" diagnosis, home health nursing saved the whole thing upon evaluation in February by unwittingly saying what I'd said at the hospital (and to him and to family privately for years). Not that anyone admitted I'd said it, it was as if this stranger came along with the right answer and I'd never been saying it.  And these are the dynamics that are symptoms that lead me to opt to let there be an end to contact.  Fifty years was enough. 

Nonethless, from the nurse to the same doctor that missed it, but this time with a cue from the nurse, his treatment got on track for what would lead to a thorough specialists diagnosis and treatment that was correct, specific and very helpful. There are some great treatments to manage symptoms in mainstream. People sometimes think I'm against mainstream -- that's not the case at all.  I'm for using it properly, it's just that a lot that comes with it can be corrupt and unhelpful.  So the consumer must learn to navigate.  

I have generally had the same symptoms in the various stages of life (overall), and always had a lot in common medically with 'my old man'. Autism when young, chronic fatigue when grown, fibromyalgia, migraines, hypermobility and joints going out of whack leading to immobility and spasm. But I got onto some right leads in mid life and now I'm curious how my older years will be, comparatively.  Our careers were both compromised due to our symptoms, but he was able to make it to retirement.  Since my industry was medical, becoming impossible to work in (for many of us), and seeing what I could do with a website instead, I created Lumigrate so I could contribute in a way I wasn't losing my abilities.  Then I lost my ability to write cohesively, for a while at least.  

Now my 'old man' in my life is O'Rio Grande, who basically has similar symptoms as my dad and I had or have; in my case my symptoms are lessening but there are some remaining. And he's the reason I got better!

Genetics awareness was a bigger part of my 2018 than ever before.  It was an older RN who, in one session one day made all the difference in his life, and the last times of our family being together.  She had the experience and perhaps came with some old style bravery for speaking up when the medical system overall was wanting to keep people from proper diagnosis and treatment, seemingly.  If diagnostic codes are general, the people who have access to the data cannot figure out as much about what's going on as if they had specific and proper codes from diagnoses.  

Thankfully I now know what the "root cause" is for me, and was for him; little surprise, it was the same thing! What is unique, is O'Rio, the dog I've shared my life with the last few years, starting summer 2015 as a care-er of home and all involved has similar symptoms AND THE SAME root cause!  

And this year, and last, we got to have some input in new products being developed, taking these cutting edge concepts into account.  I'm hoping to have a photo of the product that I had input in from concept in the spring, to packaging most recently, the labels are being done as I write this, or so was the plan!  

Inspired by a pelvic PT's educational video in May when riding in a mountain biking race out of Fruita, Colorado.  For chapping, chaffing and generally anything of that sort, yeast/fungal affected areas, diaper rash, and LOTS of things.  I've never seen anything that 'everyone' tries and says 'wow!' -- sincerely!   

O'Rio and I attended The Fat Tire Festival that weekend.  The first night, Jack and Jill was the band and O'Rio laid down at my feet as I sat in a comfortable lounge chair on the patio of a nearby business.  They'd be in the Parade of Lights this month, which O'Rio heard or smelled from our parking spot nearby, inspiring him to walk that direction.

We walked three miles that night.  Not bad for almost 14! Particularly the shape he was in at 10 when we met, not that much more functionally able that he is now.  We won't live forever, but we'll live better while we are alive, and he's helping me to learn and have more to offer people I assist via products, services and support.  

From mid 2017 through mid 2018, my life revolved a great deal around what I needed to do in order to 1) adopt O'Rio and 2) learn about our common root cause, how to test for it and avoid traces of it (as much as possible).  For when we get exposed somehow, how to find where it is takes some experience, as does knowing what to do to resolve and rectify.  

I'm still a novice, but I've been teaching others because it's just so amazing! Forty years I was actively looking for underlying causes, and ultimately doing symptom remediation, which at least helped long enough for me to ..... learn more.  I feel like I'm finally to the end of a health version maze from The Shining.  

So my NEW TRADITION has become the yearly shin-dig at Chow Down Pet Supplies in the Redlands of Grand Junction, Colorado, where O'Rio and I get our photo taken with Santa.  Ironic, really, because I remember my poor parents taking me to Westland Mall in Lakewood west Denver when I was about four, and I was not about to talk to that strange Santa guy.  I threw a fit.  That was the end of THAT, which could have been 'fun'.  

I now realize I was having symptoms of what is sometimes called 'autism'.  O'Rio has 'doggie autism', so the yearly photo opportunity is always a help for me to see what goes on with human-seeking Santa 'marketing' shin-digs.  

NEW this year -- you might notice what I'm holding on my lap next to Santa. A "mini scupt" of O'Rio! Thanks to Denver mini sculture artist Jason Keegan, who donated the sculpture to my education and outreach efforts utilizing O'Rio Grande.  O'Rio's big, and he's old, and has doggie autism (and mercury sensitivity) with a lot of symptoms from years of damage, so many situations for me to reach and teach are not appropriate for him, and he stays in the car.  Lately he's not felt up to 'extra things' more often.  So the mini O'Rio can substitute. And someday it'll be what reminds me of him, sitting there beside me as he has every day for the last year and a half.   

Most all people today have a lot of situations bringing grief, and if we can learn to go about the process in ways that make it acceptable, or even positive, it is going to make a tremendous difference. My father's people who put on the performance after his passing, making it not a funeral so much as a story of his life with music and stories, helped show me this.  Same building as my mother's funeral was 23 years before, performed by her Catholic mentor, the Monsignor.  

I have some photos of what I call "GO'Rio" to show, below, beyond it's being in my lap below. 

In 2016, when we first went for our photo with Santa, I was on a break from working in-home assisting a 90-something elder who, interestingly, had been the grand daughter of the family that originally homesteaded where "the lake" is in my home town. I learned to skate there as a child, and spent many days and evenings through high school graduation with my friends or family skating or warming in the lovely old warming hut, drinking hot chocolate.                                                                                                                                                       

I would visit her in November.  She's stoically transitioned to assisted living after our work was done at her home, which was sold to a nonprofit helping to house young adults who are worthy of a second chance.  I'd go to visit her after returning from six weeks on the Front Range and take O'Rio on a walk miles away later in the day and ironically encounter a group of young people walking along who lived in her house! We consistently have such blessed ironies, also known as synchronicities.  

"I'd wanted to get ahold of her and tell her what it means to have a place where we can live that's not the shelter", one of the young men said, and the rest of his group felt similarly they just hadn't stated it yet. So I was the messenger of that news.  

By mid year it was on to long term care for her, and ironically it's the facility that was the last pleasant working experience I had in my OT career withing a skilled nursing business. After that I had a pleasant experience contracting OT services to the big medical building in Grand Junction, then "Leaped" on Leap Day 2008 to create what became Lumigrate in 2009. Lumigrate's 10th anniversary / birthday will be in March!    

I sat in the lobby of the care facility that November evening talking with her, O'Rio napping just outside in the car, looking at the wheelchair she was positioned in, and wondered 'did I have my hands on that in 2004 working here with a patient?'.  It had a rather surreal feeling to it, now merely a visitor.  I asked if she was pleased and comfortable with the positioning, as it looked questionable to me without going poking around. It was fine she said.  I learned there are new walkers that have some sort of lighting that helps people with Parkinsons.  O'Rio had his first 'freezing' due to the appearance of a floor I was asking him to walk, when going to get his mini sculpture, ironically enough. How much of a 'sign' do you need than that? It was just in time!  

I was not bringing O'Rio in to visit her, though it used to be a real highight when I'd take him into her home.  I frankly wasn't up to finding a parking spot where there was space to get him in and out of my car, using the 'sling thing' (grateful to Chow Down for providing those, and teaching me how to use them, similar to how I used to teach family members with my patients and adaptive equipment!). It was cold, dark and dinner time. We were both hungry, and so I opted to not spend more time than was needed with 'extras'.  I'd not planned to stop but I'd needed fuel, and when I turned out of that lot, the easiest way to get turned around where I was going next was to pull through the facility's lot.  I'm rarely in the area when it's not nap time or meal time for her.  I hope anyone reading this will be reminded to drop a card, make a call, visit someone out of sight!

That evening provided a perfect example of my using the miniature O'Rio!  She just LOVED the statue featured on the cover of the Introduction to The Story So Far.  And she remembers that my phone number is on it.  Organizing then being able to manipulate papers and the phone to make a call was increasingly challenging.  If ever you need incentive to do the WORK NOW to get to the ROOT of what your genetics will lead you to have as symptoms, visit someone who's at end of life with what you're heading towards.  I do not know, of course, what intervening at my age will do, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

(Below, the backdrop is the 'cape' I used to lessen the sun on O'Rio's black surfaces in the heat of summer). It also suffices as a sling to help him get down stairs and rolls up compactly for carrying.  It works better than the $50 cooling vest for dogs I purchased 1/2 off, and gets lots of good comments about SuperDog!) 

The story introduction (cover, above) was completed, coincidentally, on my 58th birthday.  The photo of us was taken that day.  

A Little History: By December 2004 I was underway with what went into effect after New Years 2005, providing the OT services to a large medical building that served 40,000 people in our area in one way or another.  I'd do home health "on call" part time (2005-2007) to pay my bills, where I was their best expert on skin breakdown and positioning, and helped solve all the cases they gave me at that time of unresolved wounds. Experience I only had from having been in skilled nursing jobs previously. I was seeing a major 'gap' in the expertise of organizations, and wondered what will happen when all the experience workers can't or won't work in the system anymore?  But it was very clear, I was to leave and do what I've done; Lumigrate today is serving about 5,000 people a day, it appears to me! 

From there, I'd be liberated to go on to create Lumigrate and become part of the education, service, and product provider group out there doing our best to 'make a living' by bringing people the most efficient things their way.  I was so elated by having my health symptoms reverse from what worked for me of the many many things I tried, that I simply wanted others to have more of a possibility of doing similarly.  It didn't occur to me within a decade I'd be as much focused on dogs (and cats) as I am on people! 

I now teach people what they want to learn about themselves, their pets, or other people and the overall 'system' if they wish, PLUS I get to work with some pets along the way, too.  I've had clients this year from Europe, the United States and Central America.  Closer to home, I've had clients from my local area who end up benefitting from lots of 'show and tell' and samples of products.  Taste and tell, too -- good quality and healthy salt surprisingly almost always something I find myself teaching!

Here's an early on photograph from the artist, from very early in 2018.  It was just mind boggling to me how small, and when you see the finished detail! Incredible!

 The artist had texted me this photo on a day we were going for a treatment in NE Colorado mid afternoon.  After, I had soup and a glass of wine at a locally owned restaurant with the nicest people working behind the bar.  A couple of 'regulars' came in, the man was a retired science teacher and he was with neurological symptoms that interfered with mobility, speech and swallow.  But his eyes LIT UP at this when I passed my phone for them to see this as part of explaining what I was doing there.  

We had a lovely conversation from then on about --- their dog, my dog... dogs.  Dogs are almost universally unifying!  Good ol' O'Rio (who was asleep in the car, of course not allowed in restaurants).  

Initially in June 2015, going to be his caregiver, I "noticed" that O'Rio squatted to pee.  But in a week he was standing lifting his leg.  I guess I was actually his therapist! I couldn't account for that much improvement with what I had knowingly done to help him.   

It turns out that it was explained through the German auricular medicine model I'd further learn because of O'Rio.  My German MD teacher's dog had died at that time (mid 2015) and he looked like O'Rio!  So I sent him a photo of this new dog I was caregiving and he responded 'that dog has the same (underlying cause) as you!'.  My interest was piqued! 

I was onto a new learning frontier which this year became a new teaching frontier.  It's rough around the edges, what can be created to help people isn't complete yet, it's about like the dog next to the lighter compared to how it is in the finished sculpture.  It really helps animals, so it's worth slogging through and creating the path for those wishing to go there.  Breaking ground.  Trailblazing!

And so, you see, O'Rio was the incentive to do some things I would never have thought I'd do in order to get further with him and with the German teacher, to learn, to help us, but it was never just about helping us because I could foresee how what we learned would translate into helping YOU!  

My symptoms have stopped progressing! (Until I have an unwitting, unintended exposure to what I'm to be avoiding).  And, you can see by looking at last year's photo with Santa, my hair color (natural and the color cut off long ago as it grew out) has changed!    

O'Rio didn't need any 'adaptive equipment' at 10, but he did at 11 (for transfers, a sling to assist in and out of the car), and this summer I fashioned a reflective cooling cape for him -- the sun is so hot these days, sometimes. He turned 13 in February and he had this as a gift.  

Someone recently loaned us a "life vest" which I'm not so much seeing as helping in water rescues but for when he has trouble getting up in the dry, gravity-laden house or yard.  It reminds me putting a riding pad on a horse, which is funny as the neighborhood people all known him this year as the dog that runs like a horse.

They laughingly know him as the dog who can go from limping like he barely will make it to the car one minute, then outrunning me the next, if he sees something that gets his brain engaged ("ballie", "doggie I like to play with", "food").  That is, if he gets the right mix of therapeutic help from me or those who provide treatments.  I thank all who help in whatever ways they have and in the future will do what they can.  It takes a village. 

2018 was big for O'Rio and me as we started out on New Years Day destined for a provider in Greeley, Colorado who has over 15 years experience in VOMtech.  It was absolutely amazing what 15 minutes and $25 did in the first treatment!  I had to find housing.  Drive an hour each way.  But it was totally worth it!  (Thanks to our supporter on that six weeks! You'll never be forgotten.)

We didn't get to stay as long as I'd hoped to do the whole series with her, due to "Stock Show" and incorrect information from the assistants who schedule, we basically wasted the first three weeks there. Lessons were learned.  We all have been new in jobs and others were affected, this was just a very costly one for me, and I was surprised at the non apologetic response.

However, in bigger picture news, our going such a distance because the creator of the technique wanted to be assured we had good treatment lead to the state's professional organization for chiropractors bringing him in for more training for them, and ironically he then didn't follow through with more 'collaboration' with me and Lumigrate since it 'wasn't needed' since DORA and the C.A. was giving him Internet legitimacy.  And so, it goes..... What good did come from it?  O'Rio was SO improved.  And so, we went on.....

I'd have my friends stop off one night on their way through town, now retired; in past years for almost a decade attended the rock music festival with me, until it was to be no more.  Something I grieved, interestingly. "Have you done anything for fun?" one asked?  Some stretches of life are simply less 'fun', but really, O'Rio makes every day overall a lot of fun.  It simply is where my priority is presently, not only for him, or for future education and helping others, but its helping YOU perhaps, and me certainly.   

Back in the Grand Valley of western Colorado we plugged back in late summer to have a treatment with a DVM in Grand Junction (4x as much $ and time, but included acupuncture) and then a DVM out of Fruita (free, as it was a demonstration at a pet shin dig at a church in the Redlands).  (Photo credit, below, and treatment thanks to Dr Janet Gordon-Palm, Animobility is her biz name.) 

As the last heat of the summer was upon us,  I knew that an old friend was heading this way from Denver, and another old friend had been intending to go get the O'Rio mini sculpture and send it to me.  So I asked the one to go get it and take it to the one coming here -- they made it work!  And I thank them all, especially for taking the photograph as I requested of the 'great hand-off'!  

So that takes us up to when it turned from summer to winter.  Where we live the best seasons are spring and fall and they're fleeting, and seeming to get shorter all the time! This photo is provided by Christian Grantham, a budding entrepreneur when I met him, now blooming -- in Tennessee, leading the way with cannabis in his state, and starting out in medicinal mushroom tinctures and the like (who I met in 2014 via Facebook studies). 

Red Shoes:

There's a 'tradition' in the complex chronic illness community that has to do with red shoes.  I'll skip the details of the history of that, suffice it to say when I learned of it and someone dying of 'this complex chronic condition stuff that may be thought to be 'mold' or 'Lyme' or 'parasites' or 'heavy metal toxicity' (when in fact it's a mix of those as symptoms but root, underlying cause is what I've finally gotten to learning and teaching due to O'Rio as I've shared already), I'd put on my shoes and 'go on a walk in their honor'.  With O'Rio.  

But I realized while walking one day after having a Facebook friend's profile reporting their dying, that it was a manipulation and they were alive. Or so I suspected. Which pretty much was confirmed.  How I got sucked in by the outward presumption that people are being honest with you, same as I did in the past with mainstream media which lies a lot now, too.  And requires those who work diligently as citizen reporters bringing truth to ask for people to give to them instead of subscriptions to mainstream, just as I ask people to give to me if they're benefitting from Lumigrate.  

I have Pay Pal, Mardy Ross, the email address as friend and family is mardy dot poppins at yahoo dot com. My phone number is on the image with The Story, you can text or call me, too.  THANK YOU, always a pleasant surprise to have funds I've not arranged for in trade for my talking / teaching time to happen along as a unexpected gift!

O'Rio and I, however, had a lovely walk to the water, and I got this photo: (His name is O'Rio Grande -- "Of the Big River" and in winter condensed breath inspired me to come up with that in early 2017, as he puffed like a steam engine with the border collie locomotion of the shoulders at that time.  He's lost that 'gait' this year, but considering he went 'down in the rear' end of 2017, we're doing really well for 13-14 years of age, due to the relatively inexpensive activator and laser therapy treatments he responds to incredibly well.  

I was reminded of the student that started out in my OT class in the mid 1990s who pulled a real big hoax off.  I was fortunate to 1) have the brain I have for connecting dots, and 2) not being so autism spectrum I'm not social, so I knew a LOT of people in our "college town" and happened to get scoop that others didn't.  There may be a reason to stage a dramatic story that involved a death in order to get more 'action' on something someone's wanting people to be proactive learning about in order for change to happen.  Sorry, not the USUAL Holiday letter stuff, I know, but we're reaching a critical tipping point in this season and we're going through it together.  

Others I'm close to in 'work-related circles' were getting conned by people, I was serving in a capacity to advise or commiserate for compensation a bit.  This is not what I'd envision for me doing Lumigrate a decade ago or more when planning and getting underway.  But MOST of the deaths ARE LEGITIMATE, and every one of them has me thankful 'but for the grace of God, go I' as the saying goes.  (Which I didn't hear until I was almost 30!)   I utilized the mini "GO'Rio" in this way, and now when I learn of a death attributed to the complex chronic conditions, I share this image.    

As winter came, I went to get my winter boots and strap-over cables that dig into the ice to lessen the chances of my falling.  O'Rio had already fallen trying to go up stairs at a house we were sitting over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I was able to figure a way to safely do the stairs, but these are the realities of where we're at right now.  Future stories will come from it.  Right now, any giving that you can do is appreciated.  And let me know if there are areas of interest for learning that you have, as I like to give to YOU what can help your wellness.  

I found one of my winter red shoes... I have two pairs that were on sale years ago so that I could have them as slippers, essentially.  But I have two for one foot and none for the other!  I mean, it's like the old thing about lost socks, but TWO SHOES?  

I do not know what happened, but I wondered about the Mandela effect I heard of in Indy Internet Truth Movement places.  More than likely I grabbed the other two and didn't use them and they're somewhere else in storage.  But it reminded me how it would be very nice to get my things in one place, where I live, without interference of what comes from cohabitation as "Mardy PopIns" with what I'm ultimately doing for my wellness or YOU, via Lumigrate.  Though every situation I've been in I'm appreciative of because it is like a lesson plan for my continuing education via practical situations! 

And so, I'm going forward at this time with a NEW PLAN for financing the short term future of Lumigrate.  I'm going to be asking providers and consumers alike to participate, in an ongoing way (without 'commitments' you can't change if you wish or find it necessary to do so).  Lumigrate.com has been having about 35 people on average milling around learning.  Old statistics had them staying for over 10 minutes, so if they're staying 10 minutes on average that means that 6x35 an hour (210) x 24 hours in a day for 'potential customers' to be 5,400 / day!  

In my mind, a single mother on disability who wishes to be part of this with $5 a week or $25 a week (as there is usually about $100 they have to use at their discretion for special things) or a provider of services, products and looking for 'investments' who might do $250 or $1,000 a month (for a while) or $10,000 as a lump sum to get the webmaster of Drupal involved could equally share in the feeling of bringing better content to Lumigrate, and it continuing on the path I'd planned out for it and envisioned over a decade ago.  And  what they'd get in return for their giving / investment would differ.  

I can see it, can you!? If so, please contact me. (which is updated at the About Us tab or as you see, my phone is on the photo of The Story Intro, above. ... Education point: I make it difficult for robots to get ahold of the information and unfortunately that means people need to go through a little effort to find it BUT on the way you'll learn a little more about me, or be reminded).  

I'm looking forward to what the next phase may be! From now until then, O'Rio's needing a very low key lifestyle, a lot of flexibility, and not a lot of obligations and scheduled activities on my part.  I am getting a lot of work done, for foundation for where this will go with the funds that are increasingly coming.  (Which I will transparently share upon request to anyone I screen into the 'legitimate and should be included' pile).  

In summer and again in fall, two guys who I considered to be close friends from the distant past and more recent past died unexpectedly.  Average age was 54.  Both had my offers to teach them what I thought was going on with them in particular and what would help, if they'd learn.  I'd let Jason the artist know that I was fore-seeing a lot of deaths coming up, a lot of grieving, and O'Rio and I could, with a little statue, shift some perspective perhaps. I see I was on the right track.  Here's to Dr AP and Mr MS, gone from here but I'll not forget! I promise!

We're as much to be inspired by those that take one path than those that take another.    I've come to using this photo I took of a PBS show about Colorado Springs to show that concept.  "The Incline"directly goes up to the top of Pikes Peak, but the highway meanders around what cars and trucks and buses or bicycles can do.  

In closing, I believe we have an era up to 29, another one to 58, another to 87, and another to 116.  So I'm technically right at the top of the bell shaped curve, now.  It's all downhill from here!  YAY! (I used to ride bike, cross country ski, hike (which I still do but very moderately by comparison -- I'm fortunate to not be in a grave, a wheelchair and a facility needing care, so I'm not complaining with the progress I've made so far.  So far, the story of O'Rio and Me is a good one!  Thank you to all who supported me, O'Rio, and Lumigrate in one way or another this year, and I look forward to what we can do together next!

~~ Mardy