{"id":39747,"date":"2023-06-27T20:19:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T04:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=39747"},"modified":"2023-06-27T20:19:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T04:19:20","slug":"closing-the-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=39747","title":{"rendered":"Closing the curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Seventeen years ago<\/strong> I launched this blog which I had been publishing as a newspaper column. For now it&#8217;s time to close the curtain on Sparsely Sage &amp; Timely. In the past two to three months, a bout of Parkinson\u2019s disease has substantially crippled me. My lack of balance when standing and walking pretty much confines me to one floor at home. I can\u2019t drive, and just the walk down to where we park cars is so exhausting I rarely leave home. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">I\u2019m increasingly forgetful re basic matters. Just last week I had to tell my youngest stepdaughter that for the moment I couldn\u2019t remember how many times I\u2019ve been married. (Her mother in Guatemala was my fourth wife.) Lynn, my fifth wife, and I are about to start our fourteenth year together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">I knew nothing about Parkinson\u2019s disease until I was diagnosed. Here\u2019s how Google defines it: &#8220;<span class=\"ILfuVd\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"hgKElc\">Parkinson&#8217;s disease is\u00a0a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination. Symptoms usually begin gradually and worsen over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">However I&#8217;ve just started a course of a dopamine-producing medicine. Parkinson&#8217;s is associated with lower dopamine production in the brain, so I&#8217;m hoping the new med will be as effective as it&#8217;s been described by optimists and medical personnel. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">In the meantime, I&#8217;ll let the curtain close.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">\u2014Dave Mitchell<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seventeen years ago I launched this blog which I had been publishing as a newspaper column. For now it&#8217;s time to close the curtain on Sparsely Sage &amp; Timely. In the past two to three months, a bout of Parkinson\u2019s disease has substantially crippled me. My lack of balance when standing and walking pretty much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,6,2,8,1],"tags":[1139,176],"class_list":["post-39747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dave-mitchell","category-general-news","category-personal","category-point-reyes-station","category-the-point-reyes-light-newspaper","category-uncategorized","tag-dave-mitchell","tag-point-reyes-light"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39747"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39755,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747\/revisions\/39755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}