Stroke at 57. Our story of recovery.

Time continues to fly by! We recently returned from a 2 night trip with my mom to Riviera Oaks Resort in Ramona (just northeast of San Diego in the hills). We had a great time visiting with her and my brother, Greg, who lives in San Diego and came up and joined us. We were especially happy to see our niece, Tabitha (Greg's daughter) who drove up from Murrieta to spend the day with us. We took some great walks and we played pool with Greg & Tabitha. M used to be quite the pool shark prior to his stroke. Wanting to play was unexpected, really, but I was so happy he gave it a go. Well....in his usual form, he sunk a few balls in a row. He says he "sucked" but he is STILL much better than me. Before Greg headed back to San Diego, he told me that he and Tabitha were discussing "Uncle Mike" and decided he is even funnier than ever. And he could see that M was much more understandable than ever. Both of those observations made me so happy. I know M has be...

We had a nice week of activity here in Four Seasons. We went on a couple of 1.25 mile hikes and capped the week off with a 2.2 mile through the cottonwood trees. You can see the cottonwood seeds floating through the air and landing on the ground. Here in the first pic they were backed up against a retaining wall looking a lot like snow. Luckily we don't appear to be allergic to them. M and the cottonwood seed "snow" Just another beautiful path in Four Seasons.

Playing the guitar has been a bit intimidating for M to do because he was worried he could not do it. His right hand seems to improving in becoming more responsive and quicker (remember, he has strength, it's a coordination issue on the right side). Well, a couple of days ago I brought out the guitar and asked him to give it a try.  He used a pick and was able to strum out some pretty good sounding tunes. It's a start at least. 😃 His biggest complaint was that his left hand fingers hurt due to pressing the strings to create his chords. He used to have callouses there, but after over a year of not playing he's back to soft fingers. Hopefully he will want to keep trying and get back some of the ability he had before the stroke. He was really awesome! 🎵

This week we ventured to the high desert and visited Big Morongo Canyon Preserve for a hike. We had never even heard of it before, but our friend Jeff, had been up there a few times recently. What a surprise to see this pretty oasis. We heard more birds than we saw, because the trees are all leafed out, but did see a Summer Tanager which has pretty red feathers. I didn't get a very good picture of it. (see below) Nice tail feathers tho. LOL  While up in the high desert we went to Pioneertown . It was really an interesting and cute old western town built in the 1940s to look like an 1880s town. You can click on the link to see more. It was fun wandering around for a short visit. Today, May 2, is our one year "homecoming" anniversary. The day Michael came home from the hospital and our post-stroke life began. He has come a long way. We BOTH have come a long way, actually. ❤ Such a beautiful day for a hike in the high desert! M and Jeff. The Summer...