<h1>Of tumbleweeds and a blatantly obvious metaphor</h1>

In my youth, my family lived on an army base and my house was on the perimeter of the camp. Out my back window stretched mile after mile of prairie and on a windy day, the tumble weeds would roll across the dry grass in a furious race to their finish, in the form of a forest, where blocked by trees, they were no longer able to move.

Am I to become a tumbleweed; made to roll by the harsh winds of PD,on my way to...... One day down the road, I may be in a stable state when a breeze starts to blow and I will be on my way to who knows where. I have no idea what will stop me tumbling, but along the way I might encounter the more nefarious of symptoms. I might experience on/off periods, funny walk, the freezing effect, wearing off, festination, greater loss of speech, etc, until ultimately, the "chair". Who knows, I might even be bothered by "real" hallucinations, not the vague momentary visions I experienced early on, but real ones. You know, the kind that only you can see and which you believe are really there. Can you imagine what people might think if it happens in a crowd? I try not to let my thoughts and fears test the patience of future adventures and especially not the possible endgame. The end may come quickly, as I tumble through stage two at a hare's pace and wind up in a chair sooner than I thought; or, I might remain where I am for several years. Nobody knows.

Well, right now I remain optimistic, rooted in optimism, believing stage 2 will last longer than it does for most people. Yes, I believe optimism is another serious weapon of choice. Sometime in the future I know there will come a tell-tale zephyr, to signal me to prepare to tumble. When that happens, I shall deal with it and do my best to stay rooted until "they" find a cure. I refuse anymore to drift along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

We await that cure. But is it going to be good news/bad news every time we get excited? You know the kind, we think we have found some new weapon, but it won't be available for 5 years.- that kind of "news". Our numbers are growing by the second and once we pass stage 3, we are all going to need your help. It is just easier financially to cure us now rather than treat us in the future. So powers that be, holders of the purse strings, fund research to the max, pay now and reap the benefits later.

Some scary-assed statistices

• approximately 6 new cases are diagnosed every hour
• 160 new cases a day
• 500 a month
• 60,000 per year.
• There are over 1,000,000 people in the USA living with parkinson's

Some better statistics

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total page view to date: 35,492 Thnks to all who read me.