On or about 11-21-05 08:52, Ardith Hinton did engage James Bradley

 AH> Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 JB>  the hourglass, and all that... /-:


 AH>           Well, I guess it happens to most of us
 AH> eventually.  I hope it doesn't happen too soon with you &
 AH> me because we still have work to do....  :-/

Our karma sure should be better the next time around. 

 AH>  may be upset that you're not using it quite the way it was
 AH>  designed to be used and/or you may have heard more than you
 AH>  ever really wanted to know about Pilates, but you're able
 AH>  to problem-solve with the resources available...

 JB>  It's not like I don't use it as designed,


 AH>           Ah... so I gather you're doing that as well!  I

I consciously practised on it a few times. Watching it sit on my reclining
chair sparked the notion that it could be utilized elsewhere. After sitting at
a few lights, I recalled the instructions, and found quite a relief. Now, I
catch myself spontaneously either grooving to a tune, or as the coccyx starts
to complain, I have to shift the weight a bit, where I'll notice the exercises
creeping back into the repertoire. By the time the light turns green, I've
subconsciously practised my balance.

 AH> was thinking it might be like the electric carving knife my
 AH> father gave us for Xmas one year.  He had one himself & he
 AH> loved it.  On the rare occasions when we actually used it,
 AH> the bulldog kept trying to attack it.  A friend told us it
 AH> was a wonderful tool for cutting carpeting, however, and
 AH> our own experiments proved him right... [grin].

...And on foam, so I've heard. I hope you didn't invite him to carve a turkey
with it after the carpet encounter? 


 AH>           Sometimes "passing thoughts" may be associated
 AH> with the still, small voice... and well worth paying
 AH> attention to!  Sometimes there is also a matter of
 AH> targeting a particular audience.  A few weeks ago I noticed
 AH> a Pilates video at $44.95 with a "Power Sculpting Band"
 AH> included, for example.  It reminded me to get some Thera-
 AH> Band from the local pharmacy.  The only difference I can
 AH> see between these items lies in the marketing & the price
 AH> tag....  ;-)

If you want a C-clamp opened or closed, ask a well trained or experienced nurse
to do it. Well, my RN cousin will twist the screw so fast, you won't see it
happen. Maybe an equally seasoned woodworker can wield one as expertly, but I
certainly can not.

Back to this "Thera-Band". Is it the latex sheeting that would
make a dynamite
sling-shot? You say, the local pharmacy will stock them. Does one need a
prescription, or a Core Strength Technician certificate to procure one?
 And you say, you *don't* need to buy a
$45 video to procure one?



 AH>  I'll take a good idea from anywhere & adapt it to suit
 AH>  our needs as well.  Nobody has asked us why we've hung
 AH>  a fuzzy key fob on the light switch in our bathroom, but
 AH>  there's another example... [chuckle].

 JB>  "Fuzzy key fob?"
 JB>  A) What is it.


 AH>           A key chain with (in this case) a stuffed animal attached.
 AH> We found it at a local dollar store.  I've seen similar things with
 AH> other shapes too... a woman I knew years ago had a key chain with a 2"
 AH> electric blue plush-covered ball on it.  She bought it because it was
 AH> easy to locate in her purse....  :-)

If I attach my keys to a 2' ball, I might stand a chance... When they invent
one with a homing device, I'm trusting I'll be the first to hear about it? (-;

I should actually buy a couple of those annunciators for my keys. You know,
like with a cordless phone, so you know which pair of socks it's hiding under.

 JB>  B) What's it doing in your bathroom, let alone on
 JB>  your light switch?


 AH>           Ah, thereby hangs a tale... a tale about how we adapted an
 AH> idea we'd picked up from a friend.  When Nora was about four
 AH> years old we visited one of our correspondents in SURVIVOR
 AH> who was married to a quadriplegic.  This couple had a light
 AH> switch in their bathroom with a plexiglass extension which
 AH> enabled an adult in a standard wheelchair... or,
 AH> incidentally, a child who wasn't tall enough to reach the
 AH> switch... to turn the light on & off by pushing or pulling
 AH> on the extension.  It was a commercial product, very
 AH> elegant & very expensive. We were able to make use of the
 AH> idea, however, by drilling a small hole in our own bathroom
 AH> light switch & attaching a bit of dowelling with copper
 AH> wire.

Now, there you go! I'll just bet the F.O.B. spells *something* out.


 AH>           Some time went by.  Nora grew taller & didn't need the
 AH> extension any more... so we removed it.  We continued to use the old-
 AH> fashioned toggle switch with the hole in it.  Several
 AH> months after her stroke, when she had managed to regain the
 AH> ability to make consciously controlled movements with her
 AH> left arm, Nora expressed a desire to operate the switch
 AH> with her left hand.  Because she was hypersensitive on the
 AH> left side, we needed something soft & we also needed
 AH> something she could grab easily.  The stuffed animal works
 AH> very well....  :-))

That sounds JUST like a rig I set up on my bedroom light switch during my
elementary school days. Affordable task-lighting hadn't been invented yet, so I
tied together all sorts of string and tacked pulleys around the walls so I
could flip the switch from bed. I don't think I wired an "On" throw, and I
likely had to reset it after I turned it off, but I was ready for sleep by the
time I turned it off anyway.


... James
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