You may not write by hand but your writing is great! If anything you share quite well that life is so bizarre and unpredictable. You are like a living warning for your audience! I hope you will get approved by the social security and please make a note to visit the South West of France. Hugs brother, in law!
You write so well! So says (Rena) and I. Even though we are safely entrenched in Italy, our thoughts and spirits are with you and Wendy. We so cherish the short time we spent together both in Switzerland and in Martinique. Love to you.
Sean, thank you for your boldness, and your choice to share your story. I am sorry for all that you and Wendy are going through. I swear it makes one more sick navigating the health care system, while sick. I could not agree with you more about the stakes of this election. I can’t believe we are even here. Ok, I was curious if conga drums might be an instrument to try. I know it’s your finger dexterity that is the issue, but if they move as a whole hand, maybe? If so, I have a pair of conga drums for you…out in California. But I’m serious, I do.
Hope you get SSI asap. Your writing is terrific. The following is to catch up and take your mind off present issues.
Joanne and I have been great. We had been in business in California for eleven years and owned 3 stores at one point, traveling the world for things to sell (mostly jewelry and textiles) along with Joanne’s extensive line of skincare products that we made. (At one point we had ten employees) The previous work I did in Hollywood and the theme parks in Florida and California gave us enough money to buy 40 acres outside San Luis Obispo where Joanne got her degrees. That purchase was our wisest one, we built a solar and wind powered home there and lived for 16 years there, mortgage and rent free. Within a year there, I was working for the California Mission in town to redesign the interior completely. A buddhist Jew. It was great to be a committee member with the priests I essentially worked for, in addition to navigating my assistants and the press. I worked there 2 years and then worked another year at the Santa Ines Mission in Solang doing the same there. (My public work was now published) In 2007 we took our first trip to India, I had gotten a call from a friend in New York who needed me to fly over a do a set of murals. It was an unexpected windfall and Joanne said we should travel to the harder places first. We both loved India, it was our first time, traveling and it lasted a month. We hired a driver in Delhi, and he drove us about 500 miles to a list of places we wanted to see. A bit later, when we had the stores we spent almost three months traveling back to India, then Thailand, Laos, and finally Cambodia. Wonderful people and places, lots and lots of jewelry for the stores and unbelievable textiles as well. We both loved traveling. Joanne is a terrific companion, always game to try anything except bungie jumping, or hang gliding.
We decided at some point along our years in the stores that when we stopped the store thing and retired, that we would put our possessions in storage (you might remember Max and my mother’s house filled with things we inherited), about 200 paintings and silk rugs and yak wool rugs from Asia.
So in 2021, just after covid, we sold our home, and decided to travel for at least a year but perhaps more. Our first stop after visiting Joanne’s family in Florida was Istanbul where we spent one month. We eventually traveled continuously from Aug 2021 to Aug 2023. We hit northern Vietnam, Italy, Holland, England, Croatia, southern Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Thailand, Singapore, Bosnia, Mexico, Ecuador.
Originally we had thought that we would retire in Spain. While we owned the stores we had taken a trip there for a month and spent a good amount of time in 8 cities. One of them, Oviedo, is where Joanne’s grandfather emigrated from to the US. It took another month, after we returned to California, to track down her cousins there. And we spent a month with them later. We had fabulous time with them.
When we first got to Ecuador it seemed pretty magical to us. On the equator, the weather is determined only by altitude, so it’s very easy to determine the climate you like and it will be that way every day of the year. We came to a place called Cotacachi a town of about 10,000. 50% are Inca tribal, 40% are Spanish, and 10% are mostly American, Canadian and European. The town is in a valley between 2 mountains and it sits at 8000 feet elevation so it is spring every day, 60 to 80 degrees every single day, and 30 to 50% humidity. Because the immigrants live at a higher standard of living than locals there are many businesses that cater to them (us) but it’s a small town like Woodstock was, and extremely friendly and quite aside from news reports this town is quite safe and we are often out late at night after dinner or a music event. We have made friends with all group here and Joanne’s spanish is fluent enough. I speak enough to get by at least 25% at a time but that’s fine with me. If I need assistance some of my new friends speak it and I can always ask Joanne to help.
I think that traveling so much in our life made it very easy to imagine ourselves living in another country. Aside from that, we found a place where we are very comfortable, the cost of living here is almost exactly one tenth of our life in California, and we can fly back to the states easily and visit Europe yearly if we choose to. We have 2 acres about 1/2 mile walk to the center of town, and we are building a guest house for visitors and a large studio for me to continue painting. I’m very glad about that. It’s as big as my studio was in Woodstock with a terrific view on the mountains.
I had no idea hand shaking and mobility issues were part of this terrible disease. Your strength and your tenacity (yes, YOUR tenacity) are so admirable.
Thanks again Vera. I know the tremors can be a symptom, I’m not sure about the Central Apnea though. I go to my Neurologist on Tuesday and will ask about it- and if there is any treatment.
You may not write by hand but your writing is great! If anything you share quite well that life is so bizarre and unpredictable. You are like a living warning for your audience! I hope you will get approved by the social security and please make a note to visit the South West of France. Hugs brother, in law!
Fingers crossed that your SSDI get approved swiftly and that November 5th doesn’t yield the chaos I fear. Deep hugs my friend 💗🙏🤞
You write so well! So says (Rena) and I. Even though we are safely entrenched in Italy, our thoughts and spirits are with you and Wendy. We so cherish the short time we spent together both in Switzerland and in Martinique. Love to you.
Sean, thank you for your boldness, and your choice to share your story. I am sorry for all that you and Wendy are going through. I swear it makes one more sick navigating the health care system, while sick. I could not agree with you more about the stakes of this election. I can’t believe we are even here. Ok, I was curious if conga drums might be an instrument to try. I know it’s your finger dexterity that is the issue, but if they move as a whole hand, maybe? If so, I have a pair of conga drums for you…out in California. But I’m serious, I do.
Thanks Lisa... I've thought a lot about drums of various sorts. Rhythm is also a very important facet of brain health. Thanks again for the thoughts.
Hope you get SSI asap. Your writing is terrific. The following is to catch up and take your mind off present issues.
Joanne and I have been great. We had been in business in California for eleven years and owned 3 stores at one point, traveling the world for things to sell (mostly jewelry and textiles) along with Joanne’s extensive line of skincare products that we made. (At one point we had ten employees) The previous work I did in Hollywood and the theme parks in Florida and California gave us enough money to buy 40 acres outside San Luis Obispo where Joanne got her degrees. That purchase was our wisest one, we built a solar and wind powered home there and lived for 16 years there, mortgage and rent free. Within a year there, I was working for the California Mission in town to redesign the interior completely. A buddhist Jew. It was great to be a committee member with the priests I essentially worked for, in addition to navigating my assistants and the press. I worked there 2 years and then worked another year at the Santa Ines Mission in Solang doing the same there. (My public work was now published) In 2007 we took our first trip to India, I had gotten a call from a friend in New York who needed me to fly over a do a set of murals. It was an unexpected windfall and Joanne said we should travel to the harder places first. We both loved India, it was our first time, traveling and it lasted a month. We hired a driver in Delhi, and he drove us about 500 miles to a list of places we wanted to see. A bit later, when we had the stores we spent almost three months traveling back to India, then Thailand, Laos, and finally Cambodia. Wonderful people and places, lots and lots of jewelry for the stores and unbelievable textiles as well. We both loved traveling. Joanne is a terrific companion, always game to try anything except bungie jumping, or hang gliding.
We decided at some point along our years in the stores that when we stopped the store thing and retired, that we would put our possessions in storage (you might remember Max and my mother’s house filled with things we inherited), about 200 paintings and silk rugs and yak wool rugs from Asia.
So in 2021, just after covid, we sold our home, and decided to travel for at least a year but perhaps more. Our first stop after visiting Joanne’s family in Florida was Istanbul where we spent one month. We eventually traveled continuously from Aug 2021 to Aug 2023. We hit northern Vietnam, Italy, Holland, England, Croatia, southern Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Thailand, Singapore, Bosnia, Mexico, Ecuador.
Originally we had thought that we would retire in Spain. While we owned the stores we had taken a trip there for a month and spent a good amount of time in 8 cities. One of them, Oviedo, is where Joanne’s grandfather emigrated from to the US. It took another month, after we returned to California, to track down her cousins there. And we spent a month with them later. We had fabulous time with them.
When we first got to Ecuador it seemed pretty magical to us. On the equator, the weather is determined only by altitude, so it’s very easy to determine the climate you like and it will be that way every day of the year. We came to a place called Cotacachi a town of about 10,000. 50% are Inca tribal, 40% are Spanish, and 10% are mostly American, Canadian and European. The town is in a valley between 2 mountains and it sits at 8000 feet elevation so it is spring every day, 60 to 80 degrees every single day, and 30 to 50% humidity. Because the immigrants live at a higher standard of living than locals there are many businesses that cater to them (us) but it’s a small town like Woodstock was, and extremely friendly and quite aside from news reports this town is quite safe and we are often out late at night after dinner or a music event. We have made friends with all group here and Joanne’s spanish is fluent enough. I speak enough to get by at least 25% at a time but that’s fine with me. If I need assistance some of my new friends speak it and I can always ask Joanne to help.
I think that traveling so much in our life made it very easy to imagine ourselves living in another country. Aside from that, we found a place where we are very comfortable, the cost of living here is almost exactly one tenth of our life in California, and we can fly back to the states easily and visit Europe yearly if we choose to. We have 2 acres about 1/2 mile walk to the center of town, and we are building a guest house for visitors and a large studio for me to continue painting. I’m very glad about that. It’s as big as my studio was in Woodstock with a terrific view on the mountains.
I had no idea hand shaking and mobility issues were part of this terrible disease. Your strength and your tenacity (yes, YOUR tenacity) are so admirable.
Thanks again Vera. I know the tremors can be a symptom, I’m not sure about the Central Apnea though. I go to my Neurologist on Tuesday and will ask about it- and if there is any treatment.