Don Taylor's Rules of Engagement for Women

(Or advice from me on how to pick a man - a little bit of humor)

Below are two categories – The Keepers and The Throw Them Back
Good luck fishing!

The Keepers

• o He should let you say whatever you want to say without him interrupting you.
• o On your first date, he should always make you feel comfortable but especially by being a gentleman and not attempt to kiss you at the end of the date.
• o He should treasure his relationship with his family.
• o Watch him closely as he walks passed a mirror. He shouldn’t be obsessed with his body.
• o His eyes should be on you. Not wandering around the place looking for his next victim.
• o He should treat you absolutely perfect on your first date. Plus tell you where you’re going so you can dress appropriately.
  
  Throw Them Back
  
• o If he has to clean his car of empty junk food wrappers or containers before he takes you on a date?
• o If he gives you a gift with a power cord attached?
• o If you visit his apartment/home and you have trouble seeing what the color of the carpet because of all of his "stuff" on it.
• o After the first date, does he call you more than once per day? He might be a stalker.
• o Does he have body odor? Chain Smoker? Alcoholic? Felon? Addiction for Gambling?

How to Disengage

• o First, be totally honest. Don’t talk around the reason why. Be blunt as possible. Don’t be mean.
• o If you truly want him out of your life, don’t say like “I need my space right now”. That’s an open statement that tells him there’s still a chance for him to stalk you. Danger, Danger!
  
  

Why I like Sponge Bob Square Pants

Dear Chris and Nicole,

Sometimes I watch The Sponge Bob cartoon here in Colorado just to remind me of the fun times we had watching it. My caregivers knew that I liked the cartoon. So one of my aids named Liz made me a blanket with Sponge Bob and Patrick as the theme. The blanket was sewn with square patches of the two of them doing funny things.

All my aids were wondering why I liked Sponge Bob so much. So besides laughing out loud when watching it, I wrote a story about it.

Below is my story and above is picture of the blanket with Liz, Barb and me. Maybe you remember them when you came here. Liz was being treated for cancer and I have good news, she is now cancer free.

Why I like Sponge Bob

The first time I saw the previews for Sponge Bob Square Pants I thought that TV cartoons reached an all time low point in cartoon history. I think Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner cartoons were the best. After all I was just getting over my hatred for Barney the dinosaur. I could not take hearing him sing that song after hearing it over and over, first with Chris and then Nicole.

Then when Chris and Nicole watched Sponge Bob and laughed out loud, I could not help but to watch it. It didn’t take long until I was cracking up too. Sometimes a little mindless humor is the ticket to unwinding the mind.

The start of the cartoon introduces you to Sponge Bob with a song. The song is creepy because of the lips of the pirate, but after a while I found myself singing it.

But the main reason why I like Sponge Bob is because when Chris and Nicole watched it they memorized one of the episodes and when we were driving in the car they would act out the entire cartoon and Hing and I were laughing so hard our sides would ache. Chris would be Sponge Bob and Nicole would be Squidward. They would do the cartoon in the car or at the dinner table. The episode was called "Pretty Patty's". Because business was slow and Mr. Krabs wanted more money. So Sponge Bob came up with the idea to color the Patty's. It never got old. Now that they’re teenagers they still watch it and announce when new episodes are coming.

Thank you Liz for making the Sponge Bob Square Pants blanket. I love and will always treasure it.

100 Angels Thank You

Happy Holidays Everyone!

This posting is for all the people who donated their time or money (or just prayers) to support my new treatment process.

It was written by my Mom.

Thank you for being one of our Angels! Our whole family is grateful for the support of so many amazing and caring friends and family.
Thanks to your generosity, Don was able to start the intensive IV treatments designed to battle the ALS late in September, and within three weeks they were shown to be successful in increasing his stamina and improving his ability to swallow. The debilitating coughing was greatly reduced to a more manageable occasional light cough. His caregivers noticed that his neck and back got stronger, and the family noticed he was speaking better.



Don says, "Thank you so much for your generosity. It really means a lot to me. As many of you might know I have moved to Colorado (without my family) to get special treatment in an attempt to slow this monster inside of me. So far it is working. The most important improvement to me, since most PALS die of respiratory failure, is that my lungs gained strength after the first few treatments. That led to less coughing, improved nose blowing and best of all my breathing. And my immune system is stronger than ever thanks to my diet and IV treatments. My spirits are at an all time high. Plus when my kids had fall break, Hing and the kids came to visit. Best of all, Hing and I had time to talk and that’s exactly what we needed. My caregivers here in Colorado are wonderful. Of course, my Colorado family is taking good care of me too. Your generosity and compassion for me and my family brings tears to my eyes. Thank you so much for your love and support."



Because the treatments are helping, Don has continued the IVs over decreasing intervals. He is currently doing them only twice a week and is still stable. But Don wants more than "stable," he wants more improvement, so his doctor has started some additional innovative 'frequency' treatments to help his brain connect with his muscles and mineral lithium to help his neurons. Plus Don gets very high quality, organic foods instead of the cans of corn syrup-based food usually prescribed for his situation.



Since the only therapies for ALS covered by insurance seem to be of the "make-him-comfortable" variety, none of these new treatments are covered by insurance. So as long as these treatments are helping Don, we are continuing the fundraising to cover them. Meanwhile we are posting photos and updates on Don at his fundraising website www.HolisticLifeChoices.com/DonTaylor.


My heartfelt thanks to you for helping us during this time when hope is most critical.
Our Love to you,

Don’s mother (and family)
970-221-3687


PS- You can reach Don by snail mail at
Don Taylor c/o Ruth Taylor, 305 West Magnolia #356, Fort Collins, CO 80521.








Don’s ALS Walk Team in Fort Collins, Colorado – September 2008



Don’s Team (even without his presence) in Memphis, Tennessee – October 2008

Dr. Billica's Treatment Protocol

I'm both happy and sad to report that I have decided to stay in Colorado indefinitely. There are a many reasons why Hing and I made this decision. Certainly there are good and bad things about staying here. All were considered. Probably some of the important reasons is that I feel at peace here. For many years I would tell people that if I worked for FedEx and lived in Colorado, I would be in Heaven. For me it's the simple things like the majestic mountains , the climate, I would rather be cold than burning up (I cannot breathe if it is too hot), the sunsets, the snow and of course, I'm getting to know my Colorado family. That's sometimes hard to do when you are separated by miles and miles.

Oh one more thing , my sister, Kate is deep into alternative healing and knows a ton of healers that live here. Kate found Dr. Billica who has been successful with healing all kinds of diseases. Below is my personal account of taking advantage of his method of healing.

What truly sucks is being without Hing, Chris, Nicole, my TN family and my friends. But Hing and the kids came to visit last weekend since the kids had a little school break. More on their visit later.

A lot of people have been asking me "How are my treatments doing? ". So I would like to share with you this memo to Dr. Billica at the end of my third week of treatment.

Dr. Billica Treatment Protocol

When I first went to Dr. Billica the goal was to understand exactly what he had to offer, after that we agreed to use three of his treatments. The first is a very unique blend of nutrients that go directly into my blood system. The purpose of them is detox my body of waste and fill my system with antioxidants, anti fungal and nutrients to strengthen my cell membranes so they can be strong against toxic waste. Dr. Billica strongly believes that ALS could be "caught" by environmental causes. Another benefit to the blood nutrients is to make my liver stronger since it’s doing the heavy lifting to get rid of the toxins.

The second treatment is my nutrition. As it turned out the liquid food that my doctor in Tennessee gave me to keep me sustained, wasn’t really healthy for me. The bad part of my old liquid diet was all the sugar and corn syrup. So Dr. Billica’s staff examined my diet and came up with a totally organic diet. The new diet is filled with cooked vegetables and high in protein. The funny thing is one of the recipes is animal bone broth, so my sister, Kate contacted a local big game butcher and he agreed to give us all the bones that we want. Plus we have friends that volunteered to make the broth for my Mom. The good news is my strength improved almost immediately after I started my new diet. A most important thing came out of the examination of my diet and my medications. Dr. Billica found another doctor had prescribed an antacid to keep my stomach under control. The funny thing that Dr. Billica said was "Why take a medicine that prevents digestion? ". He said that is crazy. We're trying to promote digestion.

The third treatment is a little bit out there (not sure how it works) this instrument sends an electrical frequency to my throat muscles to return my cells back to the correct frequency. Apparently all of our cells vibrate at a certain frequency. This treatment definitely improved my ability to swallow more productively.

My goals at the start of my treatments were to:

• Give me strength
  


• Improve my swallowing



• Increase my stamina

I’m happy to report that I have met my goals. I surprised everyone when I wanted to go out again after spending the previous day on an all day adventure. Just like the Energizer Bunny. I have a hunch that the sugar highs and lows from my previous diet were robbing me of strength.

One surprising thing that I wasn’t expecting is my lung strength has really improved. I’m looking forward to continuing to improve. My spirits are at an all time high.

Thanks to everyone that helped me get to this point with your prayers and donations.

You all are my Angels! !

Don in Colorado

My New Treatment Program

Dear Friends and Family,

Most of you know that my son Donald has been battling ALS (Lou Gerhig’s disease) for almost 4 years. Even though he now can move very little, can no longer speak, and gets his food through a stomach tube, he is still as adventurous and upbeat as ever. Recently, we decided to give Don’s dear wife, Hing, and his kids, a much needed rest from Don’s “high-maintenance” caregiving, and to grant Don’s wish to vacation in Colorado.

Late last June, while my daughter Kate and I drove Don’s equipment out in his wheelchair accessible van, my son-in-law Ken flew Don out from Memphis in a private plane. Thanks to the help of lots of family and friends, Don is settled in at my handicapped-accessible home in Fort Collins. The plan was for him to stay for July, but when we realized how long it was taking to complete all his trip wishes (like see Longs Peak again, drive up the Poudre, visit Ken and Kate’s mountain home), we extended that to staying indefinitely.

We have been using our many holistic health resources to get Don all kinds of holistic healing sessions, plus body work, acupuncture, and mind/emotion/spirit support. Furthermore, Don is about to begin an innovative therapy with a local MD, Dr Roger Billica. This intensive, nutritional program has successfully helped ALS patients in 70% of its cases around the country. Don will require three IVs a day for three weeks (and the IVs are as costly as chemo treatments). Unfortunately, this new protocol is not covered by Don’s insurance. Since the family is financially “tapped out” after getting Don here for his vacation, we need help to make these treatments happen. The good news is, we will know within three weeks if Don is responding favorably to this treatment.

We need 100 Angels who will donate $100 (or more) to reach the $10,000 needed.
Of course, we will gratefully accept all prayers and donations of any amount towards this effort.

If you can be one of these Angels, please donate to Don’s PayPal account at www.HolisticLifeChoices.com/DonTaylor or write a check to Kate Taylor and mail it to
Don Taylor c/o Ruth Taylor
305 West Magnolia PMB356
Fort Collins, CO 80521.

Sincerely,

Ruth Taylor
970-221-3687

My Visit To Colorado

I just wanted to tell everyone that in six days I will be taking a special flight to Colorado. The purpose is to give my wife and my Tennessee family a much needed break. They have been at it for over 3.5 years. My wife ask me for her Mother's Day gift to give her a vacation. So we all have put the plan in motion to get me there. Everybody that cares for me knows that it's been a major logistical challenge to move a near quadriplegic like me. I'm very excited about going. I will be staying at my mom's place in Fort Collins. The special thing is my brother-in-law, Ken has been searching for a airline that specifically handles handicapped people. That way I don't have to get out of my wheelchair. But unfortunately he couldn't find one that we could afford. So he is going to rent a Piper Saratoga . I won't be able to ride in my wheelchair. But we have a plan to get it there. Ken's flight instructor, Ron will be flying the plane. The best part is Chris will be coming with us. I need him to be my translator and he will help setup ERICA. Unfortunately, Chris won't be staying, he has to go back to Tennessee. Hopefully he will work on his Eagle Project for the Boy Scouts. Hint, hint.

Here's a picture of our airplane:

Let's hope our take off's equal our landings ! Although Chris asked me if he could parachute into Colorado, instead of landing like normal people. My sister, Kate tells us "Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane." I think we have a little dare devil on our hands.

Wish us calm weather on our adventure.

A Triumphant Tale

Hello everyone.
It's been exactly 3 years and 1 month since my ALS diagnosis. At times I get the feelings that this is just a bad dream and I will wake up with my old body. I know that my subconscious has not accepted my condition because all of my dreams have me walking. Luckily I'm a member of world wide organization (Living With ALS-LWALS on Yahoo) whose soul purpose is to provide a support network for PALS and CALS. The LWALS Internet Forum is filled chock full of information that helps me deal with ALS. Recently, there was very exciting news like this (a 10 year study resulting in finding the single gene that causes ALS). Here's the link:

http://www.als.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2520

Well ERICA is going great. She is allowing me to type faster and faster. I only have to stare at a letter on the keyboard for 0.7 seconds before she triggers a mouse click (I started at 1.0). I hear that other PALS have their ERICA's set at 0.5 seconds. As long as I have done a good job of calibrating my eye with ERICA at the start of the day, everything goes fine. During the day, I can even take a natural break, drive my wheelchair away then drive back to ERICA recalibrate and keep on working. I appreciate the way that ERICA is designed so that I can calibrate my eye without any assistance, except in the mornings to start up ERICA. About three months ago I received an upgrade to ERICA's program and now I can do more on the Internet. Surfing was hard using the old program. You could forget about doing a cut and paste, but now no problem. But what makes me excited is that I'm learning how to do everything that I used to do with my fingers and a keyboard, I can now do with my eye and ERICA's on-line keyboard. For example, most people I know are aware of the short cuts in Windows like Control A - to to select all text. Well with ERICA the Control key is not on the regular keyboard in ERICA. Real Estate is tight on my ERICA screen. Because I have to see the document or window that I'm typing on AND be able to see the keyboard so I can choose my letters (As you can see in the video below). ERICA is made up of many menus. I'm having to memorize what's on all the menus and where each key is located and how do I get to it. With each day I gain more confidence and with hope that someday, I can say that there is nothing I can't do.

Why did I spend all this time telling you this? I'm trying to express to my fellow PALS who might be interested in obtaining ERICA that she is not perfect. No computer system is without flaws. I suggest that you talk with a user in addition to the salesmen. So I will end this discussion about ERICA with a joke.

What is the difference between a computer salesman and a used car salesman?

[the answer is at the end of the Blog]

I just finished a giant software upgrade project for my Boy Scout troop. As you might know I'm one of the leaders in charge of our troops record keeping application. Kind of like what I did at FedEx. A few years before Chris and I joined, the troop bought Troopmaster. The system keeps track of the boy's advancement records and activities. It's on a server somewhere out in cyber space. I have 8 leaders using it. We print advancement reports for the scouts and camping rosters for the adults. Well we went from a 2005 version to a 2008 version. I did the data conversion last Saturday. Now I'm assisting each user with their upgrades on their computers. I'm very satisfied because I typed the installation guide from scratch with my eye! And the work reminds me of the good old days when I was a Business Systems Advisor (a Guru computer guy!) with FedEx.

I'm taking all my nutrition by a tube in my stomach. Actually I had the tube for two years now. Last year I made the mistake of trying to get all my nutrition by mouth. It took so long to eat and I ended up coughing all day and night. I lost 15 pounds last year as a result. Another reason is I could no longer swallow my vitamins and medicine pills. So when I stopped eating by mouth in the fall it didn't take long for me to gain my weight back. The formula that I'm drinking via my tube is packed full of healthy ingredients plus the liquid vitamins Hing found on the Internet for me. I don't taste food anymore. But I enjoy smelling food. This disease causes a person to go through so much misery by coughing and gagging to the point where you don't care about eating anymore. A very strange thing since our civilization is centered around food. If I were to say that I don't miss eating, I would be a liar. But I equally don't miss the misery that I went through. I even made it uncomfortable from my family to see me in agony. I have always been a person that accepts the cards that I was dealt. So here I am taking each day as it comes.

[the answer to the joke is "The used car salesman knows that he's lying !]