September 17 was the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk 2005 here in Flint. Because of my teaching schedule last year I wasn't able to make the walk here in town so we did the one in Detroit and Lapeer. We were supposed to have bright sunshine and cool-ish temperatures, but personally I was thankful for the overcast skies and the chill in the air. I was also thankful that they said the walk was 2.5 miles, and then they confessed it was only about a mile and a quarter when we were done. Mom's new red chair with wheels (as opposed to a "wheel chair") arrived Friday and we only had one day to test drive it around the house.) It's a tad more effort than I remember when I pushed Jennie around in the stroller! Madison had a bath to start the day, with extra Freesia Bath & Bodyworks on his head in case anybody wanted to come in close for a good sniff. In spite of the distractions (lots of people, a few dogs, and Jennie and her friend chatting behind us) he did fine after he realized that he wasn't supposed to PULL the chair, and no, he could not be a part of the two-Jen conversation behind us. Halfway through he quit trying to pull my shoulder off with the leash and did very well. We hit every pothole on Mott's campus and some on Court Street. I never did figure out which was the smoother ride: sidewalk or street. We learned to try and avoid the curb "cutaway" for wheelchairs as traversing them pitched the chair 20 degrees to the side. And, we learned that the proper way to get over a speed bump is to STOP first, push down on the back of the chair to get the front wheels over, and then continue. (Going really fast didn't work.) Everybody was thirsty at the end. Wish I had a picture of Mom dropping her water bottle as we entered the field house. I sent Madison for it and he smartly picked it up and handed it back to her. GOOD BOY! Turns out our team, "Beebe's Buddies" (JoAnn McDonald, Jenny Pelc, Jen, and I) raised the most money at the Memory Walk. We raised over $3000 for the Alzheimer's Association! I printed the names of the 260+ people who made donations to our team on my shirt and wore it proudly. Thanks to everyone who donated. It was good to believe that some day our efforts will pay off and a cure for Alzheimer's Disease will be found. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Hope is a good thing. So, it was a fun day with lots of warm fuzzies all around. Thank you one and all!