Blog | Vegas George

My Zumba Instructor!

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:31:10 -0700

Occasionally in our lives we come across someone who makes a profound personal difference for us. In my life, that hasn't happened often. This is just a short story about one such occurrence.

I started going to a new large fancy gym the day it opened about three years ago. It's only about a mile from my home. I asked about Salsa classes, and was told to check out the Zumba classes instead. I had never heard of Zumba, but decided to give it a try. I was hooked at once.

Soon I discovered a particular instructor that I liked. Her name is Eva, and she is a petit young woman who describes herself as half Cuban. I think that description is important to her as Zumba music is primarily latin: salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, merengue, etc. Anyway, I was immediately impressed with Eva's abilities and personality.She is the best all around athlete I've ever known. Her strength and endurance amaze me. She has a perfectly sculpted body and outstanding muscle tone without appearing muscle bound or masculine in any way. She is a great class leader and inspires her students to work at their peak level. Her students drive out of their way to attend her classes, and arrive as much as 20 minutes early just to be sure of getting their preferred spots on the exercise floor. In addition to Zumba, Eva teaches pilates, body sculpt, boot camp, and kick boxing classes. Between classes she works as a personal trainer. Eva has excellent taste in music for Zumba, and she is a super good choreographer. And here's the clincher, she is the best dancer I ever saw. She dances every night and does trapeze work at the Las Vegas Hilton to rave revues. Or, I should say she did. You see, we've lost her. She had to move away.

Sin City Sinful!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:36:49 -0700

Oh my! I just discovered the shakes down at the Godiva Chocolate store. Seriously, I've never had anything so delicious as my favorite, Chocolate Decadence. Now let's see. Next, to Google Godiva and find the location of ALL their stores ……….

Swimming!

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:51:38 -0700

Today I was able to go swimming for the first time since the back operation. I tired quickly, but the exercise felt good and I didn't hurt myself. I wore my Mexican sombrero in the pool, first wearing! I actually bought it to wear with my crossed bandoliers to look like Pancho Villa, but no occassion for that has come up yet!

Running Around

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:25:06 -0700

Today Christy and I were all over the place. I'd forgotten how far away that Mall of the West is. And when we got there the store didn't have what we wanted. Boo! My back was a little more painful today, probably because I'm cutting back on the meds. Fixed a leak in our drip irrigation system. Hoping that will bring the water bill down some. My guitar playing is slowly improving. I can almost run through a five chord progression without flubbing it. I wanted to try some exercise today, but I got too tired just doing other stuff. Maybe tomorrow …..

A Busy Friday

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:22:14 -0700

Busy day today! My back is healing fast. Saw both Jason, the home physical therapist guy, and Jo, the home nurse. New exercises, no problems. Went to Costco for routine shopping. Gosh I hate coming home without any of those sugary baked goods! I'm having fun with my new websites. Decided not to use the MarsEdit blogging software after all. I don't like having to bother with WordPress or any of those other blog engines. Progress with HeLeadethMe.com. I still can't believe that Domain Name was available!

New Web Activities

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:57:45 -0700

Apple's dirty trick on us MobileMe users has prompted me to find alternative resources on the web. I am now using Sandvox web designer instead of iWeb, and have taken hosted web space from A2 Hosting instead of using MobilMe. I have also installed a blogging client called Mars Edit for my political blog. I now have four domains, vegasgoerge.com (where you are now); SinCityRamblings.com, my political blog; HeLeadethMe.com, my Christian counseling website, and; PrivyPiper.com my hobby bagpiping website. If the other sites aren't up yet, don't fret. This one goes up first, and the others will follow shortly.

Back Operation

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:56:47 -0700

Well, I finally went and did it. It's been at least three years since my last horrible right leg/foot sciatic attack. I've had four of those over the last 10 years. Each time in put me in the emergency room in terrible pain, then in bed for a week, crutches for 2 or 3 weeks, and hobbling around for a month or two. But I completely recovered from the first 3 episodes. So, I though I'd recover from the last one too. No such luck. I was left with drop foot on the right side, and numbness in my calf and foot. I was limping. I went to a great neurosurgeon, Dr. Derek Duke. He told me I needed laminectomies at L3/4. L4/5, and L5/S1. He said I only have a 25 to 50 % chance of significant recovery from the drop foot problem. But, he told me that I had a 100% chance of getting much worse if I didn't fix the problem now. So I signed up for the operation.

Dr. Duke operated on me on August 4 at St. Rose, Siena in Henderson. I spent the night in the hospital, and came home on the 5th. I was never in bad pain following the operation. And now, 2 weeks post, I only experience minor discomfort and achy tiredness surrounding the surgery site. It's way too early to tell if the drop foot will get better. But, I'm hoping. Your prayers and good wishes will be appreciated.