Episode Transcript
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Don Priess (00:00):
When the world has
got you down, Alzheimer's sucks.
It's an equal opportunitydisease that chips away at
everything we hold dear and todate, there's no cure. So until
there is, we continue to fightwith the most powerful tool in
our arsenal, love. This is loveconquers all, a real and really
(00:22):
positive podcast that takes adeep dive into everything,
Alzheimer's, The Good, The Badand everything in between. And
now here are your hosts, Susiesinger Carter and me, Don
Priess,
Susie Singer Carter (00:35):
hi
everybody. This is Susie singer
Carter and I'm
Don Priess (00:39):
Don Priess, and this
is love conquers all. Hello,
Susan, hello, Donald. What'shappening? Oh, my goodness, I'm
Susie Singer Carter (00:46):
Jamie. This
is me, the Yorkie. He's a wee
Baron named after Jamie fromOutlander. I can't help it. It's
the only crush I have.
Don Priess (00:59):
Now you have a new
one.
Susie Singer Carter (01:01):
And now
I'm, I, yes, I have his
namesake, and I'm, I'mpassionately in love with this
little bundle of joy. Look atthat face. If you're not seeing
it, you should go to YouTube andsee it, because it's worth it,
guys, he's
Don Priess (01:16):
taken over the
house. He rules the house. He's
tortured the other dogs intoloving him, because at first
they were not having it, but
Susie Singer Carter (01:24):
he's
fearless. They're like, barking
at him, like, and then he justgoes, lick, lick, lick, lick,
lick, lick and and just diffusesthe whole situation. And
actually a good lesson for
Unknown (01:35):
us all. It is we can
learn from Jamie, yeah. Learn to
diffuse,
Susie Singer Carter (01:40):
to
redirect, to bring it into the
world of Alzheimer's.
Don Priess (01:44):
Yeah, so somebody is
mean to you, just lick them, and
they will solve all their
Susie Singer Carter (01:49):
problems.
That's true. I'm just saying Iknow. Anyway, want to talk about
something about social media. Ihave a very like heavy weight
about social media these days,because with our documentary, No
(02:10):
Country for Old people, and I'vebeen really engaging with the
community, with the public,trying to promote this project,
right? And I we've gotten sobusy trying to deliver it to our
distributor and create thismovement, which is roar, the
roar movement, which you allshould check out at No Country
(02:32):
for Old people.com, which iswhat we compared to the Women's
March, but really for long termcare reform, but doing that has
just taken up so much of my timethat I haven't been on social
media, and I feel like weight ofnot being interactive with the
audience, and that this is likesuch a it's such a heavy
(02:52):
responsibility. I'm justwondering if, do you have that?
Don Well,
Don Priess (02:59):
I mean, you're,
you're in a position well, but
you're in a position of, youknow, basically driving this
entire, you know, movement and,you know, and and the film, and
so, yeah, there is a big andpeople want to reach out to you,
and they want to talk, you know,but, you know, there are only so
many hours in the day, and rightnow, only
Susie Singer Carter (03:19):
so many
hours in the day. When you have
a big community, you want to,like, engage with their, you
know, posts. And it honestly cantake a day. It can really take a
day, every day and on you'rereally good at strolling or
stroll. What is it?
Don Priess (03:36):
Scrolling?
Scrolling, too. I like toscroll, walk around. Nothing to
do with this,
Susie Singer Carter (03:41):
but, but
I'm terrible at scrolling,
because I will fall down therabbit hole, but you're good at
going, like, like, like, like, Ican't do that. I get
Don Priess (03:52):
no, but it's but,
but that, and that's, that's on
a social, you know, that'ssocially. This is very
different, because, you know,people want to engage, and you
can't, you can, can't just throwa like on something. When
somebody's written eightparagraphs to you, that's
something very important. Andyou can't just say like, you
know, the thing is, if you startto engage, and then again, you
don't have, you know, the time.
That's why, you know, peoplehave social media teams that
(04:14):
that handle all this. But thisgot to come from you, too. Yeah.
I mean, so,
Susie Singer Carter (04:23):
yeah, it's
tough. Well, all that to say
that if you're listening, and ifyou've tried to reach out to me
in the past, I want to saythree, four weeks, I have been
horrendous in responding,because I haven't even gone on
like I've gone on sosporadically, because I
literally, we are a small teamon this documentary, because
it's all non profit. And, youknow, it's like, hi, we need to
(04:45):
talk to the graphics department.
Hello. This is the graphicsdepartment. Susie speaking. You
know, we we need delivery onwhatever. Hello, this is
delivery. This is Susie. Whatcan I do? Honestly, like we are
three. People and really, right?
Yeah. So I had to just chooseone thing that I couldn't that I
(05:07):
you know, that was going totake, take the brunt, and that's
the social media. So if so justknow that I will be back on
social media soon. It's notlike, I'm not there at all, but
I just can't, it's so hard.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get a lot ofqueries like, can we manage your
social media? And I'm so afraid,because you just don't know who
to trust. And they all soundgood. They all sound good
(05:27):
because they're very good atmarketing. They're like, Oh, we
listen to love conquers all, andwe think your your podcast is
amazing, but you should begetting these many downloads,
and we can help you with that.
So yeah, if you can help us withthat, we would love it, because
the more people that can listento this podcast, the better,
because we bring great guests.
And this is a great transition.
(05:52):
Don, that
Don Priess (05:52):
was really good, so
I so what you're saying to me,
and I glean this from thatbeautiful transitions. Do you
want me to tell everyone aboutour guest
Susie Singer Carter (06:00):
today? Two
is a self proclaimed biggest fan
of love conquers all number oneseen and listen to every every
episode. So we, of course, loveher today,
Don Priess (06:17):
we are thrilled to
welcome an inspiring and
resilient woman, Sherry Smith, aseasoned entrepreneur. Sherry
has built a dynamic career, fromchild actress to event
coordination, production,screenwriting and in the
culinary world, as the founderof a successful catering
business, she brought herpassion for food and hospitality
(06:37):
to life creating a uniqueoceanfront vacation rental a
castle in Hawaii. Sherry is nowstepping into the literary arena
with her soon to be releasedbook mama drama, a journey with
bipolar and dementia, findinglight through loss and grief.
This deeply personal memoirexplores her experiences caring
(06:57):
for her loved ones, battlingmental illness, including her
husband's bipolar condition, herloving journey with her heart
dog ray and the challenges ofher mother's dementia. All
along, confronting familybetrayal and enduring profound
loss through it all, Sherryfinds resilience, hope and even
humor in the darkest moments. Wecan't wait to dive into her
(07:20):
incredible story, and so we sayaloha to Sherry Smith, hello,
Sherry. Aloha,
Sheri Smith (07:27):
Aloha, Aloha. I'm
excited and grateful to be here
and have some fun. Let's go.
Aloha, ohana, you're my family.
Susie Singer Carter (07:36):
Ah, thank
you. I think that this story is
going to resonate with a lot ofpeople. Because you, you, you
know, all of us do not live in abubble when it comes to someone,
when we're dealing in caring forsomeone who has Alzheimer's or
dementia. So at the same time,you know, I know, for me, I was
going through a massive divorcea map, you know, I don't know if
(07:59):
divorces are less than massiveanyway, but I had, it was a
horrific experience at the sameexact time, and then, you know,
then there's a death in thefamily, and then you're moving,
and you have children, andyou've got so many things that
you're trying to juggle, and weall are trying to do. We're not
just dealing with somebody withdementia, and that's what your
book is about, is juggling allof these things that were
(08:22):
equally as important to you andequally as as challenging. Tell
us the background of this book,and and, and describe it as you
would in your words and then,and let's dig in.
Sheri Smith (08:35):
I want to know, I
digress. I want to know one
thing, do you believe in law, inthe law of attraction,
Susie Singer Carter (08:41):
I don't
know. To be honest, I haven't
given it. I'm going to
Sheri Smith (08:44):
tell you why you
you should perhaps, do you know?
Do you know, when I first gothere, got back to the mainland,
10 years ago, after living inparadise for 15 glorious,
unforgettable years, I wrote ascript first, because I didn't
know how to write a book, but mymy background in in show
business, I had final draft. Iwrote a script, and guess who I
(09:09):
pitched it to first?
Susie Singer Carter (09:12):
Me you did
and
Sheri Smith (09:14):
you said, pass.
Thank you. It's fine. It's fine.
So the law of attraction worthfull circle. I mean that that
that, to me, is is remarkablemyself anyway, when, when
something happens in my life, Iask myself, What have I learned?
You know, you gotta learn fromyour experiences. And then I
(09:37):
ask, What am I meant to share?
Susie Singer Carter (09:39):
Right? So,
well, well, let's back up,
because you're so excited, and Iwould as you should be, because
you have your first book that ishaving a soft launch. When, in
two couple weeks, on mybirthday,
Sheri Smith (09:52):
do you want? Should
I say the date? Yeah, okay,
March 19 of this year's softlaunch, which you know. You're
hoping people will buy it andleave feedback, right? Because
when you have the officiallaunch, Amazon and all those
other apps or platforms don'tgive you the right time of day
unless you have some kind ofreview, which pre sales.
Susie Singer Carter (10:15):
So you
know, help the girl out and and,
but we'll have all thatinformation later. But let's
talk about mama drama, a journeywith bipolar and dementia,
finding light through loss andgrief. And I think what's unique
about this book, and I getpitched books all the time, we
do, and what's unique about thisis tying in these three things
(10:36):
that work, that you haveexperienced in terms of grief,
in terms of loss and challengesin different sections of your
life with your you know, yourdog, who you was, your heart
dog, your your ex husband, whoyou you know, that's a very
complicated conversation. Andthen your mother, which is also
(10:56):
a complicated conversation, youknow, so in keeping it to to
Alzheimer's, because that's whatthis stuff, this, this podcast,
is about. I think the themes,this is what Don and I honed of
your themes, right for the bookis, are, is really prolonged
grief in your and resilience andthe complexities of caregiving,
(11:19):
which which happened with alldifferent, different scenarios,
right? But, and then, in spiteof all that, which was painful,
and you also found friendship,humor and spirituality, clearly
very spiritual, very, veryfunny, and you're very loyal
friend. So the personal journey,part of this, of the dementia
(11:44):
caregiving, your your mom'sjourney, let's talk about that.
How, how did you notice thefirst signs of her decline, and
what was that like for you?
Sheri Smith (11:55):
And has my mom and
the girl resonated with me. I'm
like, Oh my gosh, I'm going tofix you. I raced to Vegas. She
lived in Vegas. I lived inSoCal. Were you close before
this diagnosis? Notparticularly, not particularly.
I raced to Vegas and I starteddoing what I do. I was going to
bring her back to to live withme. I wanted her to be with me
(12:16):
and buy a house. I get to Vegasand I'm like, I need help. I
don't know what to do, you know.
So I said, Fine, I'm going tosell everything in this house
and and buy a house in in nearme, in California. I have to
work. I have a cateringbusiness. I had to work, you
know. And I would take her withme. And I found out about
Bredesen. I'm going to put heron Doctor Bredesen protocol, you
(12:38):
know, I will fix you, mommy. Andit just wasn't to be. Wasn't it
wasn't
Susie Singer Carter (12:46):
going to be
to be. So So you, but you, but
you leaned in, even thoughwhatever you leaned into, it may
not have been exactly the rightlean direction, but you leaned
right. Okay, so, and I want totalk about Doctor President for
second, just so people, ifyou're not aware of him, who he
is. Can you just tell us who heis?
Sheri Smith (13:03):
He's a neurologist
and researcher known for his
work with Alzheimer's preventionand treatment, and he developed
the predis protocol, a multifaceted approach aimed at
reversing cognitive decline, andhe has been getting amazing
results.
Susie Singer Carter (13:19):
Right?
Let's move off of DoctorPresident, because this is about
your book, right? And about yourstory and and which people can
relate to because this is, youknow, we're talking about
caregivers that are listeningand people that are
Sheri Smith (13:34):
my caregiving was
prevented. My relative stole the
end of my mom's life, he stoleher from me. Who is he?
Susie Singer Carter (13:45):
Okay, some
of yours decided to step in. And
at what stage like, when didthis happen? Or is that was
this? He figured out he couldtake all her stuff. Gotcha.
Okay, so
Sheri Smith (13:57):
alert people to I
wasn't surprised, but, but it
hurt. It was killing me.
Susie Singer Carter (14:02):
Okay, so
you're living in LA, right? And
your mom's living in Vegas, andnow you know she's going through
this, started this journey withdementia, and this cousin is now
keeping you from seeing yourmom. He's He's hiding her
location of where she's living,right? I
Sheri Smith (14:20):
was prepared to
call every folks home in in the
Bronx. I heard it was the Bronx.
Jeez.
Susie Singer Carter (14:26):
No. I mean,
I'm sure this is, this is, you
know, it's not something that wehaven't heard. It may not have
been, it may not have rolled outexactly like your story, but it
happens. It happened in my ownsituation with my own siblings.
So, you know, I, I know thatthese kinds of situations bring
can either bring out the best inpeople or the worst, right? And
(14:46):
so you will certainly see theworst from people oftentimes.
And so you experienced that, butyou were able to navigate. It
wasn't
Sheri Smith (14:57):
easy to do that I
should have done, and I. Tried.
When I went to Vegas the firsttime, I got an attorney and I
was going to get aconservatorship, all that stuff
with Brittany and stuff. Ididn't know what it was. I had
to educate myself, but I wasgoing to, I should have, I
should have just gotten theconservatorship. So it turns out
he got it.
Susie Singer Carter (15:16):
Yeah, I
mean, here's the problem with
conservatorship, because I wasthe conservator of person to my
mother. And, you know, if, ifyou don't have, if you're not
at, you know, Power of Attorneyfor the purse, which my brother
was able to finagle that awayfrom, it was in both our names,
and then somehow he that's awhole another story. But anyway,
(15:39):
it's very difficult, even goingto court to try to stop somebody
from, you know, interfering,even if you are the conservator,
because the the laws are justnot in favor of the trust or
right. So this, this is, this isa big issue that I have take
(15:59):
issue with as well. I ended upgoing to court three times, and,
you know, never having standing.
And so it finally had to cut mylosses and just go whatever I
just going to have to be thereand do with everything that I
can, you know, against what wascoming at me so, and I know
(16:20):
that's what you had to do as
Don Priess (16:24):
well, so you
couldn't be there because he was
even keeping her physically fromyou. Yes,
Susie Singer Carter (16:28):
so how did
you end up getting back into
your mom's life once you
Sheri Smith (16:34):
Yeah, okay, so, so
I didn't, it's a horrible
ending. Apparently, she was inthe Bronx or whatever, but at a
person's house, she was beingcare, give, given care. And
that's the the picture on on theon the cover of my book, my
mother, she was gorgeous, andthen what she ended up looking
(16:54):
like
Susie Singer Carter (16:55):
that you
never got back into your mom's
life. No, no.
Unknown (16:59):
Miss, he kept me from
the end of her life, which is,
it's, it's horrible. And so
Susie Singer Carter (17:07):
how are you
dealing with this? How are you
dealing Are you having, are youstruggling with, with guilt,
regret, helplessness, what? Whatare your what emotions? Are you
a
Sheri Smith (17:19):
bit of all of them,
but what came out, what I got
out of me was the book, right?
Help other people.
Don Priess (17:29):
So looking back at
at what happened with your mom,
in retrospect, you've written abook now you look back and you
say, is there anything that youfeel you could have done
differently. You would have donedifferently that you could tell
somebody if they're in this
Sheri Smith (17:44):
and the power of
attorney, which she didn't want
to do, she wanted to, she wantedhim. Mom, I'm your daughter.
He's your nephew, my cousin.
Susie Singer Carter (17:56):
I think
it's a common theme of people,
you know, boomers, and maybe youknow Gen X's, who have parents
of that age, who particularlymothers who grow up, you know,
in who grew up sort of deferringto the men, deferring to men.
(18:18):
And, you know, and, and becausewhen my brother had my mom sign
over, you know, her, her will.
She had a living she had a willthat made both of us equal,
equal power. Um, he had her. Hehad a Living Trust created where
commingled my my stepdad, moneyand hers, which she didn't want
to do. I know that because wediscussed that and but because
(18:40):
he got her, you know, she hadAlzheimer's, he he had her sign
over, and when she would ask me,well, where's my money? I'd say,
Mark has that. She'd go, What,When did I What are you talking
about? I go, Mom, you signed itover. But, you know, she didn't.
She was not in her right mind,and so, but there's this sort
(19:00):
of, like, base, you know, it's,it was, it's imprinted from your
upbringing of to defer to themen. Well, they know best. They
know best. So your mother, youknow, deferring to your cousin,
because he's the man, and hecame in and he, you know, it was
like she felt safer. And I thinkthat we as the daughters, feel,
(19:21):
you know, short shrift, becausewe really are there. We are
there. Oh, you know, I was thereevery single day. My brother was
not at all. So I think thatthat's something that you know,
particularly these, you know,our two our two generations, the
Gen X and the and the Boomers,Gen xx and the boomers, you
(19:45):
know, have have to deal with,and we have to understand that
we can't fault our moms, becausethis comes from a mother, from
the because that's really whatthey grew up with. You know,
it's like you must have a man inyour life for the most part. I'm
not saying there wasn't rebelsand, you know, women that, but,
you know, and my mom was fierce,but she still had that, you
(20:07):
know, bit of culture that wasbuilt into her. So, you know, I
mean, if Don would say somethingto my mom, it was like, oh,
yeah, that's law. Or my brother,that's law. But it was, you
know, took me, and she respectedthe hell out of me, but I had
to, know, understand that, andand and forgive her for that. So
I think that you have to, Ithink that you have, you know, I
Sheri Smith (20:31):
have Susie, because
in that box of crap that I
carried from place to place, Ihad all the left, go here, go
there. I'm I left this amount ofcash under the and then they
tried to accuse me of stealingit. That was a laugh. But I have
all the, all the when we wroteletters, books or photocopies
(20:53):
of,
Susie Singer Carter (20:54):
yeah,
that's a Yeah. Isn't that a
typical situation, though,where, you know, and I, I've
talked about this too, is like,be careful, or listen carefully
rather, to what people accuseyou of, because it's usually
what they're doing. So, youknow, that's what was happening
with my in my situation as well.
So you know, it's like thehusband who's like so and you're
(21:15):
cheating on me. You're cheatingon me when they're they're the
ones you're like, What? What?
Don Priess (21:20):
You know, that's
where their mind is, because
that's their realities. Yeah,that's,
Susie Singer Carter (21:24):
that's
what, where their head is at.
So, yeah, it's kind of simple,but, but it the truth. So, so
you're, let's, let's just, Iwant to tie in your husband. We
don't need to your ex husband,bipolar, which, you know, all of
those are that are allchallenging. They're all that's
(21:45):
a that's a hugely challengingthing. I didn't again, I have
somewhat of a similar situationwith my ex, because he had a
brain injury. He had thought hewas thrown off the bus in London
of a double decker, and was andwas in hospital for about a
month with frontal, front nobledamage. He actually lost his
(22:08):
sense of smell. And, you know, Ididn't know that when I met him.
I didn't know that he had justrecovered from that with, you
know, had, it hadn't been thatlong, and we met as actors on a
series, and that really changesyour chemistry and your brain,
and not to mention he was atoxic narcissist on top of it,
so the that would mixed in withwith a brain injury really was
(22:33):
lovely. I had already separated.
Sheri Smith (22:35):
I threw him out of
our house in California. He
threw a chair through the plateglass window. I said, You know
what, you gotta go. So he left,and he stole our motorhome and
went to Hawaii, to the BigIsland, and then a year later,
he was tired of being poor. Cometo Hawaii. We'll heal schmuck. I
(22:57):
did cuz I didn't plan to bedivorced. I plan to be married
forever, you know, so luckily,when I was going through this
1112, and 13, I wrote a journalbecause it was so staggering
what was going on. And as I wasreading it, to incorporate it
into the book, I'm like, holycrap, Woman, what is your
(23:20):
problem, and why didn't you run?
But you know,
Don Priess (23:23):
but you didn't know
he was bipolar, correct? He
wasn't diagnosed with bipolar.
You're dealing with something.
It's just like somebody who'sdealing with a narcissist, and
you don't know what it lookslike, right? Can't you? So
you're you don't know how todeal with it.
Sheri Smith (23:35):
No, we didn't know
what bipolar. Nobody talked
about mental health in the 90s,right?
Susie Singer Carter (23:41):
Right,
which is why there's a big, you
know, thank God talk about it,yeah,
Sheri Smith (23:47):
thank God when we
are now. Praise the Lord. People
like you and other people whoare talking all the all the
celebrities are getting on TVand saying, blah, blah, blah,
whatever,
Susie Singer Carter (23:57):
right,
right, right, no. And then, you
know, so, so the parallelbetween your ex and your mom are
two, you know, states of healththat you were not aware of,
don't don't really have anyexperience with it, don't really
understand it. May not have beena may not have known that it was
even going on for a very longtime, while it was already
(24:18):
starting, or already been there,in the case of your ex. So which
is, you know, so draining onyourself, so depleting of
everything, because you'retrying so hard to look at it
through your lens of how you seelife. I you know, and that you
keep thinking, Well, why am Inot communicating right? Am I
(24:40):
not what am I doing wrong? Now?
Unknown (24:42):
You start blaming
yourself? Yeah, right, yes, of
course.
Susie Singer Carter (24:45):
I didn't
know a thing about narcissism. I
didn't know until my ex left andI and I started listening to
something about narcissism. Ithought he that sounds exactly
like him, and I literally boughtevery book on the shelf. I read.
I for a year straight, I barelyslept. I mean, I was like,
reading and highlighting,highlighting, highlighting,
(25:09):
highlighting, that's him, that'shim, that's him, that's him,
that's him. And I was like, Howdid I not know this? I mean, it
was textbook, you know? And Ireally did a number on myself
because I didn't know anythingabout it, and then once I knew,
I was like, oh my god, I madeevery mistake in the book, like
I did with my mom. I made everymistake in the book because you
(25:30):
don't know, so I literallytriggered the hell out of him,
and which, you know, that's notmy fault, and that's and I
shouldn't have to worry abouttriggering him, but I certainly
did, because I thought I wastalking to someone who had the
same frame of mind that I did,but they bit. But you know,
which is, happens a lot, and
Don Priess (25:52):
you could reason you
thought you all, I can reason
with get it. And then they'llshow moments, little, little
glimmers of things. Oh, they getit. They get it draws you back
in, yeah, and then it starts allover again. And then, but again.
If you don know what behavioryou're dealing with, there's no
way you can.
Sheri Smith (26:09):
I wrote in my book
too, what? Why do I always want
to label something? Well, if youdon't label it, you can't fix it
or find the you know, whatever,find the faithful. If you don't
know what it is, you can't just,yeah, yeah.
Susie Singer Carter (26:24):
So, I mean,
I think, I think that's that's
an interesting correlation thatyou did, you know, because you
those are things both, twothings that are that are so
difficult for someone who's notexperiencing either, and it's
really draining. Like, I know mycortisol levels were off the
charts, you know, I mean, Ihonestly, like, I again, like
(26:47):
trying to fix my mom. I thoughtI could fix my ex, too. I really
did. And, you know, delusions ofgrandeur on a major scale, and,
you know, and cutting my losses.
And finally, you know, if hehadn't left, I probably would
have tried to the day I died,because I believed that I could.
I believed so much that I could,and yeah, so that that is
incredibly debilitating. So goodon you for still being here on
(27:14):
this earth, still being joyfuland and taking the time and the
effort and the energy andeverything it takes to get this
onto a book, into a book and outthere to share with others,
because it's not easy to
Unknown (27:35):
know to take
Susie Singer Carter (27:37):
your pain
and make It your purpose. Thank
Sheri Smith (27:40):
you. Yeah. Robin
Robert says something like that,
make your message message,right?
Susie Singer Carter (27:46):
Yeah.
However you say it, that's whatyou've done. Well, we're gonna
put all of your your stuff inthe show notes. And I'm glad
that we got to do this with ourwith our biggest fan ever. And
we, we can't, you know we got,how can we not love you, right?
Because it, and I mean,honestly, like you said, Do I
believe in in the law ofattraction? I don't know, but I
(28:08):
do believe in love, and I dobelieve that's why, you know,
Donald,
Don Priess (28:14):
yes. And you know,
why do you know why you believe
in love? I do, tell me I do, andthat's because love is powerful.
Love is contagious. Loveconquers all we do. Thank
everyone for being here today,watching, listening. We will
have all the information aboutSherry and her magical world in
the show notes. And if you ifyou like what you heard, please,
(28:35):
Like, Subscribe, share, and wewill definitely see you next
time on, love conquers all. Bye,
Susie Singer Carter (28:40):
everybody,
thank you. Thank you. Sherry,
bye.