I’ve had a really nice birthday celebration, and am now ready to put thoughts of how old I am away for another year. Most of the time I don’t even think of it. The main thing is annoyance if I have trouble getting out of my recliner. :0)
We have Lunch Bunch today. I’m hoping we have a full contingent. I haven’t heard from anyone, and usually that means that everyone is planning to come. It will be good to see some much-loved faces, laugh, and share a meal.
There is not much going on here today otherwise. We have some errands to run after Lunch Bunch, but then a quiet day after with lots of sunshine.
I’m going to try to pay attention as we do our errands to see if the places in town are starting to stock spring plants. I’m itching to get our garden started, though it’s a bit early.
“Seventy six trombones led the big parade, With a hundred & ten cornets close at hand. They were followed by rows and rows, Of the finest virtuosos, The cream of every famous band.” – from “The Music Man.”
Promo.com
Right this minute, being 76 feels sleep-deprived. For some reason, I had bad dreams last night and ended up reading for an extra couple of hours from 2-4. Then, when I went back up to bed, our dog was barking. I tried to ignore it. When I couldn’t any longer, I went downstairs to speak to the dog. She was out in the garage, instead of in the utility room! I let her in and the cat rushed in with her. I went to bed and then the cat was meowing loudly beside the bed. My husband and I again discussed that if he lets the dog out in the middle of the night, he is supposed to get her back IN before coming back to bed. I’m afraid this is falling on deaf ears…
GIFDB.com
Otherwise, being 76 feels good. Several of my friends and relatives left messages on my phone or wrote emails this morning, so I feel special. I’m hoping to speak to our son on chat in a few minutes.
“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” — George Bernard Shaw
No special plans for the day – just feeling very lucky to be alive, persnickety, full of plans for the future, with never enough time or energy to do all I would like to do. Even the fact that it’s supposed to rain much of the day today can’t dampen my spirits.
“As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.”— Criss Jami
Shout-outs to Sandi and Cathy for sending me actual birthday cards. I love all forms of reaching out, because people are making you feel special, but I have to say an actual card in the mail remains one of my favorites.
Another shout-out to my good friend, Marsha, who means the world to me. I received a box in the mail today containing several beautiful pairs of earrings she made. I keep changing which pair is my favorite – all different colors, stones, and styles – and can’t wait to show them off!
There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.~ Sophia Loren
While working at the computer the other day, I started to drink some coffee and found my cup was empty. I took my cup and went to the kitchen. I stopped to pee, then went on to the kitchen. Went back to retrieve my cup from the counter in the bathroom.
Noticed a bunch of dog hair on the floor (imagine that!) and grabbed my battery-powered portable vacuum to get that up. I emptied out the canister and returned the unit to the wall-mounted battery charger thingie. I went back to the office and sat down. Realized I hadn’t gotten my coffee, so went back to the kitchen.
I got out chili mac leftovers for dinner and put out plates and spoons for our lunch. I felt hungry as I hadn’t had anything for breakfast yet, so got out a banana, peeled it, put it on a plate and brought it back to the office. Sat down and figured out I still hadn’t gotten my coffee.
Went back to the kitchen, got my cup, filled it, and put it in the microwave to heat it up. Let Abby, our cat, out. Checked to make sure the dishwasher had been emptied, and put the few things on the counter inside, wiped the counter. Went back to the office.
Went back to the kitchen to retrieve my coffee from the microwave and brought it back to the office. When I decided I was going to try to “move more,” this really wasn’t what I had in mind…
My dog, Amber, doesn’t ‘yog’ with me, but she snuffles and nuzzles me each time I start my practice now, getting as close to me as possible, turning over on her back with her feet in the air, cavorting around, biting one foot, thoroughly delighting in yet another chance to be loved, make me laugh – and possibly get another cookie.
I can’t say I’ve built a ‘habit’ of daily yoga practice yet, but I’m definitely automatically making time for my practice each afternoon, choosing my yoga over other activities if I’m running short of time. If my husband is in his chair, I automatically bring him a throw as I flip the switch that starts the ceiling fan, turning it off when I finish.
Boat Pose
Yesterday I added another pose to my practice. It’s another pose that focuses on the core – or abdomen – specifically, called, “The Boat.” There are some other poses in that article that I’ll add as I go, but one new one at a time is enough for now.
I’m hoping that my daily practice will allow me to move as freely as possible, with as much flexibility and balance as I can without a lot of pain as I age. I would like to increase my stamina. Since I hope to live a lot longer, this is a really important goal for me. I want to be able to do what I’d like for as long as I can, enjoying freedom without a lot of fear of falling or breaking bones.
I’ve improved a lot on my stretching since I started my goal of daily practice 50 days ago today. I haven’t gotten any younger, but I’m able to stretch farther in each of the poses and hold the poses longer now, or do more repetitions. I’m able to do my ‘normal practice’ plus now look for a bit more to add. Good progress.
I have to admit that at this very moment I’m feeling a bit older than usual. I just finished weed-whacking the front yard, the driveway area in front of our trio of planters, around the driveway pad, the back sidewalk edge and a bit more. I’m inside, drinking water and trying to cool off before we fix lunch. Then, I’m HOPING it won’t be too hot for me to finish the back.
For ME to do weed whacking, I have to get in a certain position. Holding that position while working, plus the weight of the weed whacker, plus fighting with the 100 foot extension cord I need to use makes me tired pretty fast. I used to be able to do the whole job in one session. Now I quit after 45 minutes. Oh, well. Maybe I’ll feel younger later…. :0)
This amazing lady, Tao Porchon-Lynch, died in February of 2020, living to be 101. One of her mantras: “Know that the joy of living is right inside you.”
I’m not at all sure I want to live to be 101, but I really admire the way she lived life to the fullest, spreading joy and energy to everyone she saw. What a wonderful role model!
Yesterday everyone was at Lunch Bunch. It was really nice. We were celebrating our waitress’ (Mikey’s) birthday. She just beamed at everyone. It was fun reminding her how special she is.
What surprised me was that Kay brought two gifts for ME. When I asked her why, she said, “We forgot your birthday last month, so “Happy Birthday.” Isn’t that nice?
The downside was, that since I had no ‘celebration’ for my birthday this year, I didn’t really have to CLAIM it or BE one year older, in my mind. Now I have to own it.
Kay brought me TWO presents –
Pink GeraniumThis is now on the wall between my kitchen and dining area.
Thoughts about aging don’t usually enter my thoughts, unless I’ve overdone out in the yard and my body sounds like popcorn being popped in the microwave and my back is screaming at me, “For G_d’s sake, do your yoga!”
Since none of us can “hope-away aging” – (YET, at least), I have some favorite quotes about the subject, and wanted to share some of them with you –
“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”~ Audrey Hepburn
“Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We don’t grow older, we grow riper.” ~ Pablo Picasso
“Older people shouldn’t eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get.” ~ Robert Orben
“Old age is fifteen years older than I am.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
I spent two hours yesterday weeding our rock beds that run along the front and back of the house. I finished, and even my husband was impressed, saying they look, “Great.”
The only problem is that my back is NOT so pleased with my efforts, even though I sat on my garden stool part of the time, used a padded knee pad part of the time, and stood part of the time, trying to vary my position often to avoid problems.
NEXT time I’ll only do the front OR the back, not both in one day.
Maybe I can do TWO sessions of yoga stretching today….
A. A. Milne – Winnie the Pooh – Illustration by E. H. Shepard
One of the many ‘perks ‘ of getting older is trouble remembering things.
Just this morning I was reading an email from a dear friend who talked about what she was going to cook for dinner. THAT reminded me that I had neglected to take our dinner out of the freezer. I finished answering her email and then found some painted bottles online that were absolutely STUNNING.
I remembered again that I needed to go to the pantry to get our dinner out of the freezer. I got up, stopped in the bathroom, poured water in Amber’s dog bowl and then came back to the computer. I saw that I had forgotten to refill my coffee cup, so I got up and started to go to the kitchen. I stopped, grabbed my wallet and the record of our blood pressure and blood sugar we used this morning to take back to the kitchen. I put them away in the dining area and then came back to the office.
I again saw my coffee cup. I picked it up this time and went to the kitchen, refilled it, and brought it back. Then remembered I was supposed to go get our dinner out of the freezer…
My husband came in and wanted some help. I helped him and then sat back down at the computer. THEN remembered I was supposed to go to the pantry.
I got to the kitchen and couldn’t remember why I went in there. Had to come back to the office and sit down. THEN I remembered.
I actually got our dinners out of the freezer this time. Please shoot me.
hahahahhahahahah. Actually, I’m not stressed, just late today. I just loved the picture above. :0)
I’m having a very late start to blogging today. I had a haircut appointment and errands to do this morning. By the time I got home, it was time for lunch. THEN, after we ate, I got sleepy and took a nap…
We’re having a weird day today.
We were just checking a detail on our investment account and saw that Schwab had generated a corrected tax form for us. We printed it, and then I emailed our CPA that we were having to mail him a correction for our tax stuff.
My husband wanted to check to see if we had gotten a delivery from Fedex or UPS (sometimes left at our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway) and said he would mail the corrected forms when he went. We talked about how it would be mailed, etc.
Then I started to work on the computer. I heard the driveway alarm and realized my husband had left. The form was still where I left it, so my husband didn’t take it. Wonder what he’ll think when he gets to the post office. Getting old is SO much fun. I’m glad I don’t have to do it alone.
We’re still eating ‘sicky-food’ around here, at least another day – soup, crackers, eggs, toast. I awoke suddenly last night with my husband being sick. We got his system settled down with Alka Seltzer. I dealt with the aftermath and then couldn’t sleep, so came downstairs and read for quiet awhile. We both slept in this morning a bit. My husband slept through the night and is feeling stronger today, thank goodness, but we’ll be very careful with his food again today, hoping this will be past us soon.
cheezburger.com
One of the really LARGE perks of being old and retired is that – if you’re up a lot of the night for one reason or another – you can take a nap or two during the day so you’re not TOO much of a zombie. To say we’re grateful for this is a vast understatement.
Treehugger
If my husband’s health improves, we may look for garden plants this week. I’m just ITCHING to throw off the tarps from our raised-bed, square foot garden planters and get some plants growing! If I do, I’ll take some pics to share.
My friend Kay called yesterday to ask if we wanted to do Lunch Bunch today, instead of tomorrow, because we’re due for a ‘wintry mix’ tomorrow – WHAT!?!?!? We were happy to do Lunch Bunch anytime the group wants to, but I’m bummed by the idea of more snow and ice. I’m embracing spring. Our daffodils and tulip tree are blooming! Hopefully the bad weather will be over very soon and we can start making active plans for our garden and working in the yard.
Masterfile
Under the category of ‘too many changes for old people’ – our son told me yesterday that the conference call program we use to communicate, actually being able to see each other and talk in real time is going to start charging for their services. When I told my husband, he got upset, wanting to keep the program we’re using, even though there are several other options available. I talked to our son briefly this morning, telling him that we wanted to continue the program and that we wanted to pay for all of us to use it. He’s going to check it out and will get back to me.
A long time good friend called me yesterday to wish me a happy birthday. I haven’t heard from her in AGES. Life just gets in the way, doesn’t it. It was wonderful to catch up and I felt really ‘smile-y’ and ‘glow-y’ inside when we finished. It was really nice of her to think of me.
“To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am!” — Bernard Baruch
To be honest, I’m delighted to BE here, still able to annoy or entertain a bit without a lot of drama. My husband is sleeping in this morning. Our son is happy and doing well. Our animals are happy and healthy. Things are good in our own little world.
In the ‘I ain’t dead yet’ category, I’m enjoying ‘birthday greetings’ from my newest lust, Alan Ritchson, a luscious actor who plays the Reacher character on TV (Amazon Prime Video) from Lee Child’s (one of our favorite authors) books. We watched Season 1 the other day and are actively anticipating Season 2.
Besides his gorgeous-ness, this man is intelligent and can act and is quite believable as our beloved Reacher.
No huge festivities are planned for the day. My husband asked last night, “Hey. Do you want to go out or something?” (I swooned at the romance of it :0) ) A happy day is perfectly sufficient to my needs, so I’ll let him off the hook. Besides, he gets to all the birthdays first, so they don’t sting as much when I reach them – a thing I’ll always cherish.
sayingimages.com
It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.” — John O-Donohue
“As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.” — Criss Jami
Wisdom is the reward for surviving our own stupidity.” — Brian Rathbone
“I’ve enjoyed every age I’ve been and each has had its own individual merit. Every laugh line, every scar, is a badge I wear to show I’ve been present, the inner rings of my personal tree trunk that I display proudly for all to see. Nowadays, I don’t want a “perfect” face and body; I want to wear the life I’ve lived.” — Pat Benatar
“When I grow up I want to be an old woman.” — Michelle Shocked
I was brought back to reality when we were at the bottom of the driveway (safely, even after having to drive over the ice on the last third of the driveway!) and I was taking the trash bags out of the back of the truck and putting them to one side of the driveway for pickup.
The trash people didn’t pick up the trash last week. I’m not sure what the state of the road was in front of our house, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they couldn’t do the pickup due to the ice storm. Anyway, I noticed we were a bag short from what I put out. I found the bag on its side in the ice and water-filled ditch beside our driveway. An animal had gotten in it, torn it open and had a big time.
When I was younger, I would have just balanced on the edge of the ditch, reached over and pulled what I could out of the water, rebagged it, and would have been done with it.
Reality struck when I TRIED to balance on the edge of the ditch and had trouble. Sanity kicked in, deciding that a spill into the ditch filled with cold water and ice wasn’t worth it.
So, this old lady will put a trash bag and rake or hoe in the back of the truck and I’ll tackle the problem the next time we go down the hill…
HOPEFULLY the trash guys will get the double load of trash now waiting for them.
There is one large perk in getting older that I am cherishing more and more.
I think a lot of people have trouble sleeping as they age. This becomes much less of a problem when you retire and no longer have to show up ready to put in a good day’s work. In fact, it’s life saving.
My husband and I vary all over the block on how we sleep. We have always stayed up late, heading up for bed around 11:30, midnight, or after. Sometimes I have trouble actually GETTING to sleep. Other times I wake up with my hips hurting, or have had a bad dream, or….
I come downstairs and read until I’m sleepy again. We don’t get up until 8am, so this usually isn’t a problem.
Last night I noticed the light was on downstairs and joined my husband about 3am. We read for awhile, and then went up to sleep. I again noticed the light on later, but was too sleepy to join him again. I don’t know what time it was. Then he was up when I woke up again at 7. I got dressed and we started our day.
We will both probably end up asleep in our recliners after lunch.
It’s a really good thing we can plan our day – usually – around how we are feeling. We have times during the day when we feel awake, alert, and energetic, and times we can hardly keep our eyes open. The perk of being able to give in and sleep when you would like is a luxury beyond price.
It may be an odd way to live, but we aren’t bothering anyone else so we’ll take it.
MISTAKE ONE: waiting, rather than living in the moment.
I spent much of my life waiting. I met my husband-to-be when I was 14 and he was 17. When he joined the Marines soon after, he took my heart with him. I waited for him to come home on leave. I waited for letters, checked days off the calendar, dated little because my heart was waiting for him to come home. Then we were in different colleges and I waited for breaks from school so we could be together. Then I waited to finish school so we could marry. I cried when we finished the ceremony and my life could finally begin.
Telling myself that I was missing out on a lot of life didn’t make it past the thought running through my head. My heart was set. I avoided complications, getting close to many people, always choosing the path that would get me where I wanted to go the quickest way possible. I wonder how things might have been different if I had made different choices.
Now I live in the moment, wringing every drop of joy I can out of seeing people I love, talking to those I can’t see as much as I would like, taking the time to soak up beautiful things, celebrating the talent surrounding me – LIVING – rather than waiting.
MISTAKE 2: worrying about things over which I have no control.
This is a gut level reaction. I TRY not to do this, realizing how stupid it is. I do pretty well during the day when I can choose my activities, stay busy, etc., but if I wake in the middle of the night, I get swamped pretty easily. I worry about worst case scenarios, causing myself a lot of pain for no good reason. My head tells me to prepare for things the best way I can, see what actually happens, and then deal with it. My inner child wants to live in ignorant bliss, avoiding the bad situations, seeking hugs and someone to solve the problem about which I’m worrying.
I’m doing pretty well on rectifying my first mistake. The 2nd remains a challenge. 99% of the time my “adult” handles things reasonably well, I think. Now I concentrate on the 1% of the time my inner child comes out.
The three-times-a-week yoga stretches are helping this sweet old lady loosen up. I’ve lost 3 lbs this week, too, so thumbs up. :0)
Speaking of feeling a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth’ lately, three things:
Thing One – when we were looking for a replacement cover for one of our kitchen fluorescent fixtures lately, a kind guy was trying to look it up for me at the service desk at Home Depot. When he told me he couldn’t find the one we needed, I realized that our fixtures are over 30 years old, installed in 1987 when we built the house – and older than the nice guy has been alive!
Thing Two – shortly after my husband and I married, we decided to try building a digital clock, building one with the use of a Heath Kit. (I’m probably showing my age again, but Heath Kits were popular back then for the fun of learning a bit about electronics, and having things you couldn’t afford otherwise.) I learned about circuit boards, learned to look at various parts to install, learned to solder, etc. My husband kept trying to prepare me that the clock would need a lot of trouble-shooting to get it to work and that things almost never worked the first time. Can you imagine his face when it worked perfectly the very first time we plugged it in? :0) We’ve had this clock with us ever since, most recently living in our entertainment center in the living room. We noticed it was losing time – something it has never done. We reset it several times, and it kept gradually going off the right time. I was a bit sad that we need to shop for another clock now, but realized that it lasted over 50 years!
Thing Three – The latest heart throbs are younger than our son….
“The older I get, the more I see there are these crevices in life where things fall in and you just can’t reach them to pull them back out. So you can sit next to them and weep or you can get up and move forward. You have to stop worrying about who’s not here and start worrying about who is.” — Alex Witchel
Things happen – and more changes in a second than you can believe. Since I’m becoming an heirloom, more happens to the people I love, too.
My friend’s MRI is Monday, where they see how much damage she had from her recent fall. (Nothing broken, thank goodness.) A family member went from the ER to the hospital last night due to trouble breathing. She’s not in pain, thank goodness, but having trouble breathing is scary. My own next test/procedure is the middle of next month. A lot will depend on the results. Another friend texted me to tell me that she and her mom wouldn’t be at Lunch Bunch today. (she was going to a funeral and her mom wasn’t comfortable driving in the rain.) I’ll see what they think of having our Christmas gift exchange next THURSDAY. Fingers crossed.
We repaired a CB Radio antenna wire that the hugely gusty winds we had had snapped off. It runs between our well house and the main house and was hanging down in the yard. So, of COURSE my husband grabbed our tall ladder and wanted to climb to the top of the well house to try to fix it. I helped the best I could, running to the house to get parts, tools, and scrambling up and down the ladder to hand them to him. We got it repaired and back up again. No injuries.
This was topped off by our dog, Amber, coming back covered in ‘that-that-is-not-to-be-named,” and we had to finish off the afternoon by giving her a cold bath in the back yard, something that really got our attention.
Christmas cards feel like hugs. We’ve started hearing from friends and relatives we wish we could see more often. We sent out ours last week, and hope they feel OUR hugs, as well.
I’ll be really glad when Mother Nature decides which season we’re having. We MAY get another 3 inches of rain between now and tomorrow morning. Severe weather chances are low, though, and I’m really grateful for that.
I’m trying to immerse myself in my book and in listening to YouTube videos to keep any bad thoughts in the back part of my mind, happy that we are snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug here. :0)
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and Trigger – Chicago Tribune
“Trigger” was ridden by Rogers in every one of his motion pictures, finding his own fame in the process. After Trigger died at age 33, his hide was stretched over a plaster likeness and put on display, also reared on two legs, inside the museum. He was mounted, then, not stuffed.
taxidermy-Lonesome George-smithsonianmag.com
I bring this up because, when my husband and I talk of end of life issues, my husband always says he wants me to have HIM ‘stuffed like Trigger and mounted in the living room.’ That would be a form of immortality – I guess – a way to feel as if your life had made a difference to someone.
Some people will be remembered by some special talent – their singing, dancing, writing, creating, building, teaching, entertaining….
Most of us won’t do anything so wonderful that we’ll be remembered by the world for something we have contributed, but that’s okay. If we are remembered from time to time by someone we touched in some way, that’s immortality too.
I think of all the people who have made my life wonderful – my family, my friends, strangers who have taken the time to be extra kind, people I’ve never met, but who have made my heart sing with joy through their talent, who have made me laugh so hard I have trouble catching my breath.
Little means more than living on in someone’s memory and heart.
creativeartworksblog 