Wednesday, July 23, 2014

I woke up this morning and, surprisingly, nothing hurt! So I knew…


      1                    I was still asleep and dreaming
2                   Those drugs I took REALLY kicked in
3                   I’d had a full and complete body transplant
4                   I was dead
The correct answer is, of course, (a) any of the above, or (b) some of the above, or (c) none of the above. You can’t lose on this quiz!

As Carol and I get older and older the number of body parts that hurt and the intensity of that hurt gradually increases. Bummer. But, at the same time, the things we can do and the places we can go don’t change. I have noticed, however, that I tend to swear at my body parts more often‑‑like when my arthritic fingers don’t hit the right keys on my computer. Sometimes this makes me laugh, so the swearing and laughing all equal out. 

We also keep getting slower and slower and slower at doing whatever we’re trying to do. But slow is still functioning. For example, when traveling we take three or four days to drive where it used to take two. When we cut fireplace wood or work in the garden, we consider three or four hours a good day’s work. And we spend more time in the hot tub with the jets going full blast and a glass of wine to maintain our hydration levels.

I don’t imagine our aches and pains are going to diminish in the near future (see first paragraph for alternatives). I also don’t imagine we’ll stop doing what we want to do until we fall over or our kids put us in the County Home for Senile and Useless Geezers (a distinct possibility). 

We are convinced that the more we do—in moderation—the better we feel both physically and emotionally.

axman

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Hooray for the Fourth of July!




My annual Independence Day Blog
I will celebrate what I consider some of the good news:
  •         The Republic is still here (despite what you may hear from some naysayers)
  •         I’m still here (a true fact)
  •         Carol and the whole family are alive, well, and active to varying degrees
  •         Carol and I entered, walked, and completed a 5k on the 4th (or was it a 4k on the 5th?) and amazingly did not finish dead last (we were neither dead nor last)
  •         Our SIX acres of grass is neatly mowed for the time being (thanks mostly to brother-in-law Jack)
  •        My PSA is still at 0.45 and holding
  •         Our strawberry crop was great (and tasty)
I pick the 4th of July time-frame to talk about being thankful because the sun is shining and just about everybody can agree that our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) done good, more or less.

Even with all the social and political bickering, yelling, blaming, and much worse, it seems we all still have the privilege to think what we want to think and say what we want to say out loud (although there are times when silence truly is golden). 

I am hoping to survive to an even riper old age by trying to laugh a lot (so far so good), be kind, look for some of the good things in life (often forgotten), and not blame anybody else for what and who I am. 

axman