Aging Gracefully

You spend your life growing old. The changes are most notable when you are young. The move from baby, to toddler, child, teen and then adult are the most rapid. Then it seems like a long period when nothing much happens. You hit your 20's, 30's and 40's and not much changes. Sure if you are a professional athlete things go quicker and you lose a step or two. In that world a step or two is a big deal. Really, for the rest of us, not so much. We can lose lots of steps and no one really notices. Then the 50's roll around and we begin to sag and wrinkle. We notice things like gravity. We used to appreciate the fact it held us to the ground so we didn't float away into outer space. Now, from time to time, it grabs us and pulls us to the ground. We don't pop back up like we did a decade or two ago. Sometimes we stay down there. We try to pretend it is because we are checking things out. Truth is we are trying to determine if everything still functions. Now 60 has reared its ugly head. You listen to folks on TV and they talk about 60 being the new 40. They are lying bastards. Sixty is the new forty? What a complete line of bullshit. Really total bullshit. The sagging and wrinkles of the 50's are taking control now. Hair? Well if you have any left it probably has turned gray or white. You still have hair on your head but now it grows out of your nose and ears. When you go to the barber he has to trim your eyebrows. Since mom reads this there will be no discussion about what happens south of the belt line. Just keep in mind everything down there ages too. Aging isn't something that takes place gracefully. No one sits down to afternoon tea and all of a sudden gracefully morphs into a 60 something. Growing old is more like a slow motion car wreck. You know it is going to hit you. You know it will hurt. The results will be painful and cannot be repaired. No matter what you do it's going to happen. So, what do you do?

Youth is wasted on the young. Spend less time worrying about tomorrow and more time enjoying today. Do you care about what other people think of you? If you do, stop. Rest assured they spend less time thinking about you than you spend worrying about what they think. Take a walk, smell the flowers. Call a friend. See the sights. Love your spouse. Spoil your kids. Do a good deed every chance you get. Make a difference. Some day you will be old, if you are lucky. When you sit down at the end of the day and look back make sure you have done something (anything) that makes you happy. That gives you a feeling of accomplishment.

John said it had been 10 days without a blog post. Today's big accomplishment was getting the computer hooked back up and making it work with the internet connection here on Tybee Island. Once that was done and all the scanners and printer worked it was on to the thermostat. The new system allows it to be controlled from the internet when we are in Illinois. It is now connected to the network here as well. Old men and modern electronics are not a good combination but sometimes old men can figure this new fangled shit out just fine. Was it a big thing? No. However, at this point in life even small victories are extremely satisfying.