A Sad Time

This year has been a sad year.  I've lost so many friends and family.  Is this something you should expect when you grow older?  I 've lost a brother and a brother-in-law, who was as close as a brother.  An old friend that I had worked with at the bank for a lot of years.  Although she had moved to Arizona, we had always kept in touch.  I was shocked to hear that Bill's cousin, who he had played in a band with for a lot of years, had died of a massive stroke.  A short time before that an old friend that he had played with years ago in our Quadcity years had passed away.  The last six months of two thousand and eleven will stay in my memory as a sad time.

Seasons

Spring is yellow daffodils and soft breezes
The earth turning from brown to green
Summer is a play ground filled with laughing children
Swimming pools and dusty roads
Fall is brown leaves falling
Quiet nights beneath a full moon
Winter is snow crunching underfoot
Frosty window panes and icy winds
Our life goes by like the seasons
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
Passing as swiftly as the seasons come and go

Alzheimers

I opened my refrigerator this morning  and there sit some things that should have been in the freezer.  I had fixed some of it for my evening meal before I went to church and for some crazy reason put the rest of it in the refrigerator instead of the freezer.  I was in a hurry because I was running late but is that just an excuse.  Some time ago I found my oleo in the pantry instead of the refrigerator.  Alzheimers is a real fear of old people because it seems to be something that no matter how fast you run, it catches you.  I'm trying to stay active and trying to keep my brain active.  I work crossword puzzles. do sudokus, play bingo on Wednesdays ,work at the library one day a week, and try to stay active in church activities.  I rememer my Mom and Dad just wanting to stay at home when they were older and some days I feel that way.  I think maybe when you're old , you just don't pay enough attention to what you're doing .  So that's how I'm going to look at this.  Old woman pay more attention to where you're putting things.  That's probably what the old man would tell me if he was here.

The Wind

When I woke up this morning I could hear the wind.  Sometimes the wind whispers softly but this morning it was shouting.  I thought it's saying winters coming.  Even though I was under the covers it made me feel cold.  I thought maybe it's blowing all the leaves out of my yard and off of this hill.  I was trying to look on the bright side.  I remember a poem from grade school about the wind.  "Who can see the wind, neither you nor I but when the trees bow down their heads the wind is passing by."  This morning the wind didn't seem to be passing by, it was just staying and whistling around the house like a banshee.  I got up and looked out my window and my yard was still full of leaves.  Oh well, that's the way life goes.

Coins

There's been a quarter laying in the floorboard of my car for sometime.  I finally picked it up this morning for I was picking up another lady to go to lunch and  I was cleaning out my car.   It made me think of how few coins were around when I was a kid.  I hadn't bothered picking that quarter up but back then if we found a penny or nickel anywhere, it didn't lay there long.  Back then you could buy candy for a penny and a candy bar for a nickel.  If we had found a quarter we would have been rich.  I hadn't even bothered picking up the quarter because after all what would it buy?  Not a candy bar, that's for sure and is there such a thing any more as penny candy?  I haven't seen any.  Thinking of candy makes me think of when Bill worked at Sears.  They had bulk candy and they would dip you out whatever amount you could pay for and put it in a white paper bag and it was sooo good.  I may have to make a trip to the store, I saw some chocolate covered peanuts there this morning.  They were in bulk too.  That quarter won't buy any but I might be able to find a few more coins.

When I Am Old I Will Wear Purple

At the library yesterday I read "When I Am An Old Woman".  I thought I need to rewrite this.  It doesn't fit me at all.  I've never liked the color purple.  I shall wear any color I like and I difinitly don't want to drink brandy.  It would give me nausea.  I wouldn't want to ruin my slippers in the rain, not unless they were a pair I didn't like.  I also would not want to pick flowers from someone elses garden but I might take some seeds that I could plant in mine.  Just thinking of eating three pounds of sausage at a go makes my stomach want to empty and if I ate bread and pickles for a week, I'd want some ham to eat with them.  Sitting a good example for your children doesn't end with them, what about the grandchildren?  Well suddenly I am old but none of the things that seem to appeal to the lady who wrote this appeals to me.  I think I'll just keep writing on my blog and playing computer games and try to forget I'm an old lady.

Life Span

Today I met an old friend of Bills and we stood and talked for a while.  He talked about being at Bill's house when they were teenagers.  Our conversation sorta went on about life and how when we're young, our future seems long.  We feel like we're going to live forever.  At our age now we look back and think where did all the years go.  That passage in the bible that says "life is like a vapor" is so true.  I heard last week that an old friend of ours had passed away.  He and Bill used to play in a band together and his wife and I were good friends.  I thought about a picture I took a long time ago of him and Bill sitting at our kitchen table, eating
watermelon.  He's sticking out his tongue at me and Bill's just busy eating watermelon.  I don't remember why he was sticking out his tongue at me but I can remember a lot of good times we four had together.  There's an old song that says memory is a gift of God that death cannot destroy.  In old age it's a precious gift.