Things Change

We're back-and-forthing via email (family coming from Los Angeles, Scotland, Milwaukee, Manhattan, Boston)  to plan Thanksgiving dinner.  My query about whether the shopping list should call for whole squash or packages of cut-up chunks brings this response, from someone I still regard as one of the young women: 
It annoys me to pay people to cut up squash...it is just not that hard to do.
I'd like to think I felt that way at her age, but I can't remember.  At any rate -- these days I'm the exact opposite of annoyed.  Almost anything is indeed that hard to do, and I'm delighted if I can find someone else to do it.

Edith and the Perfectly Fine, Warm and Toasty Copacetic Week

Sorry, keep forgetting to give you an update.  This is a much better week.  Both cars are  now in running order (okay, the one outside is encased in ice, but if it ever thaws I believe it'll work just fine.)   I'm wearing two perfectly good hearing aids.  I have not had a stroke.  We did not get all that snow, just a pretty coating.   I looked at my face in the mirror and wondered why on earth I thought a few new blemishes would even be noticed in among all the rest of the wear and tear.  (No illustration available.) 
Everything is copacetic.  If you're too young for that word,  you can look it up.  Wikipedia lists five possible etymologies, "all of which lack supporting evidence."  But it describes this week.

 

 

co·pa·cet·ic

ˌkōpəˈsetik/

adjective

North Americaninformal

adjective: copacetic; adjective: copasetic

1. in excellent order.

Edith and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

 Edith and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Actually, I’m perfectly cheerful.  Wotthehell !  But you know – I'd love to list everything that’s happened since Monday. And this blog is, after all, supposed to be about Being Old.  So
* First thing Monday morning, the white electric car wouldn’t start.  Lots of back-and-forthing with the service department and it’s still dead five days later.
* Monday --  Doctor said yes, as I suspected, I'd had a TIA mini-stroke (no illustration.)
* Backed little yellow car into post while leaving doctor’s parking lot (you don’t want to see that rear end.) Won’t be able to have scrapes fixed till electric car useable. (see above)
* Googled TIA on Internet, where first four sites all said “one in three go on to have a stroke” – one site added helpfully “within a year.”  Decided not to look at any more sites.
* At audiologist's, ldropped off  right hearing aid to be sent out for repair.
* At dermatologist's (see below) discovered left hearing aid had fallen out somewhere.  Conversation muffled.
* Called audiologist and heard with difficulty over the phone that hearing aid insurance recently expired.
* At library, was told I never returned that book I cannot find.  Also owed $9.35 overdue charges.
* At dentist’s office told appointment no good, protocol changed yet again, must prepare with antibiotics (re old hip replacement), pick up prescription, come back next week.
* Had not one but two of those migraine auras or whatever you call them.  They’re not all that irritating but they make this list more impressive so I’m including them.
* Friday, today,  had three pre-cancerous thingies removed from face.  Will I look human by Thanksgiving? ( latest count is 21 for dinner.)
* Yesterday suddenly couldn’t breathe, throat abruptly closed up, first laryngeal spasm I've had since the summer.  As usual, thought I was going to die.  As usual, didn’t.
* So that was good.  And it’s only Friday.  Stay tuned.

Unsolved Mystery

I arrived at the Crab Shack in Henrietta (Hta?) at ten to six, nd parked next to a shiny red Chevy Spark.  This is worth mention, as my little car is evidently no big seller – I think that’s only the fifth Spark I’ve seen since I bought mine in February.

The pleasant girls at the reception desk had only one six o’clock reservation – for 18 persons, pharmaceutical company gathering, so I settled down on a couch near their desk and watched the passing scene.  Not a face I recognized.  Not a clue. 

At ten after six I ordered take-out clams, which came after ten more minutes, and I left at twenty after six.  (If I remember right, you had to give a full professor twenty minutes?)

Sixteen dollars brought one of the smallest orders of fried clams I’ve ever seen.  I’m not sure the chef could get a job in Maine, but maybe it’s just that things no longer taste the way I remember.  They were indeed whole clams, though, soft-bellied, with a whiff of the sea when you bit into them.  Wish I’d thought to take a picture when they arrived so you could share the whole experience, but I hadn’t had any supper and I’m afraid I drove home one-handed.

Crab Suspense

Okay, gang -- the day we've all been waiting for.  This evening at 6 pm I go to the Crab Shack in Henrietta, in response to a cryptic note on my calendar that says 
6 Hta Crab Shack
or maybe that's not what it says.  Those of you who commented didn't seem to think so.
By this time tomorrow it will be over.  We may know all.  Or we may not.
I looked up the menu -- you can't read it, but it lists fried clams.  I kind of doubt that.  I don't think there's anything but clam strips once you get west of Albany.
So exciting!  Suspense all round.

Stock Tip

Last winter, when the land was full of snowbanks and driving Norm's car felt like piloting an ocean liner, I traded it in on the smallest four-door sold.  I know it doesn't look it,  but that's a four-door -- and it comes in yellow!

I just received my third recall notice -- that's one every three months. 
 
They write that this is General Motors recall 14456.  That's the zip code for Geneva, about 30 miles from here. 
They're definitely running scared.
          If you have GM stock, my considered advice is -- SELL!  

Peaceable Kingdom

As we speak, three stags lying around in the backyard -- pictures just taken from my desk.  They won't be this amicable in the spring, that's for sure.

Mystery

I'll be grateful if anyone reading this can tell me why I've written "6 (if that is a 6) Hta Crab Shack" on the calendar for a week from today. 
Yes, it'll be Julie's birthday.  
The Sage Rutty I understand.
The M-J  I'm going to skip and it's just as well if you don't know what it is. 
But do you think I should go to the Crab Shack in Henrietta (next town over) at six next Wednesday evening?
And stand by the entrance? 
And see what happens? 
If anything?

Thank you Ma'am.

Amy reports that, yellow being the suffragette's color,  she took a yellow rose to Susan B. Anthony's grave this morning.  People had already been there, leaving two pots of roses, a stone with a ribbon on it, 27 assorted pebbles, and -- as we did last year at this time -- an I VOTED TODAY sticker.

Something to Look Forward to

You may want to calculate your own life expectancy, as I just did, on this web site.  I don't remember now where I found the address, but it must have been somewhere reliable.   livingto100.com has evidently been discussed in a number of places I see regularly, including CNN, ABC news, USAToday and the like.  It uses the latest studies to predict one's probable lifespan.

I answered 40 questions, and it was clear the answers had relevance to life expectancy:  they asked of course about cigarette and alcohol use, but then also probed family health records, diet, exercise, stress levels, work load and the like. 

You may recall that I started this blog, 86andholding, more than two years ago.  Now I'm in my PIANO year (think about it.) So I'm eager to share with you the good news I just received from this computerized state-of-the-art analysis: