Getting Older

This blog was supposed to be about Growing Old.  Not about getting older – every one of you does that, no big deal – but about getting genuinely old.  Problem is, I keep getting distracted  But there are new developments all the time.  So from here on out, every other post will be devoted to news flashes about what it’s like up here.  Don’t look for chuckles on those days, gang.


Kids visit from Vancouver

So here’s for today:  I don’t drive the Smart in snow (light weight, rear-wheel drive.)  It should be started every couple of weeks, though, just to keep the battery happy.  I learned that the hard way, and when the AAA man came to jump-start it, we had quite at time just finding the battery. You wouldn’t believe where it’s located in the Smart – and the panel covering it is made of Styrofoam, by the way.  

       So anyhow, a couple of days ago I scraped the driver’s door clean and turned on the engine.  Knowing I’d probably forget to go out and turn it off in 20 minutes, I cleverly set not one but two timers that sit here on my desk (use them mostly for remembering when the washer or dryer needs tending.)
        One timer rang 20 minutes later.  I felt smug about  how efficiently  I had compensated for the memory power I’m losing – and went on typing (or whatever one calls it these days... keyboarding?)  A few seconds later the second one started dinging.  I shut it off without taking my eyes from the screen.
        And if someone hadn’t rung my doorbell a couple of hours later, and I hadn’t happened to glance down the driveway – well, it would have been kind of interesting to see how long before the car used up its full tank of gas, all eight gallons.
        I warned you – getting old is interesting, but don’t expect a barrel of laughs.