Author: Peg

Not one single whimper of a complaint about today’s weather. Walked a lot and worked on my garden box a little. 

Also spent way too much time thinking about taking/not taking my computer on the upcoming Panama Canal trip. I already sprung for Wifi.  14 days with no Wifi might be too much of a digital detox. 

Gotta admit that the phone doesn’t take acceptable fireworks photos. But, I don’t regret getting rid of my photo gear last year. That was early-stage Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. 

Going to the hospital (not my hospital) with my friend who is getting her hip replaced tomorrow. She has to have someone stay while she is having her “procedure” as the medical folk like calling surgery which involves saws and hammers. So two of us are going with her. She is supposed to stay overnight and when I get back to the Asylum I will feed her cat its dinner. On Tuesday morning, I will feed the cat breakfast and we will spring her out of hospital. I will spend Tuesday night on her sofa. And another of our circle will spend Wednesday night. Hopefully, by then, she can safely be left Home Alone. And, I have volunteered for catbox cleaning duty. 

The crab apple blooms are almost finished. Some will produce crab apples to the delight of the squirrel population. 

Some times the mindless babbling of the political class manages to penitrate the filters I have constructed for myself. 

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.  One friend had a heart scare last night and went to the ED, and another is having hip surgery on Monday. These situations are a real wake-up call about our age, but they also remind us just how lucky we are.

Even though we moved into the Asylum for assistance as we age, the truest support comes from each other. We’ve built wonderful friendships here, and that’s something to be truly grateful for.

While I was hiding inside and complaining about the rain – the lilacs started blooming. 

Nice easy old woman kind of a day today. Boring but nice.

Expect a blizzard tomorrow. I washed my so-called winter clothes today and put them in the “Off-season” storage box. And put the summer clothes into play. 

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. I don’t think that I will ever “need” to buy any more clothes. I am sure I have enough to last until the end of my days.  However, I am equally sure that I will acquire more clothes. Just trying to live by “One In One Out”. 

And hey, it’s the weekend.

I rather like dandelions. They saved many a person from dying of scurvy. 

The Garden Box seems to have survived a week of cold and rain. I was happy for a few hours of sun this morning. Got 2.5 miles of trekking about today. Not sure I made it to “brisk walking”. 

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. And, I am trying to stop beating up on myself if I decide that I want to take a nap. One reads on the internet that “old people who take naps are more likely to get dementia”. Well. Tough noogies. (I had a fine nap this afternoon.)

And, I finished up my travel arrangements early this morning. Turns out that this boat ride that I am taking is the last part of Princess Cruise Line’s 2024 Round The World Cruise. So some of the passengers will have been on board since January 18.  That’s a long time.

So here’s the plan.

April 24 – JetBlue to Ft Lauderdale. Spend the night
April 25 – Steerage from Ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles – Island Princess
May 9 – Southwest Chief to Chicago
May 11 – Capital Limited to DC
May 12 – Back in The Asylum

Have everything except a place to stay in Ft Lauderdale nailed down. 

Gratitude

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Grateful to be able to just get up and go. 

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It’s not the transit of the Panama Canal that I would have most wanted. BUT. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. And I don’t know how many more chances I get. So inside cabin on an old ship it is.  

It was an indoor kinda day. And I don’t have much to show for it. Yoga class is about it.

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. Got the name of a hearing aid guy today from a tech-savvy “older” friend who seems to have good luck with his hearing aid. And the hearing guy isn’t far from The Asylum. Don’t need hearing aids yet. But, it’s good to have a name to call when I can no longer hear “fine”. 

Did think about a little trip. Princess Lines is running a trip from Miami to LA via Panama Canal late this month. It’s cheap. (As long as I avoid all the ways they try to get me to spend more money.) The ship gets crappy reviews because it’s old. But remember: Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. So, I shouldn’t  bitch about a ship being old. And the ship I took to the Bahamas in February was old too. I am just taking the trip (1) To transit the old locks in the canal (2) To get away from The Asylum for a while. So how great does it have to be?  I can fly down to Miami to catch the boat and then make my way back east. 

It’s dreary and gray today. April showers and May flowers. You know the tune.

Sprung for Annie Jacobsen’s book Nuclear War: A Scenario earlier today. I haven’t started it yet. But, as a part of my campaign to keep my brain functioning, I decided to allocate 30 minutes per day to nonfiction reading. And by definition that excludes the newspapers.  

Working on 2023 photos a little today.  Some places are just magical.

Places that are rattling around in my head at this instant include the Panama Canal, the Mediterranean – by sailboat and Tasmania. But, I think it might be the wrong time of year for Tasmania. And, I am not sure an old woman without a car can do Tasmania anyhow. And there is always that freighter/passenger ship in French Polynesia. 

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. But, I still have jackrabbits in my boots.

The highlight of the day was Easter Brunch with the accidental family.  Since we have few religious obligations – we got the early shift. And made a speedy assault on the dessert table.

I brought bagels. The Asylum always has lox and smoked salmon. But the house bagels can not be counted on to deliver. Fortunately, Einstein’s Bagels are just a block away.

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. I am trying to do one thing at a time.  My ability to successfully multiprocess has vanished. But, that’s OK. I can deal with serial processing.

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. It’s not 100% bleak.

Now maybe the important but unseen body parts are also “not too bad”. Parts like brain, heart, lungs, pancreas, etc. You never know. And do you want to know?

A Spring Meditation for the Non-Believer.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

That would be J.R.R Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring. Mid 20th Century.

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old.  Still working on that acceptance thing. One of the oldest residents here is 103 or 104. The youngest is maybe 64. This means if the young guy lives as long as the old guy – he will live in The Asylum for 40+ years.  But then, if I live to 104 I’ll be in The Asylum 24 more years. Yikes. But that’s not going to happen. I don’t take very good care of myself.

Nice nice sunny day today. I didn’t do very much but spent enough time outside to log 2 miles walking. Including 

For some unfathomable reason, employees are no longer called employees or staff. They are called Team Members.  Not at all sure how that helps anybody. I found 3 eggs. And collected 3 pieces of chocolate from the dietitian team member.  

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. No progress on learning to be old today. I am one day older, that’s all. On the plus side: I didn’t kill anyone today (yet). And I got my previously owned  Kindle sorta working. (It will not connect to the asylum wifi. But, it connects to my phone’s hotspot. And that’s fine with me.)

Alexa just announced Happy Hour. Always listen to Alexa when she says Happy Hour. And. Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. That’s why I need to be reminded about Happy Hour.

I sent myself out in the rainy weather. Reminding myself that I have suitable clothes for a little rain. And a reminder that outside is essential for my mental health. 

Yesterday, I got an email from Apple. That happens from time to time. Yesterday they wanted to sell me a book. (I have never purchased a book from Apple. Audiobooks yes. Word-kind books. No.)

So. this is what they want to sell me. Lion and Mountain Lion OS X manuals. Lion shipped in 2011. Mountain Lion a year later. Cinder might still be used. But that book is from 2012. In fact, all of those books are 10 to 20+ years old. What is Apple thinking? Apple surely knows that I run OS X 14.4.1 as of Monday afternoon. 

On the other hand, I purchased an elderly Kindle the other day. Why? It was cheap and it has page turn buttons. I like page turn buttons. And my current even older Kindle is getting a little non-responsive. It has page turn buttons.

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. When you are 80+ and you die. Nobody says “But she was so young”. They say “She had a long life”.

Old people know that falls are fatal. Joe Liberman, age 82, died from complications of a fall in his home. We also know that even if we survive a fall, we may end up with a seriously compromised quality of life.  

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. I will limit my jaywalking and bus chasing to direst emergencies. About once every 7 or 8 years I have a massive “splat” event. Always outside. On asphalt or concrete. I am about 2 years overdue a “splat” even. Maximum caution is required. 

Chilly and rainy here today. So I cataloged more photos from 2023 today. I made it as far as Iceland. Something about Iceland just appeals to me. It’s a whole lot colder than Big Island, Hawai’i. But the islands are much alike.

If these were the signs that I could read – I can only imagine what the other signs said. 

I was fortunate with the weather on last summer’s adventure. But, it was always better to be lucky than smart. 

Hello, my name is Peg and I am old. Yes, I am still working on acceptance.

Today I have been thinking about coloring inside the lines. Coloring inside the lines does NOT come naturally to me.  But, I think I need to start coloring inside the lines. Wait. Full stop. I need to color inside MY lines. I need to draw lines. And work inside MY lines. Not really sure where I am going with this line of thought. But, somehow, I think it’s important. 

Remember. Old age is a journey, not a destination.