Old Age Day by Day October 31, 2012

Today is Halloween, and I think of my granddaughters and the fun they'll have at four and seven.  One is being a fairy and the other a veterarian.  Yesterday, my husband said he couldn't really remember Halloween and what he did.  I realized I couldn't remember what I dressed up as, but remember running around our town and throwing toilet paper on bushes and trees.  I was a little mini vandal, but so were all the kids in the tiny towns I grew up in.  We had complete physical freedom, and aimless, exuberant energy.  There were often parties and kids' houses.  I think I've forgotten my costuming because those memories have been superceded by my kids' costumes, which I mostly remember.  And by the time my kids were born, the world was a scarier place, and we were more closely supervising them out of necessity.  I had one rule:  no trick or treating after age 12.  My parents had that rule also, and luckily, there were parties or sleepovers to celebrate, without the kids becoming thugs instead of little kids having fun.  Being 12 to 18 is so hard in so many ways.  You don't want to give up the perks of being a little kid, you have all this wild energy, and you have no adult priviledges either.  I think most teenagers envy trick or treaters, the innocence, being really scared by silly things, the joy.  It can feel like all the fun is sucked out of life.  What a rough time of life!

Today is also the Giants parade for the world series.  I won't go, but it has some similarities with Halloween.  Grown people will try to celebrate like children, and some will become angry children, because baseball is a fantasy of childhood, and these are adult times.  Some of the fans yearn a bit to hard for a long ago time, when life was simple and winning was doable, a myth, but allluring.  And their disappointment at adulthood may rise to the surface.   We'll see.

Old Age Day by Day October 30, 2012

I've been emailing friends to see if they are affected by Sandy.  The news makes it look pretty bad.  I believe the storm is heading our way after cutting a swath through Canada.  I keep wondering if this is a message about the election.  Or even the world series.  Of course, the message is climate change, but evidently we're all going to keep our heads firmly stuck in the sand about that issue.  I got a call early this morning about money for the election, but I've donated all I think appropriate.  Anything else will be to shelters or research or something tangible for the benefit of all beings.  I get so sick when I think of what this election money could have done to help poor women and children, to feed the hungry, to build housing.  How can anything good come out of such a perversion of what our government should be about.  Ads and hate.  Bad karma!

It drizzled last night and the dogs were restless and we went down and let them out, then lectured, but they succeeded in keeping us up.  I know there are squirrels and cats and all manner of disturbing creatures in the night, but the most disturbing is them, being, well, being DOGS.

Old Age Day by Day October 29, 2012

I'm feeling a bit worse than yesterday, but much better than when I had a fever.  Nasty flu!  I went out and bought some magazines, a couple of mysteries, and three DVD's, in case I keep feeling fatigued.  I don't want to have a reoccurance.  The weather is gorgeous, and everybody is happy about the Giants, and there is a big parade Wednesday, which I will not attend, but appreciate.  In the meantime I'm dealing with our garden and how to keep the little green critters happy.  My roses aren't getting enough sun, and the holly tree offshoots are trying to take over the yard, and the ivy is sneaking up all over.  A plan of attack has been instigated, and I'm hoping we don't end up engulfed in greenery, with no way to get out of the house.  The little bit of rain we had encouraged a lot of bad green behavior. 

Then there is the canine problem.  Some plants have been moved, and the other planter has been eaten.  I wish they would cease having aspirations to be landscape designers, because their taste is a little to minimal for me.

Old Age Day by Day October 2,8 2012

I'm just barely coming out of a viral induced fog of fever and headache.  Last night I had no fever for the first time in two days.  What a flu!  I'm going to have to continue to take it easy, as I have a runny nose and feel pretty fragile after doing battle with one of those frost things from Thor.  I am going to attempt to go to see my daughter-in-law's choral performance this afternoon.  My husband's against it, and he has done a good job of nursing me, but if that's the only thing I do today, and if I have lots of cough drops and kleenex, I believe I'll not harm my recovery.  I'm feeling very grateful for getting out from under a brutal headache.  The fever was constant, no matter I took tylenol every four hours, so this was a bad one.  I hadn't even had a chance yet to get the flu shot this year, though I doubt this is THE flu.  I've been blaise in the past, because I seldom get a cold.  Now I'm a believer.

Another beautiful day that I will not be out in.  Sigh.  The highlight of yesterday was watching a world series game.  I've become quite the admirer of Pablo Sandoval.  He's pretty irresistible.  And just generally, I adore baseball.  I'm now certain that pitchers need helmets, though, and hope they come up with something that works real soon.  What happened to Brandon McCarthy was horrible, and I was upset to see Fister continue pitching after he was hit and not be forced to leave to check out his injury.  Not right.  The manager was wrong on that call.  I'll miss the game tonight, and it could be the last.  Oh, dear.  Anything to avoid thinking of the coming election and hearing more about polls and gender gaps and fact checking and basically, people running off at the mouth.

Old Age Day by Day October 26, 2012

I began feeling sick yesterday afternoon and by nightfall I had to take Tylenol.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a crushing headache and this morning I've got a cough and runny nose.  There was a lady behind us on the airplane who was coughing.  I believe I have been gifted with her cold.  I'm going to have to rest and baby myself a bit.  I had to cancel a plan to see a movie with a friend.  The weather is gorgeous and I will not be able to be out in it, I fear.  Darn!  I hardly ever get colds, but this is a doozy.  I'll have to read and doze today. 

Last night we watched the world series, and it was quite a game.  I like both teams, but favor my local team because the other beat my beloved A's, but really they are both likeable teams.  But who can resist Panda Pablo Sandoval? 

Old Age Day by Day October 25, 2012

We had a nice dinner with our friend, and are excited that she found a place to buy two streets away, if the numbers work and she wins the bid.  I've got my fingers crossed.  We always have a good time talking and it would be so lovely to have her close again.  I'm going to check with my friends and see if any of them have a connection to the sellers.  But basically I'm powerless.  I wanted so badly to help our son with the place he bid on, but someone out-monied him.  We live in an area that never took much of a dip and is fast rising again.  Real estate is a strange, even absurd concept to me.  The house could be gone in an instant, and owning land is bizarre.  At least with our cabin, we don't own the land, and are at the whim of the forest service for the cabin.  You can't get too possessive in that situation.  People do crazy things because someone has trees blocking their view, or they don't like the color of a neighbor's house, or don't want anyone parking in front of their house - on the street, no less.  And generally, I'd say cooperation is way down about neighborliness and a sense of community.  Nowadays, it's a sense of entitlement.  Scary.  Very Halloween.

Old Age Day by Day October 24, 2012

I had the bright idea yesterday of washing the curtains upstairs, but when I went to take the curtains out of the dryer, one set was in sheds.  I don't know if the fabric was too old or cheap, but now I have to find material to replace them.  I'll look for something fun.  And the blue curtains in the little guest bedroom were never hemmed, so I'm going to sew them up this time.  It's a lot of material to hem, but I'll get it done in the next couple of days.  Of course I ought to wash the windows before I put the curtains back, but I won't, and taking the curtains down made me notice better the cracks in paint that need fixing.  Home repair is one giant headachey snowball!

I'm cooking barley soup, because a dear friend is coming for dinner.  And I am compromising with the fall weather by making soup.  I have in my head to prepare grilled chicken mango Chinese salad, but the soup will keep us warm, as well as garlic bread.  I'm thinking chocolate eclairs from a nearby French bakery. 

I'm fighting off some kind of virus I picked up probably on the airplane.  There was this woman behind us coughing her head off the whole trip.  Talk about captive audience.  So I took Airbourne this morning, and throat coat tea and will hope for the best.  So far I just have this little tickle in my throat.  I slept fine, and have gone to bed at a ridiculous nine and nine thirty both nights since I returned, so I'm getting my rest.  Lots of vitamin C!  Fluids!  Positive thinking!