Kicking and Screaming

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."       Will Rogers

Stepping into the sixth decade of my time did not seem like such a big deal.  It was just another day on the calendar, that we all use to measure the passage of what we call time.  I would like very much to think things really have not changed over the years. For some reason, I always tell anyone younger than myself they are about to catch up with me.

I never really gave a lot of thought to getting old and I suppose that is because I have never felt old.  But, there is always some young whippersnapper (no old term there) to point out the fact that as far as they are concerned, I'm old.

I recalled a conversation I had once with my sister, Lela.  This was probably twenty or so years ago and I told her I did not feel old.  In all actuality, I still felt like I did when I was a teenager.  Lela looked at me and said, "You don't really feel old, but there comes a time when the body does not agree with that."

It seems that the "thing" that is really us, does not change much through out our time here on planet Earth.  But, it seems the vehicle we bought when we got here can only be tuned up so many times.  As bad as I hate to admit it, I'm beginning to understand this nasty twist of fate.  For instance, walking through the door with the big 6 Zero on it, I found all the weight I had lost during the first 59 years waiting on me.  It was packed in two suitcases with my name on it and I guess I thought it was a special gift so I picked them up and carried on about my day.  

Then there are those things that happen, quite by random selection, that make no sense whatsoever.  The other day, while I was going through the morning routine of getting ready for the rest of the day, a routine I have done pretty much all my life, an odd thing happened.  I was painstakingly applying toothpaste to the bristles on my brush and somewhere in the back of my mind a thought wandered through about how hard it was to get the toothpaste to come out of the tube.  That did not make any sense because I had just purchased a new tube of toothpaste.  Satisfied that it was on the toothbrush as best it could be, I placed the tube back into the medicine cabinet.  That's when I noticed that I did not painstakingly put toothpaste on my brush, but I most certainly had put my hair styling product on it.  I looked at it for the longest time, thinking perhaps if I stared at it long enough, it would turn into toothpaste. Since that did not happen, I washed the toothbrush and watched as the hair product, that I was nearly out of, swirled down the drain.

Just a day, or so ago, Runtly, the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier needed to go outdoors.  Since he has gotten to know the territory, I decided to use his training collar and let him have a bit more freedom than usual.  We trotted out the door, down two flights of stairs and made our way out to the parking lot to stop and visit with my husband, who was cleaning his truck.  Runtly was being a very good dog about staying close and I had not needed to use the remote, for his collar, to give him a warning tone if he wandered too far away from us.  It was a good thing Runtly did not know what I was about to find out.  I turned to talk to my husband again and he had the biggest grin on his face when he said to me, "Ummm.......you've got the remote control for the TV in your 
hand."   We laughed like idiots and I made little beeping noises as Runtly and I raced back to the apartment.

Sigh, I may go down kicking and screaming, but I'm not giving up yet.