Another week has passed and here we are on Sunday, October 21.  Today is the birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Ursula LeGuinn and Manfred Mann.  On this day in 1520, Magellan entered the strait that now bears his name.  In 1915, the first transatlantic radiotelephone message was sent from Arlington, VA to Paris and in 1976 Saul Bellow received the Nobel Prize for Literature.  It is Trafalgar Day in England, the Full Moon Holiday in Laos and the Kite Flying Festival is taking place in Hong Kong.  There are only 65 days left until Christmas, so I hope you are getting ready to put up your decorations. 

 

For some time now, when people asked me how I was doing, I replied by saying, “Anybody I can and the easy ones twice.”  I usually got one of two responses – they would chuckle or they would just look at me with an expression that told me they did not get it.  I have been thinking about it and have decided that that response is somewhat lame and I have been trying to come up with another option.  Some of the ideas I am considering – use the royal response of “We are doing quite well, thank you.”  Or, look around furtively and say, “Why, what have you heard?”  Or mumble to myself and then say, “The voices tell me that it is none of your business.”  I’ll let you know what I decide.

I have always liked giving what some people refer to as “smart ass” responses to comments and questions.  I always felt that my answers showed thought, a quick wit and were amusing.  Apparently this is a minority opinion.  But which response is better when someone says, for example, that they got a haircut?  “That’s nice.” or, “Really?  Which one?”  When someone recently mentioned six pack abs I said that I had those.  “I just keep them in this foam cooler” I said, patting my belly.

Here is a problem that people experience as they get older.  I had a direction in mind when I started out with the previous paragraphs.  I had to stop and take care of some other things and now do not remember where I was going.  I am pretty sure it was entertaining and am sorry that I could not complete it for you.  This type of thing is a regular occurrence.  I will be watching TV, will get up and stride purposefully into the kitchen.  When I get there, I do not recall what I was going for.  I end up getting a drink of water so I don’t waste the trip.  I always figure that I will remember what I wanted and get it later.  Of course, all that water results in additional trips to the bathroom, but that is a topic for another time.

That is just one of the problems that afflicts us as we get older.  Another problem, for men, is hair.  It stops growing on our heads and starts growing out of our noses and ears.  Is this because it forgets where it is supposed to go and ends up in the wrong place?  Or, is it because it just gets too tired to go all the way up to the top of the head and just grows where it can?  

There are some benefits to getting older.  There are a number of businesses that give a senior discount.  Unfortunately, you have to ask for it.  They do not advertise it, so you don’t always know who has one and who doesn’t.  I guess they figure that even if you know about it this time, if they don't advertise it, you will forget by the next time you go there.  We are not talking huge sums of money here, but a discount is a discount.   

OMG!  I am starting to sound like an old person.

I will write again next week … if I remember.