Category: Aging

Sunday Stroll at Arthur Marshall

So, it’s Sunday and time for a stroll in our swamp at Arthur Marshall – Loxahatchee. Vegetation closing for the winter, slowly.

Hard to slip around unnoticed. Spies hide out in the trees.

Leaf droop, unfit for a king, but good enough for us.

 

 

 

Sharon Turns 76

Sharon. Never be afraid of your lines or sagging. Don’t fear wrinkles or varicose veins. Don’t lose that spirit to live that looms so large that there is enough for you and still a little left over for me. Without you, life would be so empty and not worth living. You make me want to get up in the morning.

Our dear friend Howard Kane sent this orchid arrangement to Sharon. Lovely. Just lovely.

Duck’s Yizkor Lights

WE always light candles on Yizkor. Depends on how many people we want to remember and how much light we can handle. It’s a Jewish custom to remember the dead. A cemetery visit would not hurt, but its geographical range is limited.

We also make a donation. By being better people, we elevate the memories of the dead, most of whom should not have died in vain.

Here, we honor and remember Sharon’s mother and father and mine. The middle candle is for all the people whom no one remembers, including all the people killed in Israel this year, all the people of Palestine killed this year and all the people killed in the Ukraine.

May there be peace.

Blood Today

SO, you have to have a blood sample analyzed. Now, instead of going to a hospital or lab near all the other imaging and testing devices, they send you to a place once called a drug store, but now a place that sells everything and takes your blood. To get there, opportunities arise to buy, buy, buy.

Modern check in. Doc has forwarded by text or fax the order. Reservations made on line like getting a table in a restaurant. Identify yourself, verify your insurance and personal information.

Take a seat.

Liz Duckman

My cousin Liz just moved to an assisted living facility near us. We visited today, exchanged some health information and conversated. We were happy when we left, because we knew she was safer than when she lived by herself.

Just cannot do anything except be there, give her a little love and attention.

Della the cat, seen here getting ready to paw a shoe, keeps her company.

Passport Renewal

Not that we are going anywhere, but our passports needed renewal because we had run out of blank pages. How do you like that? We had been to so many places that required a stamp, that we didn’t have enough pages if we travelled again.

Sadly, I had to send in the passport to get a new one. I didn’t make a copy of the pages to remind me where I have been. I can remember, but who knows for how long. And, at 76, this is probably my last passport. Perhaps they will return it and I will have to rely on my fading memory.

But the best thing was making the photos, pictured above to use. They provide a list of requirements: size, color, pose, lighting, background, expression, attire. They also provide a crop tool.

To fill out the application on your computer, you need Adobe Acrobat. I downloaded it, gave them a credit card, and got a clean copy so no-one could complain about my handwriting. Today, I will have to cancel my 7 day trial (why doesn’t AARP have a discount for this?).

I used my studio lights and a white backdrop. Printed on my semi-professional printer. Cut on a paper cutter and used an exacto blade on the edges. The final results will be mailed to the Government and copies stored in my portfolio.

This saved me no money, because …. But it did save me a trip to UPS or Staples or a photog. Now, I just have to deal with the anxiety of having my pictures rejected for some technical reason like the wrong size, expression, lighting or clothing.