Thoughts about Aging

 Some people my age and younger are in retirement homes, while others play golf every day.  I am far from a retirement home.  My wife and I get around quite well.  We just finished wallpapering a bathroom, although that took a few days and we didn't end up killing each other.  But we did it.  I make sure the bed is made every day and my wife enjoys fixing meals.  My hobbies are rather sedate.  I enjoy both reading and writing, but most of what I read is the news on my phone or I'll watch vids at night on YouTube.

I watched some college hoops over the weekend and now that the committee has selected the teams for the Big Dance I might watch some basketball in the next few weeks.  It won't get interesting until after the first 32 games are played and see which major teams get upset.  It happens every year.  

Collegiate basketball might be a nice distraction for the next few weeks, but there is a lot going on everywhere in the world.  So, it's good to keep up.  I've been taking a few quizzes lately that supposedly only us old people know the answers to, but some questions are things I NEVER knew, so I learn.  Learning is a life-long activity and unless my brain completely shuts down, I'm learning new things every day.  

We had a discussion the other day with my son and his young friend about bears.  I said bears were mostly herbivores, but this is true mostly about black bears and not grizzly bears.  But bears are omnivores.  Not that I'd forgotten, but black bears eat berries and that sort of thing whike grizzlies are mostly meat eaters.  But again bears eat mostly anything they can find.  It just brought back memories of what I knew about bears, but I know most any bear will kill a person.  

The key about bears is not to run but face them and make yourself as big as you can.  Bears look friendly but no bear befriends a person.  Bears will kill you.  So, I have a healthy fear of bears.  When it comes to snakes I assume any snake to be poisonous.  But I have not encountered many snakes in my life.  And probably fewer bears.  

I'm never afraid of deer.  But I know that a big buck will use its antlers against people, but still they'll run if frightened.  I'm thinking about all this as we plan on going to NY for the summer.  I'm not much of the out doors type, but still our home in NY is out in the country.  Our only fear here in SW Florida are gators and here you're pretty safe if one stays away from the water.  I don't worry much about critters here, but if it gets too cold here Iguanas fall out of trees.  We have a few Iguanas here, but generally they aren't something to fear.  

I've encountered Iguanas in Mexico and generally they'll run from you.  So, there isn't much to fear where we are here.  Some say there are Coyotes here, but they're very shy animals.  I don't fear much much here.  I'm old enough to know to simply avoid wild life.  But age teaches us how to survive in this world.  And so far I've managed quite well.  I enjoy being around younger people.  I don't always try to fit in, but with age comes the ability to listen more and talk less.  So, I learned about bears by listening and brought back memories of my few encounters with bears.  

I let the young people talk.  I've lived life and see life through the eyes of my age.  Younger people are still living their life's adventures.  And I enjoy their sharing their adventures.  And like about bears some things I need to learn again.  But life is an adventure no matter your age.  I've slowed down considerably and am more content to sit with a pipe not thinking I'd rather be golfing.  That just might be the last thing I'd want to to do.

I'd rather smoke my pipe and listen to the birds.  At least I know they're harmless, unless the movie The Birds comes to mind, which it just did.  I watched that in a movie theater when it first came out.  I have no fear of aging and less of a fear of death.  Today it is my Boswell pipe and my first bowl of the day was Morley's Best English with a cup of hot black coffee.   Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave