Monday, April 29, 2024

GETTING OLD

 I'm tired !   I am looking forward to escaping to the quiet of the UP where I do not have to be "on call" for anyone.   I LOVE my friends and family but I also love being away from them for a time so I can recharge and focus on doing NOTHING !!

I must be getting old.  A retirement home where I can be fed and taken care of is sounding better by the day.  I know I always say that age is just a number but this birthday has me totally rattled.  In 4 days I will be one year away from turning 80 !   How the hell did that happen ????  Every time I read about an auto accident where the driver was (GASP!) 76 years old so of course they got in an accident,  "How dare those old people be driving!"  In a week The Man and I will be driving SIXTEEN HUNDRED MILES to spend the summer in northern Michigan.  I told that to one of my doctors the other day and he was shocked that we drive ALL that way "BY OURSELVES!!!!"  (As if I am four and want to cross the street by myself.  It was only the hand doctor who gives me shots for my arthritic hands who said this, not my GP, Cardiologist or shrink.  What does a hand doctor know?). 

I am beginning to think I really AM getting old.  A fact that I have not considered in the past 79 years. But this big Eight-Oh that is looming on the horizon does have me thinking about my mortality.

 AND I DON'T LIKE IT ONE BIT !

And so when The Man behaves like an idiot I do not have the patience to keep from smacking him up side his head.   Take today for instance.  For what ever reason the men in my life do not like going to the barber shop.  Husband HATED going because he didn't like people touching him, especially his head. (Don't ask)  The Man is just "lazy" which I really can't blame him with the oxygen situation but I need some time away from him, even a simple trip to the barber.  Instead The Man has decided that I do a fairly good job of cutting his hair,  He chose the type of hair clippers we should buy and he paid for them.  I guess that makes it OK for him to micromanage every hair that I cut on his head. (And there aren't many)  You would think that a person who is at the mercy of a lunatic holding scissors would have more sense than to be giving instructions as I cut his hair.  

We always do our Barber Shop out on the lanai so it is easier to clean up. The man sits in one of the high-top chairs and I get to cut his hair.  It is at this point that The Man starts giving me instructions on HOW to cut his hair.  "Hold the scissor this way",  "Don't cut too much",  "Be sure to get the little hairs on my neck".  But the newest and best instruction that I got this time was, "You should hold my ear down when you cut around it".   DUH,  DUH. and DUH !!!!!  This is not our first hair cut and those are not new ears that I have never had to cut around before.  Not only did he tell me to hold down his ear he reached up and was going to hold his ear down himself.   Little did he realize he could have not only lost an ear but he could now also loose a couple of fingers.   I slapped his hand !!  Well . . .  not really.  I WANTED to slap his hand and his head but instead I just took his hand and placed it in his lap.  I think he got the message.

Now adding to all the normal every day stuff that he manages to annoy me with we now have the added stress of packing.  It is time to pack up the car and make the drive to Michigan. The man started packing a month ago and has now spent that month asking me where he put things.  If I hear one more dissertation on HOW he is packing his . . .  medicine, underwear, Bi-pap supplies, (of which there are hundreds), shirts and shoes.  It is not like he only has 3 shirts that he must bring back and forth, the man has more clothes in Michigan than I have ever had in my entire life.  If you have a full wardrobe in both places that you live why do you have 3 suitcases ?????   If I have to hear all about just how he is packing the socks first and then the underwear will go next and so on and so on and so on.  Meanwhile I am responsible for packing up the entire house with things we need for traveling. Empty the fridge, empty and turn off the freezer and clean it out once it defrosts. take my car up to Hobe Sound where it will stay for the summer at my friend Jeannes condo that has covered carports, go to the bank so we have travel money and on and on and on.

The craziest packing of The Man's crap was this afternoon when I walked into the bedroom and he told me  very proudly, that he had just packed up his heart monitor.  The man has a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted in his chest.  He has a machine next to the bed that monitors if there are any irregularities with his heart.  It automatically calls 911 should the need arise.  But if the machine is packed in the car then what happens over the next week if something is going on with his heart ?   Apparently that is not a concern for him.   When he told me what he had just packed I responded with one word,  "ALREADY?"  To which I go a lengthy explanation of how he has to pick things now because it will be too much to do last minute.   Packing your underwear 3 days in advance of your departure is one thing but your heart monitor is quite another thing.    

I said NOTHING !

And that is another sign that I am getting old.  I don't bother to argue. It takes way too much energy!

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