Forever Young

An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for check ups and spotted a piano. They have been making music together for 62 years. The man will be 90 this year. Watch and listen to this impromptu performance . . . it's brilliant and made my day.

Enjoying life is most certainly all about attitude.

2010 ~~ It's Official ~~ I'm a Geezer

2009 was a landmark year for me.

On 09-09-09, I turned the corner into geezer-hood.  I celebrated my 60th birthday and went a little "potty" (i.e. somewhat silly or crazy; addlebrained).  I'm forgetful and absent-minded, grumpy, and my joints creak when I move.  My mind has turned to mush and I'm not going gracefully into my golden years. 

In fact, I'm just an old coot.  The dictonary defines both "geezer" and "coot" as old MEN.  So what I am supposed to call myself??  A hag? A crone?  None of the terms sound pleasant, but then neither is aging.

AUGUST 2009--My high school class had a 60th Birthday Party in the park for us boomers who are now senior citizens.  Remarkably most of the folks looked good.  Some looked terrific. 

My friend from Houston flew into Salt Lake for the occasion.  She is tall, very skinny and extremely beautiful. We went to the party together and as we walked up to the pavilion I thought "we must look like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello" since I am as round and wrinkly as a butterball turkey.  Then I thought about how the younger generation wouldn't even understand my references to the bygone comedy teams.  That's when I realized I really am OLD!

  The "Girls" @ Sexy? Sixty

Happy New Year!

Life Lessons

Read to the end, you will laugh just picturing it happening. I love the thoughts Maya Angelou lives by!

I didn't break the elastic...Don't break the elastic!

In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday..

Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older. And, there on television, she said it was 'exciting'. Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day--like her breasts. They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. Maya is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words! She said this:

'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life.'

'I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.'

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back...'

'I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.'

'I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.'

'I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.'

'I've learned that I still have a lot to learn..'

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

Please share this to five phenomenal women today... If you don't...the elastic will break and your underpants will fall down around your ankles!

Believe me, I didn't take any chances on MY elastic breaking....I'm putting it on my blog.

Mellow Yellow and Dental Floss

I love the color yellow. Yellow makes me happy. It reminds me of springtime. It reminds me of being young and carefree. It reminds me of high school when I was hip and mellow for yellow!

When I was fifteen, I painted my bedroom sunshine yellow and added an orange throw rug and pillows.

The song "Mellow Yellow" was released by Donovan in October 1966, my senior year in high school. It was a friend's favorite song, thus the words were etched in my brain, even though I had no idea at the time what Saffron was.

But here is what's really funny. I always thought the lyrics said:

I'm just mad about Faultine

Faultine's mad about me

I'm-a just mad about Faultine

She's-a just mad about me. . .

I thought Saffron and Faultine were girls' names, so I just belted out the lyrics as I thought them to be. In looking up the lyrics, one web site has the following:

I'm just mad about Frontine.

A-Frontine's mad about me.

I'm-a just mad about-a Frontine.

A-She's just mad about me.

I'm not the only one who's confused, because another web site lists the lyrics as:

I'm just mad about Fourteen

Fourteen's mad about me
I'm just mad about Fourteen

She's just mad about me

So who's right? What do you think the correct lyrics are?

It doesn't really matter since the song doesn't really make much sense anyway. I mean, what's an electrical banana? We just liked the song.

Take a "trip" back to the Sixties and tell me what you think the lyrics are:

Donovan - Mellow Yellow
Video sent by danieldp

By the way, in the middle of the song the lyrics are mumbled and they supposed say:

Born-a high forever to fly.

Wind-a velocity nil.

Born-a high forever to fly.

If you want your cup, I will fill.

Whatever that means!

--------------------------------------------

What does any of this have to do with dental floss?

Today I spent two and a half hours in the dentist's chair. (Nice segue, huh? Yellow=My teeth.)

Seriously, sitting that long in a chair with two latexed hands and a squirting-sucking hose in your mouth gives you plenty of time to reminisce. At least when you're not gagging and choking on phlegm from your hay fever induced post-nasal drip or saliva and blood from the dental procedure.

My dentist has a very gentle, painless touch, especially compared to dentists I've known in my past. My current DDS is my neighbor and former Bishop. Even though my teeth are in terrible shape due to a life-long addiction to Diet Coke, dry-mouth syndrome due to R.A. and the drugs for R.A., my dentist is always complimentary and encouraging.

He must want me to come back, unlike one dentist who continually belittled me. "I could open a Portland Cement Company with all the plaque I chiseled off your teeth." (Not said jokingly. A direct quote.)

I grew up with constant auto-immune mouth sores which made flossing and brushing my least favorite duty. My mother would cancel my dentist appointments when my sores were too severe. Even as a child, I was told by dentists, I was lazy and irresponsible for not taking better care of my teeth. Little did I know that the floride treatments I was given also caused many of my mouth sores, as did the foaming agent in tooth paste.

Today as my dentist basically rebuilt three of my teeth, I went to far away places in my head and found myself singing "Mellow Yellow". Time travel is a good thing, but now it is time for my pain medicine---and get Mellow.

Just for Laughs

It is usually geriatrics' hour when I go to the Lions' Gym to exercise. I was on the stationery bicycle, sweating away at 85 RPMs and listening/watching CNN on the tube above my bike, when an elderly woman shuffled up with a walker and climbed onto the bike next to me. She was wearing a blue terry cloth bathroom with flannel PJ's underneath and fluffy pink bedroom slippers on her feet. There were a couple of pink plastic rollers left in her white hair. I snickered to myself, then thought, "Oh well, whatever gets you to the gym."

The incident made me think of my dear departed mother, who was quite the character. After my father died in 1985, mom had both of her knees replaced with new titanium joints. She learned to walk again, but always used a cane. Then she had a stroke which left her weak on one side and she needed a walker from then on out.

After the stroke, we, her children, thought mom would be better off in an Adult Retirement Center, than in her own home. We moved her to a second floor apartment at Highland Cove, where she lived for six years.

The elevator to her floor was down her hallway, left turn and down another hallway. She would shuffle along with her walker, get on the elevator and go to the first floor dining room for her lunch each day.

One day my daughter and I went to pick up mom to take her to lunch. We walked down the hallway at a snail's pace as she tottered along with her walker. Slowly we turned the corner and saw an elderly gentleman pushing the elevator button. As he got on, he saw us approaching and gallantly held the door. I waved him on and told him we'd catch the next one. My mom glared at me and yelled, "Hold the elevator, we're coming!"

"Mom, we'll be awhile. Let him go," I said as I rolled my eyes toward my daughter.

"I can hurry!" mom glared again. Promptly, my eighty-three-year-old mother, picked up her walker and carried it as she trotted to the elevator! My daughter and I couldn't stop laughing!

In Sickness and in Health and in CPAP's

The Look of Love?

We're not getting ready to go scuba diving. Nor are we wearing gas-masks, preparing for an Air Raid Drill. We are not pretending to be Darth Vadar. (I wish you could smell the Bengay!)

My hubbie and I both have Sleep Apnea. It comes with age. I've been sleeping with a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) for three years. Bill went to the Sleep Lab this year and just received his shiny new CPAP with more bells and whistles than mine. I'm terribly jealous. His sounds like a hurricane when he turns it on, mine like a gentle breeze.

This is my CPAP

(said "C" PAP)

As husband and wife, we have one more thing we share. Sleep Apnea means you stop breathing, mostly while in REM sleep. Of course breathing is sort of necessary to keep living. When you don't breathe it means the blood oxygen drops to unhealthy levels and this in turn means you're tired all day, have morning headaches and other complaints. The low oxygen levels can lead to serious health problems including strokes and heart attacks. So, as ugly as we look at night, it is worth the inconvenience! Before the CPAP, I stopped breathing 85-100 times a night. My oxygen levels dropped to a dangerous 70%, when it should be at 90% or better while sleeping.

We used to be young and cute. We married for better or worse. We've seen a lot of both. We've had sickness and health. Now is our time for CPAP's.

After thirty-five years of marriage we still believe in the following philosophy:

New Glasses

Okay, so I've waited six months to get new glasses. . . . so I could get my driver's license renewed and be legal again. First, it was the cost. Bottom line, I couldn't afford a new pair. Then there was the cellulitis infection that put me in the hospital, the resulting Bell's Palsy and six weeks on intravenous antibiotics. The Bell's Palsy left me with a weak and droopy right eye, which has finally healed. We received our refund, I saw the eye doctor and went to Costco to order my glasses and ----"WHAT are you telling me?"----it takes two weeks for Costco's to make glasses!! You've got to be kidding. Alright, so I waited the two weeks (counting the days) and today I got my NEW GLASSES. Put them on at Costco's, went outside and the mountains were crystal clear, the drive home amazing.

Got home and couldn't wait to get on my computer and actually SEE what I'm reading and writing. But guess what. I can't read my computer with my new glasses. They're just for distance and my computer screen is the wrong distance. I could just cry.

So I'm using my old glasses as I write this. Glasses that I got in 2003!! The protective plastic coating is peeling off, so it's like looking through a windshield covered with hundreds of smashed bugs!

Anyone know where I can get a cheap pair of computer glasses without waiting another two weeks?

Thoughts on Turning Fifty (written in 1999)

Sheri at One Year
Oh, what a beautiful baby!

Inevitably as one approaches a milestone birthday, the question is always asked, "If you had your life to live over, would you do anything differently?" I have read countless octogenarian accounts that say, "I have no regrets and would not change a thing." This answer always baffles me. Surely there is something they would do differently!

As I approach the big Five - O and look back on my life, I would do nearly everything differently. In truth, I have already lived my fiftieth year on earth and my impending Fiftieth Birthday means I will soon be entering into my fifty-first year. I always knew that this monumental birthday would come at the end of the 20th Century and on the eve of the new millennium. Somehow I always thought when this momentous time came to past that I would be wiser, richer, happier, more fulfilled and with more accomplishments under my belt.

I certainly thought I would know more when I got this old. The truth is this:
I know a lot about a few things;
I know a little about many things;
I know practically nothing about most things.
The universe seems to get bigger the older I get.

I do not have overwhelming regrets about any horrible thing I’ve done. I can live with my bad choices. It is all those aching regrets about things I didn’t do. All the "shoulda, coulda, wouldas." All the missed opportunities. All the wasted time. I’ve let the minutes, days and weeks slip away into years. The years have slipped away into decades and now my biggest regret is all those missed moments. At Fifty I wish I could say, "I am proud of how I have used my time here on earth."

When I was growing up, John Goddard was one of my heroes. He spoke regularly at my Junior High School and showed slides of all the rivers he'd run, mountains he'd climbed, all the exotic animals he'd photographed. His life was filled with adventures, dangers and challenges! Goddard was featured in a Life magazine article in the 1960s with a list he made as a boy of 100 things he wanted to do in his life. He had accomplished almost everything on the list by the time he was 35 or 40, and then he made a new list of 100 things he wanted to do. He set high goals and was tenacious about completing them. I admired that then and I still do.

On April 15, 1972 (when I was twenty-two), I made my own list–not of 100 things–but of 40 things I wanted to accomplish in my life. I laugh now at some of the things on the list and wonder whether I really wanted those things. "To own an Afghan Hound," "To play tennis proficiently," "To visit South America and Egypt," "To learn gymnastics and jujitsu!" "To have six children!" I DO NOT regret never doing these things.

Actually, most of the items on my list are things I do not regret never doing. But I DO regret that I have only accomplished a couple of those 40 goals. To be fair to myself, I have done many worthwhile, valuable and enjoyable things that were NOT on my list. But I have also missed so many opportunities to improve my life, my family’s lives, and the lives of my fellow human-beings.

Of the items on my list: I've never been to Germany, Australia or Alaska, BUT I have been to Washington, D.C.(many times) and England and I learned so much in both places.

I have never been on a cross-county bike trip, but I watched in awe as my son raced mountain bikes for four years and as my husband has attempted the LOTOJA three times. The Lotoja is a bicycle race of 206 miles from Logan, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming, from sun-up to sun-down in ONE day.

I will never own a horse, but my daughter takes care of horses and is learning to ride. I have never learned to play the guitar or piano and I have never written songs, but my son is a great "music-mixer." I can’t say that I know much about classical music and I usually can’t tell Beethoven from Mozart, but I do enjoy a wide-variety of music, including classical, jazz, Celtic and rock.

I’ve never read the Bible from cover to cover. I didn’t finish my Master’s Degree. I didn't join the Peace Corp. I will never teach college (but I DID have a teaching assistantship at BYU for one semester). I have never written or illustrated children’s books (but I have compiled family history books). I have never learned to paint (but I do make rather nice "Memory Boxes"). I haven't weighed 140 pounds since High School and have struggled with my weight for thirty years. I have not read all the works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Thoreau, Dickens, and Twain, but I have read some of them and I have read many other wonderful modern-day authors.

Aging is okay if it means improvement–as in wine or cheese. Unfortunately, to humans, aging means decline. The years have not been kind to my body and I feel much older than I am. This is one of my biggest regrets. . .that I have not taken better care of my body. If I had stayed in shape. . .if I had eaten properly. . .if I had exercised regularly. . .if I had avoided Coke and candy-bars. IF. IF. IF only. . . I am sure I would feel younger now.

Thirty years ago (1970), I went on Survival with BYU, I came back fit and healthy (physically, mentally and spiritually). I SWORE I would maintain those conditions for LIFE! How easy it was to fall back into old habits of laziness (both body and mind). Why are bad habits so easy to acquire and good habits so hard to cultivate??

I regret all the time wasted watching television. I regret all the time spent reading trash. Life is too short for such nonsense. I regret never writing all the poems and stories and essays that have wafted through my head as I drive, or walk, or clean. I regret all the prayers I didn't say. I regret all the hugs I have failed to give–the encouraging words I never spoke. I regret not teaching my children to have faith in themselves.

I regret not laughing more.
I regret that I am not a good housekeeper or a good cook.
Most of all I regret that I have always lacked confidence.
I have failed to love my most important friend–ME!
I have learned some important lessons in fifty years. I hope I can keep learning, but mostly I hope I can start LIVING what I KNOW.

Little Things to Conquer Daily:

• Physical: Control of body - eating, exercise, getting up in morning, going to bed at reasonable hour


• Mental: Control of mind - daily planning, journal keeping, controlling what you put into your head


• Emotional: Control of emotions - be patient, cry, laugh, shout with joy, hug, love


• Spiritual: Control of spirit - practice prayer, meditation, study, listen to conscience

Sheri (at 50) and husband Bill