Drive by my house on any sunny day, and this is what you will see. The picture above is me looking over my garden, taken secretly (see, without permission) by my little brother. He didn’t bother to honk or give me a heads up so I could smooth my gray frizz or duck behind the compost bin like someone yelled[…]
On July 4th Traditions…
Today, like most of the people in our community, we celebrated our nation’s independence from England by eating large quantities of mayonnaise based food and sitting around the swimming pool. We didn’t get in the pool, but just sat around it and glanced at it from time to time. The swimming pool is more like the television in the living[…]
On Turning 60 Part IV (Conversations)…
“Old people get together and all they talk about is their health problems.” I play Bunco with a group of friends from school. My relationship with one of these ladies started in 1st grade, but most of us met in 7th grade when three or four elementary schools merged into Carl Albert Junior High. Like many people, after years of[…]
On My Heart (A Series)… Surrendering.
In my last conversation with the cardiologist, we talked about what was next for me. I get so frustrated because each test says something different. But, for a doctor to perform a mitral valve repair with a MitraclipTM it has to go to a committee for approval and committees love tests. Replacement of my aortic valve did not need a[…]
On Turning 60 Part III (Someone to Watch Over Me)
Charles and I met in 2012. I was 48. Both of us were licking our wounds after failed marriages. The first couple of years were pretty rocky. Neither of us expected the relationship to last long, but we were having fun along the way. Eventually (in the longest sense of the word), he and I just turned into us. I[…]
On My Heart (A Series)… Round Two.
I had an angiogram Friday, June 14. It wasn’t good but I knew it wouldn’t be. My cardiologist thought my mitral valve was only moderately leaking and, therefore, a perfectly good valve. Remind me never to buy anything used from him off Marketplace. However, yesterday’s test proved it was severe and validated my symptoms and my belief that it should[…]
On My Heart (A Series)… &%*^$!!
Trigger warning: Whining ahead. May 25 marked eight months since my heart valve replacement surgery. At my six month checkup in March, I told my doctor I felt like my recovery had slowed down. I was having a harder time getting up the Slope to my garden. I have fallen asleep at the wheel a few times, and had to[…]
On Turning 60 Part II (Looking for Ancestors, Finding Self) …
Is this what 60 is? Or is this senility?
On Turning 60 Part I…
I turned 60 years old this month. I’m having a hard time getting my brain around this. How the heck did I get here? I was just 40 about a month and a half ago. I still remember puberty, but now require my Waze app to go places I’ve been dozens of times. A colleague referred to me as “middle[…]
On My Heart (A Series)… 6 Month Surge-A-Versary
The human body is incredibly designed. It can do amazing things. It holds all your working parts and keeps them out of the elements. You are covered entirely in skin so that your intestines don’t fall out on the floor. The body, at least the female one, is a beautiful thing to behold – a work of art. Given that[…]