Frost-up-the-glasses morning

[jhetley]

You might have noticed that I wear glasses, have worn them for maybe 50 years. Besides correcting my vision, they provide a sign and portent of certain weather conditions. Like on mornings like this, when they frost up immediately when I walk into the convenience store to buy our morning paper. Had to rush to count out the fee while I could still see it. Baby, it's cold outside....

(Objective measurement -- about -5 F with a stiff breeze.)

Funny how you can find encouraging news in the darkest corners. I've had to smile once or twice while reading the tributes to Octavia Butler -- not because of any morbid humor, but because people are describing her as "young" and "vibrant" and "cut off in her prime." We were born in the same year.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, don't you think you're a bit young to die? I mean, young for death is not really the same thing as young for staying out late or driving. It infuriated me when people kept saying that my grandmother-in-law had "had a long life." She was only 75! That's not a long life! That's a medium-length life at best, and I wasn't done with her yet!

Although my Onie (great-aunt) is 93, and that's a pretty long life, and I doubt that I will be done with her yet, either, when her time comes. So this is possibly not the best way to judge.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Well, my body reminds me on a regular basis that "young" or "prime" no longer apply. The males of my line aren't all that durable -- my father was only about ten years older than I am now when he died. Both grandfathers made it to the mid 70s. Our females, on the other hand, hang around longer. Not to say that long life is an unalloyed blessing -- before she died, Mom said that she outlived her body by about ten years.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sure, age doesn't mean a constant thing. My grandfather is 78 and has only started to "be old" in the last year or two. I wouldn't say that he was young before then, and he certainly did not spend his 75th birthday doing similar things to what he did in boot camp. But he was pretty comfortably middle-aged until 75. And while my Onie has been old for awhile, she hasn't been much slowed down until she was about halfway through the year she was 91. One of my other great-aunts on that side was plenty slow by 60, though.

One of my friends says that her mother is nearly two decades older than her sweetheart's mother, and that observing them one would think the opposite, just from their physical health. I guess the answer is, as usual, "people vary."