Finally... something in the sky besides blue.

Yesterday we had a cold, windy day... WITH CLOUDS. Just a few of them, but we're hopeful.

It was lovely and a sign that the weather is changing.
This morning we woke up to frost and 28 degrees. We are told that rain will be here by the end of the week. We will reserve dancing in the streets until we see the wet pavement.
My sister is here for a long weekend. She chose to spend her birthday with me. We have had a good time. She is celebrating the BIG one (one of the big ones if you keep living)... 60 years. This is my LITTLE sister. She can't be 60! This is just not possible.
 Maybe we got confused and added a decade by mistake. Could that have happen?
Yes, that must be it. I'm really in my 50's and she is just starting her second quarter of a century. I think I have figured this out, as I write, only... wait.... I can't be 57 either, because that means I would have given birth when I was around 15 years old and I don't recall that happening .
Suck it up, Farmlady
You're old and your sister is right behind you to prove the reality of it.
Seven years always looked like a big difference, but not any more.  Now, it's my sons who show me, by their ages, that there is no mistake. They are too old for me to justify saying that I had them as an unwed teenage mother. So, we will leave this were it is. I don't want to insult all the women who were mothers at 15 and I don't want to rationalize the reasons that I wasn't.
I'm heading for my 70's and Sis is just starting her 6th decade.
We will just have to slow down... together... and learn to knit. Oh, we did that already. OK.
Well... it's time to embrace "senior citizen" status.
Acceptance is the key to long life. That's what they say. 
So, we have shortened our shopping trips. We take naps.
We have salads instead of Cheeseburgers and Fries.
We wimp out and use Ibuprofen when we need it.
Life is still good and we are still sister friends.
Can't ask for more than that.
Happy Birthday Sis.

Interview with an old person

December 4, 2008
Rockefeller Plaza
(in front of the christmas tree)

Matt L.: "We have a story coming out of Northern California this morning. This lady standing next to me is a native Californian that has spent her whole life there and since we didn't have any real news this morning, we thought we'd interview her and get her perspective on growing up in the golden state and what it's like to get old there. Well, Farmlady, happy birthday."

Farmlady: "Well, thank you Matt. I'm..."

M.L.: "So what's it like to be an old person? Is there a different way of looking at things when you turn 64?" ( the song "When I'm Sixty Four", by the Beatles, starts to play in the background.)

Farmlady: " I don't really consider myself a really old person. It's a frame of mind that..."

M.L.: But, seriously, don't you feel that by the time you get to your 60,s you're bucking the odds so to speak?..., that it's all down hill?"

Farmlady: " No, Matt, I don't. Now that I'm retired I find life is even more interesting than...."

M.L.: " What do you think of New York City? Is it a very different place than, say, Los Angeles?"

Farmlady: "I don't live in Los Angeles, but it's definitely colder here. I was raised in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay area and..."

M.L.: " Isn't it all the same there? Lots of liberals and earthquakes?"

Farmlady: "No..., but it's warmer. We don't have earthquakes all the time but we do have too many..."

M, L.: " So what your saying is that you think California is too radical and politicians are too moderate?"

Farmlady: "I didn't say that. I thought I was suppose to talk about...."

M.L.: " So is there anything else you would like to say about being 64 years old?"

Farmlady: " Well, I love my life and my family..., and thank you all the same, but I ..., excuse me Matt,please don't interrupt me again..., I think I'll go back to California and thaw out a bit."

M.L.: (Looks at the camera.) " This has been one person's views on being an older person in our society. Now back to Meredith, inside the studio."

The music fades and someone rushes over with a cup of coffee and an extra coat for Mr. L.
who grumbles something about this being a tough interview.

Farmlady smiles and thinks to herself that being 64 isn't that bad. It's 42 acres of oak trees and manzanita, 8 chickens, 4 goats, 2 old dogs, family and her bambinos, wonderful friends, and a husband that has loved her for 44 years...., and, when all is said and done, Life is not only what happens to you, it's how you play the hand that you're dealt and how you continue to do your best. No, 64 years is not bad at all.


"Send me a postcard,
drop me a line,
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, Wasting Away.
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore.
Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
Whoo!"

~the Beatles~