The Curmudgeonly Professor

Blossoms From Temple Square in Salt Lake City: Photos of the Day June 27 2009

                                         

 

Blossoms from Thanksgiving Point: Photo of the Day June 27 2009

Flowers at Thanksgiving Point: Photo of the Day June 25 2009

Double matted image from the flowers at Thanksgiving Point.  Copyright Dwight M. Blood.  All rights reserved.

Flowers at Thanksgiving Point: Photo of the Day June 25 2009

Pink Roses at Temple Square in Salt Lake City: Photos of the Day June 25 2009

 

Watching the Sunrise Over the Wasatch Front: Photos of the Day June 25 2009

I awoke at 4:30 with a stuffy nose so I sat out on the deck and watched the sun come up over the Wasatch Front Range

 

Pink Roses on Temple Square in Salt Lake City: Photos of the Day June 24 2009

We went to Temple Square on a rainy afternoon.  Had to shoot photos on the run and then duck for cover when the rains came.  Most of the main flower beds were closed off due to installing heat elements in sidewalks, but still got a few flower pix.  Have to go back later in summer.

               

Still More Tulips from Thanksgiving Point: Photos of the Day June 24 2009

  

Here is Your To-Do List Today from the Curmudgeonly Professor

Forget the other to-do lists you have for today, mental or otherwise, and do the following:

• Don't yell at the kids.
• Smile often.
• Get out your camera, go find a flower, and take a picture of it.
• If you don't have a computer, for heaven's sake get one.  You can get a decent one for $500 or so.
• Go to a farmers' market.
• Stop eating second helpings.  Forever.
• Call your kids, your Mom, your Dad, whoever you have been ignoring.
• Don't be a jerk in traffic.  Behave yourself.

These are for starters.  We will provide new to-do lists once you have done all of these.  Thank you.

Red Zinnias from Temple Square in SLC: Photo of the Day June 24 2009

Hurry and Finish the Tulips Because the Roses are Out at Thanksgiving Point

 

Columbine From Temple Square in Salt Lake City: Photo of the Day June 23 2009

Thanksgiving Point Tulips and a Flowering Tree: Photos of the Day June 23 2009

Old People Often Have a Tough Time Getting Through the Nights

One of the most common stories we hear around the friends and neighbors we live close to both here in Salt Lake and in St. George is the story of how much trouble old people have sleeping and getting through the night.  When you see them the next day, you would never know what a tortured night they just went through.  Every night is a new adventure, a new challenge.  People can't get comfortable in bed because they have pain from arthritis, spines, hips, knees, sciatica, and surgeries.  They have discomfort from Parkinson's, atrial fib, ventricular fib, diverticulitis, reactions to pills, and, as in my case, stuffy noses.  They have bothersome bladders and prostates. Some run noisy CPap machines for sleep apnea.  And some just can't sleep.  When one is approaching the end of one's mortality, the big "when, not if" question looms large, and most of us ignore it most of the time.  But reality explodes during nighttime restlessness and our minds wander, and we make great big things out of little tiny things, and we still have boogeymen in the closets of our youth and robbers just outside the window.

People worry about their next doctors' appointments, about the results of biopsy tests, blood tests, EKGs, EEGs, colonoscopies, endoscopies.  They worry about paying for dental implants and three-quarter crowns.  They worry about becoming an ultimate burden to their children or to others when they can no longer care for themselves.  And so the progression goes.  Initial retirement.  Subsequent illnesses.  Continued aging.  Hair thins or falls out all together.  Teeth get ever more rotten requiring monumental dental expenses.  Stomach deteriorates.  Hearts go ticky-tick.  Pains show up here and there, each of which, in the middle of the night is surely fatal and, as a matter of fact, some are.  The ambulance and the EMTs show up more often than we wish and the worry is "Am I next?"  People wonder how they can continue to endure the pain they are suffering through another day.

And yet, come the morning sun, the sleepless nights, the incessant cares and worries, the aches and pains seem more bearable, and we are ready to confront another day, to make the most of it, to see what we can do for others whose problems are far worse than others, to go about the daily routines of living, all continuing in a more hopeful light.  The issue gradually becomes not "How much are we suffering, how much must we endure" but becomes "How can I make the most of each day that I have left."

So old folks call their kids, looking for a word or two of cheer and support, just as we used to cheer them when crying from scraped and bloody knees and noses.  They read the morning papers, they often turn soon to the obits, they do their crossword puzzles, they go see the Ladies at the Pool, they go to the grocery store, many walking slowly and with canes and walkers, using the grocery cart as their support in the store, they check on their neighbors.  And many take naps.  Why can old people sleep during the day and not at night?  Women who still have husbands banter back and forth all day, completing each others' sentences, disputing each others' reports about when, how much, or who, asking each other "What was that movie we saw night before last?"  The widows live a more lonely existence, some of them perhaps having a more peaceful one, but still lonely with no one to tell how much they hurt, what they are afraid of, what they hope for.

Religion plays a bigger part in many old peoples' lives than it might have during the busy years of child rearing and working and running marathon schedules.  Faith comes front and center, along with reassurance and hope and the belief that it isn't how many days we live that matters, it's the quality of life during the days that we do live.  And somehow, I watch a feeling of peace, equanimity, and acceptance enter the attitudes of older people.  But all of that doesn't mask the fact that sometimes we are just scared as hell about what is happening to us.  Yet, if anyone asks us, we say "I'm just fine, thank you" and go about living the lives that God gave us. 

The Ladies at the Pool are the Ultimate Authority

My wife prefaces many of her statements throughout any given day with the words "The ladies at the pool . . ."  The ladies at the pool are more proficient and efficient conveyors and disseminators of useful information, we dare not call it gossip, than are cell phones, Twitterers, bloggers, texters, or any other method of transferring information, ancient or modern.

The one activity my wife can still participate in and enjoy is water aerobics.  So almost daily, she joins the sisterhood of the Ladies at the Pool for exercise and reveling in the weightless feel of moving through water.  As soon as she gets home, I inquire, "So what did the Ladies at the Pool have to say today?  What dirt did you pick up?"  Even on days when she claims she didn't learn anything, several hours later I will hear "Oh, I forgot to tell you the Ladies at the Pool said such and such and so and so."  Well I'll be danged, I say, I can hardly believe that.  Actually, I thought they were supposed to be exercising and not engaging in "Did you hear about so-and-so or such-and-such?" type conversations.  But the Ladies at the Pool perform a valuable function in our little retirement community, since much information would never be transmitted without them.