Thoughts and Age Spots

Today is the day I was supposed to go for surgery. Instead I went swimming at the pool. Much more pleasant than going through the butcher shop. I wonder who’s the lucky one who took my place. I hope it goes well for her whoever she is. I’m sure the spot didn’t remain empty with the 1 to 2 year waiting list. It’s a common problem for older women who have had babies to have their insides drop down from their rightful place. I won’t get any more graphic than that.

Did you hear what I just said? “Older women” and I was referring to myself. Good grief. Sometimes I wonder what the heck happened. How did I reach that stage and how did life go by so fast for me to be there already?

Seems like I woke up one day and there was this “older woman” starring back at me in the mirror. The gray hair, the lines on my face that make it look like I’m squinting in the sun even when I’m in the house. The hands that have loose skin I can pull on like the scruff on a dog’s neck and that have great big veins that pop out everywhere and look like the garland on a Christmas tree.

I used to have freckles here and there on my hands, face and back but somehow over the years they’ve faded into the background and have been replaced by something bigger and not quite so pretty. Age spots I’ve been told. Age spots? What purpose do they serve? From what I can see they are about as useless as the crop of hair that keeps appearing on my face and for which I now have to allocate a part of the monthly budget to have them removed?

I always intended to grow old graciously and I usually do pretty good except when I look in the mirror and I see someone else peering back at me. Sometimes I feel like I should introduce myself. Hi. My name is Annette. How are you and would you mind telling me how the hell you got into my bathroom?

It’s cold out there. Very cold for Kelowna. It was -18 when we got up this morning. Our poor little furnace isn’t getting much of a break trying to keep this place warm. It hardly ever stops for more than a minute or two. We would not survive in this place if it were out in the prairies where the temps drop to -40 or more. In fact it’s -30 where Kate is right now and she’s likely laughing at me complaining about out little dip into the deep freeze.

I would much rather be where my daughter Brenda and her fiancée James are right now. It’s 25 to 35 above with a warm breeze blowing in from the ocean waters. Yep, I could live with that and my old bones wouldn’t protest too loud I’m sure. They are in Bali Indonesia right now and they will be heading to Thailand tomorrow where my other daughter Jody and her husband Ryan from Calgary will meet up with them for a three week holiday. I wish I could zap myself and shrink into some kind of miniature version of myself and I could crawl into their bags. Mind you I’d probably set off the alarm when they went through security. Unidentifiable liquid, gel substance labelled as possible dangerous goods to be tossed aside and left behind.

If I ever get lots of money...... No. Let me rephrase that. “When” I get lots of money I’m going to go around the country, gather up all my friends and head out for a trip that will take us from the Pacific to the Atlantic and from one side of the world to the other. There may be a few more age spots or another wrinkle or two but it won’t matter much in the end. I imagine I’ll have become buddy, buddy with the one in the mirror by then.