Monday morning

We had a very good weekend and so easing into Monday morning wasn't jolting to either of us. Plus, we have a short week before we go to see friends over the 4th of July. I did a short drive on both days but don't feel quite up to a solo venture yet. I helped with housework and rearranged a few things in my office--throwing out some stuff I don't need and labeling files that I do. I replaced some dead flowers with new blooms and that always seems to set my spirit on a good path.

This morning I will "walk" to the neighborhood pool for my swim and skip the Y until tonight when we go there and I bicycle and do weights. When I awoke this morning, I could see a bit more definition in my ankle. As the day goes on, my ankle swells, so I use the morning to compare my progress from the days before.

I found myself slipping back into some other layers of health worry yesterday, triggered by an article I read in the paper and today's article on how we and the medical system try to avoid death-talk, even in the face of it, brought back my mother-in-law's colon cancer battle (war and sports metaphors are frequently used in our deny-death and dying culture) and my mom's confusion over her slipping away due to heart failure. Both Mark and I say we want to age differently from our parents, although I have to say that the way my dad is dealing with his 91st year is close to what I would want. He exercises in and out of the pool, enjoys his weekly poker game, has made new friends in his retirement community, watches his diet (after his second ulcer hospitalization), reads his daily Bible literature, takes a monthly trip to the Casino and goes out to shop with his community members or his daughters when our schedules mesh. So I do have a "role model" for healthy aging and he and his two remaining sisters seem to have found a path that I could refer to as I move into my sixties and beyond ( I hope ).

Flashing back, in Sunday's NY Times Style section, there's an article, with photos, of the resurgance of Skee-ball. I used to play it with Dad and my sister at the VFW and I would love to play it again. I kind of think of it as bowling for people with bad backs (and now, bad ankles). Who know how much retro-stuff will have a second or third life with the younger generation, and, we aging boomers, can grab repeat rounds at games we used to play.

Hmmmm. A bit nostalgic this morning and I didn't feel that way when I started to write. But that's how it goes with writing the morning blog: it takes me where I need to go.