1. Sometimes I think my hair has a mind of its own. And I am sure it grows faster in the summer. I think the last time my hair was as long as it is right now was during the quarantine in 2020, and at least it was thicker then.
2. If you want to see what you really look like, walk in front of your RING camera. Mine shows an old, gray-haired woman with terrible posture on the front porch picking up packages delivered here. This is NOT how I want to picture myself!
3. I think I spend half of my time trying to stay awake and the other half trying to fall asleep, and these things never happen at the right time. It is so easy to fall sleep watching TV or when I am at the movies. I have even dozed at a Broadway musical or two, despite the live orchestra playing loudly. But in the middle of the night, in my nice, dark, comfy, quiet bedroom, I am wide awake once I get up for the customary trip to the bathroom around 3 AM. Where’s that “can’t keep my eyes open” feeling then?
4. Why do we feel obligated to make the bed every day? After all, we just get back into it in the evening. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to get up and make the bed almost immediately. I think it puts order into my day, and I know I need that feeling.
5. As I have gotten older, I can’t help but notice the wide range of aches and pains experienced by me and my friends around my age. One has a bad ankle, another a bad hip. My shoulder that went through rotator cuff surgery 7 years ago has been acting up and I’m still exercising my new knee from last year. I never expected the children’s song, “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” to apply to us as senior citizens, but it sure fits!
6. I recently bought a new smart watch. This one looks like a regular watch and is thinner than any smart-variety I have seen. It does the usual smart-watch tasks – count my steps, check my blood pressure and oxygen rate (I will never understand how that can happen), show my text messages and plenty of other things that I’ll never use. But, like the others I have owned, the steps you take don’t seem to count unless you are moving your arm. So, if you see some strange-looking person pushing her grocery cart with one hand while swinging her left arm, that’s me, trying to make every step count.
7. Alexa likes to keep me updated on weather conditions. On a day when the heat hovers around 100 degrees, she wants me to know that it is really hot, that the air quality may be bad, and that it may rain. She switches from being a good little AI assistant to having mothering tendencies. Next, she will remind me to grab an umbrella when I leave the house!
8. I threw out a perfectly good pair of sneakers the other day for one good reason – they were both for my left foot. Apparently, I bought a new pair when the right shoe wore out and kept the left one as an extra. Then that new right one wore out, too, so I was stuck with two left feet, which an apt description of me.
9. Drake’s Cakes has been fooling around with the classic treat, Devil Dogs. The other day I found a salty caramel version and a mochaccino variety. I don’t buy Devil Dogs, because I could easily eat the entire box in a sitting or two, but I was surprised to find this variation on the classic. Has this been around for a while? Are there other versions I don’t know about? It’s probably best for me to steer clear of this whole food category.
10. I would like to know what goes on in my washing machine during a cycle that makes the clothes turn inside out. That must be one rough load!
11. Speaking of laundry, does anyone actually use the wide variety of settings on their dryer? Mine is kept on the same setting nearly 100% of the time. I’ll remember that the next time I need a new dryer: No point in getting all the bells and whistles if I don’t ever use them.
12. So are we really going to live solely on Daylight Savings Time now – assuming this new measure before Congress passes? I prefer longer evenings and don’t much care about light in the morning, unless I have to go somewhere and drive in the dark. Nothing is perfect right?
13. When the doorbell rings on a TV show, it reminds me of how my father would jump up from “resting his eyes” and tell us to answer the bell. We had to let him know the bell was on the TV. Now, I find myself doing the same thing. It must be a ‘70s thing!
14. I celebrated July 4, America’s 250th, by taking a dinner cruise on the Hudson River with some friends. Aside from the fact that we ended up on the wrong boat (and we have the tickets showing that we were where we were supposed to be) and that we saw a man getting pulled out of the Hudson River (I think he fell from a nearby private boat; there may have been alcohol involved), it was a spectacular night. Just cruising up and down the Hudson, seeing the New York skyline and identifying the famous buildings, was thrilling. Luckily, that crazy couple who climbed to the top of the Empire State Building just a few days prior to the holiday weekend was gone! The TV coverage of Macy’s Fireworks doesn’t do justice to the enormity, color, sound and excitement of the live display. And just passing by the Statue of Liberty was enough to turn me into mush. I always think of the millions of people who came to this country via Ellis Island and were greeted by the Lady in the Harbor. It doesn’t get much more American than that! Now, only another 50 years until the 300th! Frankly, I’m not going to make it.
15. There are plenty of sports I follow religiously, but soccer is not one of them. I did watch a little of the World Cup and what impressed me was the size and enthusiasm of the crowds. I watched the last two US games, one a huge victory and the other an agonizing defeat. That’s what I like about sports – most of the time, somebody wins. It’s just sad when it isn’t your team!
16. One sport I did watch was Wimbledon, both men’s and women’s tennis there. It seems to me that the players are stronger, more athletic and they hit harder than previous generations. It is amazing how they can return a ball that is traveling that fast and hit that hard and low. The courts at Mercer Street Park in Somerville could never have prepared me for today’s version of the sport I tried. I was used to playing on courts with cracks and graffiti, so unlike the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. I also thought this year’s champions, 21-year old Linda Noskova and 24-year-old Jannick Sinner, were outstanding on and off the court. They were extremely gracious to their opponents, the fans, the ball boys and girls and the Wimbledon administration. I hope the US Open is equally good with such deserving winners.
