"It's not easy being Green," according to Kermit and getting on in years is not promising to get easier. My younger-than-me wife is turning 70 ... You'go, Girl! We still have one kid in her 40's and none of our Grandkids are talking marriage, yet.
Still, life ain't easy. Came back from my Downtown office (where I spend two half-days each week) on New Years Eve and was exhausted ... functioning in my "Deflated Maus" state of mind. I visit that mindset far more often than I did just several years ago. It's not that I was in pain though I do experience the usual aches of late middle age and the guilt that I never really paid too much attention to my parents' pains when they were in their 70's. We lived 100 miles away from my parents and 300 miles away from M's parents since the early-mid 1970's. Never really appreciated how difficult it must have been for them to travel to us. I suppose I thought ... 'Hey, we've got kids and are really busy ... they've got time to burn.' Ah! The Narcissism of Youth!
We did make it that evening to see friends and three of their Grandkids. The table was beautifully set and at one of the table-ends there were five candles and a picture of a friend who died just a couple of months ago and who would be there, with his wife, every New Years Eve since the 70's when we all ended up in Philadelphia. Alu was a wonderful Soul. Rajanatham was his name but his Western friends had problems with pronouncing 4 syllables. Hard to believe he wouldn't be there. Oh! And my friends. She was just diagnosed this past Summer with one of those cancer diagnoses that don't bode well for a future. I don't know what her three grandkids were thinking ... I can only imagine.
We left not much later than 8 pm, after dinner and headed over briefly to see our oldest and youngest's families. We are blessed to see them frequently ... 4 of 6 of our grandkids were there and two grand-dogs and two grand-cats, too and an inlaw. By the time we got home at 9:30, we were ready for bed and quietly went off to sleep hoping our neighbor's midnight fireworks failed to burn down our home for one more time.
Happy New Year!
