Happy Trails!

I couldn't resist one last so long farewell auf wiedersehen goodbye happy trails until we meet again, because, well that's the way I am...prolong the whatever. I also wanted to share with you the latest of nature's designs. It's autumn!

PNewL PNewS Volume 16 #3

PNewL PNewS

Volume 16 No. 3 “All the pnews that phits.” September 2008

The Aging Process, continued

Knowing something is really different from understanding it—it’s part of the reason I changed the heading of the next column from Things I Have Learned to Things I am Learning early on: the process takes more time than that. Case in point: it was the August 1993 issue of the PNewL PNewS—let me remind you that was fifteen years ago—that I thought I under-stood the “Mid-Life Extravaganza.” We decided at a dinner gathering lo those many years ago that we would call it the Extravaganza rather than Crisis and apparently I thought I got it then. What did I know?

[By the way, for those of you who have PNewS archives, you could go back to Volume 2 Number 4 to see the original text. The shameful fact is that I had to go back through hard copies of the PNewS to determine this. With the changes in technology it is close to impossible for me to read the electronic versions of the various generations of this project. Putting together my memoirs is going to be more work than I thought. But I digress.]

Fifteen years later, I am beginning to think I understand some of the aging process. The reason for the last 184 or so words is it came to my attention recently that people of a certain age were making changes. The most obvious examples are physical changes like capping teeth, dyeing hair, losing weight and elective surgeries.

I was telling Patsy about my observations and it suddenly (duh) occurred to me a lot of this is acknowledging our mortality! So I am a little slow on the uptake—now I get it. And Patsy confirmed it. She knows about mortality: she works for Hospice.

Since I moved, I have gotten interested in exercise. What a concept! Never too late to start, I guess. I let my hair grow a little longer (to hide the sagging skin I could eliminate with a slice of the knife?), oh and I moved. Not sure if that qualifies as part of the mid-life extravaganza. I think there were other issues at play there but we could lump it all in together I suppose. Perhaps those things could constitute my participation in the mid-life shift and I can avoid painful surgeries with recovery time keeping me from woods walking and Pilates.

I guess it all boils down to seeing the years tick by and wanting to make the most of it…not wanting to be doing things out of habit, but with intention. As Dad always said it’s later than you think, and maybe the changes, especially the physical ones, make us think we have more time. Some changes make it more likely we will have more time! Whatever it is, I am pleased to note that life is rarely boring.

Things I am Learning & Miscellaneous Observations

• One thing I will do next time I move is shampoo the carpets before I move in. It’s not that mine are dirty—au contraire—which is why I didn’t shampoo them, but they pick up smells and everyone’s house smells differently. For better or worse, they will soon smell like my house, but in the meantime, starting out fresh would be a good thing.
• When I was in New Orleans last spring, we spent some time on the Mississippi coast meeting with community activists who are trying to bring the area back to its pre-Katrina condition, or better. One of the things I was amazed to hear: state officials say everything already is back to normal and so they are diverting $600 million in federal funds for housing to restore and expand the Port of Gulfport, which according to those we met, was not damaged badly by the storm. Much of the wording of the previous sentence is from the AARP Bulletin (Sept 2008, page 6) which corroborates the information from my sources. Perhaps we should ask the 9,000 folks still in trailers if they feel everything is back to normal.
• Cleaning up old pnews. In case you were wondering, unpacking is indeed worse than packing. Several people agree with me.
• And regarding whether one should hang favorite pictures where they are seen from bed or where guests can see them, I think the consensus is to please ourselves first. Karen says our charm is more important when entertaining guests than what’s hanging on the walls. Leslie thinks it’s good to hang inspiring pictures where she can see them; kinda like affirmations …they can potentially change your life. And one of Laurie’s heroes is Ernie Banks. I never knew!
  
• Updating the moving angst: it’s fading slightly. I still wake up in the middle of the night or look at myself in the mirror and wonder what the heck I am doing but there’s a lot of good stuff going on. There are times when I turn the page on the calendar and see a lot of empty, but it fills up surprisingly fast.
  
• Since I last wrote I have had lots of company, including a lengthy visit by the extremely large hound. We had a nice time…actually I had a nice time with all the folks who came through. And I hope more of you will aim at the western North Carolina mountains as a vacation destination. It’s pretty and the food is really good and the art is amazing and the people are really nice even if some of ‘em talk kinda different.
  
• Meanwhile, I am taking a wonderful class called Analyzing your Mountain Homestead which will be sorely missed when it is over. The teacher is smart and funny and I am going to tell him that I would happily come in every Tuesday for a couple hours to hear him talk. Neighbors have been very welcoming and inclusive, inviting me to dinner and out on the town. I had two fabulous meals this week, one with a home smoked turkey that was scrumptious, and another out on the town in a sweet French bistro for all-you-can-eat mussels (See? Good food.). A good time was had by both sets of folk to be sure. Oh and Leslie, a fellow graduate of a certain college that no longer exists invited me along to an Asheville Tourists baseball game. She says Kevin Costner’s last assignment in Bull Durham was with the Tourists. It’s a hoot, small town ball. More distractions than mere baseball—I even saw Miss North Carolina complete with a tiara!
  
• Further proof that I am stabilizing a bit is that after a particularly odd haircut, I did not retreat to my bed. A friend said, Oh it’s just those awkward days right after a haircut, it will be fine, or something like that. I am not sure that it will be but this too shall pass and there you have it. So life is good and different and sometimes lonely, but heading towards better.
  
• If you aren’t quite sure where Bhutan is (see article below), I have posted a map on the blog. And if you can’t go there, picture China, picture India. Squished in between them is Nepal and to the right of that is Bhutan!
• Evie and I spent some time scanning family photos. Here’s the first group shot with Little Martha. Standing are Peter David Peggy Evie.

I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane!

I got me a plane ticket—not only that, it is an international ticket with many hours in the sky going long distances to foreign lands. I am ecstatic and a bit nervous.

By the time many of you read this, I will be on the other side of the dateline. I start with a few days in Bangkok, to recover from 22 hours of travel (it’s more than that but who knows how much more and frankly, who wants to think about it?), and to catch some good food. Then on to Bhutan, with a tour— haven’t done that without Dad. It’s something like 13 days (they say it’s more but they include flying days which I have to pay for so I ain’t giving them credit for that).

During the tour, there will be plenty of hiking—three days of it are trekking days though the horses carry our gear and I gather our tents with cots will be all set up when we get there! How’s that for roughing it! I have been doing some practice hiking but I fear not enough. Today I went up on the Parkway and scrambled up and down a nice steep trail, and I was thinking I was giving my gear a good workout but as I slumped into the car, I figured I was giving this body a wake up call too.

On the way home, I stop off in Cambodia for 7 or 8 or 9 days, hoping to see Angkor Wat and some birds and whatever it is I am supposed to see in Phnom Penh (I just got that guidebook and I have some time, like 22 hours on the plane to figure that out.) I know I am sounding a bit vague but I do have these things written down somewhere and I do know when and where and for how long. In Cambodia, I will be on my own but I have some good advisors and just heard that aforementioned Laurie’s friends who live there will be in town so that is a comfort.
Please think positive thoughts for safe travels and I will think of you all being bombarded by news of financial problems and a seemingly endless election process. Buena suerte, y’all.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." Mark Twain