Rain here most of the day and unlike the majority of folks I am a rainy day person. Snow is gone, what a crazy weather pattern we are having lately. For well over a week here on the plateau temperature wise we never got past 18 degrees…according to my Coca-Cola temp gauge hanging on the porch. Today it was 61 degrees! That is something to ponder. But there is something else that I need to ponder…clear my mind of…growing old, the problem is I got here awhile back but now at 80 my body is wanting to acknowledge that and talk about it. So what age is elderly? There is no standard definition for the term elderly. According to the United States Social Security Administration, anyone age 65 or older is elderly. Who are you going to trust more than them. Both Google and Facebook agree, it has to correct. Here is a recent number to ponder…The age distribution in the United States is shifting. According to 2022 data, nearly 58 million adults ages 65 and older live in the U.S., accounting for about 17.3% of the nation’s population. By 2040, that proportion is projected to grow to 22%. Let’s face it folks it is a Ben Gay world out there, no pun intended but to some folks that tends to rub them the wrong way. So…I am having to adjust to a different way of life. I no longer walk with a confident stride, it has become more of a tentative shuffle. People tend to open or hold doors for me, they call me Sir, even though with the door open it takes me a couple of deliberate steps to get through. Forgetting things is just a normal part of getting old. What, so I have been told is more concerning, is when you forget how you got someplace and have to take a long ponder about which way back and then in some extreme cases where back is. Then there is the escalating fact that things aren’t like they were in my day. Part of what moved me to this line of thought is I did remember that it was 59 years ago that I went to work for Dupont. I was there for 38 years…people don’t do that any more…they change jobs like, as the folks used to say, like socks. Now I could keep going but that would not do honor to the art of pondering. Remember, facts don’t matter and the goal is not to solve anything…just gather it together and throw it way…get it off your mind. For all my years I can say…been there and done that to a lot of things in this life. I leave you with this thought. After all I have experienced…One thing I am sure of is my Gender…Some things in God’s world never change.

jk