Getting older ain't all that bad.
I joined my husband to go watch my grandson motocross race this weekend. It's a great night of sheer fear if you have a grandson barreling down the dirt tracks and flying into the air over giant jumps with two other bikers on each side of him. I hold my breath and pray from the moment he leaves the gate till he gets the checkered flag waved in his face. I could swear that is why I have so much more gray hair now. It's not just because I passed the designated age of senior citizen. However, this year, because I am 60, I got into the race free. Hey! Five bucks is five bucks; I use to have to pay to be frightened to death for 3 hours. My husband has been getting in free for 6 years. I finally passed "Go" and somehow it makes it a bit more fun--but no less scary. The gal at the gate was a new attendant, though. She didn't know my husband was over 60. She was a bit embarrassed when she asked for the 10-dollar fee for us and my husband said we were over the age limit. Ha. That sounds funny now. I'd been underage and now we're over. She apologized, "Ya'll don't look that old." What a wonderful thing to hear.
I took my granddaughters to Native Sun this week, too. Now, I'd been procrastinating about that. I've gained far too much weight to be walking around a public waterpark in a bathing suit. But the girls came up for a couple of days and I figured I needed to get over myself and take them. So I donned a pair of shorts over my bathing suit (you can do that when you're sixty...folks make allowances for chubby gray-haired ladies--they think we're a bit senile), and we packed up and went. The best part? Because I was 60, I got in free there, too. What a joy! It cost me for them, but I was blessed with a savings of 11 bucks. So all because I was over 60 I saved 16 dollars this past week.
It's not all green savings and joy, though. With my degenerative disc disease, it makes it a bit tough to go down slides--so I have to skip that thrill. I have to be very careful how and where I walk. And just in case you think it is safe in the kiddie pool, let me give you some advice. When you're standing on the side, don't step into it thinking you're going to touch the bottom without holding onto something (preferably a life-guard, not your toddler). I stepped into the pool, and the ankle-deep water I thought was beneath the surface, was actually knee-high. I stepped in and immediately lost my balance and fell into the water on my hip. All the way down, I'm thinking, "Uh, oh. There goes that herniated disc." Fortunately for me, the water was deep enough to break part of the fall. I laughed and looked around, hoping no one saw my stupidity. A couple of strangers saw me and asked if I was okay. And since they were strangers, I felt a whole lot better and said so. It wasn't till I was leaving the waterpark, about an hour later that a lady I knew from church came up and asked if I'd hurt myself when I fell earlier. So much for growing old gracefully. selahV
[copyrighted, 2009, selahV Today, hariette petersen]
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