What's Your Real Age?

With another birthday looming, I got to thinking about what an age actually means. People always say that you are only as old as you feel, which on somedays is an adage to avoid. But really: How OLD are we?

I used to get updates from the Real Age website, where you can take a test and see what your Real Age is, they say. I also took a similar test on our Wii Fit Plus program, and that didn't turn out so well. I was ready to send all of those  mini Miis packing when they told me I had the body of someone in their 70s. And just because I couldn't balance on one leg, which I don't think I have ever been able to do!

I know that when I had a stress test more than ten years ago they said I had a great heart for someone my age, which I credit to genetics, and when I had my hearing test I was told I had the hearing of a ten year old.

So from all of this I gather that no one has a clue how old we really are, least of all us. But that doesn't keep us from getting a little down when we see just how many candles are on this year's cake, which is plain old  poppycock, (a word I have always wanted to use in an article.)

How old am I? Well, I think I will go with that other adage that says Age Is Just a Number --  one we can control or let control us.

Spring Cleanup Begins

Now that the large snow mounds have finally melted here, we can see what they have been hiding for the past few weeks -- a lot of trash. Driving down my everday roads I have noticed milk cartons, water bottles, newspapers and other trashy things lying along the roadways.

I saw one man, wearing a blaze orange safety vest, collecting these items yesterday, hopefully disposing of them in the right manner. Kudos to him.

When my sons were young, I would always send them out with a bag in hand on a spring day -- after some of the mud had dried up -- to gather up all of the trash that had blown into the yard and down over the hill throughout the winter. We also usually found a lot of balls that had never made their way into the garage after being played with.

Guess I will have to don my mud boots and get out there and start picking trash up, along with the dead branches that have fallen from the oak trees. I don't think this is what anyone means by "spring cleaning," but it qualifies.

Ah, spring. Wonderful.

Birds of a Feather

Watching birds this morning at my feeders I thought about how much we are like them. Each of the birds hangs out in the tree tops for awhile, checking out the feeders and making sure no predators are nearby. They eventuallly fly to tree limbs that are closer and then closer still, their heads moving constantly to see what and who's about them.

Finally, they make that last flight onto the feeders and peck away at the suet, still swiveling their heads constantly. If they feel or see the slightest thing that scares them, like someone walking inside the house or a change in the light, they will fly away quickly to their farthest perch and then begin the bird ballet again.

We are a lot like that. We are wary of new situations, even at our age, when we have lived through most. It's OK to be wary and to be careful, but it shouldn't keep us away from the prize -- suet for the birds, joy for us.

Friendly City by the Bay

Who says city dwellers aren't friendly and helpful? We were greeted by smiles and helpful faces everywhere we went in San Francisco. No one failed to help us out.

It is an easy city to get around in. Lots of buses and trolleys, and of course, cable cars, but we did get stranded for awhile at a museum in Golden Gate Park, waiting for transportation as it got colder and darker, but it worked out in the end.

With the sun shining, it is good to be here.

Took a walking tour of the Victorian darlings in one of the city's richest neighborhoods. I had bought a book on the Painted Ladies years ago and finallly saw some of them up close. Gorgeous but very expensive. Most go for $2 million or more and often need work. Yikes! Unless of course you are Danielle Steele who has a huge mansion here, but does her writing in a "small" cottage nearby. Sounds like a great plan! I may have to look into that.



San Francisco Bay

Photo taken in 1996

Saw this view of boats in the bay again this week from the Golden Gate Bridge. Beautiful.

Cold, windy and rainy in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. San Franciscans seem to take the bad weather in stride, knowing it will change again soon.

As one visitor said, they are in denial about winter here. It would seem so.

Weather Discovery Center Must See in Punxsutawney

While in Punxsutawney, PA earlier this month partying with Phil, the world's best weather prognosticator (I swear it has been warm since he predicted an early spring this year), we had an opportunity to visit the Weather Discovery Center, a fun place to learn more about weather folklore and science.

I would still highly recommend a trip to the small Pennsylvania town on February 2 to enjoy the Groundhog Day festivities. As part of that I would suggest that you make time to visit the weather center, especially if you have young children with you -- but even if you don't.

The center makes it fun and easy to learn about the weather and how scientists go about predicting the unpredictable. To read more about this fascinating place, visit http://www.boomthis.com/.

Does complaining go with aging?

I'm not sure anyone cares, but I feel this need anymore to tell people what I am thinking. Case in point: We have a new state-of-the-art grocery store near me, replacing the one I have used for probably 30 some years.

I don't miss the old store; love the new store, except for one thing: No matter how much you plan to buy, you can not get out of that store in a reasonable time. There is a new system at the store so that the cashiers now bag everything themselves. They have a two-tiered bagging station to their immediate left as they scan things and then they have to bag all the items. Customers who either used to look gratefully at a designated bagger in the old days or were happy to bag their own stuff have lost both options.

It has been taking me a long time to get through the check out lanes when I have visited the store. So when I saw a store employee walking behind the long line of shoppers in the check out lines, trying to find a way to speed things up, I had to say something when she came up to me. I explained that it was a great store but someone wanting to run in for a few items on the way home from work was going to be incredibly annoyed when he or she had to wait so long to check out.

Nicely, she told me they were still testing the waters so to speak, but I can't see how they can change too much since their checking-out sytem is already installed.

I'm sure she was probalby just glad to get away from me. But when I saw people with huge carts of groceries going through the self-check out lines, knowing the myriad of problems they would have before they could even (slowly) bag their own groceries, I started wishing for the old store.