In my push to finish my parenting e-book I have neglected my blogs. I had set some posts to go on auto but the WP update I had done would not allow anything scheduled to post and did not send me my backups either!
I need to do some major cut and paste and I will – just not today 🙂
Happy New Year and just think – the e-book on aging is next on my list!!
It's going to be a super 2010 for all of us!!
I had a good friend, sadly one who died 2 years ago, who would say she was having "one of those fat and ugly" days. She was neither fat nor ugly – but I knew what she meant – [after all we were both psychologists.]
Thought of her the other day – probably as I have an old medicine bottle she once gave me and I was dusting it…
For 
those who like old bottles – here are two photos: It was from a physician's home/office on Beacon Street in Boston.
It's 2010 – a new year, a new decade and the year I turn 70. Lately I've begun to think I am having some of those "fat and ugly" days; but sometimes mine feel more like "old and cranky."
The time period between Thanksgiving and my birthday is always a not-so-good-time for me as it's usually cold, dark, wet or snowy [or all of the above] depending on where I have lived. And it's a time for self-reflecting for all sorts of reasons – new year, new age, holidays, etc.
With several friends having died in the last few years, I have that mixed brain of being glad I am still here and then quickly wondering if I'll ever finish all the projects I started in the last few years.
This is one of those paradoxes of human development. Being happy and sad at the same moment for the very same reason.
But then Janus – for whom January is named – looked forward and backwards at the same time so I guess I can do that too. Sad about who died and what did not get done; happy that I am still here and able to write.
Happy 2010!!
P.S. The parenting e-book is nearing completion and yes I did start the e-book on aging.
[I was told a second e-book is quicker to do than the first so the aging book should be a piece of cake so to speak.]
I used to LOVE winter – snow, sledding, ice forts and snowball fights, ice skating on the street, river or a pond, skiing in 40 below temperatures [before wind chill] but now I don't want to be outside in the cold.
Partly this is due to a few too many bouts of frost bite on the finger tips but now I am thinking it's also due at least a bit to aging. Cold ain't so much fun anymore.
I am sitting here in extremely cold for us Portland wishing I had gone to Florida with a friend for a month…then I'd be warm there and return here after the arctic bast goes away.
But here I am, not enjoying the cold this winter, and neither are my neighbors or my pets. I know that when it gets back into the 40's during the day and above freezing at night – I'll feel better….and in the interim all I can say is YUCK!
[Sheba in front of the heater]
And to keep the moorage water system from freezing like it did last winter – some have new pee-ers 
Your comments? Anyone over 60 enjoying arctic blasts or nasty cold?
What is the difference for you?
Thank you in advance for commenting…..
Aging is a universal process…we can slow it's effects on our body and brain but we can't stop the process.
Every so often I see an article about what helps us stay functioning and healthy and what is bad for us.
When I read of "bad" stuff in food and cosmetics I get more angry at federal agencies that "allow" a certain level of "bad" stuff in our food, air water and other things. It's called an "acceptable" level….but what might be acceptable and safe for one person may be poison for another…
So in the face of all this – what does keep one young? How does one "do" healthy aging?
Here is some of what keeps me young:
I can read that coffee is bad for me and then I read that coffee is good for me. I don't allow either thought to change my coffee habits…I love my morning coffee and have for a very very long time and coffee makes me feel great and hence helps me stay young.
I love my pets and they also keep me young because I walk the dog a few times a day
– which is good for him and me. And my cat, Sheba, is pure fun. Having pets is part of who I am – if I ever had to live without a pet that would be very depressing and would therefore age me.
Friends and social interactions keep me young. I dog walk with neighbors so that's a two-fer and we have a very friendly neighborhood where "everyone knows your name" and there are few secrets – but it's a situation we laugh about – and laughing keeps us young too.
We know exercise is good for us and that it keeps our heart and body in better shape than does sitting around all day. But do I get as much exercise as I need? Probably not… it's too easy for me to skip exercise and that is something I most definitely am going to work on …… <later>
Being online keeps me young too. The daily interactions with persons from all over the world and of all different ages makes me use a lot of brain cells. We chat about different topics, I am up to date on world events and my brain gets a serious work out.
What keeps you young?
Pleas post a comment below about this – thank you