The longer one lives the more you notice that the ranks of your friends and relatives keep thinning.  To a lesser degree, aging of Spaces appears to be bringing about the same effect.  Of course, time is greatly compressed when it comes to things relating to the Internet. A couple of years is a long time ago in blogging. So, here is what I have seen:

 

Our friend King Tom is gone.  The spouses of some of our group  of blogging friends have died - and we have shared their grief in our postings and comments.

 

But there is another kind of thinning going on.  I frequently go down my list of links of favorite blogs. I have had to delete several of them because they are no longer posting. Some have blocked their blogs to comments.  I don't know if this means they are only allowing certain friends access or that they are really out of business. Some stated that they have dropped out because they were unhappy with technical problems they have with Spaces. Others have just said that they were going to take a hiatus. Maybe they have run out of things to say.

 

So, in a way, the blogging world is a metaphor for real life. We see anguish.  We see triumphs. We see people who have just given up.

 

Penny and I have been at this since April of 2005. Blogging was something of a novelty then. We used to have to explain what a blog was. Today blogging is more generally understood.

 

We have gotten a  lot of satisfaction from it - and some recognition: a mention in the NY Times, an article on the front page of the Bloomington Pantagraph - selection as a Best of Spaces. Some 175,00 visits have been made to Late Life Crisis.  We find that astounding.

 

Well, we will keep on posting.  We enjoy it - and we greatly enjoy hearing from our circle of regular visitors. Hope you all feel the same.

I recently got a tip that there is a 94-year old guy in the UK who is blogging regularly. Am I deflated to find this?  Oh no, I am delighted! You see, compared to him, I feel  like a kid!

 

This is true about people in late late life: We are buoyed up when we find someone older than us who is getting around and doing useful things.

 

Also, I admit to feeling amused when people assume that I am retired:

 

"You are still working?! So, who do you work for"

 

"Myself."

 

"What do you do?"

 

When I explain that I am a virtual partner in a commercial enewsletter business, they look confused. When I explain that my client company is in Miami and that I am working with members of their team who live in Argentina, Atlanta, Orlando and Los Angeles, they just shake their head. The concept of a guy my age being involved with a business based on Internet technology boggles their minds. And they seem amazed to hear that I use the Internet tools (Messenger, Skype) to remain in communication with these people. 

 

The assumption is that, if you are in late life, computers are too technical for you. In fact, a lot of the late life people I talk to tell me that they just aren't comfortable messing around with computers. Well, that is their loss - I have no sympathy for them. They could be taking advantage of this wonderful technology.

 

So, what has age to do with getting involved with this kind of stuff? The answer is, "Absolutely nothing!"

Pete has told me that he has given you the organ recital. Unfortunately, the right leg had three blockages whereas the left only had one. My recoup time is slower.  This ticks me off!

 

Two days ago the pastor of our church, Tim Schrag, paid me a visit.  I truly admire him, and his wife Sue, because a year ago they biked from the East Coast to the West. I'm not talking motor - I'm talking pedal pushing. We were about at the end of our visit when he suggested to me that I should think more about the hereafter. "Oh, but Pastor Tim," I replied.  "I think about hereafter every day. Every morning I leave my bedroom and walk into the kitchen and think, or say, out loud, "What am I here after?"

 

There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an oncoming train. It was a comment from my daughter Holly that put things straight.   "Mom, it isn't you or your age. It happens to me, too."

 

I replied, "Thank God."

 

And that is my religious observation for the week.

 

 

Some of you know that when we blather on about our physical condition, we call it The Organ Recital. Well, people in late life can easily become preoccupied with their afflictions.  Why not? They seem to proliferate like rabbits.  Also, there is always the somber thought that the latest symptoms may be the harbinger of a terminal illness.

 

This recital is about Penny.  But first, because we have had thousands of new visitors to Late Life,as a result of the blurb on the Spaces home page, I'll explain that my wife, Penny, is blind - has been since her late teens. She is well known in this city as the blind massage therapist. The local newspaper ran a big story about her on the front page a few months ago.

 

Penny is indominatable. There is nothing she can't do except drive a car. Even, so I do not feel comfortable leaving the keys in the switch when she is with me and I go into pay for the gas. If you saw Scent of A Woman, with Al Pacino, you know what I mean.

 

One of Penny's late life condtions is blockage of the arteries in her legs. This causes extreme cramping and coldness. A month ago, they did balloon angioplasty on her left leg and it was successful.  So, on Monday of this week they successfully did the right leg. Today she is staying in bed with considerable pain in the area of the groin where they enter the artery. But, I can guarantee one thing.  By Friday she will be wanting to go back to work.

 

When it comes to the physical condition, late life can sometimes suck. But, what the hey.  Consider the alternative.

Here is one from our friend Lorrie that made me chuckle"

 

Getting old is so hard at times.  Yesterday I got Preparation 'H' mixed up
with Poli-Grip.

NOW, I talk like an asshole but my gums don't itch.