Drinking

 

It's possible to not have a problem with alcohol in the addiction sense but still have a problem with alcohol in the "you're a total asshole when you drink and it's unpleasant to be around you" sense.

Speaking of a friend.

Memoirs

 Like many people, as I get older I wish I had asked more questions about the lives of people in my life when I was younger.   I wish I had asked my parents, who did tell me stories about their lives and the times they lived through, a lot more than I did.

I wish I had asked my grandmothers (I had no living grandfather) about their history, I wish I had asked my father's sisters more about our family history.

Which brings me to the point of this entry.   One woman I worked with years ago had been in the Resistance during the second world war and told me it had been the most vivid time in her life.   Although her family weren't particularly interested in her life she decided to write a memoir about her life so that her story would be available to them if they developed an interest in the future after she was gone.  

I now see what a terrific thing that was to do.  They might never be interested but as long as someone cares enough to take care of her writings it will be there for her descendants.

I have no family left, no children or nieces or nephews so there's no one to leave any writings behind for.  This blog is as close as I'll get to leaving a record.  It will be around for a while but I assume after enough time passes Google will delete it.

Which leads me to a question.  How much do I want to reveal here?  There as things in my life, not horrible darks secrets, no crimes or anything, but personal things that I have never revealed to another soul.  Do I want to write about them anonymously here so that at least they've been "told" and are in a small way a part of the world, or do I want to keep them to myself and let them die with me?

Autumn 2025

 The weather the last two months has been unusually warm for the time of year - as though summer continued far longer than normal.  The weather has cooled off now and feels more like it should at this time of year but the leaves now seem to be changing colour and falling very quickly.  Almost like they're making up for lost time.  Autumn is my favourite time of year and I feel like I'm being cheated a bit - that there's not going to be a lot of lovely cool weather before the trees are all bare and we're having winter temperatures.

I do like winter.  It's a vast improvement over hot humid summer weather.  But autumn weather is perfect.

So I remind myself to enjoy each autumn day that happens.  I'm of an age where I find myself wondering at times if this will be my last autumn or my last year.  Or even my last day.  That's not a bad thing,  It's doesn't hurt to focus on the "now" and appreciate it.  

New Store

Simons has opened a new store in the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto.  This past week I went to take a look and I was favourably impressed.

I thought it would be very expensive but there were definitely things that were within my price range, and their clothing was very nice.  My feeling is that a lot of their items could be called "classic", things that are stylish now and will stay in style for a long time. 

But this leaves me with a bit of a dilemma.  My life now is a very casual one and I almost always wear very casual clothing.  I have a blazer tucked away in a plastic garment bag in the closet - I haven't opened that bag for years - it could be full of moths for all I know.  I just haven't needed to wear it since times have changed. - you're no longer required to wear a jacket and tie to funerals or business appointments- I suppose weddings may still require it but I don't have people in my life who are likely to invite me to one (and I would probably decline the invitation if they did - I just am not willing to deal with formal occasions anymore).  

So I can see myself upgrading my clothing to a slightly more sophisticated level, but I'm not sure if I really want to do that.  The idea has a certain appeal for me, like the way I see people dressed in movies from the 1930s and 1940s and think how nice they look, how they dress like grownups.

But will I do it?  Will I make the effort?

Time will tell.

Excuse

 

Looking back on my life I have to admit that generally (although not in all circumstances) I am a lazy person.  If something does not seem important to me I find it hard to make myself be bothered to do anything about it.

Being old has the advantage of having the built in excuse - 

"I'm old, I'm not up for that, I don't have the energy or the strength."

Trite

 

I know this has been said before, and often, but today I was thinking about a time in past when my behaviour was, regrettably, really awful.  It's fifty years later and I still cringe.  I wish I could go back and slap myself.  And I am, in all honesty, just so grateful that there was no internet, no social media, and no permanent record.  It's trite to point this out again, but young people today are stuck with this internet record of their entire lives.  I honestly feel for them.  Because when we're young it's so easy to do stupid things without really really thinking before we act.

Voyagers

 

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched from earth in 1977.

The information I have been able to find lists their currents speeds as 38,000 mph for Voyager 1 and 34,500 mph for Voyager 2.  They are currently less than one light-day away from earth. 

Voyager 1 will be one light year away in 17,600 years.

Voyager 2 will be one light year away in 19,400 years.

(The nearest star from Earth is about 4 light years away. I find these figures a little helpful in trying to grasp just how huge the galaxy and universe are.)

The projections I can find expect they will not directly encounter any stars and the probability of any sort of collision with anything is very very low.

(These findings are from internet searches, I've have no direct knowledge to judge their accuracy.)

Right now I'm finding the world situation so very disturbing.  I don't know how bad it will get, will civilization survive, will Western civilization with its scientific knowledge survive, will the world descend into a dark age, will humans actually kill themselves off?

So for me there's something immensely comforting knowing that these bits of human ingenuity with their golden records of data about us, artifacts that were created and launched during my lifetime, will most probably continue moving through the galaxy for millions and even billions of years. They will probably never be seen again by intelligent life but they exist, no matter what happens to earth or humans, those little bits of us are out there flying through the void.

Thoughts on The World

 

I'm in my late seventies.  I've seen a lot happen in the world in the last half of the twentieth century and the first quarter of this one.

Many amazing things -- DNA, satellites, moon landings, space telescopes, microwaves, computers, cell phones, the internet, ebooks.

Also many terrible things - wars, assassinations, famines, terrorism, natural disasters, AIDS, SARS, Covid.

But right now the world seems very dangerous, as though it is poised for disaster.  I sometimes feel like humans somehow just have this cyclical need for some kind of horrible violent destructive event to happen.  As though they need to have this huge purge of feelings that have built up.

Movie: On the Beach (1959)

 

I read the book by Nevil Shute when I was quite young, probably in my early teens, and was quite affected  by it.   Nor frightened or disturbed really, just moved.

I'm not quite sure when I first saw the movie but thought it was wonderful.

I recently watched it again (thank you Tubi) and was just as impressed with it.  The cast of course is wonderful, the music is very well done, the script is good, the direction, everything just works.

I love the fact that it is in black and white.  I hope nobody EVER colourizes it.  

What I think is very special about the film is how, in spite of the subject matter, very gentle it is.  There's a loveliness to how the characters treat one another.

And the close up of Ava Gardner at the end, her hair blowing gently in the wind.  She is incredibly beautiful. 

Netflix: The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

 

First off, I loved the book on which this movie is based.

I'm always a little leery of watching a movie based on a book I've read since they're so often disappointing and miscast.  

In this cast the casting was pretty good - not totally my vision of the characters but acceptable.  And the actors were very good - except for the character Stephen.  I don't know if it was the script or the actor but he came across as unbelievable and without any depth whatsoever.

They also changed the ending.  I know they can't follow the book exactly, I know they can't include all the subtleties of plotting from a book which is naturally much more detailed than a film.  But with a book that is as beloved as this one I think it's a big mistake to change the ending!

Richard Osman is a wonderful writer.  There's a depth and lyricism to his prose that just isn't captured at all in this movie.

The movie is fun and I guess you could call it The Thursday Murder Club Lite.

So overall I'd say yes, watch the movie, it's fine.  But:  Read the book.

Unsettled

As a senior I'm finding myself more and more often feeling unsettled in public situations.  

I have always felt a certain degree of uncomfortableness in public and social situations since I am an introvert and have never been all that comfortable with people in general.

But more and more lately I find myself uneasy when I'm out in the world.

Earlier this week I was out to dinner with friends and afterward was walking home on my own.  I live in a mixed neighbourhood- it's not terribly unsafe but it's definitely not what would be called totally safe either.  It turned dark as I was walking and I just felt uneasy and vulnerable being out on the street alone.  

I often find myself feeling uncertain and vulnerable when I'm out in the world, even in daylight hours.  I just no longer trust that other people are non-malevolent .   I just no longer trust that I'll be able to deal with situations that might arise.

Movie: Frankenstein (2015)

 

I came across this film by accident on Tubi.. I had no idea it even existed.

How many versions of Frankenstein have there been by now?  I wonder if we're most fascinated by Frankenstein or vampires or zombies.  Werewolves and mummies are far behind.

This version stars Xavier Samuel, Carrie-Anne Moss, Danny Huston and Tony Todd in the main roles.

My first reaction was that this was just another low budget flick, it surprised me that Carrie-Anne Moss had agreed to do it.  But as I watched I liked it more and more and by the end I came to feel that it was something rather special.

I haven't read the Mary Shelley original so I'm comparing it more to some sort of amalgam of the 1930s Frankenstein films and the versions that have followed.   

I liked the way things such as throwing the child in the water,  the blind friend,  Elizabeth (here as mother figure rather that fiancee/wife) were retained and reimagined.  

There was a lot of violence but it never felt gratuitous.  

There was a quality to the film that felt what we used to refer to as an "art film" back when European films were not as available in North America - I first became aware of them at campus showings when I was in university and at alternative cinemas that appeared in Toronto in the 1960s.  

The cast was solid throughout.  Especially Xavier Samuel and Carrie-Anne Moss.

I did find the voice-over spoken by the monster a bit jarring since it was obviously by someone with vocabulary and intellectual understanding and it gave the (false) impression that he somehow survived and developed.

For me a sure sign that a film is something special is that I find myself still thinking about it  or emotionally responding to it days later.  That has certainly happened in this case.

Thunk!

 

As part of growing old I have noticed that my body is not as elastic as it used to be.

Now I find if I step down and the distance is longer than I expected, or I (not a good idea!) jump down from even a small height, or try to run, that my body does not rebound a bit like it used to.  There is no softness to my landing.  My body just drops down thunk when I make contact and does not bounce back even a little bit.

It's not painful or anything but it does cause a feeling of heaviness. 

And age.

Blog Recommendation

 

Good Intentions

www.yougavemespeech.blogspot.com

Inner Image

 

When I was growing up my parents, aunts and uncles, told me how although they were older they still felt the same inside.

And they were right.  However my external appearance may have changed inside the feeling of being me stayed essentially constant.  

In these later years I have many times been a bit surprised out in the world seeing myself in a mirror or reflected in a surface.  As though I had to remind myself that I actually am an old man.

I have felt myself failing somewhat in the past year, not able to do physically what I have always done, not as quick, not as energetic, occasionally having trouble remembering names or words.

Along with that I have noticed recently that my inner image has changed too.  Internally I think of myself as an old man.  My refection no longer surprises me.

A Vulgar Display

 

Many years ago when I was quite young I saw a movie on tv.  I think it was probably Love is a Ball with Hope Lange and Glenn Ford.  I haven't tracked it down to rewatch it to be certain but that's not necessary for what I want to say.

What I remember is a romantic comedy with the usual shenanigans going on but at one point the wealthy heiress, played by Hope Lange, is involved with something that her disapproving grandmother refers to as 

"a vulgar display of wealth."

That phrase really struck me at the time and it has stayed with me all my life.  I think it gave me a shorthand reminder that we are capable of, and allowed, and should, make judgments of things in our lives and in the world.  

In our modern world there is no dearth of examples of vulgar displays of wealth but what is much more common are vulgar displays of consumption.  

Marketing, advertising, social media - all show us things and people joyously using them.  But really, isn't a lot of it just too much?

I"m not saying we shouldn't have nice things or that everything we own has to be functional and sensible. But I do think we need to be conscious of why we have things and that we have them for our own reasons and not because of outside influences.

In the same vein I think we should be judging the roots of many of our desires for things -the influencers, the advertisers and marketers, the people who are only famous for being famous.

It's far too easy to waste our precious living time following external influences without judging them. 

Less?

 

I have posted before about minimalism and about how I'm reasonably satisfied with the amount of things I currently own.

However.  

Recently "Miss Minimalist" (who was my most helpful guide when I was first beginning my minimalist life) posted on Instagram asking, hypothetically, what would we take if we had to evacuate in a hurry with just what we could carry in a backpack.

It's an interesting question but it has prompted in me this feeling that I would like to get rid of almost everything I own.  I know this is unreasonable and it is not going to happen but that feeling is with me.

At my age I'm not about to start sleeping on a piece of foam on the floor or living with one plate, one cup, one set of silverware etc.   

Yet, while not realistic, just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.

Uncomfortable

 

I live in downtown Toronto. I don't know if it's just me but since the warmer weather arrived something feels different.   

I feel that I've really aged this past year (and being ill last fall certainly didn't help with that) and I know old people feel, and are, more vulnerable, but I don't think that's all there is to it.  

I just feel very uncomfortable walking around now, as though people are angry in general and a hairbreadth away from loosing control.  There's just this sense of hostility everywhere. 

Certainly even simple acts of courtesy and few.

Of course simply the number of people living downtown has ballooned with the construction of all these tall condo buildings.  Each one has hundreds of residents but sidewalk space has not increased so maybe it's not surprising that tempers are short when we're constantly trying to navigate around each other.

This morning I walked toward a couple walking their dog on the sidewalk.  They nicely moved to one side but when I came level with this large dog it suddenly lunged at me and started growling and barking.  I jumped away and he pulled that dog back but it really really scared me.  And all I got from them was a very insipid, "Sorry about that."

Overall I just find it more difficult to simply walk around going about my business.  I have always felt a bit uncomfortable walking at night but now I have the same feeling anytime I go out.

Less Choice

 

I've been noticing for a while now that there is less choice of product in the grocery stores. (Certainly in the many grocery stores I patronize in downtown Toronto.)

Some brands such as Kleenex and Stouffer's Frozen Entrees have disappeared altogether. (Both of which I miss.)

Campbell's soups have far fewer varieties that they used to.

I have written before about the difficulty in finding powder type laundry detergent.  The only store I can find now that carries the powdered form of Tide is Canadian Tire.  

The latest loss I have noticed is in the variety of jams.  There used to be all sorts of interesting options and now there are very few.  

Movies: Train to Busan (and its sequel) Peninsula

I don't know why zombies movies are so popular - I'm sure lots of people have come up with reasons- but,  bottom line, they're fun to watch.

I've been thinking about why I liked Train to Busan more and I think it's because, once you accept the zombies, the film is about ordinary people reacting in believable ways to a terrible situation.  Some are braver or more moral than others, but they're just people. You can relate to them. I cared about many of them and the ending was very emotional.  (Personally, I think it's one of the best zombie films ever made.)

In Peninsula there's some of that but many of the characters are anything but ordinary.  Extremely capable, extremely smart, extremely stupid, extremely evil.  I think I'm trying to say that I can relate to the people in the first film but in Peninsula the story and people are just a little too extreme to feel relatable the way they did in Train to Busan.   Not that Peninsula is a bad movie -  it's well done, well produced, well acted, a lot of fun to watch.  

Flying By

 

I've probably written before about how what "they" say about time seeming to move faster as you grow old is true.

But just lately I've been feeling something new again - that each day just doing basic things like showering, brushing teeth, making meals, doing laundry, seem to fill in almost the whole day.  It often feels that I've done nothing but these routine maintenance type things and the day is over.

I don't know if there's anything I can about this.  I will try to be sure to set apart time for reading and other things that really matter to me but still, in the end, the chores need to get done.

Spaces

 

Like everyone, over the years friends and family have died and I miss them.

It is not surprising that at my age such losses are more common but what I find, while I still remember and mourn losses from the past, is that these more recent deaths seem to have left gaps in my life, in my day to day life, that I don't think can ever be filled.  There's this sense of spaces in my life that will be with me now until I die.

Netflix Movie: Bullet Train Explosion

 

Wowza!

This was great fun.  Well done and never dull.

It reminds me of those wonderful all-star cast disaster flicks form the last century such as 

Airport

The Toweting Inferno

Earthquake

Movie: All of Us Strangers

 

I had read the book this movie was based on and liked it very much.

The movie of course is different, but similar, and I felt they did a good job with the adaptation.

The cast was uniformly good.

But Andrew Scott, Andrew Scott.

He was wonderful in this role.  Most actors are lucky if they get one or two really good scenes in a film, but here he manages to make something shining about almost every scene he is in.  He lights up the screen, he breaks your heart.

Bed

As a teenager I was one of those people who could happily sleep until 10 or 11 in the morning, or even until noon.  A total night of uninterrupted deep sleep.  In those years my favourite way to read was on the bed on my stomach, propped up on my elbows with the book in front of me.

This continued into my twenties and thirties and forties.  The problem was that is was a deep sleep and very difficult to wake up from.  My alarm would go off and it felt like the idea of moving and getting out of bed was almost beyond my capability.  I remember one period of my life where I had two alarms set, one across the room that would keep up an awful buzzing sound until I got up and shut it off.  Even then I could listen to it for a long time before I could convince myself to move.

Getting up got much easier as I aged.  I might take a bit of time to get up and moving but I did it without a lot of fussing and moaning.

Now that I'm old I'm again finding it really difficult to get moving in the morning.  I can lie comfortably for a couple of hours thinking I should get up but just feeling unwilling to make the effort to move.  Often what finally gets me moving is the need to use the bathroom.  My bed is without doubt my favourite  place in my home.  I read there,  I watch TV there.  I sometimes eat there while watching TV.  I do my email there.

Interior Design

 

I like looking at design magazines.  Mainly I'm looking at the floor plans of the homes and the placement of windows, patios and such.  To a degree the layout of furniture.  Lowest on my interest list are the colours, draperies and decorations.  (Although I occasionally see a room that I think is really lovely.). But what always comes to mind when I see a room filled with elaborate light fixtures and paintings and art and objects dumped everywhere is that these designers and not people who have to do their own vacuuming and dusting.

Use Again

 

Recently I bought some dumplings for lunch and the bottom part of the container was a nice oval plastic dish.  I always hate to discard things like that - I start wondering if I could make use of it somehow, perhaps as a serving dish for snacks or candy.  That line of thought of course took me back to my days as a student when I had my first apartment.  It was furnished with hand me downs from my family and friends, including an easy chair and shelves that a friend had rescued from someone's garbage.  

I think I was just as happy, or happier, with all those things than with anything "better" and "brand new" that I have had since.

Even before my formal self-identification as a minimalist I liked "making do" and "repurposing".  Not wasting or spending unnecessarily was something I learned growing up.  My mother's "good" dishes were actually a set that she had collected piece by piece as a gas station giveaway.  That was something that was still happening in the 1960's - my first set of dishes in my apartment were another gas station giveaway. 

I remember jam and peanut butter coming in drinking glasses.  Or people just used jam jars as glasses.  I remember towels and face cloths coming as giveaways in boxes of laundry soap.

I think nowadays with IKEA and Dollarama and such stores it's easy and inexpensive just to go and buy what you need.  No point looking for discards from family.  No need to reuse and repurpose.

In my days of major downsizing twenty-five years ago it was the more expensive and "good" things that I usually chose to remove.  It was the basic, functional things that I tended to keep, many of them from my days in that first apartment.

Library

 

I can still remember, so clearly, the day my mother told me I was going with the neighbour kids to join this thing called a library.  I was very young but must have been old enough to be able to read.

I was amazed and thrilled to find that I could borrow books.

The town library at that time was up above a store on the main street of town so it couldn't have been large.  I remember when the new library in its own building opened.

I'm still a regular user of the public library and I can't imagine stopping.  

The recent closures of the Toronto Library due first to the pandemic and then the hacking incident were an unneeded reminder of just how much the library means to me.

"It Gets Better"

 

This is said a lot, is actually a "thing" that is said to comfort people, especially young people, who are being bullied.

It is true, it does get better when you're older and away from school years which is where most bullying seems to happen.  Not to minimize bullying in the workplace or relationships.

But "better" does not mean there are no consequences, no aftereffects.  

Those colour your whole life.

A Casual Cruelty

Many years ago I had a friend who owned three cats. He lived in an apartment and the cats were completely indoor creatures.  The apartment was their whole world.

One cat was completely intimidated by the other two.  One in particular was a real bully.  My friend had to leave a closet sliding door open because the third cat spent her entire life on the top shelf of that closet looking out but rarely leaving.  I don't know when she was able to slip out and eat or use the litter.

Eventually the two other cats died and she was left alone as the only cat.  She was a different creature - friendly and out and about all the time.  She was happy.

Then my friend decided he wanted more than one cat and brought another cat home.

So it was back to the closet shelf for the rest of her life.

I thought then, and still do, that for a person who claimed to love animals it was just simply an incredibly cruel and thoughtless thing to bring another animal into a home where she had for such a little time been free and happy..

It was obvious what would happen when he brought another cat into the home.

I never felt that same about my friend.  This was no doubt one of the reasons that the friendship ended.

 

Full Retreat

"...a man in full retreat from life."

                                                  ? Kurt Vonnegut ?

I almost certain that's a quote from a Kurt Vonnegut book but I can't remember which one and I had no success trying to search it.

In any case, it's a line I've been thinking about recently in regard to my own life.  I doubt it's unique to me, and certainly not true for everyone, but I have been retreating from the world for several years now.  Partly this is because of getting older but I think it's also because aging and being retired has allowed basic parts of my personality to come to the fore.

I think one of the first indicators was when I stopped going to movies because I had come to find audiences just too annoying to tolerate - partly because of their behaviours but also because I just didn't want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of people.   Also having to be there at a set time seemed a bother in a world where most movies appear so quickly on at-home media.  I remember in my thirties running out to see almost every movie the week it opened in the city and at some point I stopped feeling that need.  My feelings about live theatre, concerts etc are much the same, if not more negative.

I have never liked parties. Even with groups that I know well I tend to be shy in larger gatherings so I end up hanging around not talking much and just waiting until I can leave without seeming rude.  I'm reasonably comfortable in groups of up to six or so.

I am someone who has always been very comfortable being on my own.  Back in my twenties and thirties at times I used to feel lonely and long for someone to share my life with but it's been a long time now since I have felt that. (Even then, when I was "dating" someone I would feel annoyed that they would feel that they had a claim on my time.)  I still enjoy getting together with the (limited number of) people in my life but usually I am very happy when the occasion is over and I can go home and be on my own.

I dread having to interact with people.  I show up for medical and dental appointments because it's the reasonable and necessary thing to do.  I put off home repairs and do work arounds with issues as long as I possibly can since I don't want to deal with service people.  

So yes, I'm in full retreat.  This is aided by the online world that is so easily accessed - I can feel in contact with the outside world but not have to deal with it face to face.

I'm not concerned about this.  I'm generally happy at home (except of course when my neighbours make noise!) and I don't miss the things I'm avoiding.   It's like travelling - I know people get a lot out of seeing the world, and I have made a few trips, but when I'm away I'm always waiting to go home.  

In any case, you can't have, do, see, experience everything.  In the end you need to do what's right for you.

Movie: Five (1951)

 

I watched this movie this week (thank you Tubi) for the first time in at least fifty years.  I remembered it so clearly from seeing it all those years ago as a child.  I was surprised how accurate my memory of it is. It certainly made an impression on me back then and I am pleased that I still find it such a good film.

I have looked up reviews of it and while it is overall well thought of I feel that it has been underrated.  I imagine a lot of that has to do with it being thought of as a sci-fi/horror flick and nothing more.  (I do not mean to denigrate sci-fi/horror - I am a lover of the genre, particularly those from the 1950s).

I think there is a lot more going on than just the framework  post-apocalyptic story.  To me it's more about the characters and people in general, in the same way Lord of the Flies is about more than a bunch of schoolboys having an adventure.

It should be noted that when this was made the story of a post-atomic world was a new thing, not yet a bit of a cliche.

I'm very fond of black and white photography and this is very well done here,  There's a grandeur captured in many scenes, a feeling that what is happening to these people is important.  (It reminds me somewhat of the cinematography in films of Leni Riefenstahl (she's a controversial figure but she knew how to use film.)).  I particularly like that so much is conveyed visually without dialogue or commentary (often in just one or two simple shots) - which is something that should happen in a visual media.  

Many reviews commented on the fact that these were unknown actors, as though that made their performances somehow lesser.  All of them were excellent - I have no quibbles at all with any of them.

Unquiet

 

I've lived in this building for twenty years and I've noticed such a difference in noise.

The first few years I almost never heard a sound from inside the building (unless someone was doing actual construction or they were vacuuming the hallways etc) but now I hear all sorts of random clunks and bangs from early morning until late evening.  

The population of this condo has changed over the years and now there are a lot of young (i.e. under 50!) people living here.

I've noticed that many people on this hallway seem incapable of shutting their main door quietly.  They just pull it shut with a thump, or just let it bang shut on its own.

I was wondering if this is because young people just do not have quiet in their lives.  Ever.  They're constantly listening to something or someone so they never experience an absence of noise.  Judging by all the ear buds and such that I see I suspect they are totally addicted to having some sound.  For example the people wandering around this summer, not using ear plugs, and blasting music out of some device and subjecting all the neighbourhood around them to their choice of music.  Or workmen who seem to be incapable of doing outside work on a house unless their radio (truck or portable ) is blaring away.       Quiet is just not a part of their lives.

I've no doubt nattered on about this in other posts since I am a lover of quiet and unwanted noise has been a huge issue for me all of my adult life.

        

Looking Forward

Another year starting.  Of course a time for remembering and looking to the future.   Usually a time of year when it feels like a fresh start.

I find that something has changed this year.  

I think as we go through life we often think of things that we would like to do "someday".  Or places we would like to go "someday".  Or that we will find love, or a better career, or a great place to live -- "someday".

But I'm old now and I realize I'm not thinking in those terms anymore.  I don't think my life is going to change drastically - at least at my instigation, health issues and such could force change upon me - I don't think I'll be travelling anymore or falling in love or accomplishing anything much or really doing anything other than my day to day life as it is.  Not that I'm not enjoying my life.  I just don't think there's time left for new things.