Middle Age

Often, usually about once a day, I think of something to blog about and compose a few lines in my head. Unfortunately I am never near a computer when this happens, and lately my memory has been SHOT so when I do get online, which is another whole story, I can't remember the pithy lines I came up with. Heck, I can't even remember the topic most of the time.

Since we gave up paying for internet service at home, I haven't been able to email much. We can receive the messages (is that download or upload?) from our old Charter account but we can't send messages from that account anymore so I can't reply. And my address book is in Outlook Express and I have no idea how to reconfigure it for non-Charter email. We have a Gmail address, but I just learned yesterday how to check it. In the Fall we could only find secured networks (including the neighbors', which irritated me greatly) but since Christmas we've been able to jump on some unidentified unsecured network for Internet access from home. Oh, but the catch is you have to hold your mouth right. Literally. The only reception is when the computer is operated from one (and only one) of the four seats at our dining room table or when balanced precariously on the back of the couch. In your lap on the couch - no network. Literally not 12 inches lower. Urgh.

I am back in glasses full time, 8 1/2 years after laser surgery. Doc says all the reading I've done these last few years made my eye muscles strengthen in the "reading up close" position and diminished the eyes' ability to see distance. Urgh.

Lately I've lost lots of items - my black mittens, my dictation recorder, a white turtleneck. I'm feeling very forgetful.

Tonight I wore something that brings back good memories. It's my blue plastic clothes, an old walking outfit. I bought this set (pants and jacket) one day when Shotaro Ueda was 5 years old. (I believe he is about to turn 13 in March) I took his mom with me to Seneca and Anderson for the day and we didn't get back to Greenwood until almost 6pm. His day care was closing and he was crying, scared that we weren't going to get there to pick him up. We made it in time, but this was just before EVERYONE started carrying a cell phone and we didn't have one with us to call ahead. I had bought this outfit that day at Lady Footlocker in Anderson. I don't really remember shopping that day, but I'll never forget Shotaro's trauma.

Another memory associated with this outfit is that I wore it at the first ever Baker's Dozen 13 hour mtn bike race sponsored by SORBA-CSRA. I reached across the picnic table, over a candle, for a cookie made by Angela Allen, and melted a hole in the right sleeve. Strangely I was never upset about the hole. That day was so fun; the hole just reminds me of it.

Anyway, the blue plastic outfit served me well for many years. Then early in the Spartanburg years I bought an orange, white and grey Nike pants/jacket combo at the mall. No great memories with that outfit, although I wore it plenty and had many good walks. Then last year I bought a navy and white combo to walk in. It is a bit lightweight for winter, so I'm not wearing it much these days, but it has been my primary leisurewear and workout gear for a while now. Right now I'm in love with black Everest pants by North Face. Bought them in Colorado at Christmas. Could have and should have bought the brown pair and the blue pair with jacket too, but I didn't know at the time I was going to love them so much. So I've been shopping online, but can only find them in red and in white. No thanks.

Some things about the new year have gone well. Work hasn't been quite as wild as it was late last year, although there have been moments of madness. Church is great. The family is good. Enjoyed a short visit with Papa Doug and his boy Kade, who sang the Clemson alma mater for me. He knows ALL the words, at age 2 1/2. My father-in-law took me to the Clemson/NCState basketball game on Tuesday night last week, which made me VERY happy. Alan and I are walking in the neighborhood several nights a week. Better than being couch taters but we aren't getting in any tandem rides. We can walk in the dark, but not cycle. Still we are very excited about signing up this coming weekend for GTR X - the 10th annual Georgia Tandem Rally (our 4th) in Albany in May. I've already made hotel reservations, and registration doesn't open until Sunday.