Getting Old Sucks

Especially when waking up is like starting a car on a -30C day…you just can’t get yourself cranked up and running like you can when it’s warm, or in my case, when I was younger.

I used to literally bounce out of bed in the mornings, head downstairs to the stairclimber and spend 30 minutes bopping to tunes and stepping away.  Those days are seemingly over.  I would bounce out of bed now if someone dropped a bowling ball onto the other side and launched me.

Stair climbing now is heading down to the kitchen, putting the kettle on for tea and climbing the stairs back up to the office.

So waking up this morning was just like any other day in the past few years, cranky and grumbly and peeved I couldn’t sleep in longer. Why is it you can’t sleep when you get older??? 

As I walked into the living room, hubby was all smiles and blurted out a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I think I am beginning to dislike cheery people in the morning.  But I love my hubby and therefore he is lucky.

Tea, get the tea going and keep it coming. An hour later, I was finally feeling ‘awake’, breakfast was over and it was time to let the lounging commence!  I love birthdays for one thing, the right to do absolutely nothing if you don’t want to without any repercussions. I had a lot of nothing planned to fill the day.

But for some reason, nothing has a way of turning into something.

It was shaping up to be a beautiful day at the Homestead for mid-November.  We headed out for our daily walk (we aim for at least 2 if not 3 days out of the weekend) under clear, sunny skies and the temp was nudging up to 7 or 8C.  Almost unheard of being this far north.  As we turned out onto the road from the driveway, we walked over to the big, wooden box that is filled with sand.  Being that our road is a private road, we need to supply our own sand for icy/snowy days.  On our walk the day before, hubby took a peek inside the box to see how much sand was in it….we got a surprise when we looked inside….

 

3 Deer mice decided it would make a great place to live.  In the center, on top of the sand was a rounded mound of feathers, fur and whatever else and out popped 3 mice that started frantically running all around the inside.  I didn’t have my camera yesterday, so we were back today to get a shot of the little critters. 

After harassing the mice, we continued on our way.  Out past Oddball’s pasture (whose name we finally found out is Shiloh – a perfectly suited name for a brown/white Paint mare) to the end of Bear Creek Road and then turned to head back.  I marveled at the clear, blue skies, and the stark contrast of bare woods on either side of the road…and the silence, complete silence, so quiet it was deafening.  Best part of the Great White North is the silence.  We did not see any deer today, sometimes one bolts across the road on our walks.  Hopefully they were still in hiding, as the hunters have been out in full force the last couple weeks breaking the silence with the sound of rifle shots.

An hour later we arrived back at the Homestead.  Hot chocolate time, I love a hot, steaming cup of cocoa after a brisk walk.  Being that today was my birthday, a splash of Bailey’s went into the mug in place of the milk – mmmmm.  I settled down on the couch and picked up my knitting, yes, still with the knitting fetish as I have lots of projects planned for the coming Christmas holidays.  My blackberry was still buzzing, family members sending their Happy Birthday wishes electronically.  Another good thing about birthdays, you can choose how and where you want to spend the day.  By yourself or surrounded by family at home.

We had a bite to eat for lunch and were all prepared to lounge away the afternoon when a thought popped into my head…Fire! We are supposed to have a campfire this afternoon!  We talked about it the night before and that we were going to roast weenies on the fire for lunch….dang, missed the weenies for lunch, but the camp fire idea was still a go.

I tossed the knitting aside and grabbed my pullover, camera and sunglasses.  Hubby headed out to get the fire going and bring out the lawn chairs.  Even with the sun being so low in the sky, it was plenty warm enough.  Almost no breeze too.  I love the smell of a campfire.  Watching the smoke curl upwards and watching the flames is mesmerizing.

Beverage….would you like a beverage sweetie? Dang right I would, can’t have a campfire without the requisite cold, frosty beer, even in November – so typically Canadian.

We spent the afternoon watching the waves ripple in the slight breeze and enjoying each other’s company.  Talking about anything and everything and just being downright goofy at times. Aside from the occasional crackle of wood in the fire, and the incessant ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dees’ of the Chickadees on the feeder, the silence was ever present. In summertime, the lake is filled with boat traffic and the sounds of people in/on them, but all the boats and water toys are put away for the winter and the only sounds from the lake are the ripples and splashes of wildlife.  There is a pair of muskrats that have been hanging around lately and the merganser ducks are still diving in their hunt for minnows.  The mallards seemed to have disappeared, flying south to warmer climes and the mergansers should be leaving soon too.  As we sat, we heard the call of a loon down in the bay….first one I had heard in weeks as I thought they had already left.   

The sun started sinking below the tree line of the island offshore, casting long shadows and bringing with it a sharp chill.  Wow, amazing the temp difference between sun and shade.  I headed in to start prepping for dinner and hubby extinguished the fire and put the chairs away.  Who knows if we will get another opportunity to have another, but it was great to spend the afternoon outdoors today.

For my birthday dinner, steak was on the menu.  I love a nice, big, tender slab of beef cooked on the BBQ, it just screams summer.  I for one cannot bring myself to ever cook a steak in the house, it just wouldn’t be the same without that BBQ flavour.  Roasted mini red potatoes slathered in garlic butter along with roasted carrots, and don’t forget the mushrooms, what is a steak without sautéed mushrooms?!

Dessert was leftover banana bread, I had made one at home before we left to come up and with it, a glass of Bailey’s on the rocks.  This stuff is so creamy and yummy, and definitely not good for the waistline, so I limit having this luscious liqueur for special occasions; otherwise I would be as big as a house.

All in all, a stellar day, and I want to thank my hubby for taking the day off and spending it with me, it would have been very boring otherwise as he makes life fun.

I am now another year older and apparently crankier in the mornings, so I thought perhaps I should make it my New Year’s Resolution to be more cheerful???  Heck no, what would be the fun in that?  The best part about getting older is having the right to do and say anything you please, cranky old folks do it all the time… definitely something to aspire to…

Happy Birthday to me.

2 thoughts on “Getting Old Sucks

  1. Well Happy Belated Birthday, my dear. Finally got back to your blogs. Now ewwww, ick, ick, ick. That mouse is just plain friggen nasty. HATE them, all tiny creatures like that. If it has 4 legs, and a tail and fits in a cup-it belongs under a cat’s paw, ewwwwwwww. They actually send chills down my back and cause me to grab the boys’ nerf or air soft guns and shoot madly in the house when I see them. EWWWWWWWw can you tell I don’t like mice? So glad you had an enjoyable day with a fire and the love of your life. I can’t beleive your water is still open? We have been under ice for weeks now. Pass the Baileys and I will have a shot in my coffee to toast your cranky, old, new you 😛 I also await the day that no one cares when I have a cranky comment. One good thing about getting old, you can say what’s on your mind without caring if you hurt anyone’s feelings………oh wait, I do that now.

    • Thank you chica for the birthday wishes, was an awesome day…if I had known of your mouse phobia in advance, I would have photo-shopped the picture to make it into a cute, adorable Disney mouse 🙂 and yes, I do know you say what’s on your mind now….you will get even better as you age – like a fine wine 😀

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