Autumn, aging and Daylight Savings Time

It's been a long time since I posted. Last July I believe. We finally got some leafy color but many of our trees have just dropped dried up unautumnal leaves due to the months of heat and lack of rain here. But the few that someone watered, such as the city park department, have prettied up better. Those above are trees lining the street in front of apartments and a couple of businesses that water more than our condo association does.

It's (2023) been an up and down thing.  My youngest sister by 20 years lost her beloved husband Michael to cancer. It was swift, diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Six months and he was gone. Then she lost her teaching job, diagnosed with early onset dementia. Noticeable enough for the district to require her to be tested. We/she are still not sure how much is dementia and how much is the impact of multiple serious losses. She is managing on her own and working her way though the impact and piles of paper to be processed on her own and help from friends and her young adult kids. 

I am eldest of four sisters and at this point (81) am the only one without a diagnosis of dementia. I've been tested, but what fresh hell is this? My two years younger sister has had it for a few years and is in the care of her very loving children now. The nine year younger sister has been diagnosed and has appointments with a geriatrician which she has repeatedly cancelled and is very angry about. Neither of our parents had it. Mom, a life long smoker, died of emphysema at 74. Dad was 84 and died of heart disease. I thnk life is kind of a crap shoot. 

I seem to have most of my marbles but I'm physically slowed, arthritic, etc. some of the common physical malfunctions of 80+ people. I cannot pick up or chase one of our bigger blessings, my Great-grandson Issac. He will be two years old in a few days.  He is a darling, very busy little boy said every grandparent on earth. He makes us all smile. Although as he turns two he doesn't always think we are so wonderful, just roadblocks to a larger world.  But he is wonderful.

A not always perfect service I use is ordering groceries for delivery online. Do any of you use one? I like to go shop up my own but some weeks I am less than physically up to it. It costs more but they drop it right at my door, Doordash I think. I try to give the drivers a nice tip especially when is was snowing. Funny enough both my grandmothers had delivery available to them. One in a very small WA town whose owners routinely delivered groceries to the elderly, and the other in Portland, OR where a small neighborhood grocer a few blocks up the street delivered. Everything changes and also nothing changes. I could order for pick up and send my liscensed grand-kids but most them work after school, at a large grocery, haha!

My own personal goal for next week is to try to stop reading the news. It has been my habit for years to drink my morning coffee while reading the New York Times, the Guardian and BBC as well as the local news sites. The Israel/Palestine war is scaring the beejesus out of me. And the grandkids in my family are reaching draft age. Two are/were in ROTC and one is a sharpshooter. I still remember the Gulf War when my boys were that age and all their friends wanted to join the Marines. I also remember when my own friends went to Vietnam and those that came back were never the same. I'm praying for peace.

Be well, be kind. Hugs.