ah, well, styles change. i've been trying to decide what to do about my hair. i have cut it myself for the last 17 years (no training, no, just grit) and it's getting harder to hold my arms up in my old age. so i went to a gal for about six months recently, but she was cutting it into an unflattering style and when we left to go to MYS's wedding this summer, i had to cut some off, just to tame it, because she was on vacation. so .... back to doing it myself.

it's actually pretty easy to do. you just cut it all the same length! ha! no worries. but, of course, in an effort to save my arms, i cut it really short. and then wait a looooong time while it grows out. after the wedding was one of those times when i cut it really short and i just now trimmed some off the bottom. four months later. and it doesn't look too bad.

but my hair's changing as i get older. it is very much into doing its own thing. when i wake up, it stands up three or four different places. the husband laughs. and when i get ready for work, it's as likely to look nice and fluffy as it is to go completely flat and straight. sometimes i despair.

but i'm doing things i haven't done before. just now i was tired of it being on my forehead so i braided my bangs. look nice. or they would if you could see them. the hairs are about two inches long so they aren't the best for a beginning braider. but, hey. i'm at home, settled in for the evening, the husband is watching football. no worries.

is that smoke i smell?

many ways to touch someone

if someone you know and care for is in a nursing home and but a shell of their former self, expose them to music and see if it helps them want to be part of the world again. touching video. thanks, husband.

age-related

i've always been a brunette and i like my hair. in my twenties it was long and sleek and pretty. in the sunlight it would show some red hairs and sometimes you'd see a purple sheen. i thought that was cool. these days my hair reminds me a lot of my mother's .... she was a blonde.

flexible flyer!

oh my god, this woman is 86 years old. she is totally amazing!

the little things

dear diary, i've probably never told you this before, but getting old sucks. it's not just that you're getting older but it's the little things. a new wrinkle to mar your soft skin. unexplained skin tags and moles that turn up. age-spots that aren't nearly as cute as freckles. your gorgeous hair thinning out in a most horrifying way. a hair on your chin getting coarse and obnoxiously long. your eyesight playing pranks. your legs not wanting to lift up your body after you've bent down. your teeth getting discolored which must be from the pop you drink since you've never smoked.

it's just sad, i tell you. sad and bad. and figuring out ways to handle the little things is a challenge extraordinaire, although i suppose a person does best by just accepting it and dealing with the reality. so, where's the instruction guide?

getting old is partly adventure and partly horror movie. i went to the eye doctor the other day because i had noticed, a number of months ago, that one particular ‘floater’ was always there in the same place. i didn’t go immediately because i wasn’t in any discomfort, it’s so hard to get away from work that i wanted to roll it up with a regular visit, and because the insurance company wasn’t going to pay anything unless it was more than a year since i’d gone previously.

after the eye doctor VERY thoroughly checked things out, he said it looked like my retina may have torn a little, but that it looked like my body was fixing it. he wanted me to come back in 3-4 months so he could see the progress.

he mentioned that if a bunch of floaters showed up, or one showed up persistently, or if a dark curtain covered half my vision, or anything strange happened, that i was to see him immediately. he also mentioned that several years ago, cataracts had started, but they hadn’t progressed.

do you know what this means? i’ve been moved out of the people-who-will-live-forever category into the people-who-might-die-someday category. i mean, these eye problems are things which happen to old people who do eventually die. honestly, it’s just amazing to think that includes me! who would have thought?!

culture shift

it's interesting how getting older not only gives me wrinkles, but it subtly affects my perception. i saw a headline this morning -- A 'Legit' Pirate Bay Makes Sense In Theory, If Not Practice.

i visualized a white-sand, turquoise-water, curved, private beach and wondered if someone was going to do a pirate-themed area with hotels, ship rides, walking-the-plank things, and so on. what a cute idea, i thought.

it's actually about peer-to-peer internet file sharing of music, movies, software, etc.

*sigh*