Habits For Aging

     Aging is an inevitable part of life regardless how long you have to live.  In my senior years I have pause to ponder what my behaviors will be to bring happiness and contentment to my days.    Habits of doing and being seem to be two branches of behavior to consider. 

    Each day needs some meaningful physical, mental and social activity.  Waking with a plan for the day is helpful  to set the stage for rewarding activity.   However spice is added to life when one can also adopt to a changing landscape.  Today for me was a day of adapting to changing conditions.  I fully expected to spend at least a few hours on the ski slopes even the weather forecast was iffy with high temperatures and rain later.  Upon arriving at my ski area it was clear the conditions were too treacherous for this geezer.  A friend I met in the locker room was just returning from a single run to describe ice patches and variability in the surface so unpredictable that she was leaving.   Thus my day suddenly changed.  Rather than being discontented by the change, I welcomed the opportunity to use some creative energy to write this blog.

    Mental stimulation is always satisfying.  As long as one maintains basic mental facilities there are millions of unread books to pursue.  If one likes puzzles there is an abundance of options.   Perhaps one can carry the puzzle thing too far!  (According to my wife).   My personal addiction of crossword puzzles is almost an obsession.  Wordle has entered our home with my wife embracing this new fad.  I get to assist on occasion.  

    One of the greatest satisfactions in old age can be more time to give back.  I am fully convinced a vigorous personal volunteer program is one the most healthy aspects of successful aging.   Along with the satisfaction of helping out comes a social network so vital to combating isolation and getting stimulation.

    I am sure there are millions of therapists who have a myriad of suggestions for successful aging.  These are but a few of my thoughts for what it is worth.   May all your days spin out as a great adventure of living a satisfying life both for you and those around.  Find your habits for embracing aging as just another adventure!

A Reset Day

    It has been a great week of skiing at my home mountain Greek Peak.  Several bluebird days followed by a big dump of snow to refresh the whole area.  Normally I would be racing out this morning to sample more of the overnight powder.  However, in the interests of preserving this old body I am making this a rest and reset day.  Five straight days of skiing has depleted my energy reserves and now is the time to have a bit of rest and relaxation.   Recharge is the order for the day.  Perhaps there is some more incentive to stay home this weekend in view of the large crowds showing up.   Weekends are much more chaotic.  Even this Friday was a zoo with the schools being closed.   Another factor in avoiding the weekend also centers on my anxiety of a crash with a snowboarder.  Geezer skiers are more vulnerable to the more aggressive boarders and skiers that a more likely to show up on weekends.  An incident yesterday underlines my anxiety when even waiting in the lift line I was nearly struck by a boarder zipping through the line.  

    So back to the reset day!  Even though I am on recharge, it doesn't mean I sit all the day.  Per my normal non skiing regimen I was on the exercise bike for nearly an hour.  Also both my driveway and my neighbors needed clearing of the recent snowfall with my snowblower.   It was a busy two hours.  As I write this my coffee is cooling and I look forward to some leisure time doing my crossword puzzles and reading a couple of books that I am partially into.  Best wishes to the younger crowd for a great weekend.  Monday is coming!   The morning geezer skier crowd will be first chair people raring to go each morning of the week.  Then ski area is our private playground for a while!

A Different Day

     Minus 6 this morning with a wind chill of 20 below!  Certainly a different day.  Usually I am off to the slopes by now.  Today not so!  Am I getting soft?  After five days in a row pounding my 86 year old body on rough icy granular slopes it is time to take a break.   So here I am fresh from riding my recumbent stationary bike ready to engage in a different day.  This is a break from my usual routine of six days of skiing followed by the Sunday break.   Best wishes to the intrepid holiday weekend skiers.  

    I always enjoy having something to energize my mind and body each day.   Although this is a different day I am pleased to have a bundle of things to occupy my mind.  While exercising this morning I read the New York Times and my local Syracuse Post-Standard.  This was a stimulus to get worked up over the state of the world plus reading some good news of science and social improvements.   I also had a chance to watch a UTube video featuring Cornell mathematician Steve Strogatz explaining his dance with mathematics from early childhood through his long teaching and research career.  During my tenure at Cornell I had the pleasure of interacting with him at faculty lunch gatherings.  He is an extraordinary teacher and person able to explain mathematics for the lay person.   I recommend his book The Joy of X as a great read.  

    The rest of the day is ahead and I am looking forward to lots of reading, crossword puzzles and probably a nice nap.   Two books are calling to me!  One entitled State of Terror by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny which is a page turner.   The other is a delightful gift from my son-in-law Matt titled Tractor Wars by Neil Dahlstrom Manager of Archives and History at John Deere.  You can see I have widely different interests!

    Beyond skiing there are many wonderful opportunities for different days.  However the love of skiing never disappears.   Looking forward to resuming the routine on Monday.  Thanks for reading my blog.   

Contrasts

    In recent days I have been struck by contrasts all around me.  My son posted a bunch of pictures of 20 inches of new powder skiing  at Snowbird on the same day I was skiing on about as little as two inches of frozen granular at Greek Peak.  All of that was snow man-made some weeks ago.   Also around me beyond the white strips down a few slopes that were open was the dull brown and grey of the surrounding terrain.  I did pause once to observe the contrasting silhouette of the hill tops.   For the artistic eye the curves and breaks in the horizon were interesting.  

    Further along the line of contrasts, I recently read an article in the Seniors Skiing blog about small versus large ski areas and East versus West ski areas.   There are innumerable contrasts along that line.   Small local ski areas do not necessarily get the respect they deserve.  My family and now senior friends have enjoyed small Northeast ski areas for decades.   A thousand feet vertical provided splendid winter entertainment at reasonable cost.   By contrast we would make some trips to the mountains of Vermont and even a few journeys to Colorado.    In my retirement and senior years local skiing has dominated my days on the slopes.   I am grateful in my geezer years past 60 to 86 to have skied an average of 77 days a year.   This would have been impossible without the easy access to my local slope.  I am especially grateful for the socialization provided by my local area in the stress of the epidemic.  

      Big, small or in between ski areas all have a niche in our sport.  All have a role to play and while I no longer feel comfortable traveling to the big mountains, I am grateful for the easier terrain  next door.   

An Eventful Week

    Lots of things happening this week as we approach Christmas.   The local ski area did open this past Friday but unfortunately I was dealing with an upper respiratory infection.  Thankfully not Covid!  Conditions at the slope were a bit sketchy to say the least as reported by my usual companions at the area.  Ended up staying away for the entire weekend due to illness and limited terrain.  At eighty six, maybe I am slowing down a bit.  I can't remember missing an opening day in a long time.  Looking forward to a go at it tomorrow since I can ease into the year on the alpha slope.  Just viewed the webcam to note they are grooming.

    Prior to the past weekend and this week I received a surprise call that my new car had just come in.  Totally surprised that it has arrived so soon.  I ordered it in October and was told due to shipping issues it might be March before it arrived.  Arranged for a pick up on Monday.  Now into a steep learning curve to familiarize myself with all the gadgets and gizmos on this vehicle.  The operators manual is a major epistle!  For now I am working on the basics and not fiddling with the fine tuning of my preferences.    My new vehicle has almost all of the special safety features now available.  I think we seniors need to get all the help we can as we reach the latter years of our driving.   My thought at this point is that  this vehicle will outlast me so I ought to go for the best while I can.  In my volunteer work I use my vehicle quite a bit as I transport Red Cross blood from blood drives about once a week with a round trip of over 200 miles.   Adaptive cruise control makes the journey much easier.

    Eighty years later Tuesday as a nation we paid homage to the armed forces personnel that perished at Pearl Harbor and saluted the veterans of World War II.   Even though I was only 6 years old on December 7, 1941 I have the day seared in my memory.  I awoke to the announcement of the attack on our tiny AM radio playing in the kitchen our farmhouse.  I understood the horror of the situation myself as well as read the distress of my parents.  As I write this, I fully visualize the scene in that kitchen as vividly as if it was today.  From that day on I was constantly reminded of the ugliness of war and at the same time learned that sacrifice of all of us was necessary and patriotic.  As kids we no longer could expect toys.   Sugar was rationed!  No candy.   Gasoline and tires were rationed so limited leisure driving if any.   We as children learned to be innovative in our play.  Also I am proud to say that we contributed to the war effort in many ways too.  We took our pennies and quarters to school to pool our money for purchase of war bonds.   Early in the war there was a need material to insert in life vests.   On our farm we had lots of milkweed growing in our pasture as was true of other pastures.  We picked the pods when ripe, put them mesh bags, and hauled them to school where they were shipped off to be added to life vests.  While it might seem that era was painful, contrary to today's political structure the nation came together as one.   Together we vanquished our enemies.   Post  WWII the armed forces returned to build a better world.  God bless them.   

    As an endnote I am remembering the veterans of WWI that I have had the pleasure of skiing with.     While skiing may be considered a very individual sport, it also brings us together in a community of shared experiences and pleasure.  Yes, quite a week for this old guy.  Happy Holidays all!

     

An Exercise Bonus

     Living the good life as you age depends a lot on keeping moving.  Numerous articles have been written about the value of regular exercise for graceful aging with a better quality of life.  Beyond prolonging life exercise clearly can improve the quality of life.  

    I have a daily routine of exercising.  Because I have a bit of arthritic degeneration in my lower spine, I need to loosen up after a night of rest.  Later in the day I will during the ski season, but other days an hour on the recumbent stationary bike is is order and often yard work or hiking.  Beyond this activity keeping me going, this morning I had a bonus to start my day.  My back loosening exercise upon rising is to sit in a folding chair and bend to touch the floor 100 times.   It is a low stress exercise mostly aimed and getting freer motion.  My chair is oriented to face our open living room.  I am  still waking up so not always very observant.  This morning I was blessed with a remarkable scene.   (See the photo below).   Amazingly the sun was at just the right angle to come in through a window and door and reflect off a desk cover and spotlight my wife's  collection of dancing figures.   A beautiful sight of figures and shadows underlining the grace and athleticism of dancers.  Isn't dancing a great endorsement for the value of exercising?  I only wish I could fulfill the longing of my wife for having a skilled dancing partner.   Oh well, she may not get the skill and grace but I am always trying to improve!

    

    

Remembering Geezers Who Have Passed

     At this stage in my life it seems that too often I am reading the obituaries of my contemporaries.  So far I have been blessed with a long and essentially fortunate life.   As a survivor, I regret that that as I approach the beginning of the new ski season, too many of my companions of the past are now memories of past glory days.

    Recently on of my good friends unexpectedly passed away.  Last winter our geezer friend Phil Dankert was at least an occasional visitor to the slopes.  A retired research librarian, he was a most erudite individual; an avid reader of books our group was passing around!   He also had great wit and could twist almost any conversation into a bit of wry humor.   Over the years there have been dozens of geezers who have been fixtures of our local Greek Peak ski slope.  Each could be identified by their unique style of skiing and and favorite gear.  I am thankful for all their good memories.   Living in the precious present and enjoy each remaining day I believe  is a good goal to strive for as a means of honoring those that have past.   Hopefully I can go on leaving some great memories for my companions at least for a little while longer.