Growing older is very educational. In the course of aging I’ve learned a lot about the human body, health, and medicine. Unfortunately, experience has been my teacher for the most part. I’ve learned about such things as spondylolsthesis, which is the reason my fifth lumbar vertebra is tilted forward, causing me trouble from time to time. I’ve found out all about tinnitus, which for years now has made it sound like there is electrical machinery quietly running in my head all the time. I’ve learned all about meralgia paresthetica, the numbness, burning, and tingling in my upper left leg that I’ve felt for the last few years that is caused by the compression of a nerve. I’ve learned to cope with most of it and I don’t really pay much attention to any of it unless it flares up. My latest adventure into the world of human frailty began about ten days ago when I began to experience brief, but intense, dizziness when I got out of bed in the morning. After worrying and wobbling a few days, I went to see my chiropractor. He knew exactly what was going on. This time it’s something called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, affectionately referred to as BPPV by those acquainted with it. It happens when tiny calcium stones in the inner ear, which play a role in keeping our balance, aren’t moving as they should and make your brain think you are moving when you’re not. It isn’t serious and two visits to my chiropractor quickly put things right again. But in the course of dealing with BPPV, I’ve learned all about the inner ear and it’s amazing, complex, tiny parts and how important they are. It also inspired me to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Vertigo, again. Who knows what new lessons in human anatomy, physiology, pathology, and gerontology (and cinematography?) lie in store for me as the years progress.
According to local weather lore, there always comes a thaw in January – a few days of warmer weather (a very relative sort of warmth) that melts off the snow and makes us anxious for spring. We had our thaw last week. Our winter has not been too severe so far. When the thaw came there wasn’t much snow on the ground, only eight inches or so. So on Thursday when the thermometer hit 50° and it rained, much of the snow disappeared. The rain was very heavy at times and, because the ground is frozen, the rain and the melting snow quickly ran off into the rivers and streams which made them overflow their banks. I was glad to see the snow go, it was dirty and ugly. I know full well it will all be back with a vengeance before too long. But when I stepped out onto the porch on Thursday morning and breathed in the smell of rain and thawing earth, it made me smile and made my heart ache at the same moment. By the weekend the cold was back and everything was frozen solid again. Spring is still a long way off.
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| The thaw. |
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| The creek across the road. |
The brief thaw and the pile of seed catalogs on my desk inspired me to do my annual seed inventory. This is when I take out my seed boxes – I have two of them, one for vegetables, one for flowers – and I check the quantity and quality of all my seeds. I look to see what seed is too old for good germination. I dispose of the old seed and make notes on what to order in February when I make all my yearly garden purchases. Just touching all those seed packets made me so happy.
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| Taking my seed inventory. |
Down at the barn, the thaw was much appreciated too. For weeks now the chickens have not ventured outside because their yard was covered with snow. I’ve been feeding, watering, and throwing them their scratch inside the coop. With the thaw, most of the snow melted off and they came outside at last. On Saturday I threw their scratch to them out in their yard and they seemed so happy to be out and about again. As we drove in from church just now, I could see them all standing out in their yard waiting for me. I’m getting about a dozen eggs a day, which is great. In years past, they usually stopped laying all together in January and February. I think my new heated waterer is what has made the difference. Now they have liquid water to drink all day and it makes them healthier and happier.
This week we celebrate the anniversary of our move to Gold. We’ve lived here seventeen years now. When people find out we moved here from Los Angeles, they always ask me why. I usually ask them if they’ve ever been to LA. They usually answer no. Then I tell them that for twenty years I lived in LA and its environs. Sometimes the weather in Southern California is great, sometimes it’s not. It gets a bit monotonous without four seasons. And then there is the crime, the gangs, the smog, the heat, the millions of people, the millions of cars, the sprawling and crowded and ever growing city, the earthquakes, the wildfires, the mud slides. They usually catch on. I must say, the best part of living in LA for twenty years was the people that became and still are my friends. To live in rural Pennsylvania, in Potter County, in Gold, in this very house, was always my dream. I was lucky that through a series of miracles and the love and kindness of friends, my dream came true. Seventeen years later, I still love it here and I’m thankful every day for the beauty and serenity that surrounds me. Sure the winters seem to get a little longer every year, but spring, summer, and fall make enduring the cold and snow worth it. This has been a great place to raise my family, plant my orchard, tend my gardens, and grow old.
This week we celebrate the anniversary of our move to Gold. We’ve lived here seventeen years now. When people find out we moved here from Los Angeles, they always ask me why. I usually ask them if they’ve ever been to LA. They usually answer no. Then I tell them that for twenty years I lived in LA and its environs. Sometimes the weather in Southern California is great, sometimes it’s not. It gets a bit monotonous without four seasons. And then there is the crime, the gangs, the smog, the heat, the millions of people, the millions of cars, the sprawling and crowded and ever growing city, the earthquakes, the wildfires, the mud slides. They usually catch on. I must say, the best part of living in LA for twenty years was the people that became and still are my friends. To live in rural Pennsylvania, in Potter County, in Gold, in this very house, was always my dream. I was lucky that through a series of miracles and the love and kindness of friends, my dream came true. Seventeen years later, I still love it here and I’m thankful every day for the beauty and serenity that surrounds me. Sure the winters seem to get a little longer every year, but spring, summer, and fall make enduring the cold and snow worth it. This has been a great place to raise my family, plant my orchard, tend my gardens, and grow old.
