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Life in the Slow Lane

 "How many grandchildren do you have?", somebody asked when Jao showed up at the Old Timers's game.  "About ten," I replied, as if a bit uncertain.  It seemed like a lot more.

We have been starting the day with a new routine, lately.  Until recently, Jao and I put on our shoes and went down the driveway to get the newspapers.  Then I sat down at the kitchen table, with coffee and the newspapers, while Jao did things to fascinate his grandmother.   Then Jao discovered that he could build a train by putting his folding chairs in a row.  Now I am finding it easier just to take my assigned seat in the caboose, and make train noises.  Today, Jao noticed how much I missed the newspaper, so he brought it to me, aboard the train.  I continued to make "chugga-chugga" noises, with an occasional train whistle thrown in as we approached crossings, on the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.

Our days are busy for me--the octegenarian--and for Jao the Engineer.

I had an early eye examination, in wake of a cataract operation.   The doctor explained how successfully the operation had gone, and that the problems I had seeing were due to something else, but that there might be better days ahead, if things go differently.


I met Mari and Jao at the ball field, where the Old Timers were trying to get loose in the frigid 65 degree F. weather.  It is November, you know, and sometimes it bottoms out like that, overnight.

We spent quite a lot of time establishing that the ball park had limits, and fences, and adjacent ball fields.  And sticks!  We found a lot of sticks!  It made us thirsty.  It is amazing how much water is needed just to maintain a frantic life pace, when you are just about exactly eighty years younger than your grandpa.

I wasn't ready to return home to another train ride, yet, so Mari proposed that we stop at a Target store, and pick up a couple of things.  Actually, we picked up almost everything in the store and had to put it back, again.

One of the nice things grandparents can do for their grandchildren, is to get them out of the house and help them to make new friends.  I didn't want new friends.  I wanted . . . oh, almost anything, so long as it came in a pot on the stove, and did not have blinking lights and make train noises.




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