Piccolo

 I looked at a full-length mirror the other day and was horrified at what I saw.  I saw an old man wearing shorts and high support socks.  I thought I looked like a third-chair piccolo player in the junior high school band going to a Latin Club meeting.  Now, I have nothing against piccolo players or participants in the Latin Club, but, what I wanted to see was an athletic man ready to be called to replace Tom Brady to quarterback the Bucs.

I have a friend about my age who wears support socks.  He doesn’t look like a piccolo player.  I would get rid of these socks, but I was having shooting pains in my calves that a doctor diagnosed as poor circulation.  He prescribed support socks.  I refused.  Weeks later, I tried them and the shooting pains disappeared.  I guess I’m stuck with them.

I told Aloma that I thought I looked like a piccolo player.  At least once a day, I wiggle my fingers at the side of my face like I’m playing a piccolo.  She laughs and says I look handsome.  I laugh and say, “You lie.”

I looked in the mirror again, and said to myself, “I’m only 83.  If I look this way now, what will I look like when I’m old?”

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Redeeming Love

 Yesterday, Aloma and I went to our first movie in two years to see “Redeeming Love,” a movie based on the novel by Francine Rivers.  My granddaughter, Abbigal Cowen, played the lead role of Angel, a prostitute.  We think she did an amazing job.

Even before high school, Abbey loved the theater and modeling.  Her mom helped her get an agent and she got numerous modeling contracts and saved her money to one day go to Hollywood.  She appeared in every high school play, usually earning the lead role.

After high school, she left for Hollywood, and got several roles in television series, including “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,” and “Fate,” a very popular Netflix series.  She completed filming the second season of “Fate” in Ireland last fall.  Her dream came through. She was cast as Angel in Redeeming Love and left for South Africa for the filming.

My daughter, Leslie, chaperoned Abbey on trips all over the world until Abbey turned 21.  She and her husband Andy were with Abbey for the grand opening last week in Hollywood.

Aloma and I were uncomfortable at times watching my little granddaughter, now an adult, play the role of a prostitute.  But we are so happy that Abbey is living her dream.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Frustrated

 I’ve always thought of myself as easygoing and slow to anger.  In the past when I’ve encountered a problem or a setback, I usually worked through it without getting upset.  That seems to be changing.

Most of my frustrations come when I’m on the computer or on the phone.  I make up my own passwords as I don’t trust the computer to create and keep them.  I remember most passwords and I have a notebook handy when I’m not sure.  Then I get a screen that says my user name or password is incorrect.  I look it up and enter it again.  Same message.  So I say I forgot my password.  To change it, I need to type in my favorite pet’s name.  I get it wrong.  By now, I’m steaming.

Phone calls for me are even worse.  I’m hard of hearing.  Sometimes, my phone connects with my hearing aids and I do pretty well.  When there is no connection, I put the phone on speaker and put it next to my ear.  When I do make a connection, I usually have to talk to a computer, and I’m given choices of what I want to do.  None of them are what I want.  So I finally get a person on the line, and he/she has an accent that I can’t understand.  If Aloma’s around, I’ll ask her to interpret for me.  Otherwise, I hang up.

Now I know sometimes the problem is because I made an error.  But some websites just seem to want to torture me.

I’m only 83 years old.  What will my frustrations be like when I grow old?

Seasoned Man

Stevelem117@gmail.com

Pool Watching

 Our timeshare unit in Pompano Beach, Florida is on the sixth floor, overlooking a pool that is ideal for kids, a sloping no-step pool entrance, a large shallow section, large water slide with twists and turns.  Because of many COVID cases in Florida, we mostly stayed in our unit, read a lot, watched some TV, and, of course, watched the kids in the pool.

While the dads played with the children in the pool, it seemed to be the young moms who introduced toddlers to the pool for the first time.  They were all so patient.  They would lead the toddler to get his/her feet wet, then wait while the child walked around in inches of water, finally sitting in the water and splashing.  I loved watching them.

We did have some excitement.  A father dressed in boots, jeans, a heavy long sleeve shirt, and a cowboy hat was watching three children, two of them older and could swim, and a toddler, not more than 1 ½ years old.  After a while, the two older kids jumped into the deep end of the pool, and the toddler jumped in right behind them, flailing his arms, but sinking.  The cowboy just stood there frozen.  Fortunately, a woman on the other side of the pool reading a book saw what happened.  Like a superhero, she got up, took a few quick steps, and jumped into the pool scooping up the child.  She walked to the side of the pool and handed the child to his father.

The mother must have been watching from her unit, as she came running out a few minutes later and took the child from the father.  After assuring that the child was okay, even from six floors up, I could tell she was giving her husband a lecture.

I was hoping that the mother would go over and thank the woman who saved her child.  She did.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com