What’s up? That’s a good question. And the answer is, not much. The Great Hunter and I have fallen into a pattern of…not much. I complain (such a harsh word!)  a lot to him that he doesn’t plan anything unless it has to do with him going to the camping lot or going fishing or going hunting. I told a friend today that if I didn’t plan it, we wouldn’t eat or go anywhere and we’d spend all our time watching our separate television shows or YouTube videos.

But, we’re getting older. Getting older is hard when someone has been so active and healthy and robust their entire life to be slowing down. GH is way “north of seventy” as that impertinent doctor one time told him. He’ll be 78 in two weeks. He really doesn’t take medication for anything serious; a little high blood pressure, “pee pills” (I’m not sure what those are for). He has mild COPD and uses an occasional inhaler, but other than that, he’s pretty dern healthy for an old man.

I’ll be 69 this year. That’s so very hard to believe. I remember asking my mom what it felt like to be 40 and she looked at me kind of strangely and said “It doesn’t feel any different than it did when I was younger.” At the time, I couldn’t understand how you could feel the same when you were old (and at the time I asked her that, to me, she was old) as you did when you were younger. I certainly understand that now. I’m still me. I’m still basically the same person as I was thirty years ago, maybe a little wiser (I certainly hope so) with a lot more life experiences, a lot more grey and a lot more wrinkled with thinning skin on my hands and arms.

Taking care of the house and yard seems to take a lot more time than it used to. Last year, the Great Hunter replaced a facer board on the deck which had rotted and the year before that, he replaced a number of the deck boards that also had some rot. Now this year, I need to replace the majority of the screening and repaint the ceiling and floors.

I’ve spent the last month trying to get grass to grow in about a third of the yard. We had some really bare patches especially where the machinery for cutting down the trees was brought in last fall. I think I’ve done some good, but there are still going to be some bare patches. There are other areas of the yard I need to try to get grass to grow, but since they are in the middle of the yard, I’m not sure how convenient it will be to fence the area. Hmmm. I have to think on that.

This week, the Great Hunter has gone with our (well, actually he’s my birth son, but GH raised him—why do I have a problem calling him “our”?) son and our son’s friend on a camping excursion. Their original plan was to take our son’s new Airstream camper to Colorado but with bad weather and snow! (yuk!) being predicted, they decided on Moab, Utah instead.

So I’m home with the dogs and cats for the next five days and have chicken duty every other day. I’ve tackled one job, rescreening the screen door on the deck and have started a rehab project on some of the boards on the deck. Wish me luck on that one.