It has been a while. I’ve started dozens of blog posts and then not known how to finish them. Life has been in such flux for months I can barely keep up. If you are reading this, you will know I’ve been able to take a breath and catch up. For a moment.

What prompted this particular post was an old school friend who I rarely hear from asking me ‘Have you lost Don?’ It is a difficult thing to ask someone if they have lost their nearest and dearest and I appreciated her enquiry. My sense of humour still intact, I was at first going to say, ‘No he is here, I hear him in bed snoring!’(True story) But quickly I realised the kindness and caring it took her to ask and I assured her he is doing well. You may also appreciate knowing his latest PSA test came back 0.01! We don’t think it can get any lower and him still alive! His energy has mostly returned but of course he is on hormone treatment for the rest of his life and he is now in ‘manopause’ and that brings with it similar changes as it does for women. We can now compare notes on night sweats and headaches etc.

Meanwhile my own body is exerting its age and frailty with a diagnosis of Osteoporosis and low iron and B12 levels as well as continuing muscle weakness and arthritis causing loss of dexterity. Tests and more tests, supplements and consultations are ongoing. All of this means lots of changes to our lifestyle as we try to modify, compensate and retain its essence.

To that end, we have been putting considerable energy into downsizing. Fortunately we have had time to do it alongside the medical stuff. Six months ago I stepped up my fitness to include regular Pilates classes from a very good online instructor, as well as continued walking. It all takes time and consistent commitment, not easy when there are so many moving parts in one’s life.

Technology keeps moving forward, some of it without me, even with my best efforts. Don and I notice we are both helping each other a lot more with things these days. I help him with visual things as the Wet Macular Degeneration he is treated for has reduced his vision. We have noticed that his brain is compensating and while the effected eye is still improving from almost blind at the beginning, his other eye seems to have gotten sharper. His long vision is good but he has about four different pair of reading glasses for various visual tasks and distances.

My need for help is short term memory, focus and brain fog not to mention opening jars! It isn’t severe and usually I eventually remember things, just the recall is sometimes a bit ‘empty’. I’ve had a cognitive test and am still in the ‘normal for my age’ category. I make lots of lists. Normal sleep would help, but that seems a thing of the past for me, as I get only 4-7 hours a night, and mostly in the 5-6hr range. It just isn’t enough to be at my sharpest. I have two good friends in my age group who share some of this and it is reassuring, though strange. I guess the best description I’ve heard recently was this:

‘I’ve been aging since the day I was born, but this is the first time I’ve been old’

There is a lot to learn and experience yet in life and I will try to take you along with us as we enter the next chapter.

To finish this update I’ll share with you a local story. As you know I walk nearly every day. This habit has been sorely tested this year during ‘swoop season’. In southern states it is the Magpies that take deadly aim at persons and animals they see as threatening during nesting time. Sometimes they even draw blood. Here in Alice it is the large crows that object to us in no uncertain terms! The first time it happened to me a few weeks ago one came upon me from behind and smacked me on the head with its feet so hard it knocked my ear pods loose!! To say I was shocked is an understatement. I felt for blood and looked around just as it was making a second pass directly for me! That called my survival instinct to action, I waved my arms and turned around back the way I’d come. Mission accomplished for the ‘Crowpedo’!

A week later I was walking but trying to keep an eye out and ‘SMACK’ on the head again! WTH? I’ve always admired crows and other corvids for their intellect but this one seemed not to have read the same literature as I have.

For a few days I tried to moderate my walking route but they occupied a strategically located spot for several of my walks. So again early this week I was walking and looking skyward (not really recommended for someone whose balance is a bit wonky) Still one swooped me. It did not make contact this time however but I could feel the wind as it swooshed very close to my head. As I puzzled over the strange occurrence I realised I wasn’t wearing a hat any of the three times I was swooped. Interesting. When I am in the bright sunlight my silver hair is bright…perhaps even dazzling to a crow looking for nesting material to impress its mate??

This morning I tried again, no hat, but the Crowpedo tapped me very gently and then flew up on a pole to watch me move out of its area. Perhaps it is trying to be friends but doesn’t quite know how?

Whenever I have walked the same route with a hat on I have had no problem, it’s just that I don’t always want to wear a hat…the morning air ruffling my hair is so nice, and the after-effects of a hat on hair is not great. Maybe we can call a truce and admire each other from a distance.

Welcome to the age of silver hair.