Inadvertent Naps and Other Signs of Geezerhood

Beth Gallagher said:
Does anyone else sit down for a minute and doze off? I have never been a napper, so this is a new phenomenon for me. I'm particularly vulnerable to the Nap Attack after eating dinner. Good grief, I'm such a cliche'.
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I had to go in for cataract evaluation yesterday. During one of the waits between different phases of the process I was sitting and sitting.... then sort of started awake and quickly checked to make sure I hadn't dropped my pile of paperwork and hat and gloves.

It may have been seconds, or even 5 minutes. No idea. At least I'm fairly sure I wasn't snoring and I hadn't been drooling or something. Not a great feeling.
 
I have never been one for naps until recently. The scary thing is I suddenly just doze off and can't wake up for some time even though I try. I am briefly paralyzed it seems. MRI of head reveals nothing new. I have just accepted it as another old age thing. It usually happens on days when I get the most sleep.
 
Another "I'm getting creaky" thing is the way I maneuver the staircase. I used to rush up and down without a thought, but now I'm hanging on to banisters for dear life. Since the utility room is downstairs, I used to cruise down with the laundry in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. A couple of years ago I started bundling dirty laundry and tossing it over the banister to the floor below because I was too unsteady to carry it down the staircase.

The biggest issue is that my knees and hips don't work so well any longer and I don't trust them so I have to hold on in case one of them decides to collapse or whatever. I have a harder time going down the stairs than climbing up, and often use the "double step" method where I put one foot on a step and then the other foot on the same step. It takes twice as long that way but it doesn't jolt my joints as much.

I'm sure at some point we will probably have a "stair climber" thing installed because we have no plan to move out of this house.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
Another "I'm getting creaky" thing is the way I maneuver the staircase. I used to rush up and down without a thought, but now I'm hanging on to banisters for dear life. Since the utility room is downstairs, I used to cruise down with the laundry in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. A couple of years ago I started bundling dirty laundry and tossing it over the banister to the floor below because I was too unsteady to carry it down the staircase.

The biggest issue is that my knees and hips don't work so well any longer and I don't trust them so I have to hold on in case one of them decides to collapse or whatever. I have a harder time going down the stairs than climbing up, and often use the "double step" method where I put one foot on a step and then the other foot on the same step. It takes twice as long that way but it doesn't jolt my joints as much.

I'm sure at some point we will probably have a "stair climber" thing installed because we have no plan to move out of this house.
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I gave you a thumbs up for the stairs climber. I hope to read that is the next thing you order. Going down stairs is also more scary than climbing for me. It is a visual thing that my inner ear doesn't read correctly.
 
I have to hang on going up and down stairs and any kind of steps, too. If we are out shopping , Bobby holds on to me and helps me up and down on curbs from the street to the sidewalk. (He gets an A+ for the day ! )
My knees are an if and maybe thing, plus the balance is not any good, so hanging on is the safest thing for me at this point.

As for naps, I usually don’t take a nap, but some days, if we are up around 4-5 AM, I am tired by around 4, and might lie down and sleep for an hour, but it is a planned nap, not an accidental one.
 
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Faye Fox said:
I gave you a thumbs up for the stairs climber. I hope to read that is the next thing you order. Going down stairs is also more scary than climbing for me. It is a visual thing that my inner ear doesn't read correctly.
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I think the stair climber would come in handy as a transport system for things I normally carry up and down. :D I can manage myself but I need my hands to hang on so it's hard to carry things. All our bedrooms and 2 full baths are upstairs... we have a half bath downstairs but no bathtub or shower. So the stairs are always going to be an issue.
 
I had a dream that (as it fades) was a sort of conversation with myself I suppose. That in itself is perhaps quite geezerly, but the subject might be even more so.

Life and legacy.

By the time I was 30 I had 3 sons. They are all in their 40s now, but there is only one grandson and it seems very unlikely there will ever be more grandchildren. Even the one has issues, which I credit to his mother's late age and the use of IVF to have a kid at all. I'm not sure whether women "get rotted out" on a lifetime on birth control drugs or it just lets them radically delay childbearing.

I think the kid will live, I'm just not sure he'll ever be normal enough to have a family of his own some day. Facts can be brutal, but I won't sugar-coat it.

My general takeaway is that we might be "Great Replacementing" ourselves.
 
It’s kinda like finally receiving Social Security after paying into it by having x amount of money taken out of my paychecks for so many years.

Throughout my entire working life, whether it be an 8 hour day or 12 or 16 or on a few occasions, 24 or more, time earmarked for naps has been taken out and stored up for a time and age when I can collect x amount of minutes a day now that I’m out of the work force.

I earned and worked hard for such a time when I can finally use those saved up naps.
I have a vibrating easy chair, some therapeutic usb powered heated eye thingies and a cat that likes to share my earned time by sitting on my lap.
Just as some mothers insisted that their kids take a nap to help prevent polio back in the ‘50’s, I take my naps not only because I earned them but to help prevent me from being an old grouch.
 
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