Change is A'Comin

At this writing, we are one week away from signing ownership of a brand new, never-been-lived-in house. Ninety days ago, this house was a pile of lumber on a naked lot. Within three months there have been many work crews coming and going, from the earth-movers and poured basement project to the framers, bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, I haven't counted how many people have worked on this house.

Even with the holidays and heavy winter weather, they stayed on schedule, arriving on Saturdays sometimes, even Sundays, sometimes.  And now we are down to scheduling the movers.

The most difficult part of the project is the no-sleep element.  I  have awakened night after night with tumbling details:  did they put that outlet in the island, how much are those window blinds, can we install them ourselves, what kind of range do I really want, it'll be the last range I buy, probably, but then, they don't last that long anymore, maybe I should go for a different style this time.  The car needs maintenance, that red light is blinking, when can I get it to the dealership whenI've got so much going on next week.

You get the idea.  So, I get my notebook and jot down a list, put stars beside the most pressing things, get a bowl of cereal, watch a little Lifetime, get cold, go back to bed to eventually sleep like the dead and awaken with a kind of headache hangover.

Next night, same thing.  Our friends think this would be great fun, to just build a house at our age, and it has been a lot of excitement and we sure have lots to talk about now.  I like to feel the energy of this big project, and, watching the final elements of the house come in and take shape is energizing,  like drinking five cups of good coffee in an hour.

The purpose of changing to this little house is more than an energizing project, though.  Being on this side of 60, it's just time to think about some short-range goals as well as those long-range ones.  After some deep conversations, we decided we really do enjoy taking care of a small yard and flowers.  We like to putter rather than travel.  We enjoy working together.

I talked with a friend last week  about her recently deceased parents who never left Marietta. They got old and then sick, and eventually died.  She doesn't want to do that.  She wants to travel as soon as they can after retirement.  Go, go,go, as much as possible.  Listening to her talk about her parents boring retirement, I surprised myself by not agreeing with her, although I didn't tell her.

I don't think any of us wants to get bogged down with life.  And, we can sit comfortably on the fact that we're "all different."

It's important, I think, to take steps to make our dreams real now, though, before this year melts again into next year and the next. When I turn around as see that 41 years have gone by since we got married, I can't quite believe it, even though one look in the mirror confirms it.

So, even though our little house sits on a less than perfect lot, is a modest size and is made of plain materials, we anticipate the fresh change with relish.  We look forward to sharing it with family and friends, knowing that time is quickly melting away even as we speak.

When all is said and done,  I just want to make sure I've said what I want to say to those I love, and to have done what I wanted and needed to do the best I could that day and then do it again the next day. 

That's enough whether I'm in a new house or not, or, whether I'm traveling the world or working in my flower garden.

Is it Really So Terrible?

By the time I looked in the mirror on Dec. 30, 2010, I knew for sure what I was going to do about it.

"It" is my hair color.  I'm finished with coloring over my gray hair.  For the last several salon visits, I've been less than happy with the various shades of highlights and lowlights to give me a more  natural look of what I wish my hair would be - brown tinged with red as it was when I was a teenager and then in my early 20's.

I've been coloring my hair for years.  In my 30's and 40's I could go about 6 weeks between colorings.  In my 50's, about 5 weeks, now it's 4 weeks, and I've had enough.  It's not only the cost of the procedures, although each highlight or lowlight adds on to the original "color" then there is the trim, style, you get the picture.  Somewhere between $50 and $75 every 4 weeks, no thank you.

The other big reason is that when I look at my post half-century worn face, the lustrous coloring doesn't really help  the double chin, the crow's feet at the eyes, the lip fade,  the eyebrow fallout and the droopy eyelids.   Oh dear.

I remember when I finally came home from work for the last time, and went through my closet to gather up all my business suits and dresses to take to Goodwill.  These were the ones (circa 1980-90) with those thick shoulder pads that gave us "definition."  I had definition all right.  But it was a huge relief to have those awful things out of my closet for good.  No more. Free at last.  It was wonderful.

Deciding on going natural with my hair color is a similar feeling.  I just want to have my real hair again.