When a Pile of Stuff is a Plan

I know I am not alone. I'm just the one who is willing to 'fess up to the things we all go through. The reason I do this is because I have found a lot of humor tucked in the folds of my wrinkling skin. There have been downright giggles in some of my less painful falls and laughter verging on tears in a few of my other senior antics. Yup, we're in this together and all of us do things we look back on and get the humor... at least I hope so.

The deal is that we can't stop getting older. We can't stop forgetting things or being crabby when our arthritis flares up. We must keep paying attention when we walk ANYWHERE or do ANYTHING. These things are just the tip of the senior citizen iceberg. I guess I shouldn't have used the word can't, because in truth we can make our lives easier all by our onesies.

Some of my friends have reminded me that I have a husband. The implication is that I am therefore not allowed to have symptoms of senioritis. This is a very painful statement and not well thought out. I wonder if it means I'm not a real old person until Mr. S dies? Does it mean that those of us who have lost children, husbands and parents get triple senior points? I'm not sure but it puzzles me, so of course I need to share.

So far as I know, if you are alive and living on your own or with someone you love, you've earned a lot of points. Living is the goal most of us share. We enjoy our homes, regardless of their types, our gardens, weeds and all and any and all contact with our families.

No matter how discombobulated we might be our kids, grandchildren and great grands will hopefully remember the old days when we were really funny and clever. It is unfortunate that they grow up but this too, is a blessing. Grown up children make more children. If they don't, that's OK too because we love them all the same. In some part of our old brains those 25 year-olds are still running around the back yard without a stitch of clothing in sight.

So here we are all together. We get up some mornings, pee, look in the mirror and just want to go right back to that bed. Why? No plan. No energy. No optimism. No desire to slug through another day in pain or loneliness. No idea of what clothes to wear. No memory of whether it's shower day or not.

If we get as far as the coffee pot, turn on the TV and snuggle into a recliner it may be the place we'll spend the day.

Wrong? Not necessarily. Right? Not necessarily. HOWEVER try to remember that this is a day you can't get back. There aren't any coupons for more and you've already used up several of those days. I want you to try and make them count and I know a lot of you already do this but I fear that too many of us give away days we could have used better.

I recently figured something out and by golly my Pile of Stuff plan worked. Who knew that you could actually irritate yourself or your spouse into action? Certainly not me or I would have started this a long time ago. As a matter of fact, when I was young and organized I did this. When I got old I forgot I did this.

So here's the deal. First you'll have to designate a tomorrow pile location. Once you make this decision there's no going back. Old people need consistency. We don't dare try and confuse ourselves. The Shaffer House Pile is on the top of the dryer. God forbid we'd have to do a late-night load of clothing and screw this up.

Late night? Of course. The trick to Pile of Stuff is that you do it before you go to bed. IT is the accumulation of all the things you want to do tomorrow and if you are like me, all the things you didn't get done today. Part of the fun here is that whether you go to bed at 8pm or midnight, your tomorrow and very likely your today, won't be clogging sleeping space. Not sure about you but my sleeping space is very important. I'm one of those 9-11 hour folks. Why? there's a pile of stuff on the dryer.

Tomorrow shapes up like this: Animal print top for the vet tech. Vaccination and health records for Grover and his new groomer. Coupons for Fred Meyer and a return for Safeway. Finally, there is a list explaining what these things are for and other stuff. HEY... I never said it was a fool-proof deal.

xoxo