Last Day of 50

Today was my last day of being 50 - where did that last year go? Seems like just a few months ago that we were celebrating.

I wanted the exact opposite this year and so am spending my birthday up in our cabin in Sweden. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, warm and sunny during the day, quite chilly night times, with a splendid array of stars lighting up the nights.

So many friends are talking about retirement, getting old, what not, and the thought of turning 51 does sound rather horrifying. But what did I do on this last day of 50? Let's see, I got rolls and the newspaper for breakfast, which we had outside; did dishes and started trimming the bits of the lawn I mowed yesterday; I planted potatoes and peas and cucumbers; weeded two flower beds and planted a few bulbs WiseMan found sorting though some stuff.

I did a load of wash, cleaned the gutters and scraped some of the moss off of two of the roof sections. I read a chapter on cryptography (I want to teach a new course next semester) and a Swedish consumer magazine and picked the combination lock on a suitcase that had closed itself and no one knew the numbers. I suppose the lock came with this combination, as it makes no sense to me, but I was proud of having picked it, even if I had to take off my glasses to get a good look at what I was doing with a paper clip to figure it out.

I suppose that all counts as still active, although I noticed that the knees hurt rather more than they used to while weeding, so I must get me one of those cushions for kneeling on in the garden.

And I didn't grade a single paper. They can wait until Monday.

History Lesson

I was playing TaxiMom for WiseKid this afternoon and drove out to pick up his girlfriend, also 16. We got into a discussion of her schoolwork (groans from the back seat) and I asked here what she was doing in History right now.

"The Vietnam War," she said.

The Vietnam War???? How can that be history already? I mean, I did a big, long term paper on the Vietnam War in high school and it was for Current Events in Social Studies, how can that be considered history already?

Older Women

Got a survey form in my email today from the German Wikipedia.

"Dear WiseWoman, you are an active Wikipedia person who is older than 50"
Thanks, I *really* needed that today.

"We want to reach out to older people and encourage them to be active in the WP. Please fill out this form to help us!"

And then they wanted to know stuff like how well I can cope with the help pages and whether I think older people would like a video explaining how to edit.

To be honest, I think age is not important at all in the WP. Last Stammtisch I sat with JCornelius and put together pages about Tibet in German. He still goes to school - but who cares, it's our words, not our combined or difference of ages that count.

I suggested the Admins quitting acting like power hungry hogs and the trolls growing up and moving to China, but fat chance of that happening.

Better check the mirror tonight and count my wrinkles. But honestly, is a woman with a home office full of technical odds and ends representative of the "Generation 50+ Gals"? Gawd, how I hate that term....

Growin' old

I have lots of moles and freckles on my skin so I am supposed to have them looked at every year or so. Recently a number of a new kind of discoloring has appeared, so I finally made an appointment. My aunt had skin cancer, and I have her colorings, so it pays to be safe.

"Oh," says the youngish doctor, as she has a look, "those are just fine, they are just old-age spots!"

Harumpf. Nice way to start your day. Didn't think 25-year-olds got old-age spots......