Dry Ice Factory

This weekend I had an unexpected visit from a friend I hadn't seen in about fifteen years. That's long enough for appearances to change a fair amount, but when we met and hugged she said, "You haven't changed very much! I want to know about the spackle you use."

I've definitely got my wrinkles, but it's probably true that she's wrinklier than I am, which is no doubt a reflection of the fact that she's worked outdoors a lot more than I have over the years, a lot of it in sunny Southern California. She told me that the spackle line was something she once heard in a comedy routine, but I've been laughing ever since she said it. Somebody needs to start up a cosmetic line called Spackle pronto.

Okay, now my nose hair is turning grey.

Today I'm 48 years old. Thank you. Thank you very much.

It finally occurs to me that I am Not Young any more.

Later today I'm flying to central Oregon to hang with the family over the weekend.

Update: How old will I be before I come of age for you?
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down
I get up, I get down

And I'm huffing and puffing from all that getting up and getting down! Where'd the escalator get to?!

Yesterday evening I went to jackwilliambell's house to bottle the mocha porter. Jack's grandson, Riley, was there this time, and he was interested in playing spelling and rhyming games. He had a pretty funny idea of what constituted a rhyme, I have to say. His sense of spelling wasn't much better. He'd reel off a series of random letters and ask what it spelled. I yodeled in reply.

kate_schaefer and Glenn came over as well, and Jack barbecued delicious steaks and corn on the cob. Kate and Glenn and I talked about aging, and Glenn said that as you get older (he's turning 60 next year) you realize there are certain things you will never accomplish. "Maybe I'll never finish a novel," Kate said. After dinner, Jack brought out his telescope, and we looked at the craters on the moon and at the moons of Jupiter. Riley said the stars might be ghosts, so the kid's got a sense of wonder, for sure. After the star-gazing, Kate and Glenn went home, Riley went to bed, and Jack and I bottled.

Jack's afraid that he over-diluted the beer at one point when it was looking too thick. There was an amazing muddy sludge of yeast and chocolate at the bottom of the brew. We'll see how it comes out in a couple of weeks after it has finished fermenting in the bottles. Considering that it started out with a very high specific gravity and ended up at nearly zero, it should at least be damned strong.

Next week I turn 48, and I'm likewise unsure whether I've aged well or am over-deluded. Perhaps a mixture of both, and a bit on the muddy side.

So I did end up getting a pair of reading glasses at Bartell Drugs a while back. I got the lowest magnification available, and they seem to do the trick. It really has helped to make reading less of a strain. It's very noticeable in terms of how long I feel like reading before I go to sleep, for instance. It has been a bit of an adjustment in terms of learning how to look over them when I'm interacting with people; for example when I'm reading the paper over breakfast at the local deli and need to talk to the waitress. This is a characteristic maneuver that I've seen other people do for years, of course, but now I know why it's done. Things that are further away than arm's length are out of focus through the lenses. It has been a little awkward at first, but I'm learning how to move my eyes between looking through the glasses and looking over them, which does require you to refocus your eyes as well.

It's also a bit of an adjustment to put them on in front of people who've known me for years, who then have to make the adjustment of realizing that my eyes have gotten to that stage and thus I really am middle-aged. I went through this with Sharee last week, and her comment was, "I'm going to resist doing the same as long as I can." I took that to mean that she's beginning to feel a bit of eyestrain in her reading too. She's two years younger than me, and that's about when I started feeling it myself. Perhaps I can blaze the trail for a few of my friends of a certain age. She did also muse that maybe you'd be less likely to get wrinkles if you didn't squint so much. I'm not so sure about that!