A Victory for Old People

Diana Nyad completed her 103 mile swim from Cuba to Florida this afternoon. She’s 64 years old and this was her fifth attempt. And since I’m 58 years old, I’m especially proud of her accomplishment. She gives us all old people hope that we can continue to be functional as we age.

After staggering to the beach, she said she had three messages:

1. Never give up.
2. Keep going for your dreams no matter how old you are.
3. Swimming looks solitary, but there was a whole team behind her.

She’s an appropriate person to think about on this Labor Day, which is deathly cold in Minnesota. We’ve gone from dangerously hot and humid for over a week to fighting off drifting snow (actually, it’s 64 degrees as I write this, but it feels very cold after being very hot).

Unlike Diana, I haven’t labored very much today. I went to the gym this morning and wandered in my thoughts while walking briskly on a treadmill. I went to the grocery store to buy goodies for our end of summer/beginning of school BBQ later this afternoon.

Can you believe my grandsons, the oldest at 14 will be starting high school and the youngest at 12 will be starting middle school this year? Weren’t they just babies?

It’s cold enough to use the fire pit and since we had some rain the other day, I’m not worried about causing a major forest fire in St Paul if a spark happens to fly out. I bought some chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows for s’mores.

I also made zucchini bread from zucchini grown in my garden. I’ll keep one loaf at home and bring one to work tomorrow.

Otherwise, I’ve been surfing on the computer and enjoying the quiet afternoon. I think the sun has finally fought through the thick clouds and the sunshine will help it feel less like winter.

I love these slow quiet days, but I do miss being busy (which means work). I feel weird when I don’t have a lot to do.