Growing old definitely makes each new day an adventure as you struggle with the simple tasks of life that are the basis of earning you passage into the realms of life as a senior citizen.
I think that my largest problem in this aging scenario is in trying to control my bodily functions. I always thought that they were just supposed to take care of themselves, but I guess I was wrong, because they just do not? Take drooling for instance, I am not too sure when I started to do this rather annoying little act, but it now seems to occur on quite a regular basis. The wife usually gives me a sharp jab in the ribs whenever she notices. Most of the family however, seem to just try to ignore this little indiscretion of mine, but I can usually tell something is wrong. When I notice that they won't look me in the eye, or they start passing a pile of napkins or Kleenexes over to my place setting, then I know that something is amiss. Who would have thought that drool could be such a problem?
Then of course there is the issue of trying to not wet myself in public places, now that can be a very embarrassing situation. I am also more than a little upset with my family on this issue. They are definitely much more understanding when my grandson does it than when I do. They must not think that I notice how much encouragement he gets, as for me, well I actually get a lecture for not wearing my diaper. You would think that they would be proud that I at least tried to go without it!
My second largest problem with aging is walking. I am not too sure when I forgot how to walk, but it appears that I now have to relearn this trait, and it turns out that walking is actually a very difficult skill to learn. Each morning my eyes pop open, and I think that I am okay until my feet hit the floor, that is when my problems begin. I'm sure that a snail would have a very good chance of winning if I were to race one on my morning trip to the washroom.
My steps must now be thoughtfully planned out, and be taken very slowly to insure that I make my trek safely, and without falling. Any obstacles in my pathway, like the wife's slipper, must be carefully maneuvered around so as to avoid any danger of them tripping me up. Oh, and forget about stopping to pick that darn slipper up, becoming unbalanced and tipping over is a whole other problem. My balance issues are also a problem that comes with a whole new set of rules and regulations.
But back to the issue of my morning walk to the washroom, I just have to remember that when taking corners, I must now make sure that I hold on to the door posts or wall as I go around them. This is to insure that I maintain my balance. Gosh but walking really is quite a lot of work when you have to think about every move that you make! By the time that I get out of the washroom in the morning, I am exhausted, and ready to head back to bed for a nap. The great news is that I can usually make this trek much better than my two year old grandson. He is kind of silly and attempts to make this voyage at a dead run, of course he winds up on his rear a couple of times on the way, while I don't. I am so proud of myself.
Thinking about this walking process now, it seems that so long as I remain on flat ground and avoid hills and stairs, I do pretty well. I have noticed that my grandson doesn't do too well on those other areas either, but that is a whole other story, let's just say that he and I avoid them unless we have help from mom.
Trying to remember things as you age is a real problem too, it would be easier of course if your eyes didn't go, but these two problems both seem to occur simultaneously. You start losing or misplacing things, and you can't find them, because you can't see to look for them. Everything is sort of all blurry and fuzzy, your mind included, so it makes locating misplaced articles very difficult. My grandson has a habit of misplacing things too, but luckily his eyes are pretty sharp, and he actually seems to enjoying hunting for things? He comes in pretty handy on this issue, I just tell him what to look for, and he can usually locate it within an hour or so. Of course remembering appointments and important dates is still a problem, even writing them down doesn't seem to help much because I usually misplace the paper I wrote it down on. There isn't much point on writing it on the calendar like the wife says to do, because no matter how hard I squint my eyes to see, it is always just to darn blurry.
Another problem with getting old is that you just never seem to have enough time to do everything that you want to do. This is probably because as an older person you just seem to spend an awful lot of your time sleeping. I never usually mean to doze off, but it just happens, every time I sit down for any length of time, I am guaranteed to suddenly be knocked out cold for an hour or two. I contribute this high level of fatigue, to all the hard work involved with concentrating on all the little tasks of life, like walking.
The nice thing about being this age is that you really don't seem to care so much about all those little details. You just don't get all that upset about those little things anymore. They bug you, but hey, you just forget they ever happened within an hour or two so no point in getting too upset about them.