You feel old when . . .

After the ski trip, we returned to the panhandle of Oklahoma for a few days. We're a little sore from our big day of snow skiing, where we used some muscles that haven't been tested like that for a while. You feel old when . . . it hurts to walk after a ski trip.

While in Beaver, we went to the high school basketball homecoming game. We both graduated from this high school (ahem) a few years ago. You feel old when . . . you realize that the homecoming queen and king candidates' parents probably weren't yet born when we graduated from high school here. We mainly went to the game because they were celebrating the 50th anniversary of this state-of-the-art Beaver Dome. You feel old when . . . you know that we were one of the first classes to play basketball in this impressive gym.

Our high school superintendent--now in his 90s--made some comments at half-time about watching the building process of that big dome. We remember him walking up and down those steps, telling people to get their feet off the backs of the seats. 

That's probably why those padded seats still look so good 50 years later. Mark's Dad was on the school board at the time, and he was one of the testers to make sure there was enough leg room for tall people without putting feet on the seats.

You feel old when . . . your home gym is now fifty years old, and they are decorating with antique letter jackets like the one you used to wear.

Early the next morning we were on the road before sunrise. We enjoyed some nice color as the sun started its rise over the lone tree growing along the highway. We were making the long trip to Oklahoma City for another doctor appointment. While some of these trips were for Denisa's Mother or sister appointments, we made a few to see our own doctors.

While we traveled in the forests that obscured the sky most of last year, we have wide-open views of the sky in western Oklahoma. The silhouettes of the windmills are the only things that break up the view of the sunrise this morning. We are heading to another doctor's appointment, and so far this process has just made Denisa feel old. The optometrist reported that she has cataracts, the MD reported she still needed to take a statin to control cholesterol, and the gynecologist says she has osteoporosis. Aren't all of those things that old people have?!?

But the worst doctor's appointment was when the dentist announced that she needed to have a tooth pulled. What?!? That only happens to old people! The x-ray of the tooth on the right has a dark circle on the inside. It is decaying from the inside from a process that we have never heard of before--resorption. So we are enjoying this beautiful sunrise to get to an early appointment with an oral surgeon.

The only good thing about this trip is that we will get to see our grandchildren one more time before we hit the road. They are at their other grandparents' home in the metro area for a few days.

You feel old when . . . you see your grandchildren growing up. But they are one of the few good parts of getting older.

Our youngest son joined us for a day of kid-time too. You feel old when . . . you remember that very tall Blake was once the size of little Eli, and it doesn't seem like that was very long ago.

The next day Denisa had the appointment that she had been dreading for weeks. The oral surgeon removed the tooth that was causing her pain. He also put the implant in her jaw to anchor the new tooth that the dentist will make in three months. You feel old when . . . a perfectly healthy tooth decides to go bad, and you feel poor when you have to pay for the fix! Denisa gets a couple days to recuperate and feel really old, and then we're ready to be on the road again.