What have I been doing? That is the refrain from many of my blog readers? I’m sorry I was MIA for a while. It wasn’t planned, it just happened. It’s not because I wasn’t writing. I am always writing.

There were many distractions, including my dearly beloved. Spending time with him has been important. He’s learning to play mahjong! That isn’t what took most of our time, but it is a challenge he accepted and has worked hard to master. Oops. Master is NOT a word that goes with mahjong. Understand is a better word. He beat me numerous times, so I think he’s got it now. Maj is a good exercise for cognition. It helps with memory, visual and spatial processing, strategizing, and has been shown to slow the rate of cognitive decline.

Beyond that, he works hard to maintain his body and spirit with exercise – at the gym and at home. Age is a factor, but Parkinson’s magnifies the efforts. His diligence has paid off in slowing some of the devastating effects of PD. I’m his cheerleader and companion in those endeavors.

I took a class at Pima Community College for three months. My beautiful life is circumscribed for the most part by people over sixty. I love my friends and family…and they are all getting older.  I felt that I needed to talk with younger people. College is the place to do that. It was good to be among people who are “becoming” something, not just “have been” something.

It was an eye-opening experience to share ideas with people who are five to six decades younger. We had very few points of reference in common. Their memories are limited to a couple of decades on the planet. They were gracious enough to update me on what is current in the social sphere and the digital world. And I gave them a glimpse of the past beyond what they read in books. My lived experiences after WWII through the 80s in terms of social changes are real in my memory, but to them, merely paragraphs in a book. They think they are in revolutionary times. So much of what we thought we conquered has returned in a different way – a revolving door of change. I had so much fun, I’m going to do it again in the fall, maybe a history class – heck, I lived eighty years of it.

Our grandson’s enthusiasm for competing in cycling has increased – Tour de France stuff. We’ve spent time with him learning about that world and encouraging his interest. Competitive cycling is so much more than riding a bike; the strategy, the stress, the nutrition, the equipment, on and on. Training is an everyday discipline. He has met people from all over the world in his competitions. He has competed and done well as a junior in races in several states now and looks forward to a race in Milwaukee and then three weeks of training in Belgium this summer. He has only been competing for two years and has been on the podium many times. He’ll be a senior in high school next year. That’s a milestone we look forward to witnessing.

I will post more regularly again. Regular and consistent are not words that occur often in my vocabulary or my habits, but I’ll try. I have lots of stories and ideas to share.