Getting Old

I'm starting (What? Only starting?) to feel old. I went to Michael and Cindy's for dinner and to exchange presents last night. As usual we drank three bottles of wine. We had two Champagnes and a 1995 Bordeaux that I supplied. I also give them a bottle of Delamain cognac every year so we had to have some of that also.

I'm a little pissed at the drop of the dollar versus the Euro. I can always buy California wine, and Michael finds me good values in French and Italian wines. Also, I bought some 2003 Bordeaux futures so I locked in a good price on them at the exchange rate when the futures price was set. 2003 is supposed to be a dynamite year for Bordeaux reds. The same weather that killed all those French people in the summer of 2003 was good for the grapes in Bordeaux. It was a win/win scenario.

So I can get wine from other places. Unfortunately, I can only get good cognac from France and as the dollar dropped in value, the price of Delamain went up. Arrrgggghhhh!

I wonder what's gonna happen to the French wine industry when they surrender to the Muslims and let them take over the country in another 30 years? Fortunately, I won't be around, but I sure would miss good French cognac.

When I got ready to leave Michael and Cindy's we had the normal game we play called See how many tries it takes Denny to get out of the chair. The last few times it has taken one or two tries. This time it took about 15. Those of you who attended the 2003 Jawja Blogfest in Helen got to watch a version of that game. In that version, I just stayed in that room, and Eric got to move into my room. Last night it was the two glasses of cognac that did me in.

Before I went to Michael and Cindy's, my sister called. Our cousin Rosemary, who is my sister's godmother, just had a stroke.

There are only three people left in my parents' generation and they are all on my mother's side. My father was the baby in his family. There might be some Freemans floating around in my father's generation. My great grandfather Cyrus Freeman had 19 children: twelve by his first wife, who is my great grandmother, and seven by his second wife. My grandmother was the ninth child in the first twelve.

We didn't even know about the Freemans until my sister starting doing genealogy research. We knew nothing about my father's side of the family. Now my sister has taken them way back, especially the Freemans. She can only take the Wilson branch back to the early 1800's. There were four John Wilsons in southern Missouri and she can't figger out which one is our great great great grandfather. I think I've got that right. Granfather - James Halleck Wilson. Great grandfather - John Alexander Wilson. Great great grandfather - William Neil Wilson. Great great great grandfather - John Wilson.

If I got that wrong, my sister will correct in in the comments. She has most of this stuff memorized.

Our cousin Rosemary, and her brother Russell, who's my godfather, and his wife Shirley, are the only ones we know who are in my parents' generation. They are all in their 80's but people in our family live long.

Rosemary has not been the same since my mother died. She and Mom were not just cousins, they were best friends. She and Mom went to line dancing together. They talked on the phone a lot. Russell always said that Mom and Rosemary could spend all day together, and then talk for two hours on the phone. Mom kept Rosemary active. Mom was a high energy person. I had trouble keeping up with her before I became a cripple.

Rosemary had to quit driving a few years before Mom died because she started having fainting spells. Mom drove her a lot of places. Hell, Mom drove lots of old ladies places. She was the only one who could still drive.

When Russell and Shirley sold their house and moved into an old folks apartment complex out in Valley Park, Rosemary lost another transportation option. She eventually sold her house and moved into a semi-assisted living complex. She hated it. In her house she would walk to church and talk to people along the way. Even though the facility she moved into was a Catholic facility (Rosemary is a devout Catholic. I always referred to her as Rosemary, the saint.), eventually she moved out to where Russell and Shirley live.

Rosemary's health has been failing for some time and I was not surpried at the stroke. We don't know how serious it is and I'm still going to South Carolina for Christmas, but Sherry and I might wind up going up to St. Louis if Rosemary gets worse.

Getting old really sucks.

Posted by denny at December 19, 2004 09:59 PM