So I have a birthday coming soon.  67 is not a round number or any great milestone except having lived thru another great year. When I was 30 I would have thought that anybody who’s 67 would have to be sitting in their rocking chair knitting, if their fingers would still allow it. You know how perceptions change as time goes on………

But, since the women in my mother’s family have all lived well into their 80’s, I think/hope  I have a long ways to go yet.  I try to do what I can to keep in good shape to plan for that.  Gym almost every day and walk at least a mile on the treadmill. Work in the garden all thru the warm months and grow healthy veggies, and put some away for good winter meals. Joined the senior center and go to do some fun things with them sometimes, although joining there was an admission to myself that I’m getting old(er.)  (See in my mind I’m still about 40. My mind keeps saying that while my body says something else, lol) Keep my mind active by doing volunteer work at our local historical society. That’s all good and fun stuff. I have a nice rocking chair, but I don’t use it much.

But sometimes we need to make a big admission to ourselves.  My hearing has been bad from a nerve deafness for years, and I knew that from having it tested years ago. Over a year ago I went to the ENT and had it tested again, and it had gotten worse. And the doc said I was a good candidate for hearing aids, yea,  two of them.  I knew that, cos I knew I was missing a lot that was going on around me. But I wasn’t willing to  admit yet that I could need hearing aids.  Hearing aids are for old people.

So I went on for a while listening hard, knowing I was missing parts of conversations, asking people to repeat things and struggling sometimes on the phone.

Hearing aids are for old people, right?  But wait, I am old people.  Two weeks ago I went back to the ENT, grumbling under my breath, and said, OK, I’m ready to admit it: I need hearing aids.

I pick them up tomorrow.  The technology with hearing aids has kept up with other technology and gotten better and smaller and there’s actually a small computer inside each one.  And they go into their case at night and recharge themselves.  The audiologist told me things will sound strange and a little harsh at first until my brain adjusts to hearing everything there is to hear around me, even hearing my own voice. I’m up for the challenge to get adjusted to them now, and hope to hear more crickets, and other small and upper tone things which have passed me by for so long.

My family doc, bless his heart, is two years younger than me and has been saying for a long time that getting old is not for the faint of heart.  He’s so right.