17. Gosh, it seems such a long time.

Gosh, it seems such a long time.
Well, my Leader's six remaining sisters came over last week for their annual stay at the same local self-catering holiday spot that they have patronized for many years. Doesn't affect me much but my Leader always takes them to their nearest supermarket on the first day, we both go over to visit mid-week (usually with our daughter and two grandchildren) and my Leader goes at the end of the week to wish them bon voyage.
This year they are saying that there will be no future get-togethers of this kind for them. Three are in their eighties and the other three in their seventies.
None of them is in the very best of health.
Age, my dears,is catching up.
Trouble with knocking on a bit is not so much that health problems happen, but that you are forced to face their happening.
When you are young you can put the odd twinge down to growing pains or an over-active libido or something.
Not so in old age. Never mind the elderly bullshitters who boast of their youthful driving ability (most of them are a menace on the roads) the fact is that one becomes physically less strong, mentally less sharp and generally less capable in old age.
To believe otherwise is to indulge in a sad self-deception.

Before we went on holiday my Leader ordered a headboard for our bed - the old one seemed nearly as old as us - and a long skinny shed for our little courtyard.
She discovered both on the internet.
Last week, some six weeks on, they arrived within a day of each other.
I had work to do.
On a ridiculously humid day I fought with the headboard.
In typically macho form I waited until my Leader was out to tackle it.
The bedroom was like an oven.
By the time the job was over I resembled nothing so much as a bundle of soggy rags.
Then, over the weekend, I took on the shed.
'Takes one person approximately two hours to assemble' said the instruction sheet. It should have said: 'Takes one old guy an entire hot weekend to assemble, take apart, move to another place and reassemble.'
I slept well afterwards.
I was knackered.
The headboard and the shed both look good, though.
Heck, maybe next year I'll have a go at the London Marathon.
Then again, maybe I'll see sense.
Justin Thyme