Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Silliness of Aging

As I have recently written, I do sometimes nod off while I am watching tv. Usually, it involves fading away for just a few seconds before snapping back into this present dimension, only to rinse and repeat. It would be nice to be one or t'other — either asleep or awake — but that is not to be my lot.

If I happen to be watching a Midsomer rerun, it is not too much of a problem, but we had a brand new Shetland coming up, and I don't want to miss a second of that because it is tv that is hard to top.

It had been a tough night and very early morning, so what should I do?

Well, I had a little nap (or tried to) before our lunchtime viewing. (My naps btw are very brief and are mostly just short rests.)

Whatever it was, whether sleep of just rest, it worked well enough to keep me awake for the episode, but imagine having to nap to watch tv.

Now that is old-age silliness, but so was what I discovered on the night before.

You know that I am bald, eh? But I have stubble up there, and before I went to bed, I was surveying my scalp and realizing that it was time to give it a bit of a tidy-up come morning.

And that is when I saw it — an inch-long hair growing out of the middle of my forehead.

The middle of my forehead! Middle! What the heck! I'd never seen that before.

I attended to it; of course I did, and while I was at it, I did some eyebrow plucking.

Yes moi, a man of 76, resorts to plucking his brows every so often.

You see, my brows are still dark. But . . . but there is one silver hair in each brow. One! It looks stupid and annoys me, so I pluck it.

Another oddity is that said silver hairs are also sprongy as if they are trying to flee the brow. There are a few other dark, brow hairs that are also sprongy and sticking out stupidly, so I removed one or two others. But I refrain from getting too carried away with the non-silver ones because I don't want to denude my eyebrows entirely. It's not a great look, you know.

As I said, aging is silly, and I haven't mentioned the difficulty of getting in and out of the bath tub or trying to trim my toenails.


20 comments:

Tabor said...

Aging is not for the faint of heart or for those who do not have a sense of humor to laugh at themselves. It seems you are strong of heart and with good humor.

Barbara Rogers said...

Yes, we elders do have new sprouts of hairs that seem to arrive fully long in new places on our heads...mine are chiny chin chins! Every once in a while I forget to look in the magnified mirror to see if they are back. Usually before going to meet people to eat, which means they'll be sitting close enough to see them (the hairs). I have mostly friends who are younger than myself, thus I figure they still have better eyesight. Keep an eye on those interesting developments of sproungy hairs. (Now there's a word I invented, I think.)

Granny Sue said...

I had to laugh out loud reading this, and Barb's comment above, because I was thinking the same thing myself just yesterday. My hubby has a hair that grows out of the center of his nose, right on top! He usually sees it and takes care of it before it's noticeable, but occasionally misses it. So funny looking. If we're gonna be old, I guess we have to be tough, and endure the humbling aspects of age. Darn it.

RedPat said...

I always have to do a recap of Shetland each week anyway even if I haven't fallen asleep.

Karen said...

Five years back I broke my big toe on boxing day, It affected how the nail grows on that toe, and not in a good way. As a result I had to have a foot care nurse looking after it for awhile. These days things are relatively back to normal, but I still have that foot care nurse do my feet rather regularly. The BEST $30 I've spent on my self indulgence. I've referred her to some of my other senior friends and they love it. It seems to be a problem for us older folks across the board to look after our feet properly. (They do a good job John, you should try it!)

Anvilcloud said...

@RP. When I have to wait a week fir a new Shetland episode, I must also replay the old one, so I don’t get more lost than usual.

Debby said...

You think YOU'VE got it bad? My eyebrows are growing out of my chin! Tim suddenly has the wayward eyebrow thing going on as well. I am forever telling him to smooth his eyebrows, he looks like Satan.

When we were young, we had many a wild hair. It seems that they've taken up residence on our faces.

Margaret said...

Yes, what is it about those wild hairs? My eyebrows are mainly still dark too with only an occasional silver one. Yet my hair is completely gray.(although dyed) I don't get it.

Cloudia said...

The golden years are not for wimps. Thank you for being a great companion and example on the way. I wish you and yours a wonderful year ahead. With aloha!

DJan said...

This was a fun post to read and also fun to read the comments. You have succeeded in bringing some much needed happiness into my morning. Thank you! Oh, and happy new year!

William Kendall said...

There's a fellow I've seen here who has the look of a werewolf- thick beard, thick eyebrows, thick hair growing low on the forehead.

roentare said...

One patient used to tell me that ageing was a privilege. Experiencing all phases of life makes the most of it.

Happy New Year to you too!

Joanne Noragon said...

My words to the wise: walk in shower and podiatrist. Happy new year,

Red said...

You could write a whole book on this stuff and then start to think if what you look like inside. What is falling apart inside? I wonder how our brains look these days?

MARY G said...

The comments ARE a book. My annoying hair is in my ear, inside my ear. Hearing aid does not like it. I do not like it.
And I gave up on the bathtub a knee ago.
Just dozed off and jerked the mouse.
Happy New Year!!

Ed said...

One of the worst aspects of aging is that gravity apparently affects my hair. They are sagging from the top of my head and ending up in all the wrong spots!

Jenn Jilks said...

Oh, I hear you!
We'll often go back a couple episodes. JB feels he must wake me up each time.
Tweezers are our friends!

Vicki Lane said...

Oh, heavens--I can relate to much of this. My eyebrows are becoming bristly and silvered but plucking out the offenders will not leave much. Time to embrace my inner Swamp Witch.

Kay said...

Yes. Art once had a LOT of thick hair, but it's thinned out considerably. I also insist on trimming his eyebrows so he doesn't look like Andy Rooney whose commentaries we used to always watch a time ago. And me? I have this one white hair that grows on my chin. What the heck!

Jenny the Pirate said...

Oh dear I'm not going to touch this one, hahahaha! xoxo