Time to Return

Yesterday I turned 70 years old. I’m not sure as a child or young adult I had any idea of what 70 would look like or what I would look like, what life would be like. A person was either young or old. I did always think I’d live to be in my 90’s, perhaps just wishful thinking, but here I am at least at 70. Twenty years ago I was 50, that doesn’t seem that long ago so if I do live to be 90 it’s coming quicker than I realize. The weeks leading up to my birthday have been difficult, to say the least. I really did not do Christmas this year, just could not. I slept.....a lot. Winters are always hard on me, SAD seems to get worse with age. I don’t need a calendar to know when the winter solstice is here, my body tells me. My birthday is in January naturally, my worst time of year. Then I deal with cancer, not one, but several. I’ve been on the journey since I was 57 and it continues. It takes a toll on your mood. I have developed early COPD which, as a lifetime non-smoker, pisses me off. But I have decided since I am still alive and I am 70 I would like the decade of my 70’s to be the best one yet. My 20’s and 30’s were great so it will be a challenge. But no decade could be worse than my 40’s so forward and onward.

I am returning to blogging, both this one and my photo blog. I have neglected them. I’m not changing the title of this one. I considered it but I still live in a small town in Wisconsin so the title remains. The focus will change somewhat, but there will still be some road trips, I hope, and stories about life in a small town. Often the town will be spelled Cassadaga, not Tomahawk, because Cassadaga is where the majority of my growing up years were spent and where I learned so much of what I know today. I will write about my nursing school and the hospital that made me the nurse I am today. It breaks my heart that the dorms, classrooms, and hospital will soon be demolished. I don’t take change well. When I visit Buffalo, New York I expect the buildings of 3 Gates Circle to still be there, the dorms still to be at 636 Linwood Avenue. And they won’t be. I hate it. I will write some about cancer but not a lot. My main interest is raising awareness of some of the rare orphan cancers that get very little attention but have a high mortality and need research dollars and publicity. I want to keep entries shorter, rather than longer. So, enough for tonight.

My next entry in a few days will be on a subject I learned about just this week. I cannot spell the word and have no clue how to say it but it is timely and, for us public health geeks, interesting. My parents both taught us you never stop learning just because you complete your formal education. There is something new always waiting to be learned.

PS: There will always be occasional cat photos.