My father-in-law didn't write this, but he could have:

"I've sure gotten old!
I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
new knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes.

I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.

Have bouts with dementia.
Have poor circulation; hardly feel my hands and feet anymore.

Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92.
Have lost all my friends. But, praise the Lord,

I can still drive."

He drives a standard transmission VW Golf, and last time we rode with him, he forgot to put it into first gear when coming out from a stop sign, pulled out in front of a big truck and we hiccupped along in second gear before the car finally caught up to itself. It was painful to be a passenger.

His wife is not much better. Family members talked them into buying a Camry with automatic transmission so they would have one of each kind of car. But she never has liked it, claiming it's 'so big, it's huge!'

Part of the problem was they didn't test drive it when they went car shopping. They were trading in a 10-year old Camry and since they'd liked it, just wanted another one. However, in those 10 years what used to be a compact car model had grown to the dimensions that we used to consider full size.

Also, the style of cars these days is to have smaller windows and taller doors. I've read articles about how one reason kids today are so engaged in their electronics while riding in the car is they are so down low in the back seat they can't see out the windows very well. And the visibility for the driver isn't a whole lot better. There is a reason the current Camry model comes with a built-in backup camera. Of course that doesn't help the poor fools who bought that model before the camera came along.

When they got it home, they discovered it would barely fit in their garage, and they never drove it. Literally. A year after they bought that car, it still had the original gas in the tank that came from the dealer.

The one time she did drive it, she scraped against a post at the hospital parking lot, just confirming that it is too big to drive. They've had it 6 or 7 years now, and you'll be glad to know it has gotten a few more miles on it: with their daughter behind the wheel when she drives them somewhere they want to go. But meanwhile, he still gets around in the VW Golf and thinks he's doing fine.

In other news, we continue to have nice weather. Our overnight low temperature is around 55 degrees, and we leave our doors and windows open to cool the house and then close them against the heat of the day, usually about 80 degrees with low humidity. It feels like the house is air conditioned, and I'm glad the metal roof hasn't affected it. We've been getting afternoon clouds drifting over and sometimes they drop a little rain, but either way, it cuts off the sun and makes it very pleasant to be outdoors.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday:





Quackers doesn't like the swifter current next to the grass along the riverbank, so he gets us to pull the grass off and feed it to him. We try dropping it in the water so he can catch it, but he misses a lot, so the other of us stands downstream from him and intercepts the leaves as they go by.



Right now he's next door hanging out with the neighbors. He likes this family the most of all who have been here this summer.