With the postal strike, my reading material is severely restricted. We normally get books-by-mail (and then by float-plane). A great service. But now I am limited to what I have in our own little library and, of course, most of it I have already read.

I picked up Scott Peck’s In Search of Stones. I chose it because the first time I read it, I found it boring. To a large extent it was a travel book but, at the same time, it was a story of his aging process (and his wife’s). Such a topic didn’t interest me when I was 50. But now I am 63. Now we have more in common.

Age is an issue out here. Not a big one. Not yet. But it is an issue and slowly, inexorably, it is looming larger. Getting older limits our activities to an increasing extent every year.

Oddly, I am just as strong if not, in fact, a bit stronger in some ways (I.e. I have great hair and it is finding new places in which to proliferate!). But I now get tired in half the time. It is more than just a bit irritating, it’s also a scheduling problem. I sometimes don’t undertake a task or project because I know I won’t be able to finish what I start in time for the next thing scheduled.

Sal’s a bit better (surprised?). She seems to have more energy but hers, too, is less than what it was just a few years ago. And her hands are stiffening up a bit. Like my back.

Of course, our eyes are all shot to hell as well. Sal can’t see up close. I can’t see far away and our middle vision both sucks.

But I mention all this not because I am complaining (well, not anymore than is written above, anyway). I am mentioning this because our health is still pretty good! I know that sounds odd but, at 63, I go up and down the lagoon hill pretty nimbly carrying a chainsaw and a peavey. Sal zips up and down so easily, it is like a walk in the park for her. We are outside every day and we are doing things that keep us in shape (I like hers better than mine but, face it, a firm potato-shape is still a shape!). This lifestyle is good for us. It doesn’t halt aging but it slows it down.

We figure to be able to keep this lifestyle going for a considerable time. One of our neighbours is in his early 80’s and he can outwork me by twice!

Yesterday, I popped in to see the prawn fisherman for a bit. I pulled alongside his boat while he was slowly proceeding along his trap-line and, handing him the rope, I scrambled aboard. No big deal. A short awkward climb up the side of a large boat and over the rail. We visited and I then went to leave. The crew had taken my boat to the other side and my way was blocked by equipment and a tarp. Paul offered to send a crew member to get it for me.

“No need. I can do this.“

And so I slipped between the equipment, scrambled past the work lines and flung myself over the side catching my feet on the rubstrake of his vessel and making the still-moving step onto my boat 5 or so feet below.

Paul smiled and said, “Glad you have a stable boat! See ya!” And off I went.

Again……..no big deal. But I am seeing more and more that a typical 63 year old urban male would likely have had trouble with that. It was a good feeling to know that I could have handled that same maneuver in heavier weather and in the dark.

You gotta find your victories where you can.