Saturday

Saturday used to be a long work day around our house. For so many years we rose early and began the process of crossing off the jobs on our list that ranged from house cleaning to car washing to hedge trimming and yard maintenance. We would work together - not side-by-side necessarily but together all the same, to get the house cleaned and manicured and totally up to snuff - at least as much as it ever is around here. (Neither of us is a neat freak!) Even the kids had a chore list for Saturdays.

That was then.

This morning we were out of bed before 7am and started working deligently. I vacuumed, wiped, scoured, and scrubbed around this house which has been a bit neglected during this very busy summer, and even the cabinets got a good going-over. My husband headed for the yard where he washed the cars and is even now toiling away at the hedges which are badly in need of a trim. It's 10am and I am exhausted.

So here is one more thing to put on the list of the annoyances of aging - lack of endurance! Where we used to work until about 3 in the afternoon before resting. Now we are lucky if we make it to lunchtime. And we take little breaks all morning at that. By noon we are usually sitting in chairs, grabbing a bite to eat and trying not to think about how much our legs ache or our backs hurt.

It' a strange thing, watching our bodies wear out. And we are not even that old yet! But we can already see the difference and it sometimes sobers us up realizing how much less we will be able to do in a few more years.

So - we work on our own maintenance - regular excercise and eating (fairly) well. But age is an inevitable part of life and its efects are clear. My poor parents. I should have offered to help them out more...