Birthdays and the Past

Today is Essie’s birthday.  My little girl turns 9 years old today.  Yesterday was my Dad’s 77th birthday.  Where has all the time gone?  When did time start speeding up?  Who bumped the fast forward button?  It seems just the other dat Chris brought Essie home.  She fit in both hands.  Now she’s 9 years old.

And Dad… he’s noticing the bad things about getting older.  The scary things.  He lives alone in Montreal.  There are times he gets confused and lost in his own apartment.  He told me that he is now deaf in his left ear and the hearing is going in his right.  All this is just within the past year or so.  He is looking into senior homes that are in the area.  A senior home.  My Dad.  While I approach 50 he is approaching 80.  It’s damn scary.  (Dad and I are 30 years apart.)

And when we go back to where we came from or places we’ve been there always seems to be such drastic changes.  More people, more traffic, more buildings or places gone… People say don’t go back to the places you love because if it has been a long time the reality of now can destroy the memory of what was.  I can agree to that.  I’ve gone back once to Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum since I was a kid.  It is soooo not what I had growing up.  Now it resembles a three ring circus.  It is more like a theme park then a place to learn.  That made me really sad.  I want to take Chris to Cranbrook Science Museum and to Mackinaw Island but I am worried about what I will find.  The Island might be close to the same but I know the museum won’t be.  I’m not against change mind you.  It has to happen.  It’s just how things change that can be bad.

It looks like the fog is disappearing and the clock tells me I need to get going for work.  Have a great day!  And Happy Birthday Essie!