Day: August 7, 2019

A person close to me once said that when things don’t go as planned, think of what does happen as an adventure. Now I’m not talking about big life altering changes, but more like say getting a flat tire, getting lost in a new town, or any day to day mishap. I actually think it’s good advice.

Let’s say you are driving round town when you suddenly get a flat tire. Now you can get angry, yell or swear up a storm. This is what most people would do, or you can think of it as an adventure. Just think of all your options. #1 You can call a road service to come fix it for you, for a fee of course. #2 You can fix it yourself, if you know how. #3 Call a friend or family member to come and help. If they don’t know how to change a tire, at least you will have someone waiting with you. Sounds like an adventure to me!

How about if you get lost somewhere, going down the wrong road in a town you have never been to before. After cussing out Siri or Alexa or whoever led you astray, you once again have these wonderful options. #1 You can look around you to see if there are any people walking around and ask them for directions. Look at you meeting new people and making friends! #2 You can get out your old paper map (if you have one) and figure out where you went wrong. #3 Keep driving around until you finally find the right road and be on your way again. Sounds like another adventure!

So what I mean to say is when something doesn’t go your way, try to make the best of it. Getting angry does not help with the situation and can actually affect your health. And since we are only middle aged we need to stay healthy to reach old age. I heard it’s hard getting old, but what an adventure!

Before I retired, going to the grocery store was just one of those menial jobs that you had to do occasionally so you could buy whatever food was needed to prepare meals and eat. We would go almost weekly because we were always running out of something that we absolutely had to have or just plain forgot to get when we were there last time. It was no big deal really.

Now, since retiring, we have to plan a trip to get groceries, checking our coupons for expiration dates (I never used coupons when I was working), looking for our grocery bags (which are never where we put them last) and making sure our checks were actually direct deposited. We get our monthly check on the 1st of each month, just like millions of other old people. And all those old people go to the store on the 1st or 2nd of the month. I mean why not, apparently this is what you do when you get paid. Getting your check is like a celebration. I think it’s some kind of old person rule. Go to the store the minute you get your check. Go to the store. Got to the store. Like robots. We did that too……at first. But let me tell you, that was a big mistake. The old people are all over the store, but mostly….in the grocery aisles. They seem to walk sooo slow, and I get it, they are sometimes in pain from various ailments and have to walk with care. I know because I have bad days with arthritis. But when I am feeling painful, I stay home. I don’t go shopping! And then they will stop in the middle of the aisles with their practically empty carts to talk to other old people with their carts. It’s insane! I swear they go the the store just to visit with each other, all the while blocking the aisles with their carts, oblivious to what’s going on around them. And then when they get to the checkout, OMG you might as well get a book out and read because you will be waiting a while. They wait until the very last minute to get out their checkbooks and write a check . Really who even uses checkbooks anymore? And don’t get me started on what happens when the store changes their layout. OMG!

Well we figured out early in our retirement not to go anywhere on those days. We would wait until a few days later to get what we needed. So on those first few days of the month while others are socializing at the store, we are at home eating popcorn for dinner waiting until it’s safe to go out.