The Half-Century Mark

Next week I will mark one of those milestones in life. I will hit the half-century mark next Monday.

I had been feeling pretty good about my looming 50th birthday until this past weekend.  I was in a store when the woman at the register asked if I would qualify for a senior discount.  I asked at what age the discount started, and she replied "Sixty or older."

Talk about a blow to the ego.

Either I looked particularly bad that day, or I am starting to look much older than I think I do.

Granted there are days when I feel much older than fifty.  I have noticed that things are starting to ache for no apparent reason, it takes a little more time to get up in the morning, and I can no longer read anything without glasses.

However, I am still competing in 5K races and consistently place in the top three.  And I wear the same size clothing as I have for the last 25 years. Nevermind the fact that size 4 has become a little snug in a few spots. And the phenomenon of going into a room and not remembering why I walked in there in the first place is happening more often.

I am usually inclined to believe the saying often attributed to Mark Twain: "Age is a case of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."  Most days, I don't give my age a thought.

But the next time a sales clerk wonders if I a might be over 60, I may need to give that person a piece of my mind.  If I can find it at that particular moment.

Merry October!

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a disgusted text:

I am at Target and the Christmas decorations are already out.

I probably would have been a little more surprised and slightly disgusted to hear of Christmas decorations for sale in September if I had not seen the Kmart commercial for Christmas lay-aways several weeks before that.

Forget Christmas in July sales.  It is now Christmas in July, August, September, October and November.  Pretty soon we will just skip these months and have six months of December.

A few years ago a local radio station began playing all Christmas music on November 1.  The Hallmark channel will be switching to holiday programming on October 31.  Personally I would rather get my Halloween decorations put away before I start hearing The First Noel and Jingle Bells.

The Today Show had a report this morning that said 26 percent of people have already begun holiday shopping.  They featured a woman who was already done with all her shopping and is in the process of wrapping gifts.

I have to admit that I already have few things purchased.  If I see something in a catalog that I know a family member would like, I will get order it before it runs out of stock or, a more likely scenario, I will have forgotten about it.  But will I be finished before those Black Friday sales begin?  I doubt it.

There is something about being part of that holiday rush that puts me in the Christmas spirit.  Warm weather and Christmas shopping just don't go together as far as I am concerned.

So even though I hope to have the bulk of my shopping complete before Thanksgiving, it wouldn't be the holidays without being part of that Christmas shopping crunch, for better or worse.

Let's give Halloween and Thanksgiving a little respect and keep Silent Night and eggnog to a minimum until then. Lest I turn into the Grinch long before December.