A CHAT WITH MY UNCLE

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

This morning my uncle phoned.  In a way it was by mistake as he had gotten a phone call from someone with my area code.  It wasn’t me but I am glad that he phoned because we had not chatted for a few weeks.  We try to phone each other about once a month and yesterday I had planned to give him a call but it slipped my mind. It seems that more things slip my mind that did a few years ago.

I enjoy our chats because he is an interesting person who had several interesting careers including a few years with the federal government.  We laughed about that because his grade level with the government was always higher than mine in spite of the fact that I had many years more college than he.  His other jobs ranged widely all of which were executive-level positions.

Our chats are nondescript, that is we generally do not stick to one topic but today we got talking about being old and death.  Now those topics might be thought of as gloomy and in away I guess they are but none the less of interest to us old people. 

What got my attention and nearly blew me away was when he told me that his life changed when he turned 80 years of age.  For him that was twelve years ago.  Yes, he is but ten years older than me which happened because my father and his brother had different mothers.  My father’s mother died when he was about 8 years old.  His father remarried a much younger woman thus my uncle’s and mine relative young differential age.  I suppose he is really my half-uncle which never really sounded quite right.

I have written in this blog many times that I too thought my old age began when I was 80 years old.  He had never shared this experience with me before so it surprised me that we had the same feelings at the same age.  Certainly, this event enforces my theory that this is the age when we have outlived half of our chums so this is the beginning of another facet of our lives – you know old age.

We discussed this coincidence for some time with extremely similar experiences regarding our physical and mental changes.  Since we are men I wonder if this distinct change occurs in women and at the same age. I doubt it for women live longer than men and they age slower.  I asked a woman I play bridge with who is older than I by a few years.  She thought that she felt old when she reached 85.

Our conversation turned to death not our own but about the deaths of our friends.  One of his friends who was younger than he had recently committed suicide.  Apparently he was depressed about what could happen to him as he grew older.  I write the word ‘could’ not ‘would’ happen because we do not know what our future holds.  That is, his vision of old age could have been completely wrong not that it is great fun but I find it somewhat enjoyable for it is a new experience and it beats the alternative.

I recalled my recent experience of a friend dying which was quick and painless.  A death like we all wish we will have.

I find it interesting that death becomes more important than when I was younger.  Its importance has increase particularly and interestingly when I turned 80 years of age.  Like I have written before I look at the obituaries each morning in the newspaper noting especially their ages at death.  I see quite a few are my age which makes me wonder about me dying tomorrow.  I shrug off that thought as I feel fine and am physically and mentally active feeling like I will live forever.

What is sad is the number of people who have died at a much younger age.  Seeing the obituaries of people born in the 1940s and 50s makes me feel a mixture of sadness and just being plain lucky.  Of course everybody’s luck will come to an end someday.

So I wonder what these people my age died of as it is rarely mentioned in their life histories.  Regarding this life history thing I guess the longer the history the more important that person was during their life.  Or maybe the person writing it just enjoyed writing a long story.  My newspaper highlights one particular death with a news column type article at the beginning at the obituary section which is now know as ‘Life Tributes’.  I have often wondered how someone gets this special recognition not that it is important especially to the person who is being recognized for a good productive life.

My uncle had attended his friend’s memorial service.  He lamented that at his age no one would be around to go to his service which brought up an interesting thought.  What kind of remembrance do I wish to have, if any?  I write if any because at my age because by far the majority of my best friends are dead so who would attend?  It would be embarrassing to hold a memorial service and no one would show up.  Oh I suppose some of the offspring of my friends might show up, but can’t be sure.

If I would have some kind of memorial service it would be very short for my life story can not be of much interest to those attending.  Even my children and grandchildren would be bored for they already know all about me.

So, I close a rather gloomy article as death has a way of sucking all of the fun air out of the room.  Still, I enjoyed our phone chat, especially with the recognition that we both had the same changed feelings about life when we got to that magical age of 80.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

Last night I had my usual Friday dinner with a friend who lives a couple of blocks from me.  These dinners have almost become a ritual with me doing the cooking and she brings over a bottle of wine.  As I uncorked the wine to let it ‘breathe’ she remarked that she had thought of bringing over champagne to cerebrate my birthday which would occur before our next usual Friday dinner.

Her noting my upcoming birthday was almost a surprise but not really for in the back of my mind lingered this near-future event which will make it 83 times I have lived through this ‘celebration’. And, at one time in my life it was a big event which I looked forward to with great anticipation for I would get presents and there would be a party.  Oh how I enjoyed getting presents in those boyhood days.  But, it was not only presents which I looked forward to it was the Angle Food Cake my mother always made and in those days it was from scratch. Yes, I was reminded each time that it took a dozen egg whites.  What she did with the yokes I have no idea.

Like all things I grew out of wanting that cake and birthdays.  In fact, I can not remember the last time eating this kind of cake and they are available in all grocery stores in the bakery department ready to put icing for a few dollars.  Still, when I do see one I think about those early birthdays and smile.

Of course as I grew older birthdays were less exciting to me even though the gifts I got were more expensive.  The older I got the less important birthdays became until now I try to forget them but of course that does no good because they do come around each year whether I like it or not.  I suppose I should relish them because there are fewer left!

Back to last night, I felt bad because I had forgotten her birthday in early December.  I think it is the 6^th but I am not sure.  I did remember it in the middle of the month when we were going to a movie so I apologized and paid for the movie tickets and bought us a serving of nachos to eat while we watched the movie. So my belated birthday gifts were received with a smile. Well actually it was only one gift because we usually split the cost of the tickets and the food. Oh, I think I bought us each a glass of red wine.

Even though I might try to forget my birthday it is difficult because my birthday is the same day as Martin Luther King’s birthday which is a national holiday. I make fun of that fact because not many people’s birthday is a national holiday.  Well the national holiday is not always on his birthday 15 January.  You know they tie these things to weekends.

I have a difficult time even remembering my relatives’ birthdays for some reason. And, I can’t remember ages. But not always for the birthday of my favorite uncle I do not know, I think it is in early June but I know his age for it is ten years older than mine. Hey that’s easy.  My late wife’s birthday was on the 30^th of August.  For a long time I had a problem remembering whether it was on that day or the 31^st. I struggled with that until very recently I realized that it was the same as my late sister’s birthday and a day before her daughter’s birthday which I always remembered was on the 31^st.

I have two of my three grandkids birthdays down cold because the first one was born the 4^th of July.  Who can forget that? Then the second one was born on the 4^th of June. Of course relating it to the first born is no brainer. Unfortunately for me the third one was not born on the 4^th of any month so I do struggle.  Of course I remember my Mother’s birthday on the 6^th of September and my father was born on 20 March 1906.  His birth date is clearly shown on his Baptism certificate.  I know that because I have it framed hanging on my bedroom wall.

My close lady friend has her birthday on the first of May.  Her birthday is easy for me to remember because it is the same day as my late very best friend’s birthday. We went to Veterinary School together and through many years I enjoyed his friendship.  He was as close to me as anyone could be.  Knowing that he was dying, I shared his bed the last night of his life. But for shame, I do not remember that date.

I have another crutch to remember those 1 May birthdays.  My major professor when I was getting my doctorate in physiology had a ditty which he recalled each May first.  It went like this, ‘Hooray, hooray the first of May outdoor screwing starts today’. He was a master at such outrageous humor and he knew hundreds of limericks which is a type of poem.  Now for my readers who do not know, real limericks are always what can be called dirty in that they involve sex in a rather vulgar way.  He enjoyed drinking and when he had his share he would begin reciting limericks regards of where he was.  How much fun!!!!

So, I have two close friends with the same birthday and my wife and sister with the same birthday. And, let’s not forget that my birthday is the same as the late Rev. King. Well this all appears to be a rather interesting coincidence but it is not for it can be explained mathematically, although I don’t know the formula.  But it is a fact that when there are just 16 or is it 18 people together the chances that two of them will share the same birthday is nearly 100%. I was aware of this many years ago so I tried it out on friends at a party at my house.  There were only 14 people in attendance but what the heck, I will see if it might work with fewer people.

Now are you ready for this?  Three people shared the same birthday!!!!  Oh my…

When I was born births were generally performed at that home with the assistance of a women birther.  Physicians were much less involved that they are today.  For some reason it was known by my folks that at birth I was to be a breach presentation.  This meant that I was to arrive in the world upside down and backwards.  How this was determined then is still a mystery for MRI’s had not been invented and I doubt that they would have x-ayed my mother. 

None the less there was great concern for this meant that I could not breathe until my entire body and umbilical cord had been presented.  For this reason, I was born in a birthing home with the assistance of a physician.  Obviously, my birth was a success without any serious flaws, I think but some of my friends are not always sure.

But, the fact that a physician was there, a strange turn of events occurred.  Being born close to midnight caused a problem regarding my actual birth date.  The physician who was busy delivering me recorded it as January 16, 1932  But, the nurses who were less busy, told my folks that actually it was on the 15^th so it has always been celebrated on that date.  Interestingly, even though my birthday certificate shows the 16^th all of my legal documents show the 15^th.  Oh my…

 1/15

MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT CIGARETTES

(AND CIGARS AND A PIPE)

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I write on this subject because I am sure this will bring back memories to my readers when we were young especially those of us who smoked tobacco. And, in those days the majority of men were regular smokers, primarily cigarettes.

I include cigars and a pipe in my title because when I quite smoking tobacco I was smoking all three each day.  I was up to three packs a day, a couple of cigars and my pipe.  I was in my mid thirties so it was sometime in the 1960s when I suddenly one early evening decided to quit and it was cold turkey. 

I started smoking cigarettes when I joined a fraternity house at the University of California at Davis (UCD) in 1950. I was eighteen years of age in my second year of college.  The fraternity was Phi Sigma Kappa a national one with a good reputation which included empathizing good grades and hosting an annual party known as the Tahiti Tussle.  When I lived at home I smoked a pipe occasionally but I did not get hooked on tobacco until later in 1950 when I left home and entered UCD.

In those days, a tobacco representative visited fraternity houses and explained how wonderful their product was especially to young college men.  Lucky Strikes and Camels were the two brands I remember.  At that time, there were no filtered cigarettes. And, at the close of the visit he gave each of us a small pack of 4 cigarettes.  Now in those days a pack of 20 cigarettes cost 17 cents – yes just 17 cents.  Yes a carton of 20 packs was $3.40.

We all knew even back then that smoking was unhealthy.  About that time Edward R. Murrow, the well-known TV news commentator who was a chain smoker, even on TV died of lung cancer at a relatively young age.  And, a popular song then was Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette which touted the dangers of smoking. Still, it was common practice to smoke in all buildings including people’s homes.  The only house in which I was not allowed to smoke in was my first wife’s parent’s home.  And, I thought that was most unfriendly.

With three Phi Sig friends in 1954 we rented a two bedroom apartment for our two years remaining in college.  Here, I smoked regularly and my friends did not object even though neither one of them had the habit. And, before I quit cold turkey many years later at Davis, I worked as a scientist at UCD in a small office room which I shared with an engineer and another scientist.  Neither of them smoked but they did not complain for some unknown reason for today as a nonsmoker I would have not tolerated such a thing. 

It is hard to imagine for a younger person to understand how popular smoking cigarettes was back then.  They were advertised everywhere.  Smoking was much more common than not smoking that is if you didn’t smoke something was not quite right. In the movies everybody smoked and on the billboards were very popular Marlboro Men and Joe Camel a cartoon of a smoking camel.  Interestingly, to move fast forward, all of the Marlboro men, depicted as handsome healthy western cowboys died at an early age.  The last one made many TV advertisements depicting the dangers of smoking cigarettes as he was dying of some smoking related disease.

Many years later, I had lunch once a month with that UCD scientist who with me shared that small office and he laughed about me smoking cigarettes, a pipe, and cigars all at the same time!  I guess smoking was so common then that even nonsmokers were use to the smell of burning cigarettes and inhaling that second-hand smoke.  Certainly, not anymore for almost everywhere and in mostly all buildings smoking is banned.

I return back to when I decided to quit the habit that early evening before I had my dinner.  My wife at the time worked for the Davis police, when that evening she told me about an incident which had occurred that day.  A middle-aged man had throat cancer from smoking and had been treated for the disease with radiation.  Unfortunately the radiation had weakened the wall of a major artery in his neck.  This carotid artery ruptured and he bled to death on his front porch in front of his family.

Now, I had heard stories about the evils of smoking before, but this one for some reason hit a chord with me and I said, “This is the stupidest damn habit, I’m going to quit right now!”    

Now I had quit three times before over those many years of my smoking, once for 6 months but for some reason went back to them usually at a Bar having a drink.  But, then for me quitting was not a difficult unpleasant experience.  I guess this is why I started smoking again.  So, I guess when I decided this time I was going to quit I was totally unaware of how difficult it would be.

What was most unusual this time was I quit in the early evening when normally I would smoke another pack of cigarettes before bedtime.  The other times I had quit I did so when I first awoke in the morning.  I never smoked in bed.

So, that day I went to work in my office without cigarettes and I sat staring at my desk without doing anything all day.  For three months, I did the same thing.  During this period of cold turkey quitting I told my boss that I did not know why he was paying me because I was doing nothing.  He had been a smoker and knew what I was going though so he just shook his head smiled and told me to stick with it.

And I did!!!!!!! 

Now here I am 50 years later alive and as a nonsmoker.  Of course had I continued to smoke cigarettes, I would have died many years ago.  My second wife finally quit smoking.  She never smoked in the house so it did not bother me.  She quit cold turkey even though there are several nonsmoking aids available which I suppose help some people.  She had smoked since her late teens, and did not find it difficult to quit.  I have thought about the vast differences between her experience quitting and mine.  Of course it is an individual thing, but one reason I think made the difference was that I was smoking three times more than she was.

Sometimes when I go into a store now and I am following someone who is buying a pack of cigarettes I must wait until the checkout person walks across the room and opens the locked glass container and searches for the brand.  The glass cage is closed and locked and the store employee returns to hand that person the pack of cigarettes. I am always shocked to see the price of that pack of cigarettes show up on the cash register - $6. 

My wife smoked about a pack a day so that translates to about $2200 each year she began saving.  My habit today would have cost some $6600 a year!  Now that is serious money.  Come to think of it, I would be dead now so the high cost of smoking would not really be a problem.

Written 1/15 revised 8/17

MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT CIGARETTES

(AND CIGARS AND A PIPE)

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I write on this subject because I am sure this will bring back memories to my readers when we were young especially those of us who smoked tobacco. And, in those days the majority of men were regular smokers, primarily cigarettes.

I include cigars and a pipe in my title because when I quite smoking tobacco I was smoking all three each day.  I was up to three packs a day, a couple of cigars and my pipe.  I was in my mid thirties so it was sometime in the 1960s when I suddenly one early evening decided to quit and it was cold turkey. 

I started smoking cigarettes when I joined a fraternity house at the University of California at Davis in 1950. I was eighteen years of age in my second year of college.  The fraternity was Phi Sigma Kappa a national one with a good reputation which included empathizing good grades and hosting an annual party known as the Tahiti Tussle. When I lived at home I smoked a pipe occasionally but I did not get hooked on tobacco until later when I entered college at Davis.

In those days, a tobacco representative visited fraternity houses and explained how wonderful their product was especially to young college men.  Lucky Strikes and Camels were the two brands I remember.  At that time, there were no filtered cigarettes. And, at the close of the visit he gave each of us a small pack of 4 cigarettes.  Now in those days a pack of 20 cigarettes cost 17 cents – yes just 17 cents.  Yes a carton of 20 packs was $3.40.

We all knew even back then that smoking was unhealthy.  About that time Edward R. Murrow, the well-known TV news commentator who was a chain smoker, even on TV died of lung cancer at a relatively young age.  And, a popular song then was Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette which touted the dangers of smoking. Still, it was common practice to smoke in all buildings including people’s homes.  The only house in which I was not allowed to smoke in was my first wife’s parent’s home.  And, I thought that was most unfriendly.

With three Phi Sig friends in 1954 we rented a two bedroom apartment for our two years of college.  Here, I smoked regularly and my friends did not object even though neither one of them had the habit. And, before I quit cold turkey at Davis, I worked as a scientist in a small office room which I shared with an engineer and another scientist.  Neither of them smoked but they did not complain for some unknown reason for today as a nonsmoker I would have not tolerated such a thing. 

It is hard to imagine for a younger person to understand how popular smoking cigarettes was back then.  They were advertized everyplace and everywhere.  Smoking was much more common than not smoking that is if you didn’t smoke something was not quite right. In the movies everybody smoked and on the billboards were very popular Marlboro Men and Joe Camel a cartoon of a smoking camel.  Interestingly, to move fast forward, all of the Marlboro men, depicted as handsome healthy western cowboys died at an early age.  The last one made many TV advertisements depicting the dangers of smoking cigarettes as he was dying of some smoking related disease.

I have lunch once a month with that scientist who with me shared that small office at Dave and to this day he laughs about me smoking cigarettes, a pipe, and cigars all at the same time!  I guess smoking was so common then that even nonsmokers were use to the smell of burning cigarettes and inhaling that second-hand smoke.  Certainly, not anymore for almost everywhere and in mostly all buildings smoking is banned.

I return back to when I decided to quit the habit that early evening before I had my dinner.  My wife at the time worked for the Davis police, when that evening she told me about an incident which had occurred that day.  A middle-aged man had throat cancer from smoking and had been treated for the disease with radiation.  Unfortunately the radiation had weakened the wall of a major artery in his neck.  This carotid artery ruptured and he bled to death on his front porch in front of his family.

Now, I had heard stories about the evils of smoking before, but this one for some reason hit a chord with me and I said, “This is the stupidest damn habit, I’m going to quit right now!”    

Now I had quit three times before over those many years of my smoking, once for 6 months but for some reason went back to them.  But, then for me quitting was not a difficult unpleasant experience.  I guess this is why I started smoking again.  So, I guess when I decided this time I was going to quit I was totally unaware of how difficult it would be.

What was most unusual this time was I quit in the early evening when normally I would smoke another pack of cigarettes before bedtime.  The other times I had quit I did so when I first awoke in the morning.  I never smoked in bed.

So, that day I went to work in my office without cigarettes and I sat staring at my desk without doing anything all day.  For three months, I did the same thing.  During this period of cold turkey quitting I told my boss that I did not know why he was paying me because I was doing nothing.  He had been a smoker and knew what I was going though so he just shook his head smiled and told me to stick with it.

And I did!!!!!!! 

Now here I am 50 years later alive and as a nonsmoker.  Of course had I continued to smoke cigarettes, I would have died many years ago.  My wife finally quit smoking the other day.  She never smoked in the house so it did not bother me.  She quit cold turkey even though there are several nonsmoking aids available which I suppose help some people.  She had smoked since her late teens, and did not find it difficult to quit.  I have thought about the vast differences between her experience quitting and mine.  Of course it is an individual thing, but one reason I think made the difference was that I was smoking three times more than she was.

Sometimes when I go into a store now and I am following someone who is buying a pack of cigarettes I must wait until the checkout person walks across the room and opens the locked glass container and searches for the brand.  The glass cage is closed and locked and the store employee returns to hand that person the pack of cigarettes. I am always shocked to see the price of that pack of cigarettes show up on the cash register - $6. 

My wife smoked about a pack a day so that translates to about $2200 each year she is saving.  My habit today would have cost some $6600.  Now that is serious money.  Come to think of it, I would be dead now so the high cost of smoking would not really be a problem.

1/15

WORKING OUT AT THE GYM

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I started this essay when I remembered that I had written previously on the same topic.  So I checked the Table of Contents I have made up for my many essays and yes there it was, ‘Exercise for Old People’. After reading that old essay I realized some things have changed so here is an update and somewhat of a different take on my exercise for old people.

Like I have written before I think exercise for old people is important in maintaining a good quality of life. I workout at the gym four days a week which is twice the times I reported in my previous article.  I write ‘workout’ is a bit of an inflated description for I see so many young men and women really working out.  I use what are called stationary weights.  These are stacked and attached to a cable which I in a sitting position, can pull with a bar to lift them.  In this configuration this thing is sometimes called machine weights.

I have been doing this weight thing at the gym ever since I retired some 14 years ago.  Most of the time I am not anxious to get there but once I do arrive I do my stretches then lift the appropriate weights. Of course many years ago I used much heavier weights than I do now.  But, then I had a different take on this weight lifting thing.  Back then in my young 70s I was always trying to increase the weights I could lift.  Now I have backed way off those sized weights to about half of what I once did.  Of course then I thought I was building bigger muscles now it’s just keeping what strength I have left.

In recent months I have added what I call my aerobics exercise. I pedal a stationary bike at a moderate speed for 30 min trying to get my heart rate up to 100 bpm.  It notes that I have traveled some 5.5 miles which of course I haven’t. This exercise I believe is an important one because it exercises my old heart which is a muscle and muscles need to work. You know use it or lose it and I surely don’t want to lose what’s left of my heart function.  You only have one heart so better take care of it.

This stationary bike in exercise terms is equivalent to a regular bike but it is not as much fun but it is much safer.  I have never heard of anyone falling off one of these things nor crashing into something.  For these reasons you don’t wear a helmet.  In fact a person wearing such a thing on his head would look rather silly. 

Even though with this bike you don’t get the adventure and changing outdoor scenery you can watch TV.  I am not a big TV guy but it does take away the boredom and allows the time to go by faster.  Also, I forget the leg pain while I watch it.  When I first started this bike thing I did have considerable leg pain but as I have adapted to this exercise the pain is greatly reduced especially after I have ridden it for five minutes or so.   

I want to say I enjoy these workouts but that would be stretching my idea of fun.  Still, I continue to do these things because I think they are essential to maintain a healthy physical condition which is required for a good quality of life.  And, as one gets older the quality of life becomes a very important factor in living. In that regard, it is clear to me that with my serious falls, which I have written about my injuries were minor because of my relatively good physical condition.

I have friends at the gym which I say ‘hi’ to when I enter or when they enter.  I am not much of a talker there.  For that reason I go in the mid afternoon about 3 when there are fewer people.  And, most of them are retired and of course many are old.  Still, there are always young people there with their very muscular bodies stretching their flimsy shirts. I always wonder why these guys are not working at some job where those muscles might be useful.

There are subtle rules at the gym regarding when a person can lift a particular weight.  That is if two weights are being used alternatively, the one weight not in use at that time should not be picked up by another person.  Still, many people don’t know that and I am too cowardly to show them the error of their ways.

But like I just mentioned I try to go there when there are few people working the weights.  Of course when I select the weights I am about to use I find that I am selecting a lighter weight than the one the previous person had used – not always but usually.  As a man I am particularly cognizant when I follow a woman at a particular machine.  And, my manhood is disturbed when I have to select a lighter weight than the one she had used. I rationalize this situation by reminding myself that she is much younger.  When I was her age I lifted heavier weights than she does now.

Oh yes, the young women who are there with their shorts on showing off their shapely rather muscular limbs.  That is a sight which brings back old memories.  Of course there are old women their doing their thing - I think.  I never really noticed.

When I went in the morning the gym was crowded with many friends talking with each other.  I watched some talk for half an hour before lifting another weight.  I always thought that was rather a waste of time but maybe I am just not the congenial type of person.  I go to the gym to workout not talk.  If I want to talk with someone I go to a bar.

The older people I see there I want to ask their age hoping I am older but thinking that I look younger and in better condition than that guy without much hair and more wrinkles in the face than me.  One man who is usually there when I am I believe is younger than me but he must have had a stroke for he walks with a cane and a noticeable limp.  He always has a smile as we greet each other.  He remarks, ‘Never give up’ as he begins to life a weight. I think that is the reason that every old person is at the gym for it surely can’t be for the fun of it.

12/14

I wrote this blog more than 2 years ago.  I still go to the gym but less frequently and I use lighter weights.  But like I ended this blog, I hope to ‘Never give up’, but it is becoming more difficult as I turned 85 years ago in January.  This old thing is coming at me faster than I expected and I want.

I am posting this blog later in the month than usual because I just finished going on a cruise for a couple of weeks.

SLEEP NEEDS FOR OLD PEOPLE

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I slept in this morning until 11 which is later getting out of bed than I can remember.  Attaining this sleep record got me wondering how much sleep should old people get each night and let’s include day time naps?  I think all information known to mankind is somewhere on the web so that is where I went in my quest to find the sleep needs for old people.

Being a scientist I understand somewhat the validity of research studies such as the topic of sleep which involves physiology because I have a doctorate in physiology.  Now, I am not putting myself here as an expert on the science of sleep as it pertains to old people.  I am just reporting what I found on the web.  And, I found quite a bit there on the subject of sleep but not so much on sleep needs of old people.  I am not surprised about the lack of information regarding us old people because not much research has been done with us in any field of science including medicine.

First I found at several sites this thing called ‘advanced sleep-phase syndrome’ where old people go to bed very early so they get up early.  This ‘problem’ apparently can be fixed by adjusting the circadian rhythm with ‘bright light therapy’.  I won’t get into the specifics here because this was not what I was searching for.

I found most information concerning other problems about old people sleeping. Interestingly these concerned primarily men for some reason and included simple insomnia, sleep apnea, circadian rhythm disturbances all of which gets worse with increasing age. Well that was not good news especially when I read about many treatments for these conditions which include breathing exercise, yoga, restful environment in the bedroom, and cognitive and behavior therapy.  Once again this was not what I was looking for.

Finally I came across the fact that sleep needs vary with age.  Aha, now I am getting someplace then I read that sleep needs also vary with individuals.  Of course the question now is can these be separated?

As expected, I found lots of bad news about too little sleep which included daytime drowsiness, getting fat, diabetes, heart problems, a decrease in the ability to reason, and memory loss with an increased chance to develop Alzheimer’s .  On the other hand the effects of too much sleep, which was my quest with all of this research, are pretty much unknown.  Then I read that the average mortality increases in people with sleeping less than 7 hrs. but also in people sleeping more than 8 hrs. Now, this got my attention but as I thought about a window of just a single hour at 8 hrs. of sleep affects mortality rate I immediately questioned the validity of such a finding.

Another age-related sleep study showed that people in bed for 8 hours got less sleep with age.  That is ages 20-30 slept an average of 7.2 hrs.; 40-55 slept 6.8 hrs.; and 66-83 (hey that includes me) 6.5 hrs.  And, with age there is less Rapid Eye Movement (REM) which occurs with slow wave sleep which is the good sleep where you dream, is less in older people.

Then I came across a considerable amount of information on us old people but not our needs but more information regarding sleep habits which included: (1) it is not normal to sleep during the day even in older people; (2) role of sleep is not well understood and it is not known how much sleep people need; (3) old people do not need more sleep than younger adults; (4) old people have more difficultly falling asleep; and (5) older people sleep less.  I knew most of those things but what got my attention was (2) which made me begin to think I was on an impossible quest.

Yet in another study published in the Dec 2014 issue of AARP I read that 30 min catnaps provide an important midday pick-me-up.  On the other hand daily naps of one hour plus each day are 32% more likely to die of any cause. This information is opposite to item (1) in the above paragraph.

Finally, a breakthrough as to why old people sleep less: (1) we produce less melatonin (a hormone which puts a person to sleep); (2) we are more sensitive to the sleeping environment changes such as noise; and (3) sleep neurons in the brains of old people die off with age.  Interesting information but it did not tell me about how much sleep old people need. 

In the fall 2014 issue of AARP I did come across an article by Dr. Cohen entitled ‘Stay Well Forever’.  A rather misleading title as ‘forever’ cannot be measured in time and our lives are limited by time. One of his subtitles ‘Turn in Early’ caught my eye for it related to the sleep needs of mature people.  I write ‘mature’ because he mentions that people 50 years of age and older need 6 to 8 hours sleep each night.  Of course to get this much sleep when people are old in their 80's and generally retired does not require us to turn in early.

I am always dubious about articles like this which includes old people with middle-aged people and 50 years of age is middle age.  He does offer some sound reasons for the proper amount of sleep: (1) think better; (2) strengthen the connection between brain cells (you know think well); and (3) repair our bodies from that day’s stresses. Now this last reason makes sense and provides me clues as to the number I am looking for.  And, that number depends on several factors one of which involves our activities the day before we sleep. So, there is no magic number for it depends.

The word ‘repair’ Dr. Cohen used caught my eye.  Well, old people require more time to recover/repair from diseases and surgery.  So as I understand the need for sleep it is to refurbish the physiologic functions of the body after using them all day.  These functions get tired and need sleep to recover and in old people that takes more time.

These thoughts have been re-enforced when I came across an article published more than a year later than when I wrote this article in December 2014 which has yet to be published on my blog.  This article appeared in the March 2016 Scientific American on the importance of having a ‘clean brain’.  Recent studies have found that the brain has a drainage system unique from all the other organs.  Yes, it is this the lymphatic system but quite different in structure and function called the lymphatic system.  This system removes proteins associated with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases. And, it is most efficient during REM sleep!

So, with this information does it not make sense that we old people need more sleep each night to recover the rigors of our day-time activities?  Of course if there is no physical activity during the day then less rest might be required.  Still sitting around all day watching TV requires some brain activity so even a sedentary person requires sleep just to clean out the brain.  Certainly, this holds for adults of all ages.

In my case as I have written before I do daily exercises at the gym including muscle strength and aerobics.  I take three mile walks three times each week at a leisurely pace.  (Now two and a half years later, I do not take those walks and I work out less at the gym). With this much activity each day, maybe sleeping in once in a while is not all bad!  When I read articles on the web there is frequently comments by readers their take on the information they had just read.  Sometimes they add information mostly their experiences but sometimes knowledge on the subject.  During my search on sleep I came across many comments from readers noting that their grandparents or older parents sleep some 20 hrs. each day! Obviously these people are suffering from depression and have lost the desire to live any longer. 

To summarize what I found on the web about sleep in regards to old people: (1) we get less REM sleep, (2) can suffer from advanced deep-phase syndrome, (3) have numerous problems with sleep patterns, (4) more medical problems with too little sleep, (5) we sleep less than younger adults, (6) have different sleeping habits, (7) produce less melatonin, (8) have fewer sleep neurons in the brain, (9) sleep needs vary with age and individuals, and finally (10) more sensitive to sleep environment interference.

Wow, with all of those negatives regarding sleep with old people it is a wonder that we can get any sleep. So, I guess me sleeping until 11 in the morning with good REM sleep is a feat worth bragging about. Still, I was expecting a simple number for my sleep needs as an old person.  Obviously because of its complexity there is no such number for how much sleep we require. In fact I believe age has very little to do with how much sleep us old people need.  Like all humans we need as much as our body requires and that depends!!!!!

I suppose I asked myself this question when I slept in very late because I had some guilt going back to what my mother cautioned me when I was a teenager.  You know, ‘don’t sleep your life away’.  Oh yes I learned from my research that babies and young people including teenagers require more sleep than adults.  Hey, I think maybe I am returning to life as a teenager then I see one jog past me during my walk in the park.  I shake my head realizing that my life as a teenager can only be accomplished in bed and to make that clear, in bed sleeping.

12/14 revised 3/16

MY FOLKS AS OLD PEOPLE

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I never understood my folks’ feelings when they were old. They both experienced old age for many years as my father died when he was 87 and my mother when she was 92.  I guess I never really tried because I did not understand the remarkable change in people when they become old.  I guess that is one reason I write these essays because I want people to understand that being old is a new ballgame.  I guess in a sense it is like being born again but this time as an old person.

I guess one reason I had no empathy for my folks during their old age was because they never once mentioned what it was like.  They just went about their lives as best they could.  They alive together in a small house they owned in a small town in California.  I was busy with my career living in Texas so distance played a role in our relationship.  Still I visited them several times a year when I could during which times I would help them with home repairs, some bookkeeping, driving them about the town, etc.

My father suffered from some moderate form of Dementia and my mother had lost her central vision with Macular Degeneration.  But, together they remained independent until I realized that they could no longer live alone.  One big reason was that they depended on a couple, good friends of mine, who lived 10 miles away in another town.  Even though they willingly helped my folks for many years and never complained to me I knew that they were being taken advantage of so I finally moved them to live with me in Texas.

While still living at his home, one day my with some dementia father motioned for me to come close to him as he wanted to tell me something.  In a low voice, almost a whisper he said, “You know son I am going to live forever.”  That statement caught me by surprise but obviously he was thinking about the inevitable and did not like it.  But that brief statement was the only conversation I had with my folks about what it was like to grow old.  So, in a way I feel cheated as I did not get their knowledge about this part of one’s life.  I was just not prepared for this chapter in my life. 

Now I am not calling my folks cheaters for their disregard informing me about living to be old.  I am sure it just never crossed their minds that they might give me any advice or even thoughts on the subject.  And, I am not sure their experiences on the subject would have been of interest to me anyway for being old does not get much attention until one is old.

I guess I should have thought something about their lives when I was given clues at times usually by my mother.  We talked more than my father and me.  The small town they lived in was without taxi service so they were forced to drive their car much too long with their disabilities.  My father of course always drove but interestingly they compensated for each other’s problems as my father was my mother’s vision and my mother was my dad’s brain.

As my father’s mental condition worsened we visited a neurologist about his dementia.  Of course then there were no treatments for it.  But, when he learned that my father was still driving and had a .22 pistol in a night stand by his bed, he immediately told me to stop his driving and take away the pistol.

Suddenly, I had to take control of my father’s life in a way that was not fair to me nor to him.  He accepted the no driving but when he had discovered that I had taken away his pistol, he went into a rage telling me to go back to Texas for I was not welcome in his home. Of course this hurt me but I and my mother understood his situation.  Like my mother said ‘you are making his life smaller and smaller’.  And, what she said was very true.  Unfortunately, I was the only one in the position to do those things.  

When my folks moved to Texas my mother lived with me and my family, my father I put in an assisted living facility.  He didn’t want to live there and I didn’t blame him but besides his dementia he had an artificial leg which in those days was difficult to manage for an old person.  Many advances have been made in the design of these leg prostheses so today he would have been more mobile. 

The assisted living facility I chose for my father in Texas was a good one and close to my home so my mother and I could visit him.  My mother visited him every day. My father died less than a year after he entered the assisted living facility. 

A few months after my father died my mother’s health suddenly deteriorated. We made several visits to her physician before her condition was diagnosed as loss of blood from hemorrhage from stomach ulcers.  She never regained her strength so needing more care than my wife who had multiple sclerosis and I working many times in foreign countries could provide I moved her to the assisted living facility where my dad had lived.

I visited her regularly so it was a surprise to learn that she wanted to move closer to her daughter who lived in Arizona.  I accepted her decision for she was still capable of making it.  Unfortunately, the assisted living facility there was of very poor quality.  Her TV could not be used, which she loved and they did not have a recreation program.  It was just a storage house for old people.

I was not aware of this until I got a phone call that my sister had suddenly died.  Her death was a shock to me for she was 10 years younger than me – just 55 years old. Obviously, I immediately went there and brought my mother home.  I was shocked to see how she had deteriorated with the poor care she had received.  Perhaps I should have investigated the facility more thoroughly but then my sister had told me it was a good one. 

My mother’s mental capacity was nearly gone from the poor care.  She did recognize me and my family but the brightness in her eyes had gone.  She was soon put into hospice care at the facility where she had previously lived and died a few months later.  I know that if she had remained in San Antonio she would most likely have lived to be a 100 years old.

My sudden awareness that I am now my folks’ age is a bit of a shock.  Unlike my folks I take much better care of myself although I do drink a lot more alcohol than they ever did.  Still I walk 3 miles 3 times a week, do my aerobics on the stationary bike and lift weights at the gym on a regular basis so I am trying to make old age as tolerable as possible.

I suppose there will be problems being old with my son and his children living 14 hours away by car.  I am just trying to keep it as far in the future as possible.  You will read more about this as it unfolds.  Keep reading if you are interested.

12/2014

P. S: This blog was written more than two years ago.  Old age has taken its toll for now I go to the gym only twice a week and my mobility includes a cane.  More on this in later blogs.

THE EVOLUTION OF MY CHRISTMAS TREES

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

A neighbor came over to my house the other evening and we trimmed my Christmas tree.  She like me is not a Believer so I guess I should call it a Holiday tree.  We do this every year as we have a martini.  I guess it could be called a tradition and it is great fun.  I call this Christmas tree a bottle brush tree for it is made of twisted wires all attached to a round metal tube which is fit into a three legged plastic stand.  Except for the stand the tree is covered with green plastic needle-like things.  The tree is shaped to resemble a Spruce evergreen.  It is 3 feet tall so it sits on a small wooden table I have in the living room. Of course the plastic stand is covered with a white cloth to resemble snow.

The tree lights are plugged into an electric strip with a switch which I push to bring the tree to life with its colors.  The tree lights are mostly white but the string on top has colored lights.  When I light the tree each morning it brightens my day.  And, it brings back great memories of when I was young and enjoyed Christmas so very much. 

The history of this tree is interesting for it involves the person I bought my house from several years ago.  She gave it to me because she did not want it anymore probably because it looked cheap and ugly.  So, when she moved to a larger more upscale house she bought a very expensive artificial tree which must be 10 or 12 feet tall.  I never considered this tree to be ugly for it is no doubt an early version of artificial Christmas trees.  Consequently because of its age it can now be regarded a ‘collectable’.

The decorations for this tree consists of four strings of tiny lights, strings of white plastic pearl like beads strung around the tree.  Decorations consist of many small plastic or wooden figures, many decorated balls some made of plastic and a few thin glass colored ones mostly small.  A long thin colored glass decoration adorns the top of this tree.  Now this tree top decoration with the glass balls remind me of Christmas trees when I was just a young boy.  But then these types of thin glass balls were larger hung from the tree branches by a wire hook. Today they are hanging from the tree with plastic hooks.

But, not all of the glass balls were simply round.  I remember some were larger and somewhat elongated with an indentation on the side of a different color.  A particular ball I remember had the indentation colored bright silver. The rest of the ball was a dark red.  Those special balls were handled with great care and when the tree was taken down these fancy balls were wrapped and carefully stored away for next Christmas.  

My first Christmas I remember was when I lived in South Dakota in the late 1930s.  I was about 6 years old I guess.  The tree was a real one which my father found someplace and cut it down.  I remember it to be rather tall but then I was short so it might not have been quite so tall.  It was adorned with a couple strings of various colored lights.  These lights were much larger than the lights used today and since they were wired in series instead of parallel when one light burned out the entire string did not light up.  How frustrating for my father who had to replace each bulb until the lights came back on.

What fun it was to throw the thin silver metal like ice cycles on the tree to make them look like ice cycles.  Of course the large glass colored balls were placed in strategic places on the tree to give it a nice symmetrical look.  Those balls made out of thin glass were very delicate so when one was dropped it usually broke into several pieces.  And, most every Christmas at least one was accidentally dropped to the sorrow of everyone in the room.  We all felt bad especially for the person who had dropped it.  Instead of the plastic stings of beads we strung popcorn on a thread using a needle. 

Making this rather large tree stand upright always required a rather detailed engineered

Stand made out of wood which my father built.  Large nails driven through the stand into the base of the cut tree trunk held the tree to the stand.  The tree would be place upright on the wooden stand and hopefully it would not tip over.  I remember the first metal tree stand in which the tree was simply placed in it and with screws held upright – no fuss, no muss.  But in a way some fun, even a little excitement and a certain amount of skill was lost with that invention. 

Of course this real tree gave off a pine-like smell which I vividly remember and I miss with my plastic tree.  Soon needles would begin to fall off as the tree aged.  Hopefully it would stay fresh long enough to last until New Years.  Obviously, as the tree dried it became a fire hazard. So, when to buy the tree was always a dilemma for if you bought it too soon it would not last the season.  But, to buy it too late meant less selection to find the perfect tree.

One year I could not find the perfect tree so I cut off some of the base to provide me some limbs.  Where the tree needed a branch I drilled a hole in the trunk in which I inserted and glued a limb. Suddenly I had the perfect tree.

I don’t remember each Christmas tree through the years but I do remember it was always a real tree.  And a real tree would be cut down. Of course, in those early years artificial trees did not exist so it had to be a real one.  Still, even when plastic trees became common my folks insisted on a real tree which they cut down as did I for many years when I became a father. 

For several decades the shape of the tree light bulbs remained the same.  A great improvement was the redesign of the tree light string so that when one bulb burned out the string remained lighted. But recently the tiny lights have become the norm.  They give off a bright light and use much less electricity which now days is an important factor.

But as I aged I began to buy real trees already cut down from a local tree stand.  For some reason that never seemed to be the same as when I would venture to a tree farm and cut one down.  Picking out the right tree was always a difficult job for it had to be the perfect tree and there were many trees from which to choose.  The perfect tree meant that it had to be precisely symmetrical with even the smallest limb in place. After finding and buying the perfect tree was the hassle of getting it into the car to take home.  Some how it was managed and the process of putting it into the metal stand and decorating it began with great anticipation and family enjoyment.

But, as artificial trees began to look more realistic and the realization of killing those thousands of spruce trees each year for no other reason than to decorate a home for a few weeks, I bought a very nice artificial tree.  Still, it was just a tree and not one with lights built into it.  That was just going too far.  As times past and the family has gotten smaller so has my Christmas tree which I described at the beginning of this essay.

Oh yes, I still enjoy my little artificial Christmas tree and Christmas holiday but in a way it is quite different.  Now the joy is mostly memories. We tend to forget the bad memories so all of them are full of joy.

12/14

I DON’T LIKE CHANGE

The Old Rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

Unfortunately for me, change has become the norm in most everything I do and I don’t like it!  The other day I clicked on my Yahoo web site courtesy of att.net and the format had changed.  Then I checked my email and that had changed. And, as I was writing this essay, I clicked on my monthly bank e-statement and it is much different than last month’s e-statement. Give me a break.

I have a hard enough time just doing the basics with this e-stuff and then to have it changed on me several times a year is very frustrating and it makes me angry.  I remember when change was something which happened only once in a while, like once every few years.  That frequency of change I could handle for it made me feel like I was being kept up to date – you know becoming more ‘modern’.

I guess my hatred of change is supported by the adage ‘Can’t teach old dogs new tricks’.  Certainly, I am an old dog alright still I can learn new tricks but having to learn them every few weeks is ridiculous.   I can imagine some geeks sitting around in a rubber room chatting about changing something because there must be change or they will lose their high paying jobs.

The latest change to my email now involves Twitter and Face Book.  I have heard of these things but I don’t use them.  My son has attempted to get me on Face Book as he uses it quite frequently and seems to like it for reasons I do not understand.  His mother and he use it.  But, you know if you want to communicate with someone you email, snail mail (new name for postal mail), or phone them.  Oh yes included in all of this e-stuff is texting. 

Texting is something else I do not do and in fact I have blocked it from my cell phone.  Every now and then I would get a text message from someone I did not know nor did I want to know.  And, it costed me money!  I do not understand the advantage of texting someone unless it is to commit a type of subterfuge which I have unfortunately witnessed with my granddaughter.  I have written about this before but it bears repeating.

I was asked by her father, my son, that it would be nice to take your granddaughter to lunch so you could chat and get to know each other better.  I could not have agreed more about the latter thoughts for I live several hours away and see them a couple of times a year. So, with that threatening reminder of what I should do as a grandfather I did just that and I was looking forward to it.

So we got in the car to go to the restaurant when immediately she pulled out her I-phone and began to text a message to her boy friend. Well so much for our conversation as we drove to the restaurant.  But, I thought when we got to where we were going to eat the promised conversation would begin.  Wrong, she texted with her phone ‘hidden’ under the table as if I did not know what was happening.  I am old but I am not completely stupid about these e-things.

So back to Twitter and Face Book oh I forgot another one named Linkedin.  Linkedin is another social network e-thing which I did not know existed until a friend contacted me using Linkedin. My friend who is of mature age, not really old, was using it and she wanted to contact me, so why not so I clicked on.  I saw her the next day and she told me that this Linkedin thing was a mistake.  Well, too late I was suddenly bombarded by Linkedin informing me that all these people some were friends wanting to contact me, of course using their social network.

I felt used and abused because my privacy was invaded by some communication network I did not know anything about.  I suppose I should have responded to each of my friends who were so excited about contacting me but I just deleted those messages. And, all future messages from Linkedin was flagged to be placed in my spam folder where once a week or so I delete them with a big smile on my face.  Oh yes the word ‘folder’ in this e-world always amuses me.  To me the word ‘folder’ is some hard brown paper thing used to hold more paper things on a subject in a file cabinet.

If someone wants to contact me then give me a phone call.  All of those names which I recognized have my phone number. Just give a call, I’m usually home or leave a message on my answering service or try my cell phone.  I have a cell phone but I rarely use it.  I try to take it with me when I go someplace but I usually forget it.  But, I must admit the cell phone is a great invention if it is not abused such as talking on it while driving. 

Certainly everyone knows that using these e-things while driving is a dangerous habit, especially texting.  Many times I have been following a car which is obviously under less than optimum control.  In fact, sometimes I think the driver is drunk!  As, I pass cautiously for they are driving rather slow I always try to look at the driver who is either on a cell phone or looking down as they are texting.

My son uses the cell phone while he is driving, in fact I don’t think he can drive if he is not using it.  Regarding these practices some states have them illegal.  Even Texas which is just emerging from the Dark Ages of social norms has cell phone use in School Zones illegal.  This law is based on the known facts that driving is compromised while talking on a cell phone.  So, why isn’t it illegal to use a cell phone all of the time when driving like many states such as California and New York?  I guess the answer is we don’t want to kill kids but adults are fair game.

Something else has interested me about a change which occurred within the last couple of decades.  It is a change but not really for it was around when I was a little kid in the 1930's.  Yes, it was ordering things via postal mail you know using the Sears Roebuck catalog. In fact there were two catalogs, the other was Montgomery Wards.

On my, what a God send those catalogs were to my family.  We lived in the northwest corner of South Dakota near a little town called Newell.  It did not have any department store so when you wanted something like that you had to order it from a catalog.  I remember getting my first bicycle through one of these catalogs for Christmas one year.  It was in the late 30’s so I must have been about 7 years old. The one my folks had ordered cost $15 but they were out of that model so they sent me a larger fancier one which cost $25 at the same lower price. My dad had to put wooden blocks on the pedals so I could reach them.

Suddenly ordering by mail disappeared and we stopped getting our new annual Sears (someone got rid of Roebuck) or Wards (Montgomery had been dropped) catalogs.  Now we are doing the same thing but over the web and it is a new convenient exciting major retail format! Everybody is buying stuff over the web!!! Why is the web so different from a printed catalog? So how things change but in many ways not really.

I close this longer than usual essay with my surprise today to find a new format for my bank e-statement.  I hate bank e-statements.  I know it is supposed to save paper (‘go green’ is the sign on the bank wall which is good for the environment), but does it really?  I guess the envelop it was mailed in is not used but the e-statement I print at home is like the one that was printed by the bank, so where is the big paper savings?  Oh yes, the big ‘green’ saving for the bank is the cost of postage!

Unaware that I have a new format to conquer with my bank e-statement I type in the ‘user name’ and my ‘pass word’.  Of course what pops us is ‘what is the name of your best friend?’ So, I type that in and it comes back that the name I used is incorrect.  I am puzzled for I use the same name for years.  But, what irritates me the most is why have the ‘user name’ and ‘pass word’ if what it really needs is my best friend’s name?

So, I am puzzled that it did not accept his name.  I am confused and angry for I know that is the correct name.  I think of other names but none make any sense.  Once again in desperation I retype in his name and there is my e-statement!  What had happened?  Had I somehow missed some case-sensitive thing?  Now there is another irritating thing some idiot dreamed up and that is this case-sensitive requirement – oh but not always!!!!!

Now I have my December e-statement in front of me but the format has changed.  What should I do to simply get my bank statement to appear on my computer screen so I can print it out and balance my check book? I click on several icons attempting to get my bank statement to magically appear.  Again, I am frustrated for there are no instructions on using this new format.  Finally, I click on the number of the account and there it is on my computer screen waiting to be printed.  I now print it instead of the bank.  Wow…

12/14

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