Growing Old Together

I was looking in the drawer of our hutch last week, looking for my hearing aide that still remains at large, and I found a wedding album. I started looking at it and exclaimed, what a handsome couple!!
The groom looked as if he didn't have a care in the world. He had a crop of dark, brown hair and 2 of the cutest dimples I have ever seen. The bride was smiling and was free of wrinkles and had 2 shiny dark eyes, void of cirlces or worry lines. If I hadn't have found them in my own house, I would not have guessed who they were, but it was us in 1981.
Here we sit tonight with my $1 bifocals and my husband is stretched out asleep in the recliner. I glanced over at him, the crop of brown hair has been replaced by gray stubble, his chest hairs are gray and sticking out of his shirt. I can't remember when I last saw the dimples. His mouth is open and he is making some crazy snoring sounds while his legs are jumping. His shirt is exposing his love handles that used to be abds. Yep there are changes, and I have quite a few too, but I can't see well enough to give you a good description of me.
I feel like taking a nap too, but it is only 6pm and if I sleep now, I will be up all night. The candles are burning and some may mistaken this for frolicking time, but we may have reached that point in our lives when we have a different priority and just like the dogs, who are already asleep, we are just too plain tired.
I think that last Sunday prompted me to write this article. We went to church in our black Xterra. My husband used his clicker thing to lock the car and in to church we went.
After church we came out and headed for our car. Both of us opened our separate doors at the same time, even though I didn't hear the clicker. We both stood for a few seconds, staring at the car and we both shut the doors at the same time. We looked over the car at each other and asked, "whose car is this?" We didn't know, but it wasnt' ours. Yes it was the same make and color, but it belonged to someone else. Who ever heard of not locking your car doors?
We looked around hoping that the owner hadn't witnessed our senior moment, then found our car, got in and burst out laughing. Well it could have been worse, suppose we got in and didn't know it wasn't our car and the owner came up and asked us what we were doing? I could imagine telling him that we were going home and the owner would say, "Not in my car you're not. Now get out before I call the police!"
I am having increasing difficulty saying what I want to say or remembering what I went into a room to get. I can't possibly function without a list and as soon as I finish a list, I start a new one.
I am forever losing things. I had a black hat and I loved it. I used it one day, put it somewhere and I have combed the house for it. But it is gone, vanished right into thin air. It is probably in the same place as the hearing aide and I will never see either of them again.
At night we have the same ritual, each of us goes into our own little world of wind down. The TV goes off and all conversation ceases, such as it is. He grabs a book and 3 cough drops, which is the exact amount required for him to get to sleep.
I go into the bathroom and start taking my meds, some are herbal, some are prescription and some are the missed ones of the morning. I stare at my wrinkles, plaster on the cold cream, grab 6 cough drops and drop onto my air mattress. Don't ask me what the scientific principle is with the cough drops, they are just necessary.
I make it a plan to start praying every night and I have to say that this works better than any other sleeping aide. I yawn and my mind wanders and I fall fast asleep, often I wake up 2 hrs later with the cough drop still in my mouth. How odd it doesn't dissolve while I slept or slip down my throat to choke me to death.
I believe that my sleeping problems began with my first child and I think that maybe I have had 3 nights in 27 yrs that I have slept uninterrupted. I admit to you that closing my eyes and waking up 8 hrs later is like being sent to another dimension. It scares me. I wonder if I visit another world, but I like it there, as long as the bathroom dreams don't keep returning.
My mother doesn't age like other older folks. She remembers everything she tells you, including the things she never did tell you and it is a hopeless waste of time to argue with her. She never forgets a birthday and more than once she has reminded me of my own anniversay, not only the date but the actual years of marriage.
I know that I do not take after her with the sharp mind and if history repeats itself, I am just a few years from a stroke. I know that this is not a legal document, but don't let them put a feeding tube in me, which reminds me, I need to put on the list to initiate my living will.