Age
One of my totally unreasonable quibbles with the game "Brain Age" is that it reports your increased intelligence by lowering your age. Bah, children are stupid! Give me an old wise man on the mountain any time.
Yesterday I worked at my grandfather's printing place, helping to fill orders that they are running behind on. After lunch, between the rhythm of the hole punching machine, the boss walked in and said, "Hey... I just want to see if you heard this too..."
My grandfather took a delivery to the wrong location, and he was checking to make sure he didn't mispeak. The bossman shrugged it off, "Heh, I guess I'm not the only one getting old."
It was a really weird moment for me, because I've always seen my grandfather as one of the smartest and most clever people I know [Myspace use notwithstanding]. I remember once we gave him one of our old computers after we had upgraded, and when visiting him the next day found that he had changed his desktop background, fonts, colors, and settings. He's a tinkerer.
Whenever my Mom's family would need anything, my Grandfather would read up on it and learn how to do it. Four of us working together rewired and re-routed all the electrical circuits and outlets in our house. We've laid bricks, shingled roofs, repaired cars, the whole lot. Not only does he have a lot of knowledge, but unlike a lot of older people, he's always ready and excited to learn something new.
I guess that's why its odd for me to think of him making a mistake like that - but I guess that's just a property of getting old. My Great Grandmother had increasingly bad Alzheimer's before she died, and it was interesting because while her body got weaker and her memory became increasingly fickle and distorted, she always retained her good nature and sense of humor.
Its funny the things that you lose to the passing sands of time. My Great Grandmother was a really wonderful and courageous woman, I've heard so many stories about her, but it saddens me sometimes that I never got to meet that person all the way, though I can see the truth in the words of others. I'm really glad that I got to know my grandfather, spending precious quality time as well as big, fat unplanned quantity time.
I remember once, shortly after we have him the new computer, I walked into my Grandfather's office and saw a sign on his wall written in the red "Creepy" font [above], that said "Alfred loves Joyce."
Laughed a bit at the horror movie implications, I asked him, "Grandpa, why did you write that with the 'Creepy' font?"
"Because love is messy," he said.
Yesterday I worked at my grandfather's printing place, helping to fill orders that they are running behind on. After lunch, between the rhythm of the hole punching machine, the boss walked in and said, "Hey... I just want to see if you heard this too..."
My grandfather took a delivery to the wrong location, and he was checking to make sure he didn't mispeak. The bossman shrugged it off, "Heh, I guess I'm not the only one getting old."
It was a really weird moment for me, because I've always seen my grandfather as one of the smartest and most clever people I know [Myspace use notwithstanding]. I remember once we gave him one of our old computers after we had upgraded, and when visiting him the next day found that he had changed his desktop background, fonts, colors, and settings. He's a tinkerer.
Whenever my Mom's family would need anything, my Grandfather would read up on it and learn how to do it. Four of us working together rewired and re-routed all the electrical circuits and outlets in our house. We've laid bricks, shingled roofs, repaired cars, the whole lot. Not only does he have a lot of knowledge, but unlike a lot of older people, he's always ready and excited to learn something new.
I guess that's why its odd for me to think of him making a mistake like that - but I guess that's just a property of getting old. My Great Grandmother had increasingly bad Alzheimer's before she died, and it was interesting because while her body got weaker and her memory became increasingly fickle and distorted, she always retained her good nature and sense of humor.
Its funny the things that you lose to the passing sands of time. My Great Grandmother was a really wonderful and courageous woman, I've heard so many stories about her, but it saddens me sometimes that I never got to meet that person all the way, though I can see the truth in the words of others. I'm really glad that I got to know my grandfather, spending precious quality time as well as big, fat unplanned quantity time.
I remember once, shortly after we have him the new computer, I walked into my Grandfather's office and saw a sign on his wall written in the red "Creepy" font [above], that said "Alfred loves Joyce."
Laughed a bit at the horror movie implications, I asked him, "Grandpa, why did you write that with the 'Creepy' font?"
"Because love is messy," he said.