83 isn't much different than 82 - at least so far

If anyone cares, I can now assure them that today doesn't feel any different than yesterday when I was a mere 82-years-old. In fact, when I'm sitting down I don't feel a whole lot different than I did when the four generations photo was snapped in the summer of 1928. I was wearing something stylish, as was my mother in her flapper outfit. The rather formidable pair standing behind were my grandmother, Margaret Lynch, and my great grandmother, Julia Burke.
While the latter two look like the end could be coming at any moment, my grandmother lived another 40 years and Julia Burke, a typical Irish matriarch who ruled with an iron fist, was around until 1947. She lived through the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and both World Wars. My grandmother was born on the day of Custer's Last Stand. She went to work full-time in a shoe factory when she was 13. They were quite a pair, those old Irish women.
Had a phone call today from my oldest friend, now a resident of a senior complex in California. We met in 1937. Also received a great book from Peter Puhl in Germany. It's mostly photos from the time when I was stationed there in 1945 and early 1946.
Jackie decorated some cans of nuts with things clipped from catalogs - things she apparently believes fit my personality. "I didn't say it was YOUR FAULT, I said I was going to BLAME YOU." Stuff like that, and this: "I'm not stubborn. My way is just better." And "I USED TO CARE, but I take a pill for that now."
She also fixed up a card from all the little critters that have lived with us, but now are just memories. One from Sophie, our current resident hamster, too. To be honest about it, Sophie didn't seem too impressed about my birthday. She was rolling around in her plastic ball and wouldn't even come to me when I called the way she usually does. The last line on her card read, "Got any treats?" That was typical.
So despite doing everything the medics say I shouldn't and few of the things they say I should, I've made if farther than I had any right to. That's just the way it goes.

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