A big gust of wind woke me up last night. Maybe there was rain, too. The driveway is wet this morning. At any rate, I went back to sleep. Woke up at six. My new alarm time. The extra 30 minutes seems to be working. Besides, even when it does ring, I often simply lie in bed and luxuriate in the warmth of the sheets and covers. Feels pretty good.

I think my morning massage yesterday helped with last night’s sleep. That and staying hydrated. It’s harder to drink water than you think. But it sure does help when you do. Everything just feels better. Of course, this is winter, my skin is old, and that’s a bad combination. Still, I’m working on it with the advice of my daughter, who warns of expecting miracles and taking showers that are too hot. It helps to stay grounded folks, really it does.

I think they call that managing expectations. And there is nothing like getting old to help you manage them, because you are constantly reminded of what you might expect of any endeavor and it’s usually a lot less than the younger you might have expected. And with that I’m going to listen to Little Feat sing Old Folks Boogie and pretend I’m one of the boys in the bar and sing along, ‘cause I’ve got memories of those boys and those bars and those days and they were good.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale