I Spy Something Red

I stand corrected!  To my great surprise, a motion sensitive, night vision IP camera was waiting for me on Christmas morning!  YAY!  It took a few days, and a call to customer service, to get it up and running.  The first night it took a picture of my bathroom window.  Unfortunately it doesn't work very well behind glass.  The second night I moved it out back to the pond area.  The next morning this was sent to my phone: 

Heheheheh...  foxie fox.

This morning I received a notice from the HR department that I qualified for retirement.  It's about time..  I told them in June that I was retiring in February.  

The aorta thing..  the old blood pressure is up again, despite doubling the meds in November and more exercise.  I like being in control of my health.  I have been careful about it all of my life, and it's really difficult being ineffective.  Seems like one thing after another.  I wonder where I would be if I didn't know what was going on inside of me.  I can't feel it or see it, and it never effected the way I lived my life or the things I wanted to do.  It seems very sudden, but it's really not that sudden if you know what's happening.  Takes years to get here.   The knees are ready for skis.  They don't like dancing though.  New Years Day found me taking nsaids and icing, but here a day later I am pain free again. 

Meanwhile, I am watching the snow reports.  Skiing is like flying in your dreams, with only slightly less effort.  Actually, depending on your mindset, it's the same effort.  Sometimes I have to really get a running start and flap my arms really hard to get just a few feet into the air.  Sometimes I just raise my hands to the heavens and I'm soaring into the treetops.  Mostly I need a little effort for a pretty good flight.   Once I've expended all the energy on clomping over to the lift, maneuvering onto the seat without dropping my poles or gouging someone's eye out, successfully scootching my way off of the lift chair, and slipping down to the flat landing spot without a boarder falling in front of me, the rest is easy.  Stand at the top, exhale, and slide.  I hear myself breathing and I hum a waltz in time..  past the beautiful pines, a range of mountains ahead, and below me is peaceful white all around.