This ain't for sissies!!

I am getting to an age when I can only enjoy the last sport left.  It is called hunting for your spectacles.  

          ~Edward Grey

How did we get from this...

to this?  I don't feel that old!! How does this happen???

     Yesterday morning I got up earlier than usual and went to a local farmers' market. There I purchased some beautiful tomatoes and a small basket of blackberries. The blackberries were an impulse buy-- expensive but they were perfect and big and looked wonderful. I was supposed to stop at the grocery store to get a few things too... we needed buns for the bratwurst I had planned for dinner. We were low on milk too. As I was leaving the outdoor market, I ran into a couple of the younger nurses I used to work with, and stopped for a nice chat. The morning was cool and sunny, a break in the heat. I was thoroughly enjoying being out in the early morning!

     After leaving the farmers' market I headed home, thinking a little about the nurses I had stopped to chat with and also about what I would do with the blackberries... driving right past the grocery store without a thought. 

     I discovered my omission later that afternoon when I went to start the dinner I had planned. Without buns, the only way to eat brats is with saurkraut, and Lanny hates saurkraut. Fortunately, I had 7 large, ripe tomatoes that I could use. I decided we'd have tacos instead. And, as a treat, I would make fresh salsa with the tomatoes I'd just bought and some jalapeno peppers from our garden. I also had an avocado in the fridge-- so we'd have guacamole too. I set about chopping and dicing up all the veggies needed for these two side dishes. Dinner was spicy and delicious-- we ate more than we should have. After dinner I got online and found what sounded like a great recipe for blackberry coffee cake.  I had hoped for a cobbler, but there weren't enough berries in the little basket, so we'd enjoy a coffee cake in the morning. With the left over salsa we could have heuvos rancheros. Smugly I thought, "I can surprise Lanny with a wonderful, laid back Sunday breakfast!"

     I got up bright and early again this morning. After feeding the dog, I put on a pot of coffee, then went to find the recipe I had printed up from online. The printer basket was empty... the recipe was nowhere to be found. Apparently I had neglected to actually hit the "print" button. That meant I had to boot up the computer and do the entire recipe search again. I managed to find it without too much trouble and actually print it up. I headed for the kitchen to gather up the ingredients for the coffee cake. There I discovered the empty milk jug-- and milk was a key ingredient. Well, as my Grandma Ruth used to say, "It's a poor cook who can't substitute!" so I considered what I could use in the place of milk. I finally saw a half full carton of plain yogurt in the back of the fridge and thought it would be about the only option. After all, lots of coffee cakes use sour cream, so maybe yogurt would work?

     I mixed up the batter, adding a little more yogurt than the amount of milk it called for, in order to thin the batter some. I put the whole thing together into the oven, and set the timer for the 30 minutes called for in the recipe. Lanny emerged from upstairs, hungry, so I set about making the eggs. "This should be perfect-- they will be ready at the same time!" I thought, congratulating myself on such fine meal planning.

     Sure enough, the time on the oven went off just as the eggs were ready. I tested the coffee cake with my cake tester and it came out "clean" indicating the cake was done. All I needed was to melt a little cheese on the eggs and serve it up. While the cheese was melting I gathered the plates, forks, and napkins and put them on a large serving tray. We were going to take our breakfast out on the deck-- a first this summer since it had been way too hot. This morning was another cool one-- just right for lingering over coffee on the deck.

     When the eggs were ready, I went to pour us a cup of coffee before putting the eggs on plates. That was when I discovered I hadn't turned on the coffee maker... Well, okay, we'll have juice with our eggs and coffee after. I turned the coffee maker on and went to cut the coffee cake. Unbaked batter oozed from the cut over the top of the cake... I was stunned. It was way too undone to eat. So, I turned the oven back on and put the cake back in. But for how long? It was so liquid I thought it would need a lot more time, so I set the timer for 20 minutes and carried our fast-cooling eggs and juice out to the deck.

     Lanny had gotten the good deck chairs out of storage (it has literally been too hot to sit out there all summer, so they have remained in storage!). The sun was so bright he opened the umbrella, another first, only to have dozens of wasps which had taken up residence underneath it to fly out at him. Fortunately, there was no stinging incident, the wasps dispersed after a minute or so, and we could sit down and enjoy our lukewarm eggs. They really were pretty good. The two of us talked happily for quite awhile, and then Lanny asked if the coffee cake was done yet? Good grief, I had forgotten the coffee cake!  I leaped to my feet and ran for the kitchen. Sure enough, the timer on the oven was chiming away, unheard by the aging folks on the deck. I pulled the coffee cake out of the oven and while a little too brown around the edges, it was baked through and smelled heavenly.

     The coffee was also done, so I cut the cake into pieces and put two on plates, then poured us each a cup of coffee. Lanny helped me carry all this out to the deck. The coffee cake was indeed delicious, none the worse for the milk substitution and not overbaked as I had feared.  It was, however, too hot to eat for a bit. We sat and admired it for another 5 minutes! The meal had not been the seamless, elegantly presented affair I had hoped for. Between my forgetfulness and my hearing loss it was a minor miracle we had anything to eat at all.
   
      I found myself musing on the foibles of growing older... Bette Davis once said "Growing old ain't for sissies..." and I quite agree.  Lanny and I, however, are lucky. We have each other and we are able to laugh with each other over stuff like this. I do find myself wondering how it is that life has passed by so fast lately. It seems like we were newly weds just a short time ago, and now we are arthritic, deaf, and forgetful. Oh yes, and very, very happy!!

Lanny's smile says it all-- growing old together really isn't all that bad!!

  A man's age is something impressive, it sums up his life:  maturity reached slowly and against many obstacles, illnesses cured, griefs and despairs overcome, and unconscious risks taken; maturity formed through so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgotten things, loves.  A man's age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories.   
          ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wartime Writings 1939-1944, translated from French by Norah Purcell