The ineffable Josie was out in her front yard, yanking weeds as Ruby and I ambled back home from our morning circumnavigation of the park.
Josie lives in SDXB’s old house. She came up from the daunting slums of South Phoenix — the house purchased by the city and donated to her after the city glommed her property to build an airport runway. (What a place, eh?) I do enjoy Josie: a denizen of an entirely different culture. Hope she hangs around for as many years as I last here. 😀
Meanwhile, neighbors were walking their dogs at the park. The sky is dappled with low-hanging cumulus, incredibly beautiful in the dawn light. Weather is on the high side of warm, humid, a bit sticky. But not really uncomfortable. Yet.
I do love this place.
And do NOT want to be moved out of here. How exactly I’m gonna manage to “age in place” with my son already beginning to lobby to move me to an old-folkerie kinda escapes me.
But…we shall see. I haven’t been legally declared non compos, so I imagine (hope) I’ll be able to stay put until such time as I can barely stumble from the bedroom to the bathroom. Or until I die, whichever comes first.
When I first moved into the ’Hood, back in the Dark Ages, a number of elderly women lived in these houses, on their own. One was right next door to my first house here. No doubt into her 80s, she was a lively character. Every day, she’d be outside blowering and sweeping her patio or fiddling with the yardwork.
I want to be that lively character.
Now, it’s true: I don’t enjoy yard work. But I can afford to hire people to keep up the property:
* Yard dudes
* Pool dude
* Arborist
* Cleaning lady
* Electrician
* Mechanic…
On and on. So with any luck, I hope to stay put until I die. That would be ideal.
Second best would be to hang in here till I have a stroke and lose track of who and where I am.
And yeah: one can only hope…
Meanwhile: what a GORGEOUS morning. High cumulus glowing white and pearl-gray by the dawn sunlight. Temperature: perfect. Kids and dogs outside playing: moms and dads watering yards and getting ready to fly off to work. Crew of workmen heaving around the new mansion someone is building in Lower Richistan.
Amazing.
Why would anyone ever wanna live anywhere else???
It does sound like lovely place, and I hope you’re able to achieve your goal of staying put. I think you’re on the right track with staying active, finding people to maintain the house and grounds, and trying to build social networks.
Have you thought about taking in a roommate? A young woman in her 40s or 50s, away at work during the day but maybe available for a few grocery runs and on the premises regularly in case something should crop up, in exchange for very reasonable rent might strike the balance between independence and a caregiver.
The difficulty, of course, would be in finding and vetting such a person, but it might be worth asking around.