Sunrise, Sunset

So Wifey and I stopped for lunch yesterday in the old Kendall Mall -- not really a mall, but an old style strip shopping center - and we sat outside having our salads.  The place is under construction, and kind of tough to navigate, but it was the shopping center of Wifey's adolescence -- she moved to the neighborhood in 1971.

She pointed to a store under construction and recalled there was a movie theater there -- it's where she saw "Saturday Night Fever" with her friend Rosie. I reminded her that was over 40! years ago.

It's really funny how time seems to arc towards brevity as we age.  When I was in high school, and would buy a concert ticket for a show a few months away, it seemed like FOREVER before the date came.  Now -- two months is like a day to me.

Of course, when you're 15 and have lived precious few days, each one is monumental.  In my mid 50s, I've acquired quite a few of them -- a single day flashes by.

After lunch, we headed to the Palace for the visit with my ancient suegra.  She's surfacing lately -- as she porpoises into her final fate.  We took her outside, and showed her pictures of D1's wedding. We could tell she really didn't have a memory of being there -- she looked on as if we were showing her an affair held out of state.  But still, the days go on for her -- one after the other.

As a parent, once the Ds got to college, time really flew by. Lately I'm experiencing that again with Scott, my nephew of another mister.  A week ago or so, we had breakfast at LOL before he headed off for his freshman year at Maryland. Now he's headed back to College Park for the Spring Semester of his junior year -- in a wink, he'll be 3/4 done with college. I implored him to savor it.  He is, and that makes me happy.

I always try to mark the time, to mark the milestones.  If I don't, my mind becomes too elastic.  Was something truly last year, or in the 80s?

On Saturday, Paul and Alex met Wifey and me at the old Parrot Jungle, with Paul's grandkids Roger and Enid in tow.  I brought sandwiches from Joanna's, and we picnicked overlooking the lake there. Wifey took Enid to the petting zoo, and the men stood with Roger on the swing.  I allowed myself to drift back in my mind to when I was preschool -- my parents taking me on swings.  I actually found a memory -- the swings at Jones Beach-- and the memory warmed me. I remember my Dad smoking a pipe and pushing me -- it was a late Fall day, and the sun was brilliant.  Over a half century has passed, and that moment in time is still in my mind...

So I plan to continue to enjoy the days -- as many as I'm given, and as fast as they fly.