Time Passages

 So it was a lovely Saturday here in Pinecrest. Wifey was gone -- a pajama party at her friend Cara's on Miami Beach, and Joelle and Kenny came by at 6 for a bottle of wine. From there we went to Platea, a newish Peruvian Steakhouse that opened here in Pinecrest.

It's curious -- Pinecrest has a very high earning demographic, and there have always been no or few good restaurants -- you have to go to the Gables or Grove for good eatin'. I mean -- I love Thai and pizza places, but every once in awhile it's nice to go more upscale.

Well, the smart Peruanos must have figured this out, and opened Platea -- prime beef, and great ceviche. We had ordered it in, but I wanted to try it out, and we three were very happy. Joelle knows wine, and couldn't decide among 4 offerings, and so the waiter brought her samples of all. She picked, and we shared a NY Strip that was The Palm level great, and some fine ceviche and sides. The place was lovely -- not at all over decorated, and it was packed. It will definitely become a go-to for me for nice dinners -- and it's all of a 5 minute drive away! Ah -- the things that bring happiness to an aging white guy...

Speaking of aging, I can't get past my visit to my suegra at the nursing home. I have lots of experience in this arena -- my Mom and father in law both spent their final time at Miami Jewish -- but that visit the other day really got to me. 

I always think about the aging maven Mark Agronin -- head guy at Miami Jewish, and an internationally famous geriatrician, and what he once explained to me when I asked him why more people didn't commit suicide rather than decline in a nursing home. It was the theory of the frog, he said.

If you place a frog in cold water,and slowly turn up the heat, it will stay in the water and boil to death. If you toss a frog into boiling water, it will hop out. The point is, it can't sense gradual senses in its environment.

Likewise, the doc explained, it's not like you go from healthy to nursing home, absent a major accident or medical catastrophe. You decline gradually. First you walk slowly, and then with a walker. Your bowels and bladder weaken. Your thinking very slowly goes from sharp to dull, along with vision and hearing. You sort of ease into that final stage -- like the slowly heated frog.

I told Wifey I planned to commit the awful stench of my suegra's roommate's diaper to memory -- and hopefully defeat the theory of the frog. I do NOT wish to exist that way -- with my beloved family having to see me in that state. Hell -- my friends will be dead or crapping in their diapers next to me -- so I don't worry about them.

Like everything, I know it must be left to the Big Man -- but I hope he gives me plenty more years until, when my number is up -- I check out rapidly. Maybe just one final uncontrolled bowel movement...

On the other side of things, at the 6 pm Zoom Friday, Eric and Dana's girl announced she was pregnant again. Now THAT is newsworthy -- my co-hort adding grandkids like orthodox Jews, or classic Catholics! The next generation -- I prefer to look ahead to that, instead of the degradation that awaits we oldsters.

Wifey and I are headed out later to see our Little Man, and then to her friend Crazy Sheryl's son's house on La Gorce -- a very tony part of Miami Beach. Andrew graduated from UM and got into stock trading -- apparently doing quite well. We were going to meet at his place for cocktails and then out to dinner, but he invited his Mom's several Miami friends for dinner -- he loves to cook. I told D2 he raised the bar for hosting Boomers. She has no desire to reach that bar.

But time passages...