{"id":31578,"date":"2026-02-26T10:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=31578"},"modified":"2026-02-26T10:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:35:20","slug":"thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoughts<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, about six months into the semi-ambulatory stage of my old age, I have rediscovered a favorite old pastime of my younger days: reading. It provides another escape, besides sleeping, from the inescapable torments of aging.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sleeping is easier during the day when the pain pills are in full vigor, and the buzzing of life is all around. Sleeping at night is more challenging since it is quieter and therefore easier to hear my bones creak and crack when I toss and turn as I attempt to find the most painless position for sleeping. I’ve discovered there is none, but I try just the same. It’s become a ritual by now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The racing thoughts of an old man seem to become stranger and harder to ignore at night. The cascading cacophony of thoughts, combined with the creaky, muffled sounds of the night, makes for a terrible night of sleep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My days now consist of random periods of sleeping in a chair and reading, mostly made possible by frequent doses of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and tramadol. Sometimes a gummy or two… with the doctor’s blessings, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest problem with reading is, and always has been, finding something to read. When you finish a good book, one you savored cover-to-cover, finding one equally good or better is a challenge.\u00a0 When you’re old, you don’t have the patience to weed through the detritus and wordy padding that some authors use to pad the page count. And the haze of medication doesn’t make it easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I have become nearly impossible to please. I don’t waste much time on long book searches.\u00a0 I would rather sleep.\u00a0 Today, I\u00a0 found a book that piqued my interest.\u00a0 It kept me awake for a whole chapter, something most books do not. I read only one chapter, not because, as you’re probably thinking, I fell asleep, but because I want to have something to do tomorrow besides sleep. And that does not mean another book search.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t pity me. I don’t need it. Your day will come – sooner or later. Or maybe not. We all have to depart this mortal coil. The lucky ones can do it without suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, my appointment book, between reading and sleeping, and eating, is full for tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 I love reading a good book, but the pain and the painkillers, along with reading makes me sleepy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Did I mention gummies?<\/span><\/p>\n

And it’s pretty tough to hobble around at my age with a cane. At any age, I suppose. You don’t want to cut those bathroom trips too close, though; you may not make it. Then you have something else to do. So you need to add a few minutes to get to the bathroom. Pretty pitiable. Indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t believe I’m even writing this.\u00a0 But this essay is titled “Thoughts”; that should’ve been a due notice of the content herein. Not to repeat myself, but you had a fair warning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, excuse me as I hobble away.<\/span><\/p>\n

I rest my cane.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thoughts Now, about six months into the semi-ambulatory stage of my old age, I have rediscovered a favorite old pastime of my younger days: reading. It provides another escape, besides sleeping, from the inescapable torments of aging. Sleeping is easier during the day when the pain pills are in full vigor, and the buzzing of life is all\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31581,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31578\/revisions\/31581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}