Rockin' good time at the nursing home

You'd be surprised at the good entertainment you can run across at a nursing home.

Such was the case yesterday at the Life Care Center of Elizabethton, where my Mom now resides.

A husband-wife team (the Tatums, I believe) sang and strummed, and a dining room packed with residents--some of them in wheel chairs, others on walkers, others standing--joined in the fun.

Lots of toe tapping and clapping and even some spirited dancing let the Tatums know that folks loved their music.

Turn up your sound and click here for a clip of the entertainment. Late in the clip you'll notice a lady doing the twist to an old Chubby Checker favorite.

She happens to be my Mom's sister--Ruth Williams.

Take it away, Tatums and Aunt Ruth!

Tough things to do

I’ve lived to the ripe old age of 64, and I’m “drawin” (Social Security), as my fellow geezers say.

When you live this long, you learn a few things.

You come up with a hard-to-do or hard-to-master list.

Here’s mine:

1. It’s hard to learn how to play golf with any degree of skill. (I still can’t break 100.)
2. It’s hard to lose weight, without really suffering, fasting, pushing away from the table (whatever you want to call it.)
3. It’s hard to lose a child. Lost a daughter (Elizabeth Brown) in the early 1990s; and her mother and I have never been the same since.
4. It’s hard (EMOTIONALLY PAINFUL) to lose a dog. Roadie, my best friend ever (and shown on the right side of this blog near my profile) died a few years ago. I have two dogs today, but no canine can ever replace my beloved Roadie.
5. It’s very tough to exercise on a regular basis. So many other things in life push exercise aside, but how can you lose weight if you don’t move the old muscles and bones?
6. It’s torturously hard to publish a novel. My co-writer Michael Manuel and I are still on a quest to get “Fish Springs” in print. We are hoping, hoping, hoping…
7. It’s hard to understand the Bible. I keep trying, trying, trying…
8. It’s hard to multi-task. I’m lucky if I can do only one thing effectively.
9. It’s hard to say good-bye, but sometimes we must—for our own peace of mind and for the sake of those we love.
10. It’s still hard AFTER ALL THESE YEARS for me to make sense of why I’m here.

Enough for now. What’s on your top-ten hard-to-do list? Feel free to post your comments below.