Shall we talk about aging for a moment?
In two days, I will be 49 years old. I will be starting
my 50th year.
Imagine if my parents had been, say, in their thirties when I was born. They'd be either close to or well into their eighties by now. I'm not one to advocate or having children too young—my dad was 17 when Christopher was born; 20 when I was born—but once it's done, there's something to be said for having young parents later in life. Dad will be 70 years old this August, which seems almost unnervingly elderly at first glance, until I consider how far into middle-age I am myself. I feel like, and I certainly hope, I still have a good amount of time left with him. Granted, Grandpa McQuilkin died at 86. Anything can happen, but if Dad lasts that long, then he's got 16 years to go. What a weird, morbid thing to think about. I don't feel like pretending I don't think about these things though. And guess how old I'll be if Dad makes it to 86? 66! Of course I hope he lasts even longer than that. The same goes for Sherri—although they sort of jokingly agreed yesterday that he was going to die first. She reminded me yet again that she wants to see her memorial before she dies. I'm already aiming to put something together for her 75th birthday, so she has to last at least another two years!
70 feels like a kind of watershed age to me. I remember really well, still, when Auntie Rose turned 70—that was in 2007. She had just lost 70 lbs over the previous year and a half, and she
looked fantastic. But, I have found, the visible effects of aging into geriatrics become more pronounced than ever specifically over the decade of one's seventies. Luckily, Auntie Rose stayed as sharp as ever until the very end, including my final Birth Week outing with her
in 2019. Even Mimi, who Shobhit and I visited just over a week ago, is the same: she's also as sharp as ever, but she'll be 79 on her next birthday, and the physical effects of her aging since
her 70th birthday were also noticeable. Not extreme by any means, but noticeable. And there are the several people I know born in 1952, now moving into "well in their seventies" territory: Sherri; Barbara; Gabriel's mom, Janine (amazingly, Janine's mom is still alive, and lives with her); Danielle's mom, Gail. Mom was also born that year, but she never made it to 70—she had just turned 68 when she died in 2020.
Speaking of Mom, she, by contrast, had older parents. They adopted her when she was 2 years old, which would have been 1954. Grandma and Grandpa Minor had been born in 1915 and 1914, respectively, which would have made them 40 and 39 when they brought her home—though 37 and 38 when she was born. So, the year Mom turned 49 (2001), the age I will become in two days,
her parents, had they still been alive, would have been 87 and 86 years old. But, they had died several years before, both at the age of 82, in 1996 and 1997.
All this is to say: as strange as it is to watch my parents grow old, I'm actually lucky they're still as young as they are. I was kind of bummed that Dad was not up for a Birth Week bike ride this year, which we have done most years since 2013—but last year, the
bike ride on Anderson Island, really wore him out, and in retrospect seems to have been the end of an era. To be fair, this wouldn't
just be his age, as he simply did not have the practice of cycling that he'd had in years past. But, that itself is likely related to him getting older. I've got
a list of every single bike ride he and I have taken together since 2009—the year he turned 54 (and the year I turned 33)—and as of Anderson Island last year, we had take 19 bike rides, during my Birth Week or at other times. I'd love to have gotten it to an even 20, but you can't have everything!
Anyway. Dad noted that even on Anderson Island, the best part was the hike down to the water, which was the prettiest spot we saw on the island. He was right about that, and he can still hike a bit. This was why my first idea for something to do with him this year was North Cascades National Park, and specifically Washington Pass Overlook, in keeping with my Observation Decks and Viewpoints theme this year. That's far enough away that it would have necessitated an overnight stay, however, and then Dad noted that most years the road up there isn't even open yet by now. He mentioned yesterday that the road did
just open, but there would still be tons of snow that would hamper any exploring. We pivoted some weeks ago anyway, because totally by chance, he was already planning on going up there in September. So now I just plan to go with him then.
And that is why I decided I would just stick with finding the best view of Olympia, to visit on my way through there on my way home from Union after staying the night
with Jennifer and Matthew in Union. I settled on the highest-vantage point I could find with a panoramic view of Olympia:
Overlook Point Park, which is technically in Tumwater.
The name of this park is a little confusing. Everything online that I can find calls it Overlook
Point Park. The
actual sign at the park itself simply reads
Overlook Park. Dad deliberately got into the shot to peek over from behind the sign and it was hilarious.
The park is tiny, all of 1.5 acres. It does have a couple of metal picnic tables and a very cool
bench swing on a platform atop an otherwise landscaped hill with a couple small windy footpaths, but its primary purpose is clearly that view, which overlooks the Washington State Capitol building across Capitol Lake, and Budd Inlet beyond, which is the southernmost inlet of Puget Sound.
I left Jennifer and Matthew's house in Union at 10:45 yesterday morning. Got to Dad and Sherri's house at 11:30, and sat and visited with them for maybe an hour. Sherri had a lunch date with her sister, Wendy, who also stopped by to visit not long before we all left to go to our separate destinations.
I was slightly concerned about how chilly it would be. The forecast said it would be 55° by noon; 58° by about 1:00; just above 60° by a couple hours later. We didn't want to wait too long, of course, but I hoped to get there closer to 1:00 when it would be at least a few degrees warmer. Dad brought a windbreaker and even ear muffs, which seemed kind of like an old-man thing to do, but if the shoe fits, right? Or in this case, the ear muffs.
Having come from Jennifer and Matthew's place, I didn't really have the time or the means to pack a picnic lunch. So, when Dad and I headed out, we stopped at Ralph's Grocery store just a block and a half over. Their deli packaged sandwiches all had meat on them, and they had maybe the smallest Subway I had ever seen nestled in there too, so I got a 6" sub sandwich there. I had it toasted but it was totally cold by the time I was actually eating it. Dad later said he should have directed me to a much better local sub sandwich shop instead. Oh well. The sandwich was
pretty pathetic by the time I was actually eating it, but Dad also brought fresh fruit (two cutie oranges each, and we shared a banana) as well as two mini Rece's Peanut Butter Cups each for dessert. It was an unusually well-rounded lunch for me and I actually rather enjoyed it—mostly because of the fruit and the candy.
It was a little chilly up there, but hardly unbearable. I got 15 fun photos out of it, including some on the bench swing that might otherwise have been occupied were the day much nicer anyway. These were out of
a total of 24 shots for my time with Dad yesterday, which also included three shots each at two other stops Dad directed me to: before we even got to Overlook Point Park, we stopped at the Thurston County Courthouse, which has
its own spectacular view, just not as high as that at Overlook Park (elevation 155 ft vs 407 ft), and without a line of sight to the Capitol building. It has an incredible view of Capitol Lake, though. And then, when we were done at Overlook Point Park, Dad directed me—he wanted to give me directions himself, rather than me using the GPS; he did give me a wrong turn at one point on the way up there—down to the water level, and a place I'm not certain I had ever been to, called West Bay Park. This is on the shore of Budd Inlet, with a cross-bay view of downtown and the Capitol to the south.
Dad said he and Beth will be attending a talk on Tuesday evening, about
expansion plans for this park, which will eventually include a bike path stretching all the way to Capitol Lake and the bike path already down there. If it's mostly level, come to think of it, maybe one dad Dad and I can actually ride
that path? And then I can get my list of Bike Rides with Dad to an even twenty!
Dad quipped that he'll be dead by the time they finish it.
It was indeed very pretty down there, and it was nice to get a kind of "views tour" that effectively covered a 180° arc around downtown Olympia, the Capitol building, and Capitol Lake. Olympia is far too small for me to live in, but it really is a lovely city with very pretty areas, and I am always fascinating by state government buildings.
It was a slight surprise when Dad asked if I'd be driving us. I wasn't expecting that, but Sherri wanted to be able to drive Wendy to lunch because apparently Wendy drives like a little old lady (which, let's be fair, she is). I was totally fine with this, and just had to move my backpack out of the way, as it was on the floor in front of the passenger seat.
There are stains of some kind on the passenger seat, that have been there for years. I have no idea what they're from. Dad was a little grossed out about it, I think. Maybe I should see if I can't do something with it with the Resolve I have on hand. "It's not fresh, whatever it is!" I said. And then Dad struggled a bit because the seat was so low, getting in and out of the car. I hadn't even noticed, I'm just so used to many years of both riding in and driving that car. Dad did not say so, but once we were back to the house he was probably relieved not to have to get in and out of it anymore.
The last photo I took at West Bay Park was at 2:09. It was probably around 2:30 when we got back to the park. Sherri got back from lunch not long after, and I hung out until about 4:00. It was especially nice to visit the two of them together. Sherri did ask me if I had ever sent my mom flowers on my own birthday as a thank-you, which is a thoughtful thing some people do. I was like: nope. I can't remember ever sending Mom flowers at all—I have sent Sherri flowers a couple of times. But with Mom, I never knew what she might be allergic to.
I got home at about 5:10, which gave me a comfortable several hours until bedtime. Shobhit made parathas, a couple with cheddar cheese inside which was a new and delicious idea. I had mine with leftover eggplant squash Shobhit made a few days ago. Otherwise, I spent a lot of time on processing photos, and particularly on
yesterday's blog post about all the shit I did on Saturday. And then, I was up until midnight just catching up on TV with Shobhit:
The Last of Us,
The Righteous Gemstones, and
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which was about all the damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is inflicting on health services and was deeply depressing,
We didn't even get to the Saturday night KCTS reruns of
As Time Goes By. We'll have to get to that tonight, after yet another day of Birth Week activity!
[posted 9:30am]
