Advice from an 80-Year Old

Let's talk about the weather, shall we?

Yesterday, it rained buckets all day long, but the temperature was perfectly tolerable: mid to upper '60s. I walked 4 1/2 miles under an umbrella without a complaint, enjoying the humid air.

But I got back to an e-mail saying, "I hope you are well on this dreary day. As an 80-year old friend of mine says, it's one for either good books or bad boys." Perhaps unfortunately, I partook of neither, but I also wasn't thinking it was dreary, just raining.

Last night, I inquired about someone's day only to be told, "It was a day for hunkering down and staying in." How come I didn't get this memo?

The heat pump in my apartment died some time Sunday while I was out and about, but the bottom line was I had no heat when I got home that night. First thing Monday, I called my repair guy who determined it was a fuse. Easily fixed, but then it blew again.

So I had no heat the last two nights which wasn't a problem with enough layers on my bed, but it also took all of today to ascertain the problem and get it fixed. What that meant was a whole lot of sitting around waiting for the repair guys to have access to and work in my apartment.

Knowing it was barely above freezing, you'd think I'd have relished a day inside (albeit with no heat but lots of sweaters) and used it as a legitimate excuse to hunker down. I tried that and failed miserably.

Finally, around 4 this afternoon, I told the guys I needed to escape my apartment. They warned me it was cold outside and I went anyway.

Oh, it was cold, but it was also just what I needed. I only walked a couple of miles because I needed to be back before they finished so my house wouldn't be left unlocked, but it was so worth it.

"You out exercising, are you?" a bundled up older man asked as I sailed past. "You're looking good, looking good." Forget that, I was feeling good after a day cooped up indoors. Clearly I need a good amount of fresh air everyday.

I'm not even sure good books and bad boys could have been as satisfying as finally getting out.

Hunkering down is over-rated. That said, working heat is not.