By the Numbers, Transition

I’ve been blessed through the years with adaptability. (Yes, I’ve calculators similar to the picture!) Well, adaptable a degree. I adapt to cold better than heat, Windows over Mac, mornings over late nights, and the idea of transitioning to a new place. During our first five years of marriage? We moved 14 times! Even if it was only a block away!

Even now, I’m transitioning to a sit-stand hand-me-down desk.
My bride upgraded her’s, and I’m stealing the old (5 Years Old) to become new-to-me.

Through the years, I’ve owned the Big-3 – Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge. My bride had a couple of Subaru’s, our favorite 4WD inexpensive rig living in Alaska.

As much as I love the old King James Version (KJV) bible, and it’s my go-to translation of choice, I’m picking up the NKJV only to have more modern words to say what we grew up learning and knowing.

Because I’ve grown to dislike stairs, I’m transitioning my office to an outdoor shed. It’s been spruced up with office interior dressage. The portable A/C can barely keep the place cool past 11 a.m. I’ll update this issue come fall to cover the winter and summer better for next year. Right now, it’s noisy, with a couple of fans keeping the air circulating and feeling cold. My comfort zone? 60-65 Degrees is barefoot weather!

Through the years, we’ve always owned outside dogs. Big dogs. Take care of themselves; they do. We have had a few inside pets (Cats, Birds, Fish, Mice), but my druthers are for all animals to be outside. On our 5 acres, we’ve reserved a corner to become the proverbial burial sight. Nearly a dozen pets are buried there, and if we’re here until the end, there’ll be a dozen more.

By the numbers, I’m 67, married 48, known my bride for over 50 years, and we’ve lived here 19 years (the longest time at any single address).

Transition By The Numbers

I may not be good at math, but I am good at numbers. From Binary, through Octal and Hexadecimal, and the foundational Decimal, I’ve worked on computer problems through various numbering schemes. Please don’t ask me about the Metric numbering scheme. I’m happy not learning something new unless I’m in a country that uses it exclusively. That 2-liter bottle is still 64 ounces to me. Metric or Imperial, what’s your desire?

I believe it’s essential to know your numbers. From a healthy weight (I’m not) to what constitutes a blood pressure/sugar (I’m okay) danger zone. When I was younger, I worried less about these things.

I’m younger no longer.

It’s wise to act your years, so what I do fits my age bracket. Yes. That includes Medicare. Retiring, but not quitting, slowing down instead of speeding up, passing the baton instead of having it handed to me.

From my teen years, I learned how to act as an adult. Now I’m learning to live as a “senior.” It t’aint easy doing life that is transitioning!

With the way life is changing, my bride and I will enter those retiring years with only the two of us enjoying each other’s company. There’s no crowd hanging around to walk through these final years. It’s become Just Us, just as our marriage began. Just Us.

Number Our Days

King David was a wise man, though his son was wiser. In one of his Psalms, he records a prayer of Moses. Moses starts with time as it existed before the mountains were formed and pointed us to gaining wisdom and understanding:

The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalms 90:10-12 NKJV

Here’s a thought. Don’t take scripture out of context. Yes, we’ve separated many of the writings into chapters and verses, but if you were to consider the whole, you would find the writer’s theme. In this Psalms, Moses ends out with this affirmation:

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalms 90:17 NKJV

Moses is counting his days. Forty years in Egypt, 40 years on the back side of the desert where he met God (burning bush) at Horeb, the Mountain of God, then 40 years were leading Israel to the promised land. He did not get to transition into that natural place. But transition, he did. Through death, he entered his reward.

So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the LORD.
And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor;
but no one knows his grave to this day.
Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died.
His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.
Deuteronomy 34:5-7 NKJV

Count your years, Moses. It’s better now, right? Why don’t you sing this old song with me if you know it?

Sweeter as the years go by,
Sweeter as the years go by,
Richer, fuller, deeper, Jesus’ love is sweeter,
Sweeter as the years go by.
~Lelia N. Morris [Source]