Too Hot and Bothered

Just this morning I was thinking that I was getting a little too screed-y in my blogging. You know, too cranky, too annoyed, too much. "Maybe it's the heat," I thought, "Or maybe it's the New York Times." Should I just stop reading the non-news parts of the paper? Then I saw on Jezebel that the world's oldest blogger, Olive Riley, died at 108. I read a little bit from her last posts here, and I've decided I'm going to work at being a little more cheerful. Ms. Riley's voice reminded me of that of a woman featured in a documentary I saw on PBS last year about aging in America. The woman in the documentary was 98 or 99 and living in a nursing home. She read US News and World Reports avidly (with the help of a magnifying glass) and took daily walks and when she was asked how much longer she wanted to live she looked at the interviewer and smiled almost apologetically and said something along the lines of, "I still like to feel the wind. I still like to wake up and see the sun." I think of that woman often. I don't know about living until 99, or 108, but I think it'd be good to simply feel the sun and be glad, even when it's blazing hot.