On the Way Out series, Vol. 3, Part 1 --some more ramblings as we head into October

 On the Way Out 

Vol. 3

Part 1

Invisible -- second sighting of the word...some  more early-morning ramblings...my local newspaper is not so bad this morning...if you take a little time to read it, you might find something informative --not up to date baseball, football or hockey standings mind you, the paper is way behind when it comes to that stuff. 

Back in mid September, I touched on the word invisible with some of my off-the-wall ramblings. I suggested (maybe that's a nice way of putting it) that us old people become invisible as we head down the final path of existence. Maybe, it's more of the luck of the draw -- if you're lucky enough to be not invisible, then that's the way it should be, but if you feel the complete opposite, well that's not good.

When we are born everybody is in tune with us. I mean the nurse holds us upside down and spanks us on our keister, we yell at the top of our little lungs and we're off and running...well the last part may take a year or two. Let's just say we crawl away. Even that's carrying things a bit too far. Within minutes we are held in somebody's arms. Whoever has a hold of us...well we can rest assured we have their full attention span. Undoubtedly, some may be a little nervous and think we -- he or she -- are a piece of glass and will shatter if we are suddenly dropped. Sometimes, I wonder if that is what happened to me.

Then, we -- he or she -- begin to grow and all eyes are upon us as we jump on our first three-wheeler, but by the time we are given the keys to our first car, if we are lucky enough to be the benefactor of that happy day, there's chance the first signs of us feeling invisible may occur. It's time to get with the program, join the rat race and see how many years we can float up river, rolling through our adult years and into those days we are a productive member of society, until someone starts talking about a silver-sneaker program and it is time for us to retire early, or maybe a few years later, instead...as we mosey on down the highway...a highway that's now starting to weave left and right. Someone mentions cataracts and we quickly get the dictionary out to see what that ailment is. 

By this time we are becoming more invisible. We may need a ride for goodness sake. Where are all those people who were spanking us the other day? The other day! Seventy, or eighty or ninety years ago, for goodness sake (on second thought those wonderful people who did the spanking are long gone). Let's back up a bit. I have a decade or more before I get into those latter years.

But, you get the idea.

Maybe, I should drop this invisible stuff for a while, but then I glance at and get back to my local paper and I discover there's a rare bird out there that must be invisible, because I've never seen one, but I'd better start looking. Maybe, I should take a break from my laptop, shutdown all these words that keep popping out of my head....grab a pair of binoculars and head for the hills, looking for an ivory-billed woodpecker.

I mean this little fella is becoming extinct and I have yet to see one. On the front page of my local paper this morning, under the lead story: Some fear boosters will hurt vaccination drive, is a two-page story on all the birds and fish that are heading for extinction.

As I read on, I discovered the last sighting of this woodpecker was in 1944, one year before I was born. No wonder I haven't come across this guy. 

See, that little old woodpecker isn't invisible at all.

Maybe, I'm not, either.

I, once again, glance through the sports section of the paper, looking for something newsworthy and I see my beloved Arizona Wildcats are having their Red-Blue game on Saturday at McKale. Finally, college basketball has arrived. Not a word on our 0-4 football team. I should get with the times. The Wildcats do not play this week. UCLA comes to town a week from Saturday.

Finally, on the back pages, I run across a story of Evel Knievel's son who recently lost a lawsuit filed a year ago against the Walt Disney Company over the movie, Toy Story 4, and a daredevil character in the film named Duke Caboom.

The infringement case was dropped by U.S. District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas, back on Sept. 23. The senior Knievel passed away in 2007 at the age of 69 in Florida of lung cancer. If alive today, I doubt he would have jumped for joy over this decision.

Enough for today. Time for another cup of coffee.