A reminder of the "Circle of Life"

As the first taste of Winter from a blast of cold air and wind blows through Texas this morning, I'm reminded of how one's life begins with just needing the bare necessities and slowly leaves with just having simple needs.

I have succumbed to yet another sign of old age......It's funny how just the simplest of things, like a change in the season reminds one of how our bodies are changing.

We start off as little infants with booties and as we move into the Autumn and Winter of our lives and suddenly we find we are completing that Circle of Life and we need booties again. Yep, I'm just getting older.

Oh, I've done most of it now. Cataract surgery, gray hair, liver spots, loose skin and wrinkles under my eyes.....but now, now the dreaded sign of really getting old......COLD FEET!

I haven't worn slippers since I was a little Skeeter kid growing up in Dayton, Ohio. The winters up there sometimes would call for several feet of snow and sheets of ice. As a child, I loved it. I don't ever remember being cold when playing outside, maybe because I was reminded every time I went out, "Tommy put your hat and gloves and boots and scarf on" or maybe as a kid, we had so much body heat from playing in the snow we never noticed it.

I do remember the cold though at night or on the weekends after coming in from a day of playing in the snow or sledding, or maybe waking up on a Saturday morning and going downstairs to watch cartoons on the tiny Emerson TV in the living room,

The only things to keep my feet warm were these Indian-looking kind of mucklucks with leather soles. They were warm, but oh, how they itched. I guess they were made from wool and I would scratch and scratch until my ankles would bleed. I decided then and there, I would just tough it out and not wear anything on my feet unless of course Mom came into the room and spotted my bare toes.

But now, as I come full circle, I've decided to do something I haven't done in over 60 years. I'm gonna get some slippers. Some warm slippers that will be somewhat fashionable, possibly even sexy but most important, they will be warm. And NOT made out of wool.

So, Mother Nature, "bring it on". I'll have warm feet and just sit in front of the fire and remember how as a child I didn't have a care in the world, well except for itchy ankles.