Sunday, March 20, 2011

Shrinkage and stretchage

Unhappily for a guy who never actually achieved much physical height, sometime  during these recent late-life years, I have lost a little height.  Not so much that you would notice, I think, but enough to make me think of  shrinking all over the place.  From the age reached by several  relatives, I expect to have close to 20 more years to live, a figure  that keeps shrinking.

Our  financial adviser told us that we can give away money that we have without paying additional tax on it to the government, up to a lifetime  total of 5 million dollars.  We don't have one million and what we have  keeps shrinking so we don't feel that we are likely to hit the pay-more  line.  However, he did say that the limit of what can be "gifted" (a  verb) might shrink.  Since government debts are not shrinking and politicians and treasurers are responsible for keeping the enterprise going, they must keep trying to find new ways to get funds.

The number of hours I can sleep keeps shrinking as does the period I can sleep without waking up.  I wake at unexpected sounds but even without  them, I wake up much more often than I used to.  The amount of food I can eat keeps shrinking, too.   It seems that my appetite is not  shrinking, at least proportionately, since my weight and my waistline are not shrinking.  In fact, they are stretching and stressing my pants.   

I live right about the mid-point between the equator and the north pole.   At this latitude, days and night shrink and stretch all the time.  We  are especially aware of this fact right after daylight saving time begins.

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