I was really up and down yesterday, probably mainly due to lack of sleep. I felt really bad in the morning. I started some cookies. I took Ray to work and went to an interesting OLLI class about staying active and living independently after 65. It's more a question of fitness than age. This woman (Elaine Cress) now lives in Bellingham, but she did a lot of research here with older people and something like aerobic capacity. I think of it as energy or stamina, but it's more measurable than that. You need it to accomplish daily living tasks, like vacuuming or making your bed, but you lose 2 units a year as you age. You can compensate by building up a reserve. She says walk about an hour every day, a least five days a week. Two days a week do strength training and two or three days work on flexibility (yoga). As long as you have this excess capacity, you will be able to live independently. When it becomes difficult for you to do these physical tasks, you should move to a smaller space where you can get services. But still do as much as you can to exercise. The other factor is social contact. That is the part that makes me think my father would benefit from living in a retirement community, preferably one with lots of great activities. I think he would move there now, except for the cost. He hates the idea of people making that much money off of him. We talked some about it when I got home. He was there and had been since about 10. He called me, but my phone was on silent and I called him back when it was over. Then I picked up a few things at Kroger and came home to eat lunch with him. After a while, he went out and planted some peas. It was a sunny day, a little windy and in the high 50s or low 60s.

I went to Sky's and turned over the bills and deposits I had collected to her. Then I had to rush around making supper for potluck, because I hadn't felt much like doing it before. I finished the oatmeal-raisin cookies, too, but their texture is still not right. I was messing with the recipe a little and it needs another try. So I got stressed and didn't feel good again. But I got it all done and went to pick up Ray at Hendershot's, where he had gone when he got off the bus. We went to potluck and it was good and choir was good. When we started working on a soothing chant, I began to get sleepy. I went to bed when we got home, while Ray thrashed around and took the trash over to Tom and Nancy's.