Slowing down....in more than one way

    Perhaps slowing down is not the correct expression.  Being more careful?  Not being so stupid?

I am getting more cautious every year

     Now I read labels for expiration dates.  I check to see if the extension cord is frayed before I plug it in.  I walk more carefully on slippery surfaces....don't want to break an ankle/arm/hip now.
      Take tomorrow as an example.
      Tomorrow is a zoo day for me.  These are one day vacations that I take every other week.  I make a leisurely drive to Brookfield Zoo, visit with some adults, play with kids, have a quiet lunch overlooking the east mall at the zoo, grab a cup of coffee and an oatmeal raisin cookie for the drive home.  Sometimes I stop at Oakbrook to shop.  Zoo days are a mental break for me.
    But I am not going tomorrow.  The forecast is cold.  With strong winds and blowing and drifting snow.  Plus a snow "event" starting in the afternoon.  (I don't know what a snow event is.  I do know I don't have to RSVP for it and food is generally not served.)
    Now I have a winter survival kit in the van.  Blankets, candle, matches, bottled water, energy bars, all in a Tupperware box.  (I used to have chocolate bars....but I would eat them the first day.  I don't like the energy bars.)  I was going to throw that in the car for tomorrow, just in case.
     The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to go.
     Now understand there was a time I would have gotten up, dressed and left.
     One year my mother was visiting us.  My brother Dennis had invited us to his house in Spring Grove  for New Years Eve.
     We must have had 20 inches of snow on Dec. 30.  The morning of Dec. 31 it was still snowing and I loaded up the car:  Jackie, two kids, mom.
      As I put my mother in the back seat I said, "We are going.  Don't say a word.  Buckle up."
     Usually we could make it to that part of the state in 90 minutes.
     It took us over 4 hours.
     Some roads were barely plowed.  Others were one lane and drifted.  Yet onward I plunged.
     We actually hit a stretch near Woodstock where the snow was piled about four foot high on the right hand side of the road.  At least I thought it was the right hand side.  I was going about 25 when a police car passed me on the other side of the snow!   Turns out, I was on the wrong side of the road and no easy way to get back to the right side (literally).
       Luckily no one else was on the road.  They were too smart.
       We managed to get to Denny's house.  They were surprised to see us.  They tried calling the house and when no one answered, they wondered where we were because no one in their right mind would drive 100 miles in crappy conditions like that.
       I have ventured out in snow events, blizzards, near blizzards, ice storms and whatever else nature decided to throw at us.
       But I was younger then.  Young people tend to view themselves as indestructible, immune to danger, competent to withstand any challenge.
      I'm no spring chicken anymore, and the dangers are increasing all around me.
     But maybe tomorrow, when it is cold, and snowy, and with a snow event, just maybe I'll work up the courage, the what the hell attitude, the nerve to drive into town and get my Friday coffee at Cypress House.
     I may be getting cautious......but life has to have adventures, no matter how small.
    Heck, maybe I'll even meet some people there to talk with!!