Tuesday morning, I had a wonderful visit with the terrific second graders at Trailwood Elementary in Overland Park. They were very attentive and had great questions and stories to share, as well. They are doing some cool things at Trailwood...even using robots! As I usually do, I ended my babbling with a video clip from many years ago that gets trotted out whenever the Crown Center Ice Rink opens for the season. It's the one where I'm doing the weather from mid-rink and a kid slides into me and I end up on my best side. Mixed in with the kids' laughter, I thought I heard someone say "Oh, I remember that from when I was little." As I was leaving, I asked one of the teachers if she had made that remark and she said yes...she saw it when she was a kid and thought it was hilarious. Now, in the past, I've noticed that teachers are getting younger and younger but this time it really hit home. It wasn't as though a student said it or even a student teacher...this was a teacher reminiscing about her childhood and the klutzy, old weatherman. I was not in the least offended or hurt. But I do think it maybe a sign from above that I should quit making school visits.

It reminded me of one of the Match-Up Manias we did last fall from Park Hill High School when I was interviewing the cheerleader's dance coach who proceeded to tell me she had been on the kids' show I used to host, Jellybeans, when she was little. When I replied by saying "Well, now I am feeling old." She tried to recover gracefully by stammering "Oh, no...you're...uh...uh...hot!" I know that "hot" is used to describe attractive people these days but, at my age, looking "hot" means I'm probably running a high fever and should increase my meds. She said it with the same tone in her voice that you use when you tell someone they "look great for a person in his 60s." Only to find out the subject of your compliment is 45.

Well, I'd like to whine more about being made to feel a little less than spry...that's another word, "spry," you use to make an older person feel good about themselves...who ever has called a young person "spry?"...anyway, I'd like to complain some more but I'm having trouble adjusting to the new bi-focal contacts I was fitted with yesterday. They take some work and fine-tuning. For example, I can, for the first time in a long time, read smallish print with the contacts in, as I proved yesterday when the doctor asked me to read the smallest line on a card and I responded with "Acme Eye Chart. All rights reserved. Reg. Pat. 10092-1998." However, when asked to read the letters at a distance, it just looked like cream of wheat. The idea, as I understand it, is that the contacts are sort of gradated from distance vision in the middle to reading vision on the edges. Your brain eventually learns where to direct your eyeball to use the appropriate part of the lens. Unfortunately, my brain is still working on "Who Shot JR?" from the 80s.

You know, as I am writing this, I just heard a report about more research indicating that exercise helps keep your brain young and active. Maybe I should quit complaining about adults mentioning to me that they have watched me all their lives and how my vision is a blur and how all of my brothers are much, much, much older than I am and, instead, focus on working out more...or, more accurately, at all. I think I'm going to give that some serious consideration right after this afternoon's episodes of Murder She Wrote and Matlock.