August 6 — I am taking bridge lessons.  Go ahead, I’ll wait while you go off and snicker.  But when you’re sitting in the retirement village with nothing to do while my friends and I play out a 4NT hand, who’ll be laughing then?  Yes, I’m taking bridge lessons as a preventative senior measure.  So when I’m old and gray and decrepit, I’ll have something to do.  My grandmother, whom I adore despite her near-century of crankiness, has nothing to do in her retirement home. She doesn’t like to read (“hurts my eyes.”) She doesn’t like to watch television (“hurts my ears.”) She doesn’t play cards and she doesn’t drink (“hurts my heart.”)   It’s a hard life, I must say.

I, on the other hard, am keeping my brain sharp (according to recent studies, games like Bridge keep you on your mental toes, event when your real toes don’t work so well).  My mom plays bridge and she’s been having quite the good time these many years.  And my mother-in-law played in college and can sit down and muscle through a hand or two.  Like golf, tennis and setting a table for a formal dinner party, it’s a life-long skill, it seems.  Deal ‘em out!