Understanding my granddad's penchant for afternoon naps

When I was growing up, my Granddad Ruby laid across the bed every afternoon and took a nap. It didn’t make sense to me back then, but it does now.

Several years ago, I got my sleep apnea under control with a CPAP machine and that kept me from dozing at my desk. But as I’ve aged, I still love a nap in my chair. Give me 20 minutes at lunch and I finish the day refreshed.

Of course I’ve found, even with the CPAP, I don’t sleep very long at night as an old fart. But with the CPAP it’s usually really good sleep and I get up rested but stiff and with back pain.

I’ve got medicine and a heating pad that gets me loosened up and moving every morning. My bad knees and lack of stamina keep me from doing anything stupid. You know, like climbing things or lifting refrigerators.

I’ve also noticed as I aged that hair has quit growing in certain spots on my body like my forehead and armpits. It grows like crazy now in other places like my ears, eyebrows and nose hairs. I have added quite a few wonderful skin tags. I guess if I were hung up on the way I looked I would have gone to a dermatologist and had them removed. The eye doctor did remove the one hanging down in my vision.

All this stuff I’ve taken in stride but when young people started holding doors and carrying stuff for me it made me thankful for courteous youth. When those folks started getting a lot older it made me pretty uneasy.

The other day a young lady, after pulling a shopping cart out for me, told me she liked my crusher felt hat. I smiled my pleasure and thanked her. She said her grandfather had one just like it.

She thought it was a compliment but it wounded me deeply. She wasn’t all that young.

It hurt so much I picked up my pharmacy order, went home and took a Saturday afternoon nap. Medicare and Geritol are looking good right now.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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