The following is the first post from my website Chrissy…In Her Sixties, which I am currently working on shutting down. The website you are now looking at, That Hobbit Lady, has been with me since November 2004 (nearly 20 years) and contains over 500 posts. In Her Sixties only goes back to 2017, with less than 40 posts. So, you see…in the interest of consolidating, I could either send 500+ posts from That Hobbit Lady to In Her Sixties, or 30+ posts from In Her Sixties to That Hobbit Lady. In addition to the math of that first option not making much sense, it also happens that the term “In Her Sixties” will only to apply to me for a few more years. But I will be a Hobbit Lady forever. So: no-brainer.
I plan to post one In Her Sixties entry here every few days or so, starting with the earliest and ending with the latest, which was posted October 1, 2023. After this is completed, I will feel ready to get back to work posting fresh content in That Hobbit Lady.
I retired a year ago, got a lot done in my first year, and am now looking forward to getting back to my longtime blog. As experience has shown, I’m not always extremely consistent in blogging (I would guess most people aren’t…) but I’m not going to let the possibility of failure prevent me from at least trying to get back in the habit.
That’s my brief explanation of what’s going on in this blog over the next few weeks or months. Just wanted to lay a little explanatory groundwork before I truly get started.
And now…let’s go…
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September 17, 2017
I’ve been thinking about starting this website for at least a year, but I wasn’t sure if I could say I was “in my 60’s” when I was actually only 59. One way of thinking: after reaching my 59th birthday, I begin my 60th year, so yeah, at that point I am technically “in my 60’s,” but somehow it just didn’t seem right to say I was “in my 60’s” when I was only 59. See the dilemma?
But today is my 60th birthday, so at this point, any way you look at it, I am now “in my 60’s.” So it is now time to officially start this website. Before I share my vision for what this website will be all about, a word of caution: I am a human being, and like any human being, I sometimes get these great, even grandiose ideas, that start out really well, but eventually peter out. I have a tendency to do that, and have seriously considered not even starting this website, assuming that it was doomed to failure from the start.
But then I gave it some more thought and realized that if I cut myself off at the knees before I even got a chance to give it a try, of course it would be a failure. I would be a failure. Now, if I at least TRY, then MAYBE there’s a chance I could succeed. Maybe even for only a little while, or maybe only a little bit. Which ultimately would be better than being a complete failure from the very beginning.
All that being said, here is my vision for this website:
First of all, this is about ME. It is very specifically about my own personal experience as I enter this new decade of my life. I’ve known for a while that I am getting older….jeez! That sounds stupid. Aren’t we all getting older all the time? Yes, of course. But hitting this particular decade mark really brings the point home for me. This is the decade when a lot of life-stuff is likely to happen. For instance, I’m looking forward to retirement. There’s also the possibility that in the next ten years I could become a grandmother! There’s also a chance that horrible things might happen, like I could get a debilitating disease, or God forbid, be widowed. There’s probably a strong likelihood that I’ll become an “orphan.” (My mother died this past January, and my 85 year old father, though physically strong, has developed Alzheimer’s.) So you see, as decades go, this one has the potential to be eventful.
How shall I deal with all these events? That’s what I want to know. That’s what I want to document. Not only for myself, but also (and here’s my “Second of all…”) potentially as a point of contact for other women who are going through these same momentous life events.
Do I have something to contribute to society? I don’t know. Mostly, I think….no. Mostly, I am one extremely ordinary person who has pretty much nothing but extremely ordinary experiences. What I plan to talk about here might be of absolutely of no interest to anybody but me. And you know what? If that’s the case, that’s fine. Because every now and then, I need to have a good talk with myself, whether or not anyone else is listening in.
But I sort of hope someone might listen in, and might get something out of what I have to say here. Even if it’s just “Gee, that’s exactly what I’m going through, I guess I’m not alone, I guess I’m not that unusual after all.” Or maybe, “Hey! That Chrissy has some pretty good ideas! I ought to try that too!”
Now I’m getting ahead of myself. Which is something else I tend to do on occasion. But anyway, here’s the start of it. The hope is that I can post something here at least once a week, and if you’re wondering what the topics might be, take a gander at the subject icons on the upper right of this post. (If they are not there yet, it’s my intention to post them to THL in the next few weeks…) These are the things I’m interested in, the areas where I feel I either want to or need to pay special attention, or it’s all just going to get away from me, and the next thing you know, I’ll be starting a new website called “In Her 70’s” having never learned anything from going through my 60’s.
One of the guiding principles of my life is that I am always on a quest for self-improvement. I am always looking for ways to make any particular aspect of my life better than it was before, whether that’s by trying a new toothpaste, buying a new kitchen appliance, learning a new word, or discovering a new singer or band to listen to. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but even as set in my ways as I sometimes feel I am, I also feel I am constantly willing to learn new tricks about how to survive in this crazy world.
Now, having mentioned that this is a crazy world, I feel compelled to say one more thing. I intend to talk about a lot of personal stuff here on this website, but there are two areas that I will leave completely out of this discourse, and those are: sex and politics. Sex, because honestly, that’s entirely too personal, don’t you think? (In many ways I’m a modern woman, but still maintain a sense of old fashioned decorum). And politics, because nowadays, that topic is simply too divisive. I don’t want this website to be a point of contention. And besides, most of the topics I’m going to write about here will be real and true for myself and anyone else who happens to mosey by and read my words, no matter who’s in the White House.
Okay, that’s enough for today. It’s my birthday, after all, and I still have a bit more celebrating to do before it’s back to work and back to routine tomorrow morning.
