I was just reading a blog called Show My Face. She writes some very amusing things abut everyday life. She also has what is called 6 word Saturdays.
Anyway, her topic today was about being vertically challenged. The challenges that we of short stature face each waking hour of our lives.
I was leaving her a comment and realized that this topic would be great on my own blog.
Two years ago I was at the doctor for my annual exam, and the nurse measured my height. I made her take me to a different place and do it over. I had grown a 1/2 an inch. I have been five feet tall since the ninth grade.
I needed to return to the doctor six months later. The nurse measured me again. I had grown another 1/2 inch. The doctor had no explanation for this phenomenon.
Most women my age start to slowly shrink. Not me. Now I am still short but that 1 inch growth feels like six inches. I love being one of the tall people.
I still have trouble with the top shelves. I have worked out a solution for my home cupboards. All of my glasses and coffee mugs are on the top shelves. I place them on the shelves open end down. To retrieve one of these I take a long handled wooden spoon. I use the spoon portion and pull it to the edge of the shelf. Once it starts to hang just a little bit over the edge I use the handle and pull it off completely. I quickly reach up and catch the glass as it falls. If I am reaching for a coffee mug I use the handle of the spoon to reach into the handle of the mug, I drag the mug to the edge of the shelf. Once on the edge the mug will follow the handle down right into my waiting hands.
Now if I am in a store and can't reach the top shelf or the back of a shelf I patiently (or not so much) wait for a store employee walk by and ask for assistance. If no one comes by I will ask ANYONE who is taller than me to be my arms. I am not shy about this. Men, women, or tall children, I don't care anyone with longer arms than me will do.
I used to try and stand on the bottom shelf and reach up for my item, but the stores frown on that type of behavior. Something about lawsuits and insurance claims I think.
So while there is no explanation to my growth spurt in my 50's I am glad to have had it. I like seeing how the tall people live.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
only grow an inch and you like being one of the tall people :D that is cute.. i also have this problem with reaching.. i even sometimes climb counters to reach things in a cupboard. haha.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I didn't make it over here to read this until now. Congrats on that extra inch! Me, I've been known to use salad tongs to retrieve items from high places. Your coffee mug trick is impressive. Necessity truly is the mother of all invention, yes?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear I'm not the only one!
ReplyDeleteIn my mid-30s I grew three-quarters of an inch. From junior high school (7th-9th grades) I had always been 5'8" tall. Suddenly I was 5-foot-eight-and-three-quarters-inches at my annual doctor's exam. I figured the nurse had measured incorrectly, but the next year and the next I was still 5-8-and-3/4 tall. My driver's license now says I'm 5'9" (to round out the numbers), and I'm 69 years old! No one has measured me in years, so I imagine I am well under 5'9" now. But the driver's license hasn't changed.
I would happily get things off the top shelves for you, but do you know there are gadgets designed to do just that? I don't know what they are called, but they work on the principal of tongs -- just a lot longer for the reach you need.