Stormy weather

A recent 6:00 PM TV news spot dealt with elderly persons taking multiple medications and often confusing which pill needed to be taken. An over-90 year old man who took 10 pills each day mistakenly took 10 pills from the same bottle. His somewhat, but not much, younger wife, when asked about her husband's health replied, "No so hotsy totsy."

I had to smile because that is an expression my Uncle Julie would use during the final years of his life, confined to a wheelchair and often mentally confused.
His docs copuldn't decide whether he was suffering from Parkinson's or Alzheimers.
An expensive and erudite neuropsychological was of little help in making a diagnosis.

Although I was amused by Uncle Julie's expression at the time, now, several years later and battling with my own increasing physical infirmaties, I understand fully. Things aren't so hotsy totsy today for most people. The recession, officially but not really over, a ceaseless record-breaking winter, worldwide political unrest, and, for me, various family problems are, indeed, not so hotsy totsy. Psychiatrist Rollo May in the 1940s called this the "age of anxiety." Uncle Julie, less clinically sophisticated, would call it the "age of not so hotsy totsy."