Things that sneak up on you when you aren't looking

In the various categories of general annoyances in life, this category – Things That Sneak Up On You When You Aren't Looking – has to be the worst. Unlike, for example, Noisy Neighbors or Unpleasant Head Colds, all too often 'sneaky' things don't go away. Or even if they can go away, they leave residue of some kind that stays with you - usually embarrassment, depression or other kinds of scars.

(Scars, you say? Well, I have several surgical incisions that were the end result of various 'growths' that snuck up on me while I wasn't looking.)

Take, for example, my friend from years ago who one day discovered a 3 inch long thick black hair growing robustly from the front of her neck. I have similar 'sneak ups' regarding stray eyebrows, but 3 inches is a lot of growth to not notice...

When I bought my car, its 'new car smell' was there for a long time and then just wasn't. I'm not sure when it went away, but at some point it was surely gone. And at some point also, the whole thing somehow morphed from being a beautiful new car to being a 'used' car with some dings and dull paint and stains on the floormats. I don't know when that happened either but the evidence of its occurrence is unmistakable. (Well, maybe that one isn't really so embarrassing as it is depressing.)

Overdue bills are another example - the ones that get stuffed in the checkbook because you are going to pay them 'tomorrow' and one thing leads to another and you don't get back to it when you should and then suddenly you realize that you haven't even looked at your checkbook in 3 weeks. There's a 'gift that keeps on giving.'

Or 'fat.' Certainly that's something that sneaks up on you, right along with your cholesterol number and blood sugar.

Gray hair, scuffed shoes, retirement financing. Pets going from puppy/kitten fun to geriatrics with halitosis and elimination problems. I had a beautiful navy/tan handmade quilt on the bed in my guestroom for years and suddenly it looked so faded from the sun shining on it day after day through the window that you couldn’t tell it was supposed to be navy blue. Things That Sneak Up On You When You Aren't Looking aren’t good.

How did I get on this depressing topic? I had cause to wonder, this morning, just when it happened that I became a gray-haired little old lady with orthopedic shoes and hot flashes.

That sort of thing gets you thinking in ‘philosophy.’