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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Joys of getting old

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It's all coming to back to haunt me as I approach my 67th birthday at the end of the year. I can remember joking about the old men who came out to watch us work. I remember saying "don't they have anything better to do?" We obviously weren't doing anything interesting enough to watch. That all came to a head this morning when I walked down to Palmwood and Sam Houston, just to watch the progress on a small section of road our city crews were working on. It brought back memories of freshly turned over dirt moistened by the morning dew, the smell was refreshing, as I watched the backhoe operator dig up more dirt and put it into the waiting dump trucks. Yes, like the old men who used to come watch us, I had my cup of strong steaming coffee with me. I saw a couple of young men looking my way, I wonder if they were talking about an old man watching them work?

I remember my brother and sisters used to laugh when we went into the living room; the black and white television was snowy and ain't no telling how long my stepdad had been asleep. I'm starting to do a little of that; last night I can't tell you what went on between the hours of 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM when I finally went up to bed. My stepdad had an excuse because when he was my age, he was still working pretty hard. I guess instead of counting sheep, I see visions of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum over and over in my head, until I just naturally drift off.

There were posters saying that old people should get tested on a regular basis (6 months or so) before their license could be renewed. One old timer was annoyed but I remember taking the keys away from a stepfather when he turned 85 years old because he kept getting in accidents and we feared that he would end up hurting someone other than himself. I don't know at what age our driving skills start to deteriorate but my night vision is not what it used to be, so I avoid driving at night if possible. A lot of it is on a case by case basis, making it very difficult to set up an age at which a more frequent testing period should apply.

I don’t have the qualms about getting older because I’m enjoying myself. As I joking told my fellow coworkers “I’ve reached this age; you can’t say that.”

5 comments:

Edith Ann said...

Yep, the alternative to growing older is not attractive!

That is too funny that you are watching the construction workers! You know they are thinking "What is that guy's problem?" Keep supervising so they can get done!

Mike said...

Lol...I was going to tape it, upload it to YouTube and post the whole ordeal but now I'm glad I didn't.

No,like any retiree,I'll move along and find my next adventure.

Mike said...

BTW did Blogspot change our comment section box?This one is OK but I had nothing to do with it.

Mike said...

Rick Santorum lost the state of Michigan by only 3% and he lost the woman's vote to Romney by 5%...Just saying.

Edith Ann said...

Blogger did it to us!

Santorum lost some of the women's vote? Imagine that!