Old people are so cool! Can you get her in here to post?
I’m an old fart at 45 lol I have a big car, actually would like to get a slightly older model, early 70’s big boat love oldsmobiles. currently have an 84 olds 88 delta, swapping the engine out next year for a 63 394. I drive slow in my truck tho 79 GMC 3/4 ton
Do you find yourself getting more and more forgetful? I was telling my mom (83) about an incident where I went upstairs, but once up there forgot what I went up for…and another time when I drove home (sober!) but had no recollection of the trip…and she told me that that was what old age was like …but those things happen ALL the time :o
Doubtful. She’s the mother of a friend of my sister’s in-laws, and I only met her the once. Didn’t talk much about the past, she was more interested in the Casey Anthony case.
Do you have a bowl of either butterscotch or peppermints on your coffee table that have fused together into a giant lump?
My Grandma will turn 98 on November 1st, nyah nyah!
She recently spent a couple of weeks at my aunt’s after a bout of The Sick (a combination of a cold with some stomach trouble and her usual notions that “if you stomach bothers you, eat the first thing you find”); after 10 days or so, aunt complained to my cousin (Grandma’s primary caretaker) that “the youngster is being a pain in the ass these last two days!” and cousin’s response was “ah, I see she’s almost back to her usual self, good!”
kunilou, do you ever expect to be doing the rounds among your children’s houses (if any, sorry but I don’t remember)? Do you complain that you never speak with them, but hand the phone over to your wife as soon as you recognize the voice on the other end of the line?
My 87 year-old father-in-law fell one too many times at his house, and is now staying with my wife’s brother, probably permanently (with my wife and her sister taking turns to give the brother and his wife time off.) But my wife’s family has always been multi-generational. My family was more of the grow up and move away style, and I’d rather end up in a senior living facility.
I actually enjoy talking to my kids on the phone, and we even use that newfangled email and texting and Facebook to keep in touch.
I don’t care for butterscotch, and the peppermints are wrapped individually.
How do I respectfully and compassionately broach the subject with my mother that since her health is declining at an increasing rate, she really really needs to get a lot of the stuff out of her house as it’s making her “pathways” too narrow for her to move safely through her house now that she must use a walker? Thanks! (and my apologies for the run-on sentence.)
Has your mother ever complained that it’s harder to keep the house clean now that she’s using a walker? Has she complained that it’s difficult using the walker at home? Is she catching her walker on floor rugs? Those are legitimate things that can lead gently into her getting to want you to help her “straighten up a little bit.”
If she insists that nothing’s wrong, about the best you can hope for is for her to let you shuffle stuff away from the pathways and into the room she doesn’t use anymore/garage/basement/storage space. You must not go into the conversation with the idea of “getting rid” of anything unless it’s her idea. Instead, focus only on the need to make her pathways wide enough to be safe.
Kunilou - I find that I have more difficulty planning ahead and looking forward to things. This is because I know I am no longer as physically capable as I once was. In addition, I know myself well enough to know what I will and will not do. Things that I had on my “someday” list are now “nope, that’s not gonna happen”. This bothers me considerably.
Do you have this experience?
HAH!
Do you shout into the voice mail system " GODDAMIT I DON’T WANT TO HIT ANY NUMBER, I WANT TO TALK TO A REAL LIVE PERSON!" and then randomly hit an assortment of numbers to end up speaking with Suynar in Bophal. " WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? NO I DON’T WANT TO UPGRADE MY CREDIT CARD AT ALL, YOU ASSHOLES! I WANT TO ASK WHAT THE BILLING ADDRESS IS. JESUS CHRIST!"
I’m still more or less physically capable. My bigger problem is procrastinating, because if I don’t do it today, I can do it tomorrow, or next week.
I have lots of free time and use it to write angry letters to no one in particular at those companies. It doesn’t accomplish any more than ranting at Suynar, but when you’re old, you still believe in the Postal Service.
Do you pay for normal, face-to-face transactions with a written personal check (e.g., groceries)?
…if so, please stop. And tell all your friends of the same age to do the same. Just use a debit card. It will help younger-to-older age relations immensely.
Life expectancy is 78 years in USA.
Are you over 78 years old?
If yes, are you afraid that statistically you should be dead by now?
My grandfather is 88 years old and still keeps ticking. Hope I have his genes.
Are you afraid to go to sleep?
I am only 32 years old and I hate going to sleep because I don’t like being unconscious. Unconsciousness is the same as death to me. I’d be afraid to go to sleep if I was 78+ years old and not being able to wake up.
Do you exercise, eat healthy, and avoid risky activities to extend your life expectancy?
I bike 150+ miles a week, eat healthy foods, and avoid drugs, alcohol, and risky behaviors so I can extend my life expectancy as much as possible. Research shows that a healthy diet and regular exercise can increase life expectancy and quality of life by 5 years. If I was old and near death, I’d do everything I can to extend my existence as far as possible.
Another Truman-era old-ish person here. Retired and loving it, but I put my life skills to good use by volunteering at Habitat’s ReStore warehouse. My only complaint about being 64 is that arthritis has set into the basal joints of my thumbs. It’s frustrating (and painful) to attempt simple things that used to be easy to do. Imagine somebody sticking a knife into your thumb joint and you have some idea of the pain level when you do something stupid. But I don’t think of 64 as very old, considering people often live into their 90s. Having said that, I’m fully aware that I’m on the last journey at this age.
Reasons for using personal checks to pay for “normal, face-to-face transactions.”
a) I can’t remember my pin, or keep it straight from all the pins I have to use
b) I heard the bank is charging people for using cards, so I’ll write a check and save the fee
c) I only have $X in my account, and I’m keeping a running record in my checkbook so that I don’t overdraw my account and have to pay a fee
d) I have been using a checkbook for 60 years. This is the way I do business
e) I’m afraid someone will grab my account and pin and drain my account before I find out
f) I want a written record of all my transactions, including a copy of the check
My dad, who dates back to the Roaring Twenties, claims that he still hasn’t reached that point, either. Maybe it doesn’t always happen.
I’m gonna pick this post apart, but I really don’t mean to aim it you, Kunilou. This is more a general rant. Please take it with a grain of salt. I don’t mean any insult or ill will to you personally. I work with lots of people that feel the same way you do about debit cards vs. checks and they make the same arguments you do. This is just a young guy ranting.
A PIN is four numbers. Just four. This isn’t memorizing pi into the thousands of digits. And there’s nothing preventing you from re-using the same PIN.
AFAIK the only bank I know that charges for debit cards is BoA, and I’m not even sure that’s effective yet. If you are with BoA (or any other bank that charges for this), you should leave, simply because that charge is bullshit. There are probably thousands of banks and credit unions that don’t charge for normal debit card usage.
There’s absolutely no reason you can’t keep your same checkbook ledger with a card vs a check. Hell, I’m infuriated lately at how EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION generates like three receipts that are handed to me on completion of the transaction. Plus nearly every bank these days lets you check charges, checks and balances online, updated to the minute.
Times change.
You are handing out physical pieces of paper with your name (almost certain), signature (certain), address (probably), phone number (maybe) and DL# (unlikely, but having worked as a cashier, it happens.) Plus your bank account number(certain) and bank routing number(certain.) If you genuinely believe this is less a security risk than using a card, you are misinformed. If you care about these things (and I do as well) then just get in the habit of checking your account online every couple days or so
Like I said, receipts. Thousands of receipts. I seem to get like three receipts just visiting a Starbucks to buy a cup of coffee, these days. No reason you can’t go straight from receipt to checkbook/bank ledger.
…
The bottom line is, writing checks is slow. It inconveniences everyone else in the place. Please, consider the alternative.
It’s not just using checks, it’s the way some people use checks. If you’re going to the grocery store and you know you’re going to use a check fill in everything you can BEFORE you reach the cashier. Then you just fill in the amount, tear it out, hand it over, and are taking no more time (and possibly less) than swiping plastic and punching in a PIN.
Speedy seniors who pre-fill the checks aren’t what’s holding up the line, it’s the doddering old people who reach the time to pay, can’t find their pen, can’t remember the name of the store, want to chat with the cashier, s-l-o-w-l-y write a small novel’s worth of information in their register, and so on, that hold the line up and make for gibbering rage in the people behind them.
FDR birther here. I just ordered a new packet of checks for my older account, starting with #8801 (opened in 1989 at a megabank when I moved 130 miles to their corp hq city) and a new packet starting with #3821 for my second account (opened in 2000 at a credit union when I went to work for a govt unit).
I’ve heard more horror stories about i.d. and account theft with debit cards than with checks (although Clark Howard agrees that checks are a no no but he says that so are the “fake credit” debit cards). The major deay I’ve entountered lately is where the stores (like Books-A-Million, Food Lion) have gone to e-check instant debiting whereby they run my UNWRITTEN check through their check reader. It takes twice as long as when I used to write or pre-write them. That’s their fault, not mine.
The only large car I ever owned was a '57 Ford Fairlane pig. Currently a 2000 Frod Focus wagon w/68k miles. Next bought vehicle will get 30+ mpg and have cargo capacity, maybe a Fit, Mazda5 van, Hyundai Elantra Touring, of VW Jetta Sportwagen.
Have had a $20 Nokia no-contract TracFone for about 7 years with 900+ minutes on it, plus a wired home phone that is bundled with my ATT internet wireless. What is this texting, facebook, mypace, twit stuff?
Not tech savvy. Still have hundreds of movie dvds, BluRays, music cds (no performers later than about 1970, most pre-'65). No ipod,pad,pud,Nook-e. Have a 400-disc BluRay carousel but can’t get my second single-disc one to work in the bedroom because the HDTV has only one HDMI inlet/outlet ant the switcher bus thingy won’t work.
Still working but looking into relocating maybe 900 miles to Fla. when I retire maybe next year.
My Dad died when he was slightly younger than I am now. Mom died at 92 after 7 years in an assisted living then nursing home.
Today at a red traffic signal I pulled up to a sweet young thang in her big Stupid Ugly Vehicle and advised her thru our open windows that her left hand turn signal was on (though she was in the thru lane).
Why do so many advertisers, documentaries, programs play this disco-beat Faux news-type Og-awful bongo drums behind all of their stuff? Even ads for meds for us old frats? I’m about to give up my tv. Where is that remote with its mute button? And why does Brian Williams have to tell us what day it is between every news item? (The date would be more usefull for us who record a lot of it.)(An never watch the reruns.)