For me (bad knees) it’s the fact that when I get into my van, I don’t have to pull myself up into the seat or lower myself down into the seat. The seat is just right there, at seat height. Within a week of getting that van, my knees were feeling better.
You’ve already heard that the carts act as walkers. Buying two cans of soup would mean there would be no excuse to walk to the store tomorrow. Or to drive to the store and walk around it. Bad knees or not, if you don’t get regular walking in, you deteriorate. That includes the knees getting worse.
I use it as a barrier defense in the parking lot. I park near the cart corral and walk in with it. I’m a bigger, scratchier target and (ime) drivers will give a wider berth to a metal cart than to an old, squishy human. I return it to the same corral on my way out. The number of items is irrelevant.
Roadmonsters have the biggest engines in the Buick line. My '93 could go like scat with a measly Camaro 350. In '94 you could get the LT-1, the Corvette engine. I need one. Hipster jalopies mostly have V6s.
This. And don’t park too close to my driver’s door. :eek:
Well, I’m older than most people (67) so I’ll provide anecdotal evidence about me. Driving slower - I’m retired. I’m not in a hurry. My reactions are slower. I have a better idea of the risk involved in speeding - from accidents to tickets. It is simply not worth it to me to “risk my life” to save a few minutes. I drive the speed limit or 5 miles over. I try to be considerate of those who want to go faster but I won’t risk my life for their pleasure either.
Shopping cart - it is nice to have something to lean on, a place to put my purse, and who knows if there will be something on sale that is heavier or messier than I want to carry? I’m not in a hurry, I may just wander around the store and get my exercise in or I may end up filling the cart - who knows?
Getting up early - The aging bladder requires a couple trips to the toilet in the middle of the night. If it’s too close to morning, I’m not going back to sleep. I’ve learned to appreciate the early morning. If I get a nap, cool - I can stay up to midnight. If I don’t doze in the afternoon, then I’m pretty sleepy by 8:30 and push myself to stay up until 9.
I enjoy the slower and earlier rhythms of retirement. Life is full and rich and unhurried and every day is an adventure.
But…but the ads show young people lusting after the hip, stylish new Buicks! It’s just an urban legend that no one under the age of 60 would be caught dead in one.
My mother was going to bed early…then in the middle of the night bathroom and then up early anyway. She was old but…
drives like a maniac, stops about 2 foot from the traffic light at 80 MPH…I didnt really like riding in the car with her. Maybe because she was far sighted 0r the other…
She didnt want to give up her drivers license but had no choice when my sister took it or didnt let her renew it, not sure which
Why do they renew licenses over 80 years old? I guess these days people arent 80 like that generation.
Weird… I’m about your age, and what I recall from that age is that grandparents were more or less exempt from the teenage embarrassment, as they were old, and generally kindly, and couldn’t help it (or so the thought processes went). And many got cool points for doing stuff like our grandfathers did, i.e. driving like absolute maniacs, having no fucks to give, etc…
It was always the parents who were generally supposed to be young enough to know better than to do the horribly embarrassing things they did. (which were never as dire as you thought- my friends thought very highly of my parents, even though I was generally aghast at them a fair bit of the time)
I love you, funny!
Well, I admit my question was a little broad, there have been two people, both over 75, whom I’ve known and driven 15 mph on regular streets (one actually does own a Kia Soul!) and they both did go to bed earlier. My question wasn’t meant to be a stereotyping or ageist question.
BTW, I am 60, never driven, and used to stay up when young to watch Carson, Leno, Snyder. Now I retire to sleep at 10 pm. mainly because in warm weather, the sun is up early and I can enjoy more of the day the earlier I get up and out.
I got news for al you young’uns: Some day you are going to be old or dead. Helluva choice, ain’t it?
I come from the generation that hoped it would die before it got old. But I love being old. You can do whatever you want, and people dismiss it “cause she’s old.”
Be kind to old people, or you got no right to complain about how you get treated if you get old.
The one thing I’ve noticed with my driving is that when I was younger I could quickly flick my eyes/head around all of my mirrors/windows and quickly assess my environment. Now that I’m approaching 50 I find I need more time to let my eyes focus, which means I need to ease back a bit on speed to give myself added reaction time.
And after 30 odd years of driving I’ve learned that rushing almost never gets me there faster, endangers others and most of the other people on the road are idiots.
58 here. I never drove fast, but I probably drive slower now. A combination of my prescription and B12 anemia give me a bit of vertigo.
I got used to walking slow with my mom, I doubt I could walk much faster if I wanted to now.
I’m not elderly but sometime in my early 40s a switch got flipped and I was no longer a night person. I used to stay up until midnight during the week and past 2 on the weekends and then suddenly I had to go to bed around 11 during the week and 12ish on the weekends. I didn’t like it but that’s how it is.
At 82 I try to go to bed at 11 every night. And I generally set the speed at the limit and stay in the right lane except to pass (and then I will speed a bit). Of course, most of the cars are passing me but that is their problem and I see no need to apologize for sticking to the limit (which most people define as driving too slow). I drive a Honda Fit and, while there are smaller cars, there aren’t many.
Years ago, I had over an hour’s commute to a course I was taking in a nearby city. Virtually all of the drive was on the Interstate. By sticking to the speed limit, 90% percent of the time I had the whole road to myself. Clusters of cars going 20-ish mph over the speed limit would come up from behind, surround, and then pass me, leaving me alone until the next clump came along.
