Every One of Us Will Die So Get Over It

Every One of Us Will Die So Get Over It

Russell R. Burton, an old person

When I reached the wonderful age of eighty I decided that I had entered the time when I can be called old.  I use the word ‘wonderful’ because half of my 1932 birth-mates never made it.  In a way, I am lucky to have reached this distinguished plateau of life for as I look back on my life there were many times that I could or perhaps should have died.  For instance, when I was a young lad I was in a coma for several days running a fever of 104-105, the physician thinking I had polio. Yes, I survived and with only some slight hearing loss!  Well, I think my hearing loss is no big thing.

Of course we all do strange things as we act out our lives but some are just plain stupid.  You know, when you were younger you awoke the next morning in a cold sweat thinking of the drunken night that you had just survived.

So, having reached this distinguished age I began to think ahead a bit about when I will reach the finish line.  I use the words ‘finish line’ instead of ‘die’ for it sounds more appealing. You know, my life is only one of many races that I will be running in my life time and this is just one of several finish lines I will cross.  Now, that is true but it is the last race that I will run.  Interestingly, it is the only one where there is no competition.

And, I will not know how I finished the race.  Oh, everyone at my memorial service (if I have one) will give me many kudos and high fives. Well, those high fives will be difficult to do with a pile of ashes.  Memorials are interesting get togethers.  I will write more on these in another essay.

The words that surround the event of death are many and all focused on disguising what has really happened.  For instance, ‘passed away’, ‘passed on’ or just the word ‘passed’ are often used.  When I hear these words I always wonder where that person went and is it too much to ask the survivors to use two words not just ‘passed’?

Webster’s New World Dictionary and Webster’s New World Thesaurus have nearly endless really cool words for the simple word ‘passed’.  Of course, passed can mean many things other than referring to death.  But even those with death connotations can be amusing.  Some of these from the dictionary are: ‘to cease’, ‘to depart’, ‘passed on’ or how about ‘pass out’?  I don’t think so for I have been there many times.  Also, the thesaurus has some interesting ones that mean death: ‘transpire’, ‘slip by’, ‘slip away’, ‘pass by’, or these that I really like, ‘fly by’, ‘fly’, ‘drag’, or ‘run out’.  How about the person that died ‘ran out the clock’ like a game of basketball? How fascinating that death is such a difficult word to accept.

A common phrase used other than those of or with ‘pass’ is: ‘entered into rest’.  Once again this wording attempts to deny the act of dying.  This person didn’t die he/she just went to sleep.  In a way, it’s like the veterinarian telling the pet owner that I am not going to kill your pet I am just going to ‘put it to sleep’.  Certainly a deep sleep for it will never wake up, that is if the veterinarian does his/her job correctly.  Now, ‘putting an animal down’ is frequently used by veterinarians especially for pet horses. 

So why would a pet dog or cat be ‘put to sleep’ and a horse not ‘put to sleep’ but ‘put down’?  The answer is that a horse sleeps standing up but when it dies it goes down.  How clever and descriptive these words are but they just deny the words dying or death.   

I worked as a one-day-a-week volunteer docent at our local zoo.  Before we began our day of duty we were always told about what had transpired at the zoo the preceding week.  Of course this included the animals that had died.  Our docent leader never said they died, they ‘pass away’.  I’ll ask again where are they going?  I thought only humans went to Heaven.  Well okay maybe some pets, but a turtle or a giant snake?

Another substitute for the word die is ‘lost’.  I lost my father meaning that he died but what a strange way of saying it.  I always wonder why don’t you go search and find him or has 911 been notified?  Old people do get lost and they are still alive. 

Strangely, the word ‘die’ is used frequently as hyperbole in describing something that a person really enjoyed.  For instance, I recently saw on TV a person interviewed regarding the food at a particular restaurant.  The food was good enough to die for!  Wow…

Now, there are many religious connotations that cover this dying thing such as ‘went to be with the Lord’ or ‘new life with the Lord’. Interesting but not surprising, reference to the Lord is common in obituaries in Texas, part of the so called ‘bible belt’, but rarely used in the Buffalo News published in upstate New York.  Of course, people die in both places at about the same rate from the same causes and I assume they reach the same final destination, of course depending on what a person believes.

I just looked at the Obituary page in my local San Antonio newspaper.  Not many deaths published on a Saturday. Obviously most dead people want to be recognized in the Sunday news where there are several pages of them.  I guess that gives them a little extra boost getting into Heaven.  Maybe improved name recognition for the Lord is more likely to read the Sunday paper where He is more often mentioned.  Perhaps He would be more aware of people entering into Heaven on Sundays and not keep them waiting at those Pearly Gates.

This takes me back to the title of this article.  Yes, we are all going to die so get over it!  Okay, the thought of dying is sometimes not a pleasant one, since it lasts for such a long time. But when a person is ‘terminal’ with an incurable illness and/or in pain, death is welcomed.  On the other hand, ‘healthy’ (I put healthy in quotes because it is relative) old people never want to die which we all agree is a ridiculous thought.  Still, I sometimes think there could be exceptions to the necessity of dying and could I be one of them?  Okay, I have never seen or heard of someone living for ever but you just never know. 

Exercises for Old People

Exercises for Old People


Russell Burton, an old person

There are three types of exercises that old people should always do several times each week.  The first is walking.  I used to jog but as I got older I decided walking was more fun and was probably better for me than killing my knees by pounding my feet on the pavement.  I was never much of a jogger anyway.  I had a measured three miles that toured my neighborhood city streets.  If I recall correctly, I once did it in 27 minutes which was called a PR (personal record). 

I hated every step of that exercise.  I know some people can’t wait to do it, but not me.  I have a friend that just couldn’t wait to do his six miles each day.  He entered several marathons and even qualified for the Boston Marathon which is quite an accomplishment, I guess.  He really enjoyed it and was ranked third in San Antonio of a couple of million people.  His knees finally gave out.  People are just not built to do this kind of crazy stuff.

One thing for sure my knees couldn’t be better. Well, a little arthritis in them does get my attention sometimes.

So, now I walk with a chum three times a week.  She comes over, sometimes with her dog and we begin our four-mile moderate paced walk.  It is not a power walk like some people we see doing.  I don’t understand why some people have to spoil everything.

Our walking tour is on city streets that start just outside my front door.  We walk down and up hills until we come to a city park where deer can be seen lying down or browsing.  My partner has to go to the outdoor toilet that is in the park.  Obviously, she did not have a father like mine.  When as a young boy we traveled by car and I needed to go to the toilet he would not stop right away.  He said I was building character.

In those days there were no rest stops so when he finally did stop, I had to try the restroom door of a gas station.  I dreaded that because usually it was locked so I had to ask the guy on duty for the key.  He would frown that we were not going to buy any gas as he handed me the key with a long chain on it.  Boy, I hated that.

Back to our walk, we continue on up and down hills.  Near the end we sometimes stop and chat with Victor, a skilled cabinets maker who works out of his garage.  We then move on past the park where we stop again – you know why.  She certainly lacks character.

Another thing about those walks is they get you outdoors and socializing so it’s worth doing several times a week for an old person.

Of course the second exercise is lifting weights.  I go to a gym in my neighborhood that is about a mile from my house.  It’s a big place with every conceivable type of weightlifting equipment.  You can play racket ball there too.  My walking chum and I used to play that game some.  I got my game up to about a ‘C’ level when she ripped her Achilles tendon loose.  She had to have surgery and be on crutches for several weeks.  Never did that sport again.  It seems that every sport has its injuries.  Now, you expect football and even basketball players to get hurt but racket ball?

Lifting weights is not fun.  I began doing this exercise when I retired about ten years ago.  I tried to go three times each week that is recommended.  But, I really only went twice a week so I always felt guilty.  Well, I fixed that by changing my regimen from three times each week to twice a week.  I don’t get pangs of guilt anymore.  I go anytime Mondays and Thursdays.

Most of my chums who work-out regularly go the same time each day.  Most of us are retired so times going or spent there are not important. They like to chat with each other and for long periods of time.  I never did understand that for I want to get in and out as quickly as possible.  So, I generally go in the afternoon when hardly anybody is there and I feel more important for I have my private gym at my disposal.

I use what are called stationary or stacked weights.  Easier to use than free weights and less chance of getting hurt.  Yes, hurt you know like racket ball.  As the name implies the weights are stacked so that I can select the weight I want.  I usually select the top four or five for most of my exercises.  Some young people with bulging muscles use the top ten or so.  I once saw the guy in front of me select all of the weights.  Wow…

There are probably twenty different stations to exercise different muscle groups.  I use eight of them and glad to be finished.  I also do my stretches on a special machine.  Stretching is important for old people – you know so that you can put your shoes on by yourself.  Remember when you helped little kids put on their shoes.  Now, they can help you!

I also do a standing thing on an unstable platform that helps me with my balance, I think.  At least that is what I’m telling myself.  It’s especially hard when you close your eyes.  No doubt vision is a big part of keeping one’s balance.  So, my less than optimum balance must be from something other than my vision for I can see really well – with my bifocals of course.

I leave the gym with my head held high for I have cheated for another day one of the pangs of old age, you know puny muscles.

The third and last exercise is directed at my brain.  And, I believe is the most important for the one and only thing humans have that other animals do not have is a wonderful brain.  The evolution of the brains still marvels scientists for it grew to such a gigantic size in such a short period of time – just a few hundred thousand years.

Now, unlike the other exercises I do not have any special time or place to do my brain workouts.  I do a Sudoku when I get a chance.  I’m pretty good at those things.  Sometimes those more difficult ones in the newspaper on weekends I can complete but that really doesn’t matter for it is the brain exercise that counts not completing the damn thing.

I took up doing Sudoku a couple of years ago.  I really surprised myself by doing so because I never was interested in any word games such as crossword puzzles. Of course Sudoku games are with numbers and not words but in many ways they are similar. I’ve tried doing a few crosswords but I don’t think I ever completed one because I guess I was too stupid.  A person doesn’t do thinks that make him/her stupid.  I supposed if I had worked as hard with crosswords as I do with Sudoku’s I might have completed at least one.

Another thing I like to do to exercise my brain is to write.  I guess that is one reason I am writing this essay.  I published an a-book in May 2012.  So far I’ve sold about ten - all of them to my friends.  I thought I had more friends than that but they have to have a Kindle, i-Pad, or i- Phone to buy one.  That makes me feel better, that is most of my friends don’t have those e-things (amps?).  If they did I’m sure my sales would be way up.

Writing and getting a novel publishable is not cheap.  I think I spent about $4000 in all, you know paying editors, trying to get an agent, etc.  I get $4.15 for each e-book I sell so if I sold 1,000 copies I would break even financially. By the way, selling 1.000 books would make be a ‘best seller’!  Somehow I don’t think I’m going to be a best selling author.

I used to paint watercolors and got pretty good at it.  I guess painting like that also exercises the brain. Then I started writing so I don’t paint anymore.  I found that it was a lot easier to paint pictures than sell them.  I have a closet full of my unsold masterpieces.  I was good enough to be able to join several art groups.  For one of them, I work at our gallery one day a month.  It’s a very long boring day but I do enjoy my friends that also work that day and that is important for an old person - almost as important as exercising my brain.

I guess my brain exercising is working.  My father at my age had some form of dementia that went undiagnosed – could have been Alzheimer’s.  He was still able to function until he died as he neared 90. 

My father was a very smart man but mentally very lazy. So, I think that exercising my brain is working for two reasons:  I think I do some good brain exercises that my father never did and my brain is working far better than his at the same age.  Well, at least I can think they are working.  Just thinking that exercises my brain a little bit – right?

  

Old People Have to Vote

OLD PEOPLE HAVE TO VOTE

The old rusty Nail

A JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I am posting this article on the first of October because I wish to encourage all of us old people to vote.  We must vote to protect what we have paid for like Social Security and Medicare. And, we must protect the Affordable Health Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare.  I know the word Obamacare is used by those who do not like it but I think that it is descriptive and honors the president that finally got a health-care program through congress.

Republicans have never been our friend.  Their political platform had a plank in it to repeal Social Security until the mid 80s.  And, of course now they have plank in it to remove Obamacare.

Now, as a younger person not on Medicare I really did not think much about it, but I paid by dues so when I was old enough, I got Medicare A and I bought into Medicare B.  I have not used the drug one because I have other insurance that buys my drugs.  Wow, what a fantastic program I discovered with Medicare. 

Of course, when I was in my late 60s at the start of my Medicare experience, I was young and healthier than I am now. Looking back on it, I didn’t use it much until my late 70s when I was approaching old age.  Suddenly I required some serious and costly surgery.  Prostate cancer is not your friend and a chunk of fat-like junk broke loose from someplace and got stuck in a major artery to my right leg.  Surgery fixed both problems but at pretty steep costs.  For instance, the leg thing cost over $70,000. 

My best friend who I loved with all of my heart (he didn’t like me telling him that because he thought that was gay talk) died a few years ago.  He was several years older than I, so it would be expected that he would die first.  But, of course dying at age 80 is only average and he was far above average.  He had several heart surgeries that cost Medicare several hundred thousand dollars.  And, he told me, “Russ I could have never afforded these surgeries nor would my insurance have covered them. Thank God for Medicare.” But, you know what, he was a Republican!!!!!  Oh well…

But, I still loved him.  That shows what an understanding and forgiving guy I really am. Of course he was a very lovable man.  In fact, he was the kindest most giving person I have ever known.  We can’t let politics get in the way of friendship.

Back to voting, I have nothing against Republicans, many of my friends are Republicans and they are nice decent good fun loving people who pay their bills and taxes (of course begrudgingly).  And, they all love Medicare.  Now, I must admit that many of them are retired military guys and gals.  This always amazed me that the military people live in a socialized world but usually vote Republican. Your world in the military, if you make it your career, is one of government care from cradle to grave.  

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that they have earned every bit of it and I salute all of them.  But, why do they not want us civilians to have some of the same benefits that we are willing to pay for?

Of course, the Republican’s worn-out argument is that Medicare is going broke.  How interesting, that Medicare started under LBJ has survived for over 50 years and still not broke. I admit that as people grow older, remember when it started life expectancy was late 60s so people were on it for fewer years than they are now.  But, there are ways of fixing it without turning it into a voucher program that will cost old people an average of $6,000 each and every year that they live. Now, that is average telling us that many people will pay far more than that.  In fact, some will have to pay many thousands more than that if the insurance company drops them.

Well, if you are a wealthy person you don’t care but for most of us, we could not pay that so we would either become a burden to the taxpayers or just die.  The latter is not an option that appeals to me! And, don’t kid yourself insurance companies are not your friend!  They look at us like we are Mr. Goodbars.

Now good ole Mitt, says that he will not change it at all after he becomes president and gets rid of Obamacare. That is he is saying, he will return Medicare Advantage that costs billions of Medicare funds and quickly see the Medicare that Obama fixed go broke!  Oh my, it is broke so we will have to make some serious changes – like vouchers?

Let’s address Medicare Advantage for a minute.  I didn’t know what it was until I began living during the summer in upstate New York several years ago.  I was amazed that the government paid private insurance companies to run a form of Medicare that cost taxpayers billions of dollars more than the Medicare that I was using. Of course, these people got a few perks with the program that I didn’t get on traditional Medicare but the increased costs amounted to serious money.  You know a billion here and a billion there and you are talking real money.

So, I looked into its history that I found interesting.  This Advantage program was a payoff to private insurance companies that was supposed to show that they could compete with the government plan.  Well, they charged more but that extra cost was supposed to come down after a few years.  If, it didn’t then the insurance companies would not be able to sell this expensive plans and those people using them would have to revert to the government Medicare.  Okay, you guessed it, because of lobbying the costs did not come down nor was it disbanded.  It just kept coasting along costing all of us billions of dollars each year. Yes, everyone including me who is using the less expensive program.

Of course, Medicare Advantage was dropped by Obamacare because it costs lots of money and was not fair to people using the government operated one.  Oh boy, how the Republicans jumped on that complaining that Obama robbed Medicare by over $700 billion dollars over ten years.  Of course, they really will raid it of more than that and leave old people with $7,000 vouchers with no plan to increase them with the rising costs of medical care.

Does anybody believe that insurance companies will sell old people adequate medical coverage for less than $600 per month?  Want to buy a bridge?  Okay, Mitt and Paul tell us that our Medicare will not change. And, that their wonderful program will not begin until younger people like my son become eligible. Well, I want my son and his family to have the same wonderful medical care that I have when they get old.

So, how to fix it?  Of course, income for this program must increase.  One way that will accomplish this is to continue to have people pay into it after they make more than something like $100,000.  I was amazed that after my annual salary was something like $90,000, I didn’t pay more money into it!  Suddenly, in the fall of the year I received a notice that my pay just went up because Medicare payments were not taken out until the beginning of next year.  How crazy is that!  Making that much money I should have been paying more into it instead of nothing.

Of course another way is to increase the age at which someone can begin to use it.  I didn’t start using it until I was 68 when I retired.  Increasing the age makes lots of sense because like I wrote previously, life expectancy has increased by several fold and the costs of medical care has increased a bunch. Not only has it gotten more expensive but of course much better.  That is why our finish line keeps getting further and further away.

Well its closing time for this chapter of The Old Rusty Nail.  Please vote and protect what is yours!

 

 

 

A Perspective on Old Age from an Old Person: Being Old

A Perspective on Old Age from an Old Person: Being Old

Russell R. Burton, an old person

To begin, the word OLD in the title finds very few supporters including some of my friends.  So, I pulled out my trusty Thesaurus and looked for other words that would be more appealing.  Well, after seeing such words as ‘aged’, ‘patriarchal’, ‘past one’s prime’, ‘infirm’, ‘enfeebled’, ‘decrepit’, ‘exhausted’, ‘impaired’, ‘broken-down’, ‘wasted’, ‘senile’, ‘having one foot in the grave’, and ‘gone to seed’, I decided to stay with ‘old’. 

I hope you noticed that I wrote my trusty Thesaurus correctly implying that I did not click on the e-version.  One of those things must lurk somewhere in the bowels of my computer just waiting to assist me even if I don’t want it. Of course I didn’t use it because I don’t know how and I couldn’t care less. And, I will not ask my eight-year old granddaughter for she will pipe up and say, “Here granddad let me show you”. How times have changed for just a few years ago it used to be the ‘old’ person doing the teaching.

My printed Thesaurus lies on a stand next to me in my computer room and it is used often.  Oh yes, I do know how to use the word processing capabilities of a computer but not any of those other e-wonders that comes free of charge with ‘Microsoft Office’.  

About ten years ago when I was seventy years of age, I began a diary on growing old expecting to see or feel changes in me signally that I was growing old.  I soon gave up the idea because each day was like the last with no changes that I could feel or see.  I continued to be as physically active as I was when I was in my thirties and forties.  So, I discarded my plan to write about this old age stuff for it was not happening to me – just everyone but me - you know, old folks.

However, in my late seventies, I began to notice a modest change in me that I now realize signaled my approaching old age – a feeling that I conveniently or subconsciously ignored.  For instance, at seventy eight I developed a modest ‘drop foot’.  The following year I had difficulty walking four miles at a modest pace that I had accomplished eagerly with a chum for many years.

And, then came eighty years of age!  I woke up one morning and realized that I didn’t feel seventy anymore so I must be what is called old!  Now, I want to be clear here that I do not plan to die today for I have visions of living and enjoying my life for several more years. So, I plan to live my life pretty much like I have in the past but perhaps at a bit slower pace.  But, I do feel different!  I find that physical activities that were performed routinely and without thought suddenly were not undertaken without some thought.  Routine is not the word I use now.  This all happened so suddenly and TO ME!

Old age enjoys several maladies, too many to cover in this short essay, but I will discuss a few of the major ones.  Of course high on the list is the fear factor.  I am finding myself concerned – no frightened – that I will fall.  And, I have taken a couple of serious tumbles recently.  Fortunately, I was not hurt because of them.  But, why should I be frightened of a fall?  When I was a young boy I fell several times a day and I didn’t get scared about them.  I just picked myself up and ran off likely to fall again the same day.  And, those were serious falls that hurt sometimes with arm scrapes and bruises.  So my fears are just part of an old mind.

I use to jump into my shower, now I slowly walk in and make sure that I can touch a wall, you know for balance. What’s coming over me?  Of course, OLD AGE!

Oh boy, I just read on the Yahoo News that ‘Old People Do Smell, But Not That Badly’.  Now here is a bad news, bad news story. Old people smell differently, you know like old people, but not as bad as what? The story does go on to explain that old age smells are not like body odors from not bathing.  These types of young body odors are worse than normal old body smells.  I can barely tolerate all of this good news.

I disagree substantially with this study though, for it groups old people as all the same and that is not correct for we are individuals and I am sure with individual smells.  I will write more on ridiculousness of grouping people in another essay.

Interestingly, as I grow older, it seems that surgeons love to cut on me.  I had my prostate removed a few years ago because of cancer and recently I had some vascular surgery on my right leg so I can walk my four miles again.

A few days before my scheduled surgery, my very young (much too young to be a physician) pretty woman anesthesiologist reviewed the tests she had required of me before they put me to sleep.  I cringed when I heard those words for I am a veterinarian and being put to sleep can have some serious side-effects.

When she entered the room in the hospital where I was waiting ‘patiently’, she exclaimed, “You are eighty years old?”  I stared at her in shock, did I look older?  My physician continued, “You don’t look a day older than sixty!”   Hey I thought I might enjoy my surgery.  She looked into my mouth opened wide at her request and loudly voiced another complement, “Wow, you have all of your original teeth!”  Then more kudos from her when she learned that I took only five medicine pills each day.  ‘Most people your age take twenty or thirty’, she informed me to my delight.

Well that made my day and almost erased the anxiety that was growing inside of me as I neared my day of reckoning with the surgeon. I did recover from the cutting and got to go home from the hospital a couple of days ahead of schedule.  And, thank God for a hospital is no place for an old person.

So, now I am home with no pain and little swelling.  Of course, complete recovery from four hours of surgery will take many more days than when I was young but the key word here is ‘recovery’ – hey I’m still alive and I plan to enjoy my walks again.  With a smile my surgeon noted, “Your leg circulation is back to about 95% of ‘what it used to be”.  Of course referring to when I was not so old.

So, I guess I am doing okay with being old.  Certainly, there are those people my age who are less fortunate than I in many ways so I should not complain but be thankful that I am experiencing my life as well as I am.

Certainly, I can’t forget that half of the people born in 1932 are dead.  Yes, half are dead. I remember when I was a young kid one of my major goals in life was to live to see the turn of the century.  Wow, to be able to write 2000 as the date!  And why not for when I was born life expectancy was in the high sixties.  Now, it is in the high seventies for men and eighties for woman.

As I reflect on my life in the future I suddenly realize that it took eighty years to get here and now I have at the most twenty years left to live.  Somehow that does not seem fair, but then I realized that this train of life cannot be stopped, in fact it seems to be speeding up as it heads for that inevitable finish line.

Well here I am eighty years old and still alive!  Like they say, I’m living on borrowed time but who am I borrowing it from? Of course, I’m using the years of life that my dead 1932 classmates failed to use – thank you. But, what is amazing is that my life expectancy just keeps getting longer everyday that I stay alive. Now according to some calculations, I’m expected to live for another eight years!  Wow, they keep moving the finish line further out as I grow older.  How cool can that be?  At this rate, I will never die! Okay, I guess it doesn’t work that way, but one can hope.

I am reading ‘Presidents’ Club’ by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy.  The authors early in the book note that this club is exclusive for one must be a live former President of the United States to be a member.  Hey, no matter how rich you are you cannot join!  Well, it’s about time that those rich people got put in their place.

But, this got me thinking about the club I have just joined and it too cannot be bought into.  It is the Old Age Club and like I just explained half of my birth-mates were not allowed to join.

So, as I walk with less spring in my step and when I see middle-age people looking at my slower gate I smile and call out “Take my advice, don’t ever grow old.” They smile back nodding their head at my good advice. They fail to understand that not to grow old one must die. It serves them right, those young punks for staring at me.

Like Art Linkletter once said, ‘Growing old is not for sissies’.  I wish to correct his well worn statement, “Being old is not for sissies, but the alternative is much worse.”  How lucky can I be!!!  

 

   

Living Old with Dignity

A JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE: 
Living Old with Dignity

Russell R. Burton, an old person

This journal is written for old people, not about old people.  Now, there is a huge difference here for those about old people are for the entertainment of not old people.  Unfortunately, many of them make fun of being old.  Being old is not a proper topic for poor-sick jokes or stories. My articles will be for the entertainment of old people.

Why would anyone write for old people (?) is a good question.  Well, why not?  The old people’s bloc has been forgotten and I think for one main reason.  No one knows what it is like to be old until a person is old and then why would any old person take what time he/she has left sitting for hours in front of a computer writing stuff that may not be read by anybody except a few friends and my editor. I suggest that my friends will read this for they all have assured me that they will, but I am not sure of their veracity and for the following reason.

I just published a novel on Amazon called Mary.  When I mention this tremendous accomplishment my friends all say ‘congratulations and I have a Kindle and I’m going to buy it right away’.  Well, so far I have sold four books, two of which were bought by my son and myself.  I guess friendship disappears at the $5.99 level which is the cost of my novel.

When I first began writing these articles for old people, I thought of submitting them to the AARP magazine.  But, then I read some of their articles and they are not directed toward old people and for good reason because most retired people are not old.  You can ‘join’ the AARP group when you are only 55 years old.  For me that was 25 years ago when I was a youngster and enjoying the peak of my professional career.

As I thumbed through their magazine, I could not help but notice that all semi-old people were smiling suggesting that they were having a wonderful time being old.  I got news for them, being old is much more than laughing or smiling all of the time.

Starting a BLOG is something I thought I would never do.  For two big reasons, I don’t know how and I don’t even know where to seek help.  So, I will ask my son who is kind of an expert on this kind of stuff.  I add here that my grandchildren know far more about this e-magic than I.  In a way, that is the crux of being old for isolation for us is even more pronounced than ever for we never really entered into the e-world – at least I never did.  Oh sure, I type on a computer (oh no it’s not typing it’s word processing) and I learned some other e-stuff, but I forgot most of it. 

So times have changed, goes the adage but far more than ever before. There was a time when old people gave out instructions and advice to eager young ears.  Now those ears are plugged with iPods.

I was at an airport the other day watching people as I waited to catch my flight.  Yes, I still fly and alone without a name tag hanging from me someplace. Everybody, except me of course was on a cell phone or looking intently at some small black rectangular object that they touched once in a while.  People were not talking to each other, oh no they were much too busy living in their own e-world.  I predict that society will suffer from this isolation as do to some degree old people. But our isolation was not voluntary it was forced on us by being old.

Of course, the isolation that I’m talking about is from deafness, poor eye sight, some dementia, and/or mobility.  I use the word dementia as a catch all for the onset of forgetfulness.  I have been fortune so far in that only my hearing is in question and that appears to encourage some debate as to its degree of severity.  Now, where was I? Oh yes I can always hear, but sometimes I do not understand, so don’t yell at me, just talk slower and enunciate your words with more care.  And, look at me so I can read your lips.

I think hearing is the most common malady of old people.  I go to a monthly luncheon for retired people, so by definition most of us are all old and getting older.  I write getting older because I do see changes each month in my luncheon chums that relates to increasing age.  It is amazing how I am escaping those changes.  Sometimes when I talk I know they don’t hear me or understand what I am saying to them.  So, why should I bother?  Well, see that is how isolation begins.  So, I keep talking pretending that they are hearing what I am telling them.

You must have noticed by now that I have enlarged the type to number 14 on my computer.  Usually I use 12 type size. Of course since this is electronic typing you can enlarge the type size to what works best for you.  That is if you choose to read on.

Back to writing something about what my Journal is all about.  Well, if you have forgotten, my articles are directed to old people for their entertainment. And, why shouldn’t old people have some fun and understand that old people are not alone as we go about living our lives as best as we can. 

I hope you noticed that I did not use the words ‘as we live out our lives gracefully’.  We are living not ‘living out’ our lives, a phrase strongly implying that we don’t have much time left. We all know that but what we have is life and that goes for all people who are alive no matter how young or old they are. And, as for the word ‘gracefully’ that means having beauty of form, movement, or expression.  Common on now, gracefully describes something other than living old.

In my journal, I plan to publish an article of about 1000 – 2000 words once a month about being old.  If anyone is interested in joining me in this endeavor I will consider your submissions but the writer must be at least 75 years old and that is even suspect to me for when I was that young I did not feel old.  Hey, I was not old.

So, what is being old?  That is explained in my second article with the title ‘Being Old’.

Enjoy my writing and of course I appreciate your comments – good and bad, well I like the good ones best.  So, please submit them to this blog e-address and I promise I will read them and if appropriate answer those that request some response.  I might even include some in future articles, if they have language fit to print.

Oh yes, to get back to my blog each month put it on your favorites file on your computer and remember the title ‘The Old Rusty Nail’.


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