As I sit here on my old chair, I am contemplating writing about old people. A good friend of mine and I were exchanging emails about motorcycles. He noted that he had not been riding much even though he has two motorcycles. He also noted that he had a friend’s scooter at his house, and was supposed to ride it occasionally to keep the battery charged. He hasn’t ridden it.
I asked why he hasn’t been riding lately. He listed several names of friends, including me, who no longer have motorcycles. He also noted that the local motorcycle shop was no longer having rides. He commented that riding alone is not much fun. He did say he had some back problems.
I thought about this during the early morning walk. I rode bikes most of my life, my first bike was a moped and I was not yet 16. We had street bikes and dirt bikes when the kids were still at home. I basically have had bikes most of my life. Then 2 years ago I decided to sell my bike. I did not sell the bike because of my age; I sold the bike because I was riding it once or twice a month. Everyone I knew had basically stop or reduced their riding. I am sure age had a lot to do with it, so getting old can affect lots of things.
As I sat in my vehicle outside the doctor’s office for 1.25 hours, waiting on my favorite wife, she was getting her eyes checked, I observed many old people. If you want to watch old people, sit outside a doctor’s office. I saw a couple who in my opinion should not have been driving. This one old person was attempting to park the vehicle in a parking space between two vehicles. This person was careful, it took her probably 3 minutes to get parked. She would move forward a little and then look out her window and then all around. She got out twice to see where her vehicle was in respect to the lines on the pavement. When she finished parking and got out, she could hardly walk to the office.
Another vehicle was attempting to park in a similar parking space between to vehicles. This old fellow had one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas, I could hear the motor and I could see the vehicle reaction. Keeping his foot on the gas, he would let up on the brake a little and the vehicle would lurch a couple feet, this lurching occurred several times, going forward and backwards.
The other morning there was an old gentleman who had walked out in his front yard to get his newspaper. He bent over to get it and when he stood up, he almost fell. He recovered his balance and he stood there as if he was looking at his yard. Old people don’t want others to know they have problems. We sure don’t want our drivers license taken away, that means our freedom is gone.
Change of topics; as the Tres and I was walking this morning, we observed a young lady walk from her house to her vehicle parked on the street. She was smoking a cigarette. I said to her, “Smoking is bad for you”, to which she replied, “I know, I am trying to quit”, then she said, “Your dog is pretty”’, and I replied, “Thank you, what about me?” She smiled and said, “You are pretty too”! I knew she was not serious about the dog being pretty, but she was serious about me being pretty!
Getting old is not always fun!
Senior old person who thinks young, Don the Ford
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