Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 10 December 2017

Heather, I'm in complete agreement with Pat.  You have coped fantastically well this year.

AQ: Love the sugar glider card - thanks for linking us to more info - a sort of possum?  Interesting.

OG: 70 is the new 50!  Hope you managed to warm  up.  My drivers' licence expires in two years; will have to take a multiple-choice quiz to have it renewed for another 5 years.  Friend of ours passed out at the wheel (no damage, etc.) some years back and had to  juimp through all kinds of hoops over the following year or two before he got the okay to drive again.  He has a pacemaker now.  I have a hard time with - ahem - older drivers who dither and can't seem to figure out where they're going or who's got the right of way.  I know giving up the keys to the car is a big admission that you're no longer as independent as you were and creates all kinds of dilemmas for family members.

Lindybird: I always heard that most people say they feel 15 years younger than their actual age.  Don't get me started on raging at the TV!

Heather:  Re "ageist", no I don't think the US is so much - we cantankerous oldies wouldn't put up with it!!  :-))   The American Association of Retired Persons (many of their millions of members are still working) has been fighting age discrimination for - well - ages.  They've been pretty successful on the legislative front because older people constitute such a large segment of those who actually go out and vote.   I worked for them as an editor for 21 years and they certainly treat their retirees well.  I was dismayed to hear that car rental agencies in the UK typically won't rent vehicles to people over the age of 70!  Amazing.  I was looking, only half seriously, at that option before I went back there in September. I'm pretty sure there was wiggle room for - tourists??? but that seems very discriminatory.   Re your poor OH and the NHS, my sister was very ill last year and if you want horror stories......well, it's a question of how much time do you have.  :-(

Diane: Great comment on those kitties Lindybird posted.  :-))

Must get going.....

Well done, Clare.  Fortunately I am still in that category ... quite good that people chop ten or fifteen years off my age ... long may it continue!  For me, age is a figure on a piece of paper.  In my head I am around mid-twenties ... but I have lived a lot longer than that!  Every now and then my knees or other bits of my anatomy remind me of that fact!

Heather B said:

I truly believe that my OH didn't receive the standard of care at 86, before his death, that he would have got and did get, ten or so years previously. For example - when he had his fatal stroke, he was left to die on a trolley in A and E. Official explanation - no beds available. Yet, others were being transferred to inpatient care from A and E. One doctor approached me with apologies that the bed manager couldn't even find us a single room/ bed in a ward in which to spend his last few hours.

Words fail me.

OG - Oh dear, I'm still driving and I turn 83 in March. Here in Iowa we have to renew every 2 years in person after age 70. Very inconvenient!

Well, folks. My grandson of 19 if you remember has just been convicted for speeding! My OH had seventy years of driving experience and never drove slowly or too fast, both of which are said to be dangerous! I agree with OG that reactions are slower as we age but I always thought that my OH had accumulated lots of experience and could almost always predict other drivers' potential actions. Just my thoughts, I have never held a licence to drive.

Heather - I echo Clare

I suppose we build our lifestyles around whether or not we drive - I certainly do.  I drive around 8,000 miles a year - this year I've been to Scotland, where I spent a month and did a lot of miles, Devon (twice) and various other far-flung destinations.  Without my car I would have to alter every aspect of my lifestyle.  I'm realistic enough to know this may not last for ever ... but I dread the time when I can no longer drive.  I just hope I'm sensible enough to know if/when that time arrives - or that a good friend will tell me.

CLARE- I do regret not learning to drive.