Aging and retirement bring with them the chance to spend your time dong the things you always wanted to do. Of course, by now, you can't do half of them any more.
"I can't run, but I can walk much faster than this," sang Paul Simon. Now, I ca'nt walk that fast anymore. But keep walking.
I think many would share your thrill of driving - particularly on the open road, and particularly in the USA or Australia where you can drive for a day only to cover about an inch on the map, and I feel for you when old age tends to nibble away at the things we can do. I now find driving at night a challenge and no longer feel the need to go at the maximum possible speed in daylight, so Dylan's poem chimes too. Not being sporting in any way, my only knowledge of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was his role in one of my all time favourite movies: Airplane. So I need to check him out too sometime. Problem with getting older is that it feels as though there is more and more to do and less and less time left to do it in!
Oh, Richard, you’ve got me giggling this morning. And I’m interested in your thoughts on driving because I realize many of the IOM roads have lots of twists and turns so I expect Uncle Les was going quite slowly. Living in Connecticut now, I admired Paul Newman for his race car driving and actually thought about going to Lime Rock when they offered a chance to drive the course. But I chickened out physically. Now you can get a virtual thrill instead. Highly recommend you subscribe to Kareem’s Substack. He spends a lot of time and effort to bring us up to speed (albeit American stuff mostly), and he is an excellent writer and deep thinker. Cheers from across the pond!
I too have the eye issues which limits my driving, especially at night. I was seeing double, two stop signs, two planters in my backyard, street signs not readable until close. I had a bleeding vein in my eye which has been fixed but not 100%. So frustrating to not to be able to do what I always took for granted.
Exactly. But once we do all we can medically, acceptance is the key I think. I used to love Dylan Thomas’s poem about raging against the dying of the light. But I heard the other night that anger is only one letter away from danger. So I’m enjoying what I’m still able to one day at a time.
My thoughts exactly. I am definitely drawn to people who manage to keep on keeping on. Michael J. Fox and Billy Connolly both have Parkinson’s but each has written an uplifting book. Remember MJF entitled his “Lucky Man.” And Billy barely mentions his disease while recounting that he always finds something to laugh at. My kind of guys!
Aging and retirement bring with them the chance to spend your time dong the things you always wanted to do. Of course, by now, you can't do half of them any more.
"I can't run, but I can walk much faster than this," sang Paul Simon. Now, I ca'nt walk that fast anymore. But keep walking.
I think many would share your thrill of driving - particularly on the open road, and particularly in the USA or Australia where you can drive for a day only to cover about an inch on the map, and I feel for you when old age tends to nibble away at the things we can do. I now find driving at night a challenge and no longer feel the need to go at the maximum possible speed in daylight, so Dylan's poem chimes too. Not being sporting in any way, my only knowledge of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was his role in one of my all time favourite movies: Airplane. So I need to check him out too sometime. Problem with getting older is that it feels as though there is more and more to do and less and less time left to do it in!
Oh, Richard, you’ve got me giggling this morning. And I’m interested in your thoughts on driving because I realize many of the IOM roads have lots of twists and turns so I expect Uncle Les was going quite slowly. Living in Connecticut now, I admired Paul Newman for his race car driving and actually thought about going to Lime Rock when they offered a chance to drive the course. But I chickened out physically. Now you can get a virtual thrill instead. Highly recommend you subscribe to Kareem’s Substack. He spends a lot of time and effort to bring us up to speed (albeit American stuff mostly), and he is an excellent writer and deep thinker. Cheers from across the pond!
I too have the eye issues which limits my driving, especially at night. I was seeing double, two stop signs, two planters in my backyard, street signs not readable until close. I had a bleeding vein in my eye which has been fixed but not 100%. So frustrating to not to be able to do what I always took for granted.
Exactly. But once we do all we can medically, acceptance is the key I think. I used to love Dylan Thomas’s poem about raging against the dying of the light. But I heard the other night that anger is only one letter away from danger. So I’m enjoying what I’m still able to one day at a time.
My thoughts exactly. I am definitely drawn to people who manage to keep on keeping on. Michael J. Fox and Billy Connolly both have Parkinson’s but each has written an uplifting book. Remember MJF entitled his “Lucky Man.” And Billy barely mentions his disease while recounting that he always finds something to laugh at. My kind of guys!