We are old people and we are happy to still be here
- col-teri-stein
- June 26, 2024
- 1654
The other day my sister and I found ourselves in the car heading to buy concert tickets — in person. Who still buys tickets offline? Us, and we did this while we were listening to our favorite 1970s music on the radio.
Yes, we decided we are old people, but we are still happy to be here doing stuff in our old people way. It works for us.
Even worse, our criterion for buying tickets is finding seats that have easy access to the restrooms because as old people you just don’t know. We’re old people and proud of it.
There are a lot more challenges when you are old — parking is one for sure. I can’t park decently at all without technical assistance, and I’ve noticed others my age can’t either, even if they were good at parking when they were younger. Whoever invented parking-assist technology was probably an old person doing their part to help their fellow old people.
We’re old enough to know better, but we don’t have the energy to follow through, so we’re just going to sit on the couch and eat snacks. We’d rather read about it and see pictures online than attend in person because we are old people.
Recently, I spent a lot of time hanging out at one of my favorite festivals. The temperatures peaked in the 90s, but I wasn’t worried. I could always take the heat, until this year, when it appears I officially became an old person. I couldn’t get enough water to drink and was wearing a wet cooling cloth around my neck the entire time. The heat really took it out of me. I couldn’t hang out endlessly like in years past, and naps were taken.
So now I can’t take the heat, and I have got to watch what I eat. Because we’re old people, and the fun never ends.
We’ve got all our days to ourselves to putz around. Sounds great, but because we’re old people, it now takes an entire day to do something you used to do in an hour. We’re old people and still happy to be here though.
Because we’re old people, we still use the same email for everything — bills, personal and work. Because way back when email began — we remember it — you only needed one email. You weren’t getting bombarded with tons of emails like today when everyone in the world wants to keep in contact with you so they can sell you stuff.
Because we’re old people, we don’t like paperless billing. Some credit cards have resorted to charging their customers a fee if they want to get a paper statement. This does not help old people on fixed incomes remember to pay their bills.
One bill just went paperless just last month, and already our account is past due. Surprise, they are going to keep us on paper billing until we catch up. I got an email yesterday at 3:41 p.m. alerting me to this and asking I pay the bill by 5 p.m. that day to avoid any additional charges. I did not see the email until 5:15 p.m. because I’m an old person. But because I’m an old person, I’m also going to be calling this company to complain, although I’ve come up with a plan for my own alternative reminders.
We old people are not a lost cause when it comes to trying something new, especially if it benefits us. Joe and I recently got a new washer/dryer combo appliance. You put the laundry inside the machine and it washes and dries it, no running to the basement to switch the wet clothes from a washer to a dryer. Just think how many trips to the basement that is going to save us over the years. We like it because we are old people.
Joe is a smart and savvy old person because he is already an expert at running the new washer/dryer. Me — How do you set this dial?
We’re old people, but we’re happy to still be here.