As The Wheel Turns

So I've been driving seniors around. Being raised in one huge ass nuclear family familiarized me with all sorts of folks; young, old, decrepit, you name it, so proximity to the aged is nothing to write home about. This particular retirement community spans over 100 acres, and why no one has yet to refer to it as one variation or another of the 100 Acre wood is beyond my ken. The dwellings range from fashionable apartments, and we're not talking efficiency's mind you, as the cheapest goes for $1400 a month, to 2 bedroom ranch houses that will set one back somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000. As one woman said to me today, "We're living in the lap of luxury on our husbands' insurance money."

Luxurious it is, too. The grounds are immaculate and it was puzzling me as to what memories they evoked until I realized that the resemblance to a movie set was uncanny. Picture perfect lawns and walkways and roads and homes, with nary a soul in sight. Part of the reason for this is the fact that it hit 106 degreees today, and while the current reading of 88 feels balmy in comparison the vast majority of the residents remain indoors until it's time to eat, or shop, or do what they refer to as "out & abouts". Tomorrow I'm taking a dozen or so of them to one of the local shopping plaza's, and the biggest problem with that is making sure that no one gets lost. Only the vigorous need attend such adventures, but 80-90 year old women are, well, 80-90 year old women.

Most of them are grateful, very grateful to have someone help in such a fashion, but as is the case with any human endeavor the cretins will crawl out of the woodwork but I pay scant attention to the grumpy oldsters, and haven't decked a one of them yet. I mean the men of course. The ratio is probably something like 10 to 1, and it's interesting to note that men reaching such agedness are far more spry than their female counterparts, at least from this particular sampling. There are many probable causes to explain such an observation, but the fact remains that the guys who live that long get around a helluva lot better than the gals do.

Anyway, I'm behind the wheel again, and am having a ball.