I used a quote from a 1971 John Wayne movie,\u00a0Big Jake,\u00a0<\/em>in an essay the other day,\u00a0\u201cMy fault, Your fault, Nobody\u2019s fault\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida poured down on Central Ohio, I found that movie on TV.\u00a0\u00a0It was a \u201cretired folks\u201d afternoon:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a \u201cwe don\u2019t have to do anything in the rain,\u201d kind of thing.\u00a0\u00a0And I began thinking as I watched old John Wayne.\u00a0\u00a0Big Jake<\/em>\u00a0was the first of his last spurt of cowboy movies, all in the last eight years of his life (Big Jake, The Cowboys, Cahill \u2013 US Marshal, Rooster Cogburn<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Shootist<\/em>, his personal epitaph).\u00a0\u00a0He played an \u201cold tough guy\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But how old was this \u201cold\u201d guy? \u00a0Bad news for me:\u00a0\u00a0John Wayne was sixty-three years old when he made\u00a0Big Jake<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0That \u201cold guy\u201d was almost two years younger than I am now.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it\u2019s been a week of sub-conscious awareness of impending sixty-five-doom. I got my red-white-and-blue senior citizen membership card yesterday (Medicare). By the way, the good folks at Medicare had one more little surprise for me when I got my card. They\u2019re sending me a bill for $592 \u2013 payment for the first four months of service. Only after that can I pay on the \u201cmonthly\u201d $148 program. Thank goodness I didn\u2019t have to purchase Medicare A (just B), that would have cost close to $2000!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I find myself relating to President Biden more and more. He\u2019s seventy-eight, and balancing Covid, Infrastructure, Afghanistan, Hurricane Ida, burning California, Voting Rights and all the rest, all at the same time. He sounds tired \u2013 and should be. It doesn\u2019t matter how young or old you are \u2013 that\u2019s a lot on any President\u2019s plate. Yet, unlike the public silence of other Presidents withdrawing from world conflicts, Biden stood up in front of the American people and explained his actions in Afghanistan. Regardless of where you stand on that subject, you\u2019ve got to admire his strength, determination and willingness to put his reasons forward to the American people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the historic figures that stresses me out age-wise is Franklin Roosevelt.\u00a0\u00a0He died at sixty-three years of age \u2013 after serving as President for thirteen years (a good reason in itself for not serving more than two terms).\u00a0\u00a0But FDR looked \u201cold\u201d for a long time \u2013 hard to imagine he was younger than I am now when he died.\u00a0\u00a0And Lyndon Johnson, only a few years out of office, didn’t manage to qualify for the program he created, Medicare. He was sixty-four when he passed.\u00a0\u00a0Of course, the legend has it that after he left the White House at sixty, he took up chain smoking cigarettes and drinking\u00a0Cutty Sark\u00a0<\/em>(Scotch) and soda once again, and driving his car like a madman around his ranch in Texas \u2013 he was going to \u201cdie happy\u201d I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will say that impending sixty-five-doom is a motivator in one way.\u00a0\u00a0You might think retired folks get to sleep in, but you haven\u2019t met our dogs.\u00a0\u00a0They are usually up at first light, and I was hoping that as the summer neared an end, they would sleep later.\u00a0\u00a0Not true. Right now 5:23 am is the time that at least one decides it\u2019s time for breakfast.\u00a0\u00a0And when one is up, they all (five at the moment) join in.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no ignoring them.\u00a0\u00a0So regardless of whether I watch the 11 pm news, or wake up in the middle of the night to read the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, the bell for breakfast (or more exactly, the bark for breakfast) goes off before the dawn\u2019s early light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So sleep remains a rare commodity. And it would be easy to ignore my workout regime: \u201cI\u2019m too tired\u201d echoes in my head. But so far, it\u2019s still a couple of miles on the elliptical, and calisthenics after, five days a week. I\u2019m proving that I\u2019m not THAT OLD \u2013 at least to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the first of September. My favorite season of the year, fall, is almost here. I\u2019m going to a Cross Country Meet tonight. I\u2019m even going to substitute teach in school on Friday, back in a classroom for the first time since Friday the 13th of March, 2020. Jenn and I are planning a big Lost Pet Recovery event coming up. And we are also going on an actual \u201ctrip\u201d, a cabin getaway in a couple weeks \u2013 so it\u2019s definitely time to get over getting older. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Guess I\u2019ll get my mileage in now \u2013 it\u2019s going to be a busy day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Membership Card<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Historic Age<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Get Going<\/h3>\n\n\n\n