Tarpeena Tales
Well there are some things that suddenly bring home to you that you are in fact OLD.
The first was when I carked it after a late night visit to the toilet on a visit to Melbourne and woke up, not with my willy exactly in hand but wondering why I was sleeping on the floor of the toilet! This was put down to tablets that need not have been taken, and beer that need not have been drunk and standing up at a football game for a long time without any liquid intake. It was definitely NOT subscribed to old age.
But today the realization that other people perceive me as old came to me when , at the checkout at the local hardware store, I was given the SENIORS discount without even asking for it! The SENIORS discount! I was both pleased and staggered. 10% is not to be sneezed at after all but other people see me as OLD. Not just my sons who call me OMK (Old Man Keenan) , that's when they are being nice too, but the general populous...!!! I still see myself as being 21 with 40 years of experience but it seems the receding hairline , the toothless grin , the wizened hair on my forearms, today was a short sleeve shirt day, and probably my politeness qualifies me for automatic SENIORS discount.
Where has my youth gone!
Mind you Nuran reckons I am an old fart but that is borne out by my manly habit of flatulence just as I get into bed. Now that is something that could be researched, why does the prospect of a nice warm bed and lying flat with a quilt over you provoke an instant response of ejection of wind from your rear end! That is nothing to do with old age but has been going on for ages!
Oh well I am a grandfather after all so sooner or
later I shall have to act my age. But not bloody yet!
Anyway apart from Geelong losing the football
game and Jim's team, Hawthorn ,winning and carking in the toilet it was a
very good trip to Melbourne recently. I cuddled Julian and talked with Kim, the
other Grandfather...he's bald too but I bet he doesn't get the Seniors discount.
We sang Happy Birthday to Bill as he cut his
Pavlova
and saw Tony drive off in his new car (Jims old one). I found my Great Great
Grandparents grave site in Melbourne and that means that three generations were
in Melbourne that day and two (three times removed ones ) had lived within a
mile of that spot in 1876. Mind boggling. I am now older than those relatives
where when they died, so MUST be old, but I refuse to believe it!
Anyway when Jim was in Melbourne he also cuddled his nephew and although he was quietly content with the result of the game, he didn't push the victory too hard. This comes with the experience of barracking for a team that loses mores than it wins. I have that experience too.
Here is a picture of Jim with his nephew
and here is Angela too, when she saw him in Adelaide recently .
You
can see how much Julian has grown in between.
Tony has Jim's old car and Jim and Angela have a new vehicle. Bill has a new vehicle too and the only bloke who still has his original car is me. But I love my car and I ain't going to get rid of it in a while.
So this old senior will drive his old car ...wait a minute... am I getting OLD?
27.04.06