Old Farts

Let's GO grandma! Nothin' quite like being in a hurry and ending up on a two-lane double solid line road behind granny blue-dew with two of her wheels on the white line and the other two in park. Is there a car coming the other way behind that rise in the road? Maybe I should try it... Hell I could get in a wreck, spend 3 days in the hospital and still get there before Grandma even turns her blinker off let alone gets out from in front of me!
Nonetheless, old people are here to stay (none of them for very long individually of course, but the general concept of old people...). One of the first times I actually interacted with some of the "compass on the dashboard" crowd was when I first started back to school. I rented a room from a nice couple. Turned out pretty well. I got a really pretty nice room with cable and fridge; I had use of the kitchen and washer/dryer and even an entry that was separate from theirs (commonly known as the "backdoor"). In addition, I got a sample of whatever good the Mrs. was baking. I got some of the cinnamon rolls, stew and to be honest, way to many of the cookies she has made. The funny thing about it was that they had owned a very popular motorcycle business for several years. Why would two people who owned a successful business need to rent out a room (two actually) to strangers? The answer is simple and can be summed up in one word: meds. They could not afford to pay the four to five hundred dollars a month for their meds every month. Coincidently, this was also the case for the landlords of the apartment I moved into later.
How much do you pay for your meds? Me personally I pay $10-$25 co-pays on each of my drugs. You might be thinking; "Well sure..." this being you, "You have good insurance you pay for yourself and they have Medicare that we the taxpayers pay for." You would be correct (and quite eloquent to boot). What is also true, is that physical therapy pays more then Social Security. And old farts pay full price for drugs.
Many things are true about old people: Drive like turtles, smell like mothballs and give bad gifts. The other thing that is true is that they need their meds. Meds, in additions to other things, is what allows us all to get old (and for some of us out of infancy). The thing about it is, our grandparents are ourselves and we are the people who will take care of us when we are not young anymore. If nothing else, we should get the world in the habit of taking care of the old because we will reap the benefits of our own efforts. And hey, maybe grandma blue-dew will get a prescription for uppers and finally find the accelerator!