What To Do
Have you noticed the changes in the paper products isle at the grocery store of late? There is now an entire isle devoted to "paper" products for the human life cycle: baby diapers (early), feminine hygiene (middle) and adult incontinence (late). I don't remember seeing any of them in the little community store in Seward when I was a child. Of course, when I was a child, you could not shop for groceries in the drug store either. What to do. Given my druthers, I think I would prefer to limit the grocery store to food and the drug store to health care products. A package of Depends snuggled in the grocery buggy beside a head of Romaine lettuce just doesn't seem right to me.
But I digress.
The Northwest Mutual Insurance Company has a longevity calculator that seems to think that I will not croak until my 82nd year. I think that's entirely too optimistic and would settle right now just to reach my 72nd provided, of course, I can retain a fair number of my marbles and avoid incontinence.
Then there remains the troubling issue of physical disability and the burden it places on family members. I've been amazed at he number of things that I've had to depend on others (principally the CFO) to do for me with nothing more than a broken left hand. Oh, I have 48 months of long-term care insurance and the average stay in a geriatric facility is only 36 months. Trouble is that the health care industry will not let you die after 36 months or even 48 months. My Mother lingered in a geriatric facility for 96 months and the most difficult thing that I did during that time was visit her. It is my fervent desire that my children need not have to do that.
So what brought up this discussion?
Motorcycles, of course. Even as my hand heals, I can hardly wait to saddle up the iron horse threw me. The question I ask myself daily, however, is whether I should.
Is it worth risking 20 bad years or 10 good ones? Yes, I think so. I'm not that interested in sitting on the pouch in a rocking chair at 82 saying, "Well, I could have." And, even though I'm now much wiser to the causes of motorcycle crashes and their prevention, is it worth risking disability and increased family dependence? Well, I have avoided those risks for the last 40 years and am left to ponder whether it would be selfish to take them now in the last 10 to 20 years of my life. I'll leave that for my children to tell me.
The CFO, you understand, has already been heard from.
But I digress.
The Northwest Mutual Insurance Company has a longevity calculator that seems to think that I will not croak until my 82nd year. I think that's entirely too optimistic and would settle right now just to reach my 72nd provided, of course, I can retain a fair number of my marbles and avoid incontinence.
Then there remains the troubling issue of physical disability and the burden it places on family members. I've been amazed at he number of things that I've had to depend on others (principally the CFO) to do for me with nothing more than a broken left hand. Oh, I have 48 months of long-term care insurance and the average stay in a geriatric facility is only 36 months. Trouble is that the health care industry will not let you die after 36 months or even 48 months. My Mother lingered in a geriatric facility for 96 months and the most difficult thing that I did during that time was visit her. It is my fervent desire that my children need not have to do that.
So what brought up this discussion?
Motorcycles, of course. Even as my hand heals, I can hardly wait to saddle up the iron horse threw me. The question I ask myself daily, however, is whether I should.
Is it worth risking 20 bad years or 10 good ones? Yes, I think so. I'm not that interested in sitting on the pouch in a rocking chair at 82 saying, "Well, I could have." And, even though I'm now much wiser to the causes of motorcycle crashes and their prevention, is it worth risking disability and increased family dependence? Well, I have avoided those risks for the last 40 years and am left to ponder whether it would be selfish to take them now in the last 10 to 20 years of my life. I'll leave that for my children to tell me.
The CFO, you understand, has already been heard from.
We think you should take up hang-gliding!
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