The Seniors Thread :-)

[darksideofthemoon]

"This is for the Senior members of CS, those born before 1947. Baby Boomers and Generations X & Y are welcome providing you are over 18 🙂

But this is definitely for people who are facing the last long haul.  We have survived babyhood, childhood, being teens and twenties... We have learned to read and write, to drive, have probably been married and the women have survived child birth.

The challenges are constant and the near misses of death are also there.  If we have become a senior we have learned to survive so much, and along the way we have, of course, gathered a great deal of knowledge about life.

The  belief that age diminishes us is not true, it changes us and not all of it is bad.  Yes there can be various forms of dementia for some, but that is also a disease that can happen in younger people.  Alzheimer's can also occur - it is another form of dementia and generally occurs in people over 65, although that can occur much earlier too and not everyone is going to get it.

Most of us keep our mental alertness up to the moment of death, even if we lose our hearing and our eyesight, but of course this can happen at any age too.

What changes is our physical strength, which diminishes but our mental strength and patience grows, it has to of course, to deal with this aging thing.

Arthritis, heart trouble, strokes - all these things associated with age can happen at any time in your life - arthritis can happen when you are a child but they don't like giving out new hips and knees until you are in your 50s and 60s or later.  We can talk about that too.

Cancer can happen any time and that is also something we can discuss here if you like.

The point of this thread is to give the Seniors a chance to talk about how they are coping with age, the challenges it presents and the fears that can come with it... loss of hearing or sight, aging spouses, living alone, retirement villages, even death...

So I will ask that the Juniors treat us in kindly fashion and remember, all this is going to happen to you too - providing you avoid death before you get here 🙂

So, onward and upward.  Let's go...."

[jean2579]

Darki, Gill, Purple and everyone else, please take care of yourselves and get out at the first hint of trouble. We back onto a National Forest but are not in any of the threatened areas. All the same our fire plan is firmly in place.

Darki, the people inspecting your home have one HUGE motivation to consider it. Safety. Good luck hope that it becomes a sale.

[purple_haize]

Darki, we had some rain this morning......about 10 drops:-(

They predict more for later on, today.

It would be a help if you had an alarm where you were. Having the 2 alarms here, is good, at least it gives everyone a sign to what is happening.

[darksideofthemoon]

0˚ here this morning and still cool.  going to 15˚ 'they' say 😮

We do have a phone system in place between the neighbours up the hill and in surrounding areas, so that's a good beginning.

We have about 10 drops to haizie. Decided I have to call you haizie because we also have purple carrot top whom I have always called purps :^O

Hope today is kind to everyone 🙂 

[kengillard]

morning everyone.............looks like Qld is not going to escape after all:-(

Have to do a bit of shopping today, but hate having to go and leave the house and animals.....you never know when some idiot child is going to light a fire for "fun".....

[purple_haize]

Morning all........nice 15deg at the moment, overcast and a top of 20deg, suits me just fine.

True what you say Gill about idiots lighting fires.

Darki, you can call me what you like:-)

[darksideofthemoon]

Thank you haizie.. 🙂  I'm okay.. just a bit fed up with the waiting and the worry about what I will end up with, but I suppose when the time is right then it will all fall into place.

It's a worry isn't it gil, I will be glad to be away from the bush even tho I will miss it a lot.. I'm tired of waiting hoping that this bush won't burn this summer... 

Been though a couple of fires really don't want to do it again,, I am getting too old for them.. really am 😞

[purple_haize]

I know what you mean Darki, re the bush. We have bush all around us, not near the house though, and tall gum trees, as much as I love living up here in it, bush fires in summer are always on my mind.

Tomorrow here is going to be 37deg:_|   thunderstorms in the morning and sunny afternoon.

Hopefully your house will sell soon.

[kengillard]

huh huh huh ...hotttttttttttttt....must be about 35...air con is struggling.

thank goodness, no sign of fires anywhere near yet...fingers, eyes, knees and toes crossed.

good bit...had lots of undergrowth cleared away from around the house yesterday.....

[darksideofthemoon]

Y'know haizie, I am actually longing to get out of the bushfire areas.. been in them for over 30 years, been through a couple, never lost the house... but I am sick, tired and silly of them... 

Too old now to race around getting everything together - which I do, and then having to go down the road and sit in the car for hours hoping the house is still there when I get back... 

Our local policeman said the other day he thought it would be our turn next and I almost shot him :^O

So yes, I want to move... sigh!

[purple_haize]

Darki, when we had to leave in the 2009 fires, it was awful, everything was packed, the cats in their cages and the dogs on their leads, everyone was trying to leave at once.

Some of the roads up here are so narrow only one car can go at a time. Even the highway was congested, fortunately for us, we had friends to go to and we stayed for 2 nights, then we came home.

Last summer was wet, so bushfires didnt worry me too much, but this yr. even though we have had alot of rain, there is much of Melbourne that hasnt had what we in the hills have had. Will be so glad when this summer is over.

One thing that the govt. brought in for this summer in The Dandenongs, we come under the CFA, is two sirens, one for general things like accidents etc that goes off for 90 seconds and for bushfires & emergencies the siren goes for 5 minutes to give the residents plenty of warning...........they havent used that one so far and I hope they dont.