Pegging Points

The greatest of my fears is that I'm gonna grow up to be an ornary old man, even moreso than now. I look around at the drivers on the roads, the walkers on the sidewalks and the mumblers in the checkout lines and realize that there are far more helpless, unhealthy old people than there are cool, vigorous ones, and I know I want no part of it.

That said, the retirees amongst us often get segregated from society to an extent, and disowned, and visited once monthly, like the tick of a long period metronome, by their children. The build a community with their fellow, hepto, septo, octo and nonogenarians, and play cards and bitch about their ungrateful kids, and occasionally discover aliens, and they find happiness in their golden years, trying to avoid any tarnish.

I respect the people for their will to cling to life and keep at it despite some of the inevitable health limitations that I are the base of my own fear, so when I see stupid shit like this from the CBC, I get a little irritated. Calling to task some seniors groups because they play a little cribbage for at most $100? Come on! If this was a car accident it would fall in the "damages less than $500" category and just be quietly dealt with by the insurance companies. Let the old people have some fun. And if that cribbage is keeping them from bogging up the aisles at the grocery store and in the mall parking lot on saturdays and sundays when they have the entire rest of the week to do so in peace, then all the better. A $100 prize under the table is far more acceptable to me than an un-requested multi-million dollar election that will at most change a few seats in parliament and still leave us with a likely Liberal minority.