Old=tired+painful
It's been almost a year since I moved into my apartment just north of Philadelphia. Almost all of my neighbors are over 65; quite a few are in their 90's. There are a few wheelchairs, along with a lot of walkers and canes in evidence, including my own bamboo-wood cane, which as I said in a much-earlier posting was unwittingly bequeathed to me by an old friend, Father Tom Croghan of Scranton. Unwittingly because he had just passed away when his brother let me have the cane.
I haven't been surprised at the residents talking of pain: some from minor or not-so-minor accidents and some simply as a result of the gradual deterioration of one's skeleton, organs, and nervous system. On the other hand, I thought my being tired so often and sometimes so intensely was not something common to my age group. I have friends my age and older who seem to keep going day after day without flagging at any point between getting up in the morning and retiring in the evening. Since I've been living here amongst so many other seniors, though, I realize that, besides the groans of aching backs, feet, stomachs, heads, etc., there is frequent mention of being tired, exhausted, weary, pooped, worn out, and so on. It's heartening to know that my energy level isn't so far off the norm as I had thought it was until a year ago.
See what you have to look forward to?
I haven't been surprised at the residents talking of pain: some from minor or not-so-minor accidents and some simply as a result of the gradual deterioration of one's skeleton, organs, and nervous system. On the other hand, I thought my being tired so often and sometimes so intensely was not something common to my age group. I have friends my age and older who seem to keep going day after day without flagging at any point between getting up in the morning and retiring in the evening. Since I've been living here amongst so many other seniors, though, I realize that, besides the groans of aching backs, feet, stomachs, heads, etc., there is frequent mention of being tired, exhausted, weary, pooped, worn out, and so on. It's heartening to know that my energy level isn't so far off the norm as I had thought it was until a year ago.
See what you have to look forward to?