Author: ness23456

American Banking and Ai…a Fun Financial Foray

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My new credit union in NY added to my despair over modern, corporate customer service. To be efficient with my banking, moving funds to NY from North Carolina made sense. But the Credit Union (CU) selected in NY is proving to be…inefficient. And that’s being kind. It’s a strange world where a 73-year-old with no criminal record, a lifetime of credit usage, and Credit Scores over 800 has trouble borrowing money. Side Bar: Transunion suggested my score could be nearly “perfect”, if my records contained a “Closed End Installment Account” like a car loan, personal loan, mortgage, something with an end date, since all my credit accounts are “revolving”, or open lines of credit.* So I applied on-line for a small, personal installment loan from the new CU in New York to flesh out the credit resume.  A quick, electronic declination followed. A quick call to a human revealed the lines of credit, unused but open, made me a “credit risk”.  An inquiry about what a credit score of 800 means got this reply: “It proves you’ve paid off loans in the past, but we are unsure about your ability.” *

Savings and checking accounts had been opened with the NY CU and small sums were deposited as trial amounts. After the loan debacle, it was decided moving money to NY would not be efficient. In the meantime, I’d used small amounts** from the checking account. One morning I withdrew the “last” $20 ** and the ATM let it happen.

When I checked my NY CU account later that day, the checking account was overdrawn and been charged a $28 fee. No problem, most CUs and Banks give you a free mistake a year so I’ll talk to customer service at the CU and see if they could help. The NY CU website said customer service was available “Mon-Fri from 7:30AM to 9PM EST”. At 8:45AM I called and sat on the phone tree over 25 minutes. *** “You are caller Number 3, 2, 1.” Finally, a male answered and explained “We open at 9”. (If I’d called at 7, would the phone tree have looped me for two hours, if I was dumb enough to wait?) The live male “looked into” my problem and went to talk with his “manager”. The live male returned and offered a refund of $14. I asked why cash could be withdrawn that was not in the account and here is his response: “We automatically sign you up for overdraft protection when you open your accounts. It automatically gives you what you ask for.” And why an Overdraft Fee of $28? Answer: “Policy.” I asked to have the automatic, free “benefit” removed from my accounts.

Important fact for the reader: I was livid after the overdraft phone call, but now the $14 loss and wasted time feel insignificant. As an old girlfriend used to say, “Why are you making such a big $%^&ing deal about it?”  Thanks for listening and if you’re not okay with simply letting me vent, send a bill for YOUR wasted time and my Ai policies will handle it.

As for modern American Companies’ customer service and “Policies”…a mix of Ai and humans is worse than Ai, or humans, alone. Sadly, the future will be just Ai. Caveat emptor, everyone, all the time.

God help us all.

*I don’t know why, for all.

** Money for gambling at Turning Stone Resort and Casino. Sometimes I lose…

*** While doing other things like clipping nails, etc.

No More Trump For Me…Ever

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The Calamities are nearly defeated. One Cancer is in remission. AMD * is under control. Arthritis has been surgically removed. Walking and simply existing is now painless, easy and almost worry-free.

 What keeps me awake at night, now, is the state of our country, specifically a government that does whatever it wants and lets billionaires run everything. It’s tempting to…No! No more.

The 2024 election will be added to The Calamities List and will be looked at only in the rear-view mirror and eventually be forgotten. There are only a few good years left (details in a later paragraph) and no more “painless and easy living” time will be wasted on politics. Don’t believe me? Watch me. Bill, this mean you.

The return of a close approximation ** of good health inspired me to look for a place to volunteer. Volunteering was a part of life given up when doctors, treatments, ailments, and related issues made me unreliable. But those days are past, *** and I am now training to be a Volunteer Long Term Care Ombudsman for the State of New York. Anyone know what an “ombudsman is”?  Bet you don’t, so look it up, anyway. In the early days, as they decide if I’d be at least an okay o-man, I’ve “shadowed” mentors who get paid to do it. We visited Long Term Care Centers, Assisted Living Centers, and Rehabilitation Centers to try to get residents to let us know how things are going. Know anyone in any of these places? Ever visit one of these places? Know what they do? Know how they do it and how well they do it? I trained as a Certified Senior Advisor and Long Term Care Consultant in my past financial life and thought I knew it all. These places aren’t new to me. This will be a great opportunity to assist people in the stage of their life where the help these facilities perform is not just needed but required. It is the only option for them. My life will be fulfilled.

My visits these last two weeks revealed how ignorant I am about modern senior adult medical care.

There will be more written later, but a Long Term Care situation is not the fun you might think it is, given younger people call this the “Golden Years” for us seniors. It doesn’t help that at my age with my history it might be me in one of these facilities even as early as next week. What will be will be.

End of life care is a complicated story populated with villains, heroes, saviors, losers, and the just plain unlucky. Sadly, most stories fouetté **** and pirouette **** around money, and that sad dance only adds to the staggering heartbreak. In each and every visit there was a very fervent wish I would wake up in the morning worth $400 Billion dollars and could solve most of the problems inherent in end of life issues.

One can dream, at least for now.

*If you are a senior reading this, check yourself out using an Amsler Grid. Do it now, unless you already did. AMD sneaks up on you.

** Everyone okay with this strange phrase?

*** Ai says I need a comma here. I disagree. All in favor of a comma, raise your hand.

**** Ars gratia Artis

Questions for Concerned and Thoughtful Americans

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When you end your workout at your fitness center and go to the showers where there are three empty stalls, do you select the weird stall with the handrails, folding seat, water controls below waist level, and hand-held shower head?

Do you know the difference between an indictment and a conviction?

Do you now the “distance” between an indictment and a conviction?

Does the term “respect law and order” come up only when you’re talking about someone else’s actions?

Is the driver in front of you doing 10 miles per hour over the speed limit getting in your way and holding you back?

Do you believe in and repost things from your favorite websites to your on-line accounts and state “How True!”, or ask “How True?”

Is everything your political opponent says wrong and everything you say, correct?

Do you get mad when people use “facts” to make their point?

Do you think America is a place only for natural born Americans and there is no room for minority people or religions?

Is it okay to think anyone who doesn’t think like you has a screw loose?

Can you own a gun and still be Anti-NRA?

Is it possible President Trump is doing some thing(s) right?

Is it possible Joe Biden did ANYTHING right?

Do you feel better about yourself when someone agrees with you or disagrees with you?

Is a “tribal validation” of your opinions necessary or are you an independent thinker?

Is it really an insult to be called “sheep” by your political rival?

Should “leaders” of institutions be held to a higher moral standard than the bots and trolls who criticize or praise those leaders?

If you own an AR-15 what do you do with it?

Can we, the people, solve our own problems, or do we need a centralized form of government to make things work?

Do you know anyone who has no place to sleep tonight?

Do you have an idea where you will be sleeping at age 80?

Any relative already in Long Term Care?

Think you won’t need Long Term Care?

Think anyone has the answers to most, all or none of these questions? Life is “a tapestry of rich and royal hue”, said Carole King in 1970. But The Buffalo Springfield said it best in 1968: “We better stop, children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”

That was 57 years ago.

Things you may not know in 2025…

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Viet Nam was negotiating tariffs with Trump. One of their offers included a “fast-tracking” of a $1.5 billion Trump hotel in Viet Nam. Update: story disappeared so…Update Update: Trump was recently overheard advising an Asian head of state to “Call Eric.”

A bitcoin mogul was fined $4.5 billion, spent 4 months in jail for money laundering and “illegal activities’, agreed to not operate in the US, and accepted regular operational monitoring from US agencies. He is now offering his companies’ “global distribution services” to Trump Enterprises. All the mogul wants in return is to have US regulators stop monitoring his company, and a pardon.

An expensive new missile defense system is being advocated by Hegseth and the Defense Department. Elon Musk’s Starlink is the preferred vendor.

Trump has paved over the Rose Garden, is building a ballroom attached to the White House, and is now floating a design called the “Arc D’Trump.”

America is helping “bailout” Argentina’s government by trying to give them $40 Billion dollars. Don’t cry for me, Argentina. *

Charlie Kirk and Rudy Guiliani will soon join Rush Limbaugh as recent American Presidential Medal of Freedom Winners. Wonder which Rudy will show for the ceremony.

Trump is deploying troops to states and cities to fight crime. None of the states are in the top 5 crime states. Only one of the cities is in the top 5 crime rates.

The FBI is changing how crime rates will be collected and administered.

I am not getting any younger.

Neither is Trump.

Nearly every state in America is now redistricting or planning on redistricting. American politicians and leaders of both parties will now spend more time on claiming and retaining power than governing. Thank you, Citizens United and other “election reformers”.

Why do we call it “change” when it happens all the time? When has ANYTHING ever stayed the same? Oh, yeah, corruption and greed.

Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize. I hope events prove him right and he gets it. What will he do, though, when the middle east returns to its “normal” dynamic of hating and fighting each other, and the United States?

Do not go boating with a power boat in the Caribbean, at least off the coast of Venezuela. There’s little doubt about the boats our military is blowing up, but there is doubt. Do we let our police operate the same way?

And in our modern world of fakes and disinformation, how much of this is…something? Hint: I am getting older.

*google it.

Trifles

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After the post about Tariffs, the Trump Administration added “Port Fees” and plain, old taxes to an escalating trade war with China and other countries. China used Port Fees first  (I think) so our fees are retaliatory. According to Ai, the owners of the “shipping vessels” docking in the ports pay the Port Fees. There is no consensus on the new fees’ effects except to say nothing is going to get cheaper in the near future, if ever.

Donald Trump needs and–in the case of the Middle East—deserves praise. I won’t even add the phrase “if it all works out”. Well, I did, but in a good way because it will work out. We will have a new paradigm in the Middle East in the next few years, thanks to DJT. He may even get that Nobel Prize when he is eligible next year*. But he reminds me of my father. Dad was a gregarious, drink-buying, do anything for you, “loved by the public” person who was an entirely different person at home, behind four walls. No more about dad, but DJT is fostering peace out in the world while acting differently at home. Why?

A phrase heard a lot lately, in community discussions: “Some people always ruin it for the rest of us.” It was repeated in discussions about free performances and open spaces. The remarks were from civil authorities and disgruntled citizens who know the process where a community tries to make life better for all, and an “ungracious” few take advantage and scuttle the opportunity. Think bad graffiti on a newly painted park mural, or unruly attendees at an open-air movie event in the park. We all know it happens. Why? It appears there is a certain part of the population dead set on being selfish, ignorant, greedy, insensitive, stupid, thoughtless, self-destructive…ungracious. This segment of the population has always been part of life probably in the world, but more obviously in a free country like the United States of America where self-indulgent, self-centered, shameless, ungracious people are free to show just how ungracious they can be. It is important to remember this fact when we think about Government, and all it entails. For example, law enforcement where a few “bad apples” can ruin a police department’s reputation and harm its efficiency. Citizens stop supporting the department and all respect for law and order is lost. This type of selfish behavior is sometimes illegal, but more often just unpleasant, unproductive, and…ungracious. What do we do, just live with it? Factor it into our daily lives? Given our current social climate, citizens now have to be aware an ungracious person may also be exercising his or hers or their Second Amendment Right. Most non-ungracious(sic) citizens can then see the sense in sporting their own defense…and so it goes.

This is not an attack on that Second Amendment, but a grim statement of “Some people ruin it for the rest of us.”

Constitutional “Originalists” have a unique problem in their views on The American Constitution. The writers of the Constitution purposefully included Article V to allow for change, or Amendment. Google the first sentence for Article V and enjoy. It should be added that Originalists can rely on the words of Article V to offer support for their own interpretation, but the design and inclusion of the Article theoretically opposes an inability to be flexible in Constitutional Judgments. IMO. Plus, modern American Common Sense would admit what was written as a design for the new government in the musket-heavy days after the American Revolution might not be the best advice to follow in AR-15 America.  I own a gun so don’t think the worst of these last two paragraphs. Just think.

*Cut off time for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominations was January 31, 2025. Trump will be eligible in 2026 to win for his work in 2025.

Tariffs? We Don’t Need No Stinking Tariffs Do We?

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 The Trump Administration recently announced they have collected hundreds of billions of dollars in “tariff fees”. The specific number is close to $300 billion and climbing. Wow. Look at all that revenue. For America. We’ll pay down the $38 trillion National Debt in approximately 120 years. Yay. Imagine a lazy, waving, small American Flag. But wait, maybe the Trump Administration will send $2000 checks to every American. Yay? Why would he do that? And why hasn’t he?

Tariffs—and their effects—are hard to understand. Most people tell me tariffs are a “tax” on foreign countries and assume foreign countries are paying that tax. It is closer to the truth, however, to say no “countries” ever pay any Tariff Tax. For example, the United States of America, doesn’t pay other countries for their “unfair” tariffs, even as other countries are “ripping us off”, per Mr. Trump.

Wait. China is not paying massive tariffs for all the goods they import? No. They are not. How about Mexico and Canada? No. They are not. And America is not paying tariffs to other countries?* No. So what is going on? Who IS paying?

Again, it’s complicated but here is a simple example: A pair of Chinese sneakers retails at Walmart in the US for $10 in 2024 with the cost being $5 per pair under the 2024 Tariff Plan. China is then “punished” with a new Tariff Plan of 50% the fall of 2025. That Chinese sneaker pair will be charged an additional 50% tariff when it lands on American soil, making the cost of the sneakers in 2025 $7.50. Think a retailer like Walmart will sell the sneaker in 2025 at the same price as the 2024 sneaker? The tariff is really a “tax” meant to make the Chinese sneaker as expensive as an American made sneaker. Does it work? It will if some American Sneaker Manufacturer can sell his sneakers for under $15. The purpose is to support American Manufacturing and give them an economic reason to make sneakers by raising the Chinese Imports price. If you watch any sports events you probably think there are no sneaker-makers in the US, but there are. Why aren’t they being used by professional and amateur sports teams, now? See, complicated.

But the best or worst part of the whole process is who is actually paying, shelling out the dough, for the tariff “tax”? In our example, it ain’t China and it ain’t the US. In this example, it is Walmart. And probably you when you buy the sneaker at the new 2025 price. What will that price be?

Let’s circle back to the billions in tariff revenue touted by Trump. Where did the actual money come from? China? No, it is American money from American retailers, wholesalers, and importers. It’s a neat way to “tax” without calling it a tax. (Can you say One Big Beautiful Bill Tax Cuts?) And….drum roll…Walmart’s initial payments go to the Treasury and Trump can (almost) do whatever he wants with the dollars, without congressional approval. More ICE Agents? A Ballroom? Tax rebates to Americans? What great ideas.

But nothing has happened, yet, not even hyper-inflation. Why?  Read below from The Peterson Institute for International Economics, by Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE) and Ye Zhang(China)September 16, 2025:  “If the Supreme Court affirms the lower courts’ decisions, the federal government could have to refund much of the tariff revenue collected this year. But if the Supreme Court reverses the lower courts and affirms IEEPA tariffs, US firms may start passing the added costs to households. While the tariffs have so far had a modest effect on inflation, eventually consumers could see higher prices.”

The Supreme Court will decide in November 2025 if the Tariffs are even legal. We might have to refund all money to the payers. So Walmart is waiting to see if it gets its money back. Even badder(sic),  imagine if Trump sent out “rebate” checks to Americans he then had to ask them to return. Walmart pricing may rise drastically after the November Supreme Court ruling. Or we all get $2000 checks for Christmas. In the meantime, uncertainty and chaos, the operational mode of our current government.

I am not an economist or politician and researched this post at my own expense (Yes, humor.) If anyone knows the Tariff situation is any different than described in this post, please comment and correct. All I really know for sure is most people think foreign governments are making tariff payments to us, America. Wonder why they think that?

*Subsidies, and other financial “arrangements” (Kickbacks?) can complicate the situation even further, and make it impossible to follow the money.

Yes, Everybody Has An Opinion…Why? Is It A Law?

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It is a struggle to get through the day without hearing not just opinions, but so many people defending having an opinion. Is there a course taught in how to form an opinion? How to plant the seed, nurture, it, and watch it grow to its rightful form? No, there isn’t. People acquire opinions like appetizers and a lot of opinions are dying on the vines due to lack of enriching truth. Most opinions are worthless, is my opinion. Follow these samples of real (paraphrased) conversations and  substitute “liberal” for conservative” and “Democrat” for Republican” in almost all these encounters. Worthless opinions are equal opportunity and DEI friendly. IMO.

“Legacy Media doesn’t tell the truth.” Question: “When was the last time you watched Lagacy Media?” The answer: “I don’t.”  See the reverse for Fox?

“There were no wars in Trump’s first term. He ended them all.”  Question: “Which ones?” Answer: “I don’t know.” You may not realize it but this question works for the Obama and Biden Years. Remember, Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Bonus question: Why?

“The Covid virus came from a Chinese lab and Fauci is to blame.” Question: Why? Answer: “Fauci’s NIH paid for the research.” This one is tricky and you need to do your own digging, but in a nutshell: The US and China (and others) have collaborated on virus research for many years and the NIH sent a grant to a Non-Profit US research group to participate/monitor work in the Wuhan, China lab. Trump cut that funding in April 2020, as well as The PREDICT Program funding in September 2019. Google the purpose of PREDICT and draw your own conclusions, and opinions.

“Democrats only want immigrants to win elections” and “ICE is only arresting and deporting the worst of the worst.” Why would anyone believe either? The immigration problem is over 100 years old and been lied about by both parties for all those years. So when you search for an opinion about immigration, don’t select either of these. Think of it a complex issue needing much research.

“The Russian Issue in 2016 to 2020 was a hoax” and it’s partner: “Russia helped elect Trump.” Both these get the Jeopardy buzzer. 2016 was NOT the first time Russia attempted to influence American Elections. The cumulative effect of their interference, and if it helped Trump, will never be truly known, but it was real. America does the same thing, when we can. For years. So it was a trusty but ineffective device for impeachment in 2016-2020, but it was not a hoax. And will never be a hoax. Russia, China, North Korea, Hungary would love to see Americans question and abandon our free elections. It would be a victory for those countries. It’s not an opinion, but a question: Why are we helping them with that effort? Opinion: Donald Trump started the Period of National Doubt (PND) with his 2015-2026 claims the election would be rigged. He did it as a smart politician who knew he was going to lose the election and needed a good reason to save his political prospects. Smart move, but selfish. He did lose the popular vote so he carried PND over to 2020 and 2024. A decided win for him was not enough to disprove a lie he’d told for years, so…

The last opinions about opinions took too long. Election denying is a strange sport we should all be leery of. Some election deniers have since been elected by the very systems they said were rigged. None of them refused to accept the win. In my opinion, that says it all about election deniers.

The befuddled and buried point is don’t accept other’s words when you form your opinions. It is OK not to have one until you’re ready. Really. One of the favorite questions we should ask our opinion disseminaters/influencers is “Why?’ and “What’s in it for you?”

And then take the time to listen.

This may seem to be a political posting, but it is more about common sense. Think about it. Please.

Why I am So Cranky…Maybe

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In 2023 The Calamities forced me to contemplate moving from beautiful North Carolina and The UNC Medical Hospital System, to rural, upstate New York. The move was to make it easier for my NY family to deal with possible death or aid in a hoped-for recovery. A factor in the move was a YMCA with a pool for rehabilitation when all went well. The Upstate City I moved to was going to build a new one (opening in 2025) less than 200 hundred yards from the apartment complex chosen for my residence. Serendipity, right? Nope. Project was ended two weeks after I arrived due to lack of funding so I drive 3 miles to the old YMCA. Very old YMCA. But at least it’s there: glass half-full.

My morning swim starts at 5:30 at the YMCA. Some people work out on machines and some swim. During those painful, disabled, pre-surgery days, one of my co-conspirators was a young man who is frequently there the same time as me. We arrive, strip naked (for all you female readers), and get into our relevant workout attire.  He then goes into the shower room and turns on the water in the ADA* shower. (Unmarked ADA shower, another story. Grrr.) Then, he goes to work out.

He does this every morning I see him.

Is he turning the shower on for himself, me, or someone else? I assume he does it all the time unless he is very considerate and is helping me.  I go into the pool area and swim for 45 minutes. When I come out to shower, the hot water is still running in the still unmarked and empty ADA shower stall. Grrr, again.

After showering I shut off the water to dry and dress. The stage is set, so here is the scene one morning when the young man re-enters the locker room after his workout:

Young man (YM): “How’s the water?”

Me: “Which one?” (Pool or shower? But I know..)

YM: “The shower. Nice and warm?”

Me: “So you turn it on and leave it on.”

YM: “Yeah.”

Me: “You know how much water that wastes?”  (The YMCA has no catchment system.)

YM: “Not much, it’s only on about 10 minutes.”

Me: Nothing. I am not ready for a fight, need to at least get pants on. Or offer him my watch.

YM: “Besides, they don’t care about money. What do they do with it all?” He is gesturing around the dirty, worn out locker room.

Me: Again, nothing. Grrr.

YM: “This place is just as corrupt as the city.”

Me. “Yep, everything is corrupt. YMCA. City. Biden. Might as well kill ourselves.” (Imagine an extremely pissy tone, to match his MRPGM** vibe.)

YM: “I don’t really care. As long as I have enough to enjoy myself and my two trucks.”

He said the last line as if dropping the mic and repeated it as he passed me on his way out. “My two trucks.”

And…scene, and yes, he did not even use the shower.

It’s easy to think he was smart enough to be making a point. But the scene revealed an attitude prevalent in America, a variation of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) labeled GMGA for Got Mine Go Away. It is the mantra of the MAGA movement.

And it’s okay. GMGA has been around since caveman days.

But that is the point: we are no longer cavemen…and cavewomen. Back then it was about survival, LIFE survival. Now, it’s about STATUS survival. In caveman days you had to eliminate threats to your actual life. Now, MAGA wants to eliminate threats to their lifestyle. Trans, Gays, Illegals, Non-Whites, and specifically those not in sync with the MAGA groupthink…not welcome.

All this because of an encounter at a YMCA?

Yeah, Sounds bad. Petty. I may be wrong about the young man and wonder if I was the same way at his age, with cars and motorcycles. Was I MAGAn 50 years before MAGA?

But even if I was, it makes the point clearer: we should grow out of it. NIMBY and GMGA, both.

As my personal guru, the estimable Steven Wright says: “Experience is something you don’t get until right after you need it.”

*Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law July 26, 1990 by Republican George H.W. Bush, a war hero and all around good, conservative man.

**Modern Republican Party Grievance Machine. See old posts.

Things Learned In Old Age, Accidentally

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The faster drivers in my area are females. Since I committed to a 1.4 Litre engine to prevent NASCARRING (sic)*, most of the cars passing my new, used car as we putter along 10 miles over the speed limit are being driven by females. Is it sexist to think they were always careful, law-abiding drivers? Or did I only know careful, law-abiding females in my youth? Back then, this phrase was a constant mantra when driving with a female passenger: “Why are you in such a hurry?” Hm. Maybe my ascension to the heights of safe driving simply made me more aware. Or maybe there is less tint on windows these days, and the driver can actually be seen and not assumed. Don’t know and it suddenly became unimportant. I’m a safe driver, now, and anyone of any sex, color, religion, altered state of existence, or sexual preference can pass me without comment or digital salute.

At the first stop light on the four-lane out of Turning Stone resort this morning, there was a Dodge Charger with a rumbling motor in the front right lane and a quiet, but deadly looking Tesla in the front left. The light changed and both took off. I caught them at the next red light, the Dodge still rumbling and the Tesla still had nothing to add. The light changed and off they went, again. Since there wasn’t another light—or a random speed trap—for the next 20 miles, they were soon out of sight and forgotten. My small-block 1.4 liter never saw them again. Are you wondering who won? Also, no idea who or what was driving either. Damn tint. Think either might have been driver-less? Ai is a street racer? Or maybe two girls/women? All that is certain is neither was over 70 years old. There is an inverse relationship between the ability to properly handle horsepower and age, as noted in the first paragraph.

It’s the perfect season for Sports Nuts (SNs). If you are an SN you know what the problem is, and if you aren’t an SN you aren’t going to care but it’s tough to get a good night’s sleep. At an advanced age, proper rest and strategic breaks are important just to get through the daily 12-14 hours of watching sports without doing permanent damage to retinas, corneas, sclera, and pupils, as well as gray matter. The accidental calisthenics are okay unless there is a lot to cheer about in a short time. Again, a break is needed. Add to the mix sodium-laden snacks and the perfect reclining chair, and you may never hear from me again. Note: This is my last year rooting for the Yankees. The Mets have no expectations. Please, Yankees, just win one championship in my Medicare Years? **

My fitness center group is, uh, dwindling. One is out with a broken hip, another is out for spousal reasons, others are absent and I was nearly alone during this morning’s workout. It is similar to every time I made a new best friend in the past who then either moved away or died. It’s taken years to “therapy out” it’s not my fault, but if it walks like a duck.

*NASCARRING is when a young or foolish man gets behind the wheel of his car, is in no particular hurry, but still accepts the challenge of getting to the front of traffic. Yes, it gets confusing on major interstates with so much traffic, but that is/was the fun of it. It is also uniquely challenging in urban settings, unless there a lot of school buses.

** Upstate NY and the Buffalo Bills Football Team have a unique, doomed relationship. If you aren’t aware of Upstate NYers fervent support of this professional tease of a team, google it. The saying up here—which is tattooed on several Western New York bodies—is “Win One In My Lifetime.” Sad note, the baseball Yankees won a championship in every decade of their existence until the last one, 2010 to 2020. Approximately my years in the senior insurance program mentioned.

Things Learned While Aging

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Young people walk fast. I’ve looked all over Amazon but can’t find any rear-view glasses or personal turn signals to help stay out of their way. If you are in a hurry and someone old is holding you back from getting to your gym workout, there’s no way the person in front knows about the person in back, at least not yet*. As a young person, old people were often in my way or holding me up, making a 5-minute errand take 10 minutes. If I could go back in time…

Most people don’t have a sense of walking traffic patterns. It was more obvious when I was disabled but fellow pedestrians still walk directly at me, cut in front of me, and frequently simply stop in front of me. It’s not clear how much of that is caused by the subject of the preceding paragraph, but this might help readers: stay to the right, pass on the left, and don’t assume you’re the only person walking. The rear-view glasses might help, too, but old people’s brakes aren’t what they used to be, even when the old person can see you**, so think before you suddenly stop walking to do whatever it is you do when you suddenly stop walking. And if you’re walking right at me… why???

Change isn’t just a fact of life, it is personal. Newspapers were a great start to the day for over 50 years. Spread them out, let the open pages catch the toast crumbs, and scan the headlines for interesting news. Turn the page and start over. Spill your tea or coffee? Let the paper automatically clean up the mess. Then use the remainder for bird-cage lining, or package-protecting, or fly-swatting. And what has changed? Try to clip an article from your online “news aggregator” and place it in a scrapbook of your grandchild’s accomplishments. Or swat a fly. No one else has complained about this so it is assumed the demise of The Paper was directed at me. And so many old movies, too, where the father snaps open the morning paper for his coffee and enlightenment…why are these movies in MY streaming services?

Confirmation Bias is a real thing. Oxford Dictionary: “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs. Confirmation Bias sets in and we downgrade any suggestion our views are inaccurate.” As a lifetime contrarian and Devil’s Advocate***, old age has revealed the depths and efforts of existing beliefs to maintain their hold over the public. As a young man the point was to prick and irritate, especially established educational and political systems. Old age has made the process more focused, and getting others to see they may be wrong and others may be right has become an adventure. Gently chiding liberals, however, isn’t really productive. They are so polite they tend to absorb the message and you never know if they get the point or not. Conservatives have developed over time to be less inclined for spirited debate but super eager to label and name-call****. In the past they used to be great debaters and often friends, back in the day when they didn’t feel victimized and shunned.  Consequently, straddling the fence has become painful on the crotch area instead of invigorating to the head area. Important question: can Confirmation Bias become part of a belief system that doesn’t really believe in anything?

Modern product packaging is being designed by younger and younger people. Babies, even. My most recent trial is cooking instructions for pre-cooked breakfast sausage. First, they include every known method of preparation for eating except for an air fryer, which is my choice for cooking anything. The instructions for all those other devices are written in Spanish as well as English, which puts so much writing on the package it needs to be small. You know what that means. And they use red lettering on a black background. Modern packaging has forced me to carry not only reading glasses, but a magnifying glass, as well. And find a bright light source.

One last small one: because our metabolism slows as we age, tracking food intake is a good idea. So when I eat three small pork sausages, the nutrition label states: “70 calories per 28 grams.” If you understand the problem, you are at least halfway to being an old person.

The rest of you will find out later. If you’re lucky.

*Inventors? Please?

**We’re usually looking down, for obvious reasons.

***Ai it.

****Demoncrat. Libtard. Libs have almost caught up in the name calling, though.