A friend emailed me one of those "maps that makes you think". It purported to show which states were most favorable for "active seniors". It listed the average age for each state that seniors remained "active".
It looked to me like they took the median life expectancy and subtracted ten years from that number, but it got me to thinking, "How would you measure that? Is there a standard for what defines an active-adult?"
It turns out that Occupational Therapists and people who study senior citizens do have a measure and it has little to do with how physically fit you are.
The Basic Activities of Daily Living
- The ability to move yourself from one location to the next (usually in your home) as you go about your daily routine
- Personal hygiene, brushing your teeth
- Showering and bathing (which combines novel movements and slippery surfaces with hygiene
- Toileting and cleaning up afterward
- Dressing, including selecting appropriate clothing for the day
- Self-feeding
Instrumental/Intellectual Activities of Daily Living
- Housekeeping, laundry, and other home chores
- Money management
- Meal Preparation
- Moving or changing residents
- Managing your medications (including arranging doctor visits)
- Using the telephone or computer to communicate and get information
A sad reality
It is a sad reality that many people feel righteous in ripping-off old people.
If they bother to rationalize their actions, they say that the only reason an old person can afford something is because "they exploited others" during their working years.
A million years ago, an older people had no problems finding a neighborhood "kid" to mow the grass with a push mower, rake the leaves, shovel the snow or clean the gutters on the roof.
Now you have to hire a business to do those chores on an annual basis. They show up driving $50k trucks and pulling another $15k in high-speed equipment. The only way they will do anything extra (like not mow down your prize peonies) is if you pay the EXTRA money.
And the entire "money management" issue has become a goat-festival. We are being pushed into "Apps" that come and go at a bewildering rate. We get messages "We discontinued this app here at the Doctors office and you have to sign up for this new one".
Oh, and data breaches happen daily. So how do we discern if the message is real or bogus?
It is no longer safe to put checks (in envelops) into your mailbox for the mailman to pick up. Scammers pull outgoing mail and "wash" the checks to create a signed but otherwise-blank-check on YOUR account. Note: Uniball 207 pens are more resistant to "washing" than most other pens.
At least the thief has to put some effort into stealing your money when you use paper checks. He can't do it from the other side of the globe with the push of a mouse-button.
And don't get me started on inflation and the heat-death of Social Security.
Yes, modern technology has advantages. Ride-share apps are a life-saver for my blind sister-in-law. Home delivery of groceries can take the sting out of the inevitable restrictions on driving.
It doesn't mean that I have to like it.
I have a BIL who has a side gig doing yardwork in San Antonio Texas. Located low enough so that landscaping is a 12 month job (i.e. no - little snowfall). His vehicle hauling around is early 2000's mid size truck hauling said trailer which does have commercial grade tools. He tells me that these tools rarely fail so that his work is not only expedited, he spends less on yearly maintenance. The speed increase gives him at least three more jobs in full day, so at least $200 increase in pay. So in long run - the tools do pay off. He is a school teacher but does this business during weekends and occasionally a job or two during weekdays for favored customers. Urban - suburban, so the lots are city lots and in truth, the land owner could do it themselves.
ReplyDeleteBut they make enough $$$ now, so that time is spent in the gym ... :^)
You highlight a far greater problem in our society than most people acknowledge. I've noticed it, too, as I do some handyman type stuff from time to time. Jobs high-school kids used to do for cheap, are not hired hands run through app's like TaskRabbit.
ReplyDeleteI think a portion of it is The States eternal desire for control and information. People still _do_ that sorta thing, but it's a managed service now (there's a company running it, w/ employee's and a skim from the services). That seems to be the usual process. Middle-men come in and take their cut to 'make it work better', or 'safer' is a good one to use.
It's reflective of the bigger problems in our society - nobody does anything anymore, but we have 10-million managers and paper-pushers meeting compliance requirements.
Yeah, but who knows what Righty-tighty-lefty-loosey means?
I’ve been told by some people that we are ‘active’, even though I feel d!#*m slow these days. Cooking, clean up, mowing, shoveling, gardening, riding the 4 wheeler, etc. I’ve heard tales that people who stop and sit and do nothing, die sooner.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could get help for the winter. A couple of neighbors plow, but I’d like someone to rake roofs, maybe shovel and run the snowblower. My husband still has to run the tractor to clean up snowbanks and the big snowblower to widen the road. He’s a little too fussy about it.
Southern NH
Another big problem is the fragmentation of the family. I remember as a young man, my friends would do things for their elderly relatives because that's what family did. Not so much anymore. Gone are the days when people grew up and remained close to their family. Now people go off to college, get a career track job across the country and only come home every other Christmas. We're not only a physically distance culture, we're an emotionally and socially distant culture. In the seventies, my brothers would come home on leave and the while family would get in the car or truck and go to the airport to pick him up. I got to skip school with my parents blessing. And the school never said anything about it. Now our society is fragmented and falling apart. But history is cyclical. The survivors of these interesting times will relearn what our ancestors knew. They'll relearn it the hard way, but they'll learn or die.
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