Retired and Restless

Delayed Gratification Must Have Limits Too

I know how each generation thinks the kids of today’s generation have too much, don’t appreciate hard work, need to learn patience, only understand instant gratification, etc., etc., etc…

I have a history of delayed gratification and I’m tired of it. Fed up.  I am now 61 years old.  When do I get an espresso machine that I have been wanting for about twenty years?  How much longer do I have to wait?  What am I waiting for?  Who controls what I get to have now and what I have to wait for?

Pre-teens may need to learn to wait for cell phones, pets, bicycles, cd players and televisions;

Teenagers may need to learn to wait for cars,  jobs, money, iPods, laptops, sex, etc.

But what does a senior citizen have to wait for? Osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, the nursing home, the walker, the wheelchair, Death?

I think we should enjoy our remaining years by purchasing or experiencing those things that, for some reason, we have been putting off until “some day.”  By golly, “some day” has arrived!  Now is the time to get with the program.  Those dollars that are stashed away can bring some measure of comfort and some degree of fun while we are still able to enjoy it.

And the espresso machine will not deprive my offspring any of their inheritance.   Off to the mall I go!

Just Wishin’ and Hopin’ and Prayin’

Almost Christmas.  Some things to wish and hope and pray for:

A little more tolerance, a little more charity, a little more compassion.
A little less greed, a little less envy, a little less anger.

More peace signs, fewer acts of violence.
More gifting, less crime.

More jobs, less unemployment.
More abundance, less hunger.

Less lambast, less politics, fewer speeches.

More democracy, less dictatorship.

More cooperation, less confrontation

Less of the spirit of Santa.
More of the spirit of Christ.

More relaxation, restfulness, mindfulness and meditation.
Less stress.

Many happy moments with the family,
Fewer family arguments.

Any miracle at all.

Safety for our loved ones who will travel or who will be drinking and driving.

No More Short Shorts!

I look forward to the end of summer when I no longer stand out as the only guy wearing long pants at a picnic.  Shorts are like swim trunks to me; something to be worn at the beach.

Why do Men wear “Shorts” anyway?   This is a girly thing.  Oh, it’s okay for little boys, but once you grow up, PUT ON A PAIR OF PANTS!  What is so cool about wearing shorts, anyway?

Cool?  Do shorts really make anyone cool to look at?  Men, that is.   I think they look really dorky, and no look in recent memory has been “dorkier” than the long baggy things men and teenage boys are wearing these days.

I swear the funniest thing I EVER saw, shorts-wise, was a 250 pound, WAAYYY overweight 70-year-old City Councilman with a big belly and butt, and the “skinniest” little sticks for legs, just sticking out the bottom of the biggest, longest pair of baggy short’s you could imagine.

Well, if I weren’t against shorts for men before, THAT sight would have convinced me that no way would I ever embarrass myself by appearing in public like that.

  Perhaps (and that’s a big maybe) the only dorkier thing than the long baggy look is the short-short.  Even the shorts developed for athletes who ride bicycles for a living can look really dorky if they are the wrong color.  Witness the “oh-oh” selection of red biking shorts.

Movies for Mature Folks sounds like a pretty dull subject.

There aren’t very many movies made for people with brains over the age of 14. (At the bottom of this post are 2008 Movies for Grownups.)

I can’t figure out the fascination with Animation.   It must be a youth and gaming thing.  Animated movies hold absolutely no attraction for me.  I have seen some…it is almost impossible to avoid them if you have young grandchildren over to visit.   They LOVE them!  It’s like watching cartoons for them, plus there is adult humor that they can try to figure out.

Perhaps Disney can be credited with this phenomenon.  Disney always made movies for kids who have kids for parents.  They made movies with real people but the stories were almost cartoonish; then he developed the full-length feature cartoon.

On television, we saw the Simpson’s become a hit.  This was originally just a little “filler” bit on Saturday Night Live.  The adult humor–well, I will re-phrase that.  It is actually 14-year-old boy humor. Anyway, this form of entertainment expanded into the evening primetime hours on television, and the Simpson’s success spawned other “copy-cat” shows, each one trying to “out-gross” the other with their own version of 14-year-old boy humor.  I kept expecting the entire genre to self-destruct, but so far the audience for bad taste has exceeded my expectations.

I did see Shrek.  Then I heard people talking about how great Eddie Murphy was in Shrek.  I say, “Eddie Murphy didn’t act in Shrek!  It was his voice!  It was a cartoon!!” Ridiculous.

2008 Movies for Grownups (from AARP.org) Here are three of my favorites:

The Savages (About caring for an aging parent with dementia. Savage is the family’s surname. Stars Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.)
The Kite Runner (Story of Afghanistan was a huge bestseller of a novel)

Atonement  (World War Two setting, the British at Dunkirk.  Stars Keira Knightley)