Celebrating Seniors

Today was the first day of my vacation. Woo Hoo!!! I traveled three hours to my parent's home to spend a few days with them and my sister and brother in law who flew in from Florida. Tomorrow my son, daughter and her family will join us for a couple of days. We are all gathered to celebrate my dad's birthday. The big 8-0!!!! 

I cannot believe my dad is that old since he is still as sharp as ever and worked up until last year. He would still be working in 2008 if the cost of fuel did not keep him close to home. (Daddy use to travel a territory as a sales rep and as recently as last year he had business contacts who asked him to rep their line.)

Daddy is not one to let grass grow under his feet. In fact, he still does much of the lawn work for the big corner lot surrounding the house where he and my mother live. He breaks it into two days' work but he is always pleased when he did not have to pay someone else to handle it. Mother always planted beds of flowers but this year they decided to put in new shrubs in place of the flowers. After the boxwoods were in, Mom could not stand it and bought a few pansies to go at the end of the front sidewalk as well. Old habits die hard.

My dad also enjoys his computer and continued to upgrade the equipment as recently as 2006, adding all the latest add ons like scanner, photo printer, etc, citing it as a business expense. As long as the CPU was black, Mother never noticed the difference. With his Internet connection to the world, Daddy loves to forward his share of jokes and political humor.  I see from his forwards that he is getting much of this fodder from other "seniors" who are also computer savvy. They are a politically vocal group. No wonder AARP is a force to be reckoned with!!!

Daddy sends his thoughts and admonitions to the local editorial section of the paper as well as various state and national politicians. To receive a response or see his letter in print is fuel to his conservative fire. No doubt he has given W a piece of his mind since Daddy is less than thrilled with many of Bush's actions. I am just pleased that Daddy can use the computer to express himself and lower his blood pressure. I wonder if he is on any lists?  If he finds out he is, I will expect to see him sport a lapel pin announcing his crimes of opinion!!

Dad has learned to verify stories with www.snopes,com which did wonders to reduce the amount of email I got from him. He still wants more speed on his system but we have him fully loaded as it is. My biggest challenge is trying to teach him something new over the phone. He typically feigns ignorance (or inability to clearly hear me on the phone) and says the only solution is for me to come see him and we'll have a computer lesson.

I think one of the best gifts I will give him for his birthday will be to defrag his system.  Donna to the rescue!!

 

 

 

Tags: Dad, Mom, birthday, Bush, opinions, politics

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