Getting Too Old For This

Having spent the past couple of weeks in whirling dervish mode as we prepare to leave California for the pristine beauty of Lake Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, I have come to the conclusion that timing truly is everything.  In two or three more years my wife and I wouldn't be able to make a move of this magnitude.  It's just too tough.  What was once a part of our lives as radio gypsies now seems to be overwhelming.  Neither of us has been able to sleep much as we worry about all the little things that go into an interstate relocation.  How did we ever do it when the kids were little?!

This project has reminded me that maybe the most significant reason most of us are only allotted a maximum  eighty to one-hundred years on the planet is that is about all the change we can handle.  Change, increasingly at warp speed for us, becomes more difficult as our people odometer rolls up maximum numbers.  Whoa! Why can't things just hold still for awhile?  It's not only harder and harder to register all the technological change around us but emotionally the transformation of America's social mores seems more difficult to accept as we age.  Embracing my inner (and outer) grumpy old man grows easier every day.

Case in point:  Recently I read a report of a new survey of 2,000 people from  a dating website for singles that smacked me between the eyes with just how different our society is since my dating days in the 1960's.

According to the findings, single girls now wait until the fifth "date" (or whatever it's called today) before having sex.  Even more shocking--at least to a man of my years-- is what makes up their mind about sleeping with a guy.

Here is their list:  1. Two gifts or tokens of affection
                            2.  Five social media messages
                            3.  12 text conversations
                            4.  Five phone calls
                            5.  Three DVDs watched
                            6.  Seven passionate kisses
                            7.  Five heart-to-hearts or meaningful conversations
                            8.  Four meals together
                            9.  One bunch of flowers
That's it!  Really.

I honestly can't imagine what this list will look like in another fifty years.  All I know is I'm getting WAY too old for this stuff and am more grateful than ever that my wife has seen fit to put up with my   ever more irritating personality and painful inadequacies for the past forty plus years.

You see, in my day, boys and girls,  there was a tenth item on the list.  A wedding ring was part of the deal back then.  No token tally of social messages or DVDs in common, just plenty of passionate kisses and ring seemed to work just fine. Well, maybe flowers didn't hurt either.

As I said, I'm getting too old for this b.s., and I'm grateful.
Don't get me started on the designated hitter or political correctness either.