Is it time?

Relying on friends and family to tell you when you've had enough is a bad idea. Specially the younger ones. At age 69, my four sons all treat me a bit like an old man. It is cute and I like it, but I do have to tell them to back off once in a while.

My dad died at age 91 and I did have to take his car keys away from him about a year before he passed away. I took his keys away when I was riding with him and he couldn't see far enough down intersecting highways to know whether there was FAST oncoming traffic.

Taking away his mobility like that probably put him in the grave several year early, but probably saved the life of a few other drivers.

I've asked my wife and kids to "keep me posted" on my behavior and to discuss with me anything that worries them. So far, they haven't mentioned anything. When they do, I'll seriously ponder it. There is nothing that looks so silly as an "old" guy with gold chains, jogging suit and a rug, driving a Miata.
 
potter water":169ik6of said:
I've asked my wife and kids to "keep me posted" on my behavior
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I'll share this with you just because you guys are my buddys and I know you won't tell anyone else. I always considered myself a good driver. I even drove an ambulance for a living for over a decade. Never got a ticket until about 10 years ago I get a speeding ticket. I don't resent the ticket so much but I hate the increase in insurance. Then, just as the three year penalty periiod was to expire, I get another one, out in the middle of nowhere near Craters of the Moon, Idaho. OK, so another three years go by and I'm pulled over for going 38 in a 30 mile zone. I am almost in tears. I open my wallet to take out my license and the cop sees my VA ID card. All he says is "Thank you for your service" and waves me on. Now, whenever my speed creeps up, Dotty says simply, "Thank you for your service". God I'd love to have a Miata.
 
Art, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP". We are your age, fortunately a little more mobile but it's creeping up on us, Sally a little ahead of me. We both need to walk more and keep moving. Hang in there!


Charlie
 
There are the too sides--the can I still do it from a mobility and pain standpoint--which was the initial question. Good solutions from the CBrat family, including offers of taking others on their boats!

The other questing is: "when is too impaired for safety"--is entirely different. We do often have to depend on others for that. I had to tell my dad when he was 76, that it was time to give up his sailboat. The reason was that he had a cardiac event on our boat, Marie and I attended to him (at that time we were both current advanced life support certified and had all that was needed on our boat to sustain him until we got him ashore). He would have been content to die sailing. However, although my mother had sailed for more than 50 years, she was completely worthless during this ordeal, and would not have been able to get help or handle the boat--and she would have also been in danger. My father passed on 5 years later. My mother was nearly totally blind, and we found out that she was calling my young teen aged children to take the bus to her house, so they could be her "eyes" as she drove to the stove….We had to point out that she could easily cause a very bad accident with this behavior, including the death of another person. (My mother continued to enjoy boating with us will into her 90's including 5 trips to Alaska, despite some physical limitations. So these are the types of incidents we have to listen to our family and friends.

(by the way, my friends do wear gold chains and drive small sports cars)---its Florida! No, I don't own any gold chains, and I gave up my sports cars in 1969….
 
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Art, saw this on facebook and just had to share it here!

When I first started posting to this thread I had hoped to encourage or cheer you up somehow, but a strange thing happened. Your calm acceptance gave me the hope that when my time comes there can be "life after boating" :smile Thank you for that Art.

Also a thread this thought provoking deserves the 25th post to get that little blinker so that hundreds of years from now when people are reading these posts in the archives that blinker will draw their attention so they will read this thread and realize that despite their superhuman feats the Cbrats actually were just human after all!! :lol:

Regards, Rob
 
Rob,
Thanks for your kind words.

Since the beginning of my new journey I have started physical therapy with positive results, between that and the medications that block the nerve responses. This journey will be slow, but it will go forward. I kid folks here by saying ,'l may not be the fastest turtle, but I'm moving.'

So far I have only listed SEA ANGEL on this site. If anyone steps up here they can have the remains on the storage time [till 1 Nov] at the marina.

Again, thank you Rob.

Art
 
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