For those of us who are getting old.

I have walked behind Cicerone Imposter at a traffic signal, whom I liked, sometimes quickly followed by Thomas (I miss Thomas), and then Walter, romping with his to the max camera, which I understand. I was, back then, a woman with mild disabilty at the time. As in having an iffy sense of balance.

None of them had any clue of considering how I would make it to the restaurant.
Hmm, I was a tad chubby then.

I want to ask you about that, but I don't want to interfere.

Your problem may have no connection. with mine.

I want to ask you questions.

I had a totally different, positive, experience at Disneyland. It's the first time our older son asked to go to the restroom to pee.
Worked out well.

Life was so much simpler then.

Though the fact there isn't a restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney World like there is at Disneyland. I was very put out!

The second thing was that I could buy cigars and alcohol in the lobby of the Disney hotel we were staying at. It kinda surprised me.

Also how really good the real restaurants on the rest of the property were and reasonably priced, I thought.

I'm hoping this was a long, long time ago.

Very long time ago; our son is now 52 years old.

I suddenly find a small perverse pleasure in addressing someone as "young man / young woman" if they are 50 or less...

I like to address people my age (70+) the same way.

I tried to find a poster with this really nice story on it about an old retired couple enjoying life, but I've misplaced it. I recall the story well enough to tell it, though it may be a wee bit paraphrased:

~~~~~

Being retired means being able to spend more time together as a couple, and doing the little things that make a day more pleasant. One of the things I love to do is to take my wife out shopping on Wednesdays. The other day, we went downtown to visit a new shop, and when we came out loaded with boxes and bags, ready to go home, there was a policeman writing out a parking violation ticket.

“Aw, c’mon man, why can’t you just give a guy a break?” I said. He just shrugged and finished writing, then slapped the ticket on the car.

“Are you blue-suits just big bullies?” said my wife. The officer looked at her, then examined the car more closely, and began writing out another ticket.

“You know, dear, he’s acting without thinking. Maybe he has a ticket quota he’s trying to reach, so he’s picking on the first opportunity to come along”, I said. The officer looked a little perturbed and began writing out yet another ticket.

My wife said “Well, I think he’s just being an a** about it. We all know that kind.”

The officer turned a bit red in the face and continued writing as we verbalized our feelings, standing there loaded down with the day’s purchases, watching him slap ticket after ticket on the car’s windshield.

Well, he had written out about a dozen tickets and we were about to launch into more abuse, but just then our bus arrived and we got on to go home.

Yep - it’s the little things that make retired life so sweet...

Thank you for me good laugh for today. Bless you!

My wife and I love to go for walks in our retirement. I like to walk in 'new' environments, so we went to Hillsdale Shopping Mall in San Mateo to do our walking yesterday. The day before, we went south to Morgan Hill and walked, had lunch, and came home. This morning, we walked at Central Park in Santa Clara, our neighboring town.

Talked to my sister this morning (cell phone) to talk about our trip to Hawaii in January. She said we can go in October/November if we wanted to, because her son will be out of town. He's a member of doctors without borders, and travels to third world countries to train other doctors in critical care.

After all these years, I still love to travel. My wife hates it, because of the airport and long flights.

I still want to travel as long as I'm able to be independently mobile.

I hate flying but we travel just fine without it.

As I've gotten older I don't feel the need to leave the US except for Canada. Driving or an organized bus tour is an easy way to go.

My wife and I are considering a bus tour to Yosemite next month. We got flyers from the senior center in our town, and they offer trips to Reno/Vegas, but I'm not much into gambling. The glitz and shows in Vegas should be fun, but I'm not willing to go there during the hottest months of the year.

Those bus trips to Vegas and Reno used to be great back in the day, but now they make you stay in the sponsoring casino for 4 or 6 hours before you can go elsewhere. We used to take the free chips and cash them in and walk out. I never "got" gambling past a friendly bet or a penny ante card game in someone's kitchen.

When I worked for Florsheim, and we lived in Naperville, a bunch of us used to get together for some friendly card games. One guy always lost about $200, while most of us came out with a few bucks. I don't remember the limits, because that was back in the early sixties.
One good thing was that I later learned that Naperville was rated the number 1 city in the US. We chose Naperville, because a friend who worked at Florsheim as a Supervisor advised me to buy our home there because of the good schools. We had a beautiful brick and cedar home built there. Our second and last new home during our marriage.
Our home in Sunnyvale was built in 1955, but we've had it renovated from top to bottom including the interior. We paid $52,000 in the mid 70s, but it's now worth about $1.7 million. Apple is building Campus 2 (to house 12000 workers) not one mile from where we live, so the demand for housing will increase.
The first two pictures on the link is not accurate. The size of the space ship building is over one block.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/apple/apple-spaceship-campus-facts-pictures-video-info-video-3489704/
However, we love it here, and have no plans to move.

I lived in Hinsdale for a long while. The wrong side of I-55, the south side. The schools were shared by Hinsdale and Burr Ridge (where half the White Sox lived), the schools were really good. In our enclave were people from every country imaginable "doing research" at Argonne National Laboratories.

The schools were really, really good. The kids were serious.Good times.

Schools makes a big difference. Our kids went to good schools, and when our son graduated from Cal State Hayward (my alma mater), he graduated summa cum laude. Masters from the University of Texas in Austin with honors. Our younger son graduated cum laude.

I dearly love Yosemite, but I haven't been there for many years now.
First love was one of the early climbers of El Capitan. I still have the book he gave me on Yosemite, and the wood carving he made for me of El Capitan, with a poem penciled on a removable page.
Later I went with girlfriends to ski and hike there (I am a terrible skier).
Later I went with another friend as she had not seen it.
Later I went with a guy I was crazy about and he thought I needed to get in better shape (I didn't know it, but my balance was off even back then, no eye diagnoses yet). Hard to run or leap downslope on boulders...
On the other hand, it still was a great trip, including later in San Francisco.

I question going in August, but having not been there, at least for years, at that time, I don't know that I'm right.
You'll be in a group, right?

Both my daughters graduated Summa Cum Laude, one from St Edwards In Austin and the other from Texas A&M.

When our kids were young, we were partners with three others on a condo at Incline Village near Lake Tahoe. We used to go year round, and skied during the winter, and enjoying the lake during the summers. As our kids got older, they no longer wanted to go, so I sold my share. Kinda wish we still had that place. It was a good getaway, and it had three bedrooms and a fire place. The back overlooked a golf course, and the front was a parking lot for those in the adjoining homes.
We still go to Honolulu, Hawaii, because my nephew lives just a block away from the beach. His condo has two bedrooms, so we visit when my sister and her husband are there. We're planning to go in January.

I went to Vegas with a girl group in my twenties (a birthday thing) and spent only a quarter at the slots. (I had been there as a teen with my father and his crew and watched him win a lot and lose a lot, money we could have used back then.)

I went later with my husband on a desert trip, and spent my time photographing the night outdoor scene. Better than the slots.