O-L-D Doesn't Spell Stupid

 How many times must I, someone old having a younger human approach me as though I am a child? Maybe older persons use the infamous walker, a wheel chair or a cane but, hey, it's a tool, not a bandage. Hearty football or hockey players use the same gear with an injury so let's stop looking down on any tools that work for pain.  Please. Also, because old people forget at times, remember that everyone forgets, not just the elderly. And even if there are lots of memory glitches, don't forget that when you have spent a lifetime collecting memories, it takes a bit of time to search out the shelf of long info that lives way down in the stacks of time. Being bent is lovely in oak trees but it seems that when someone of an age is bent or brittle, it's an object of  pity. Not so, old spines do it. It's natural.  For we brittles, it's all in a day's work. We get used to the aches and pains and when a few of us can dwell on nothing but those nasty matters, it's because it's a pretty big load to carry in a world that moves fast and furiously and expects everyone in it to do the same. We use computers and cell phones when we need them. They aren't as important as they are to the students and workers, that's all. The older parts of the population have developed patience with fools who persist in cooing at them or reaching out with faces only a baby could love. If they need your help, they'll ask. But if you want to help, ask in a voice that isn't baby talk. We who are well educated and experienced, know the language and prefer to speak it and be spoken to as one adult to another rather than as though we are mentally incapacitated. We humans, understandably are brainwashed into thinking it's the way, but it's a silly sort of thing both to babies and with the elderly. Babies might love it, but we don't. Skip the coo and use the "who" with those who are much more aware of life and its offerings than those born a decade or more previously. Dont assume. Use your grown-up voice. We get it. Just saying. 

Credit Card Bill

 Credit Card Bill rode into town and I don't like his horse. No, really. I am speaking of credit card billing that has changed drastically. One day I look at my online credit card balance and pay it. Off. The next day, I see, mysteriously, maybe five hundred dollars as a balance. I panic. I look at all the entries and they don't add up to five hundred dollars. I call the credit card company thinking I have been scammed. They assure me, I have not, but...   And the "but" is always something that works for their company but not the one under my roof. They tell me that those are pre-authorized amounts that I agreed to with other companies I use. But, I say to the real voice at the other end of the line, these bills are not due yet. They aren't due for one or two weeks. Ah, says the voice, we are doing it as a convenience so that you can anticipate what you WILL owe when the bill becomes due. I wonder, does this mean for their convenience or mine? It turns out, for theirs. If I pay early, they get the money and collect the interest. Ah ha! The large amount that shows as balance isn't real. It is listed in another column a click away that tells me what I have arranged with some of my service companies and it is called "pre-authorized payments". Of course, say I, that's because I want to make sure they are paid on the date their bills are due. The voice answers, yes, and I answer back, but you list them as  my balance due when the bill is not due for another two weeks. What is that? I don't want it to show as owing until it is owed. The voice and I are getting nowhere so I say thanks ( I think) and hang up. It seems to me that a credit card company is there to offer me credit when  bill is owed and then I see the amount and I pay it. That's what used to be "credit". You saw what you needed to pay and you paid it. Credit Card Bill waves and calls out waving his Stetson,  the way we do it now, And he rides out of town into the sunset on his pinto roan.