Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

Sorry for your loss pam234. Thanks for your comment.

I'll add my sympathy for your suffering as your folks slipped into dementia, Miss Hendren.  I think we can neither fully appreciate nor understand what you and your parents went through. Sad indeed.

Thanks Bob. I'm glad I will never have to go through a decade like that again. It wasn't all bad. My Dad kept his sense of humour and recognised me right to the end.

Thanks very much for all of the posts. I lost my Mom a couple of years back at age 88. We were lucky that her memory worked reasonably well until she passed away. She had to have open-heart surgery back in 1997 and was lucky to be blessed with another 18 years of life after that ordeal. Sorry to hear about your loss Pam.  

A cute item from Ogden Nash: " Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else. "  

Ogden Nash was a clever one.  I always remember his poem, a ditty called Reflections on Ice-breaking

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

Thanks for the post Fightingbob. 

Something from Isaac Asimov: " Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome ". Interesting thought  lol.   

This is one aphorism with which I take exception.

"Life is pleasant."  Really?  This reveals the American national character that is perpetually and irrationally optimistic, but the classics of American literature and drama reveal a more nuanced, darker truth.  Life can be pleasant but its pain is equally apparent as it is to the characters in an Arthur Miller play.  On the positive side, though life offers few epiphanies we know closeness through the common experience of life's painful moments.

Perhaps these observations are just my Scandinavian/German heritage talking.  Oh, wait, my Italian heritage just strolled in and it's saying "mangia, mangia ... eat ... enjoy ... life is good ... that's amore." (click here).

No matter how you view the vagaries of life, we can all agree the transition is troublesome.

Just one man's opinion in the early Monday morning hours.

well, that is interesting, fighter!

yes, life can certainly be unpleasant at times. my view is how we move forward. i don't mean to be debbie downer here, but i'm sure all of us have suffered loss. realizing it happens to everyone and that the world does not stop turning (oops! unless it's flat) is what we all go through. 

i have to admit, the transition is the only thing i wonder about. as in, i hope it doesn't hurt!

These days thanks to modern medicines and good pallitative care there is no reason why the transition should be painful. Death may well be peaceful but it is a total mystery to me!

Thanks for all of the new posts.

We realize that we are getting older when we watch reruns of " All In The Family " and we reluctantly start agreeing with Archie.

No,it's when you start talking like him.

What do you mean, meathead? 

Thanks for the posts.

Getting older is when you realize that you learned everything you needed to know from Captain Kangaroo.

Are you saying All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Pre-Kindergarten?  Sounds like a sequel coming on.

But seriously, I wonder how much we really change over time.  On my early report cards I received Excellents for Is Cooperative, Is Courteous, Works and Plays Well with Others but a big, fat Unsatisfactory for Finishes Work on Time.  No wonder I lost games on time when I played tournaments - too perfectionistic I've been told.

Ah, to have had a lifelong habit of finishing work at all... the last stages of any project always seem so boring.  Well, except for chess games.  The ones I'm winning, that is.

My problem is starting my work. I do like to procrastinate and can come up with all sorts of reasons as to why that job should not be started today!