{"id":6462,"date":"2014-09-14T22:34:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T22:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=6462"},"modified":"2014-09-14T22:34:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T22:34:01","slug":"the-older-i-get-the-more-i-sound-like-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=6462","title":{"rendered":"The older I get, the more I sound like Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I keep opening my mouth and my mother keeps coming out.”<\/p>\n

I saw that saying once and laughed when I heard it. I never thought I’d be living<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

What do I mean? Well, my father had this habit of adding years to his life. It seems that whenever he celebrated a birthday he would start referencing his next<\/em> birthday whenever the question of his age came up. The next-year reference wouldn’t start on the day of his birthday, but it would commence about a week or two, maybe a month later.<\/p>\n

I’m not making this up.<\/p>\n

Dad died just a bit past his 59th birthday, on Sept. 7, 1980.<\/p>\n

I’ve since gone a good bit past that point in my own life. I’m 64, about to turn 65.<\/p>\n

And what I’ve discovered myself doing is referencing my<\/em> next birthday.<\/p>\n

I don’t say that I’m 65. Instead, I usually say, “I am going to be 65 in December.” I’ve been saying that since, oh, this past June.<\/p>\n

Why am I sounding a bit like my father? It might have something to do with the anticipation I’m feeling toward retirement.<\/p>\n

I become eligible for Medicare benefits when I turn 65. I’ll start collecting a small pension from a previous employer effective on my 65th birthday. I’ll become fully vested in Social Security when I turn 66, so that date is looming quite large as well.<\/p>\n

As for Medicare, I learned some time ago that my Veteran Administration health care enrollment makes it unnecessary for me to sign up for any of the supplemental coverage that Medicare offers — and I had that notion reaffirmed by a friend of mine who works extensively with elderly medical patients.<\/p>\n

It’s not a bad thing that I’m sounding more like my father. He was a good man with a fairly compelling and outsized personality.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I should take some advice that my mother offered many years ago. I’d say “I can’t wait” for something to happen, or “I wish it was the weekend.”<\/p>\n

Her response: Don’t wish your life away.<\/p>\n

The older I get and the closer I get to retirement, Mom’s advice is coming in loud and clear.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement. “I keep opening my mouth and my mother keeps coming out.” I saw that saying once and laughed when I heard it. I never thought I’d be living it. What do I mean? Well, my father had this habit of … Continue reading The older I get, the more I sound like Dad<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2989,3920,4301],"class_list":["post-6462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-medicare","tag-retirement","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}