Old #AtoZChallenge

Yes, I'm old.  According to some people, anyway.

I used to work for a man who is older than I am.  One of his favorite sayings was "age is only a number".  And, for myself and my husband, that number has a "six" in it.  And it isn't the second number.

As for that second number, we are reaching one of those milestones in growing old.

Remember when birthdays excited you?  Do you remember reaching 18?  21?  25?  

Then the fun really starts.  That first grey hair appears.  Your 40th birthday is an "over the hill" party with black napkins and plates.  Then, as you approach 50,  you start to get mailings from AARP. (For my readers not living in the United States, AARP used to stand for the "American Association of Retired Persons" but now is a membership organization for people of a "certain age" regardless of working status.)  Should you join, you get discounts on stuff, a great magazine, and other benefits for your yearly membership fee. 

And then, one day, you open your mailbox and out tumbles this.

This is the first page of a mailing from our health insurer.  It tumbled out of our box on Friday.

The brochure tells us we aren't the "old" kind of old.  We are the "new" kind of old. We are the old people who have blue motorcycle helmets and not blue-grey hair.  We have traded sensible "old person" shoes for jogging shoes.  We use computers.  We don't own rocking chairs.  We are strong, we are smart, and we are brimming with vitality, according to our health insurer.  We are also getting close to the age (remember that age is only a number?) where the government considers us to be....old.

 At 65, in these United States, you (well, most of us) become eligible for a government health care program called "Medicare". And health insurers can sell you supplemental insurance (to supplement the government program) or something called "Medicare Advantage", which is an alternative to Medicare.  (This, of course, is an oversimplified explanation).

For the first time, we are being solicited for supplenting what, in the United States, is the health insurance that people age 65 and over are eligible for.   It won't be the last time.  We know that too well.

Actually the mailing was survey - a short survey - for us to complete since we aren't at the eligible age - not quite yet, anyway.  "A salesperson may call", said a disclosure.

Yes, I bet one will.  And that's why I am not going to complete the survey.

Not yet, anyway.

Because, like it or not, we are close to being Old.  And, like that day we became eligible to join AARP, there are people rubbing their hands in glee, because there will be money to be made off of us.

Blue motorcycle helmets and all.

We who are Old look to the future, and wonder what crossing that Old threshold will mean for us.

"O" day for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.