My dad had to stop driving before he passed a few years ago at the age of 96. That was very difficult for him, because he loved to drive.He couldn't believe they wouldn't renew his license.

I lost about 12+ months of driving, in rehab, once. That was so frustrating that I don't like to contemplate a repeat at whatever age. Ha, I hope to be carving turns on the track at 91! Yeah, I know, dream on ... I wonder if Spring Fling will still be at a place to drive the S to.

 

A nice thought!

 

I'm pretty close to R Murphy's view on this. I'm happy to stick around as long as I can do all the things i love to do. but when I can't.... I know it is easy to say this at a time that I am still able to do everything. Perhaps my view will change as I get older ans start losing some abilities. My plan is to try to stay very active and increase my chances of going suddenly from some major organ just failing all at once rather than the slow death of a thousand cuts. But men plan and God laughs.

 

Yep, I totally agree. I watched my dad lose his abilities one at a time. It was tough. He was horribly depressed at first, but seemed to develop a sense of resignation later. I often wonder if he welcomed his fate and had decided it was time to let go.

 

I am a digital engineer. We focus on the world of ones and zeroes. It's on or it's off.
I dread this not so graceful degradation I see coming. Hell, I get annoyed at my deficiencies now.

The problem is, as the mental faculties go away, so does your ability to recognize it.
I've thought lately I want to have a little quiz/tester machine.
Every morning you take the same dexterity and mental acuity test.
Fail ten days in a row and _*poof*_ auto-termination.
Of course in my case I'd probably screw up a counter or something.....

 

I could become depressed about the things I did with ease some time ago and now, not so much. I try to focus on how much I can do rather than what I no longer feel up to doing. Day before yesterday I was proud of myself for going up into the attics and performing routine cleaning maintenance on the heat pump drains. I do not have any female friends who would do such a thing, but I figure why not? I see no point in paying $75 per heat pump when I can do it easily. I do a lot of things that few of my friends do or would think of doing so why worry about the fact that I no longer can lift and position a new commode when I need one? I'll just call a young plumber.