Using the Age Card

When I hit eighty years old, I hated that I was that old. It was as if a door had opened and I  now would live in another world. It seems that after celebrating my birthday I began to feel more aches, pains, loss of memory, sleepless nights and falling asleep in front of the television. These things may have been going on before I hit eighty but they seemed more pronounced, or I noticed them more, now that I had joined the eighties group. And there were plenty of eighty year old people surrounding me.

Because I am told, and I agree, I do not look like an eighty year old woman. (Neither do my friends look their age!) Today, for the first time, I played the age card. I am in the process of getting a new refrigerator and needed to have my water turned off to disconnect the ice maker on my refrigerator. For the first time I wish I looked like a little old lady instead of how I look. Pity is what I am looking for because a plumber would charge me$65-125 just to come to the house. I called the Arvada Water Department and asked for their help and casually mentioned I was eighty years old.

Even though I am eighty, I enjoyed looking at the handsome young man that came to my rescue. Not only did he look good but he was extremely nice and helpful. He checked and let me know that the Water Department doesn't usually do the capping of the water line for the refrigerator. I do not use ice and the ice-maker is constantly working and I am constantly throwing out lots of ice. The new refrigerator will not have an ice-maker so I needed the line capped. His suggestion was to call a plumber.

I called a plumbing company that happens to be in Littleton and another young man showed up. He did the work in about ten minutes and charged me $100. I said, "Do you have a senior's rate or triple A discounts." He said he did and deducted ten dollars. Well, maybe my age helps a little bit!