Rant #3,079: Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number

Good morning!

Get up, it is time to rise and shine!

It is Wednesday, the middle of the week on February 22, and it is time to get up out of bed and jump into the day!

I had to tell myself all of this earlier today, because quite frankly, I couldn’t get out of bed.

Here is how I have “progressed” since I lost my job going on four years ago—

I used to jump out of bed at 4 a.m., do what I had to do to get ready for work, write this Rant, and then go to work around 6 a.m. or so.

I had to wait for the doors to open—we had someone who pretty much lived there, which is another story for another time—and I would sit there waiting, and keep myself going by reading the newspaper and reading a book.

Once the doors opened between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., I was often the first one in, and I started my workday by getting everything I needed ready, going through my email to see if anything needed tending to, and by 9 a.m., I was really all set up for the day, which lasted, with a lunch break, at 5:30 p.m., when I would zip out of the office and drive home.

Now, I can barely get up at 6 a.m., and often sleep past that point.

Being retired—or being semi-retired in my case—is such a disincentive to rise and shine and to push oneself like I used to do.

So the question has arisen, in my mind at least, about whether I could reset myself and do it all over again like I used to.

In other words, could I go back to working a full-time job again?

The answer is very complicated.

I guess I could if I had the opportunity to do so, and as you know, I have applied for some positions, but I haven’t heard from anyone.

I guess I could reset myself if I had to … I mean, in spite of what the world thinks, being 65 years of age, and going on 66 in late April, doesn’t make me decrepit by any stretch of the imagination.

But there are so many other factors involved in this question.

How would my son get to work if I were to work full time again?

He does not drive, and quite frankly, I don’t know if he will ever be able to drive.

On Long Island, there are two separate bus services for the disabled. One services Nassau County the other Suffolk County, and the twain doesn’t meet at all.

In other words, since we live in Nassau County and my son works in Suffolk County, he would have to literally take two buses to work, as the Nassau County bus does not cross over the line into Suffolk County, and the Suffolk County bus does cross over the line into Nassau County but just barely.

So a 25-minute car trip would translate probably into at least an hour if he had to go by bus, and yes, you have to pay for this privilege, too.

It simply would not work, and I am happy to drive him back and forth, door to door.

And then we have my mother, who does have aides come in, but really at this point, needs as much care as she can get.

Not only do I provide some care when the aides are not here, but I also drive her to all of her medical appointments … and take it from me, when you are 91 going on 92 and have some dementia, you have plenty of doctors’ appointments.

And then, of course, there is the mindset, that of working full time, which you don’t realize that you have when you are actually in the midst of working an eight or nine or ten or more hours day … it is a mindset that I had for more than 40 years, but I just don’t know if I have it anymore.

Your retired years are supposed to be just that, but when you are forced to retire early like I was, it kind of messes up that mindset years before it is supposed to do so.

I honestly don’t know if I have the “get up and go” that I once had when it comes to working full time. I just don’t know if I could do it anymore.

I see in the news that Phil Regan, a former Major League pitcher and also a former pitching coach for the New York Mets, is suing the team and the team’s former general manager for age discrimination, claiming that he was fired from his pitching coach job with the team because of his age.

Regan claims that he was hired to fix a then-failing pitching staff in the middle of the 2019 season, when he was in his early 80s, did just that based on pitching statistics, and then was summarily fired after the season—he was told that he was too old for the job by the team’s GM.

If, in fact, what he says is found to be true by a court of law, then yes, the Mets did practice age discrimination, and Regan is due whatever money is coming to him.

Me, I know I have been a victim too, but go prove it.

And again, could I do it all over again?

I honestly don’t know … and until you walk in my shoes—God forbid you have to—you can’t possibly know if you could do it yourself.