"You Know
You're Getting Old When....."
* Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
* A fortune teller offers to read your face.
* Everything hurts; and what doesn't hurt, doesn't work.
* Your back goes out more than you do.
* You feel like the morning after when you haven't been anywhere the night before.
* You talk about "good grass" and you're referring to someone's lawn.
* Getting lucky means you find your car in the parking lot.
* Your children begin to look middle aged.
* Your idea of weight lifting is standing up.
* It takes twice as long to look half as good.
* You sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going.
* Your knees buckle and your belt won't.
* You and your teeth don't sleep together.
I have mentioned before that I live in a gray town. It's situated in a gray county. And it is getting grayer and grayer. And wrinklier. And older.
Senior takeover [article]
Among the census projections released by the University of Florida is this: By 2030, Highlands County will have 51,000 residents who are 65 or older.
That number is significant when you realize we currently have only about 100,000 residents today with an expected population of 151,000 by 2030. We aren't growing... except older... very much. We may even be losing some population. Probably the younger residents. Not much in the way of jobs here and the ones available do not pay well.
I don't worry about this. After all, I am not getting younger myself. I expect, as the years go by, that our main population increase will be those who are retiring. They will move here from up Nawth, looking for an inexpensive place to live out their years.
Some (about 40%) will be part-timers, "Snowbirds", who come down here in the winter and disappear in the spring. We like those folks. They are the ones who keep our restaurants and most other businesses alive. They come down, spend money, and then leave.
When I first moved down to Florida as a child, most of the smaller hotels and restaurants shut down in the summer. They just did not make enough money in the period between late spring and late fall to justify staying open. I see some of that here in what I call Paradise (and others call Sebring). My favorite restaurant is a steak house called Yanni's. He closes down around the end of July and reopens in mid September. Some just cut their hours, dropping the dinner meal, during the doldrums period.
Some of the things being done to accommodate the increasingly senior population are listed in the article above. I see no reason for them not having been done already.
Larger type on street signs
Larger stop signs (these are already in place)
Wider lane striping (we could use wider lanes, too)
I expect to see more handicapped parking spaces and they are expecting more and more golf carts so they are planning to create wider cart/bike lanes to accommodate them. An electric golf cart makes sense as a local transportation option. We don't have a transit system, no buses. That will come, I expect.
Florida really is "God's waiting room."
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