Random Senior Moments

For the past 24 hours our living room looks like a hot rock full of beached seals.  Everyone is wrapped in blankets, sprawled out on the sofas, doing as little as physically possible as we all recover from whatever viral malady invaded our house.  Now that hubby and his sisters are all nearing/at 70 years old, there has been a lot of discussion about senior citizen stuff that many people wouldn't think about.  In the interest of taking care of yourself into your old age--financially and otherwise--here are some of the topics we have been discussing...

• We need a single story house.  Watching the SILs go up and down the stairs is painful for them (they both have mobility issues) and painful to watch.
• One of the SILs forgot her cane at home so we were able to find one at the Goodwill for $2 (and they had lots of other stuff for the elderly there too at what I'm guessing are huge discounts compared to buying the stuff at retail).
• Everyone is forgetful.  This ranges from the funny "where are my glasses??" "they're on your head!" to the serious "did I already take my pills?" to the "I can't find my ___" which sends everyone into a frenzy looking for the lost item.  If you forget where your cell charger is, it isn't a huge deal.  If you overdose on your meds because you can't remember if you took them it can be deadly!  
• Something must trigger the scammers when a person hits 65.  I noticed a huge uptick in scam calls when hubby hit this age and both SILs said they had received numerous scam calls (one was on the phone with the "IRS" for an hour but hung up when the person said they would stay on the phone with her while she drove to Walmart to send them money!?!).  Our solution is to never answer our phones if we don't know who is calling.  We let these calls go to voice mail and can evaluate the calls if a message is left (this rarely happens).  If you do get a call from any "official" place like the IRS, your bank, or the power company, hang up and call them back (look up their number online, don't call the number they may give you) and ask them if they have tried to contact you.  More likely than not, it was a scammer calling you since all legit agencies will send you official information by mail and not via a phone call.
• The SILs went shopping a few days ago and both came back with some sort of cell phone package (headphones, cell charging case) which they bought at a kiosk at the local tourist mall which cost them $300 each.  OMG I wanted to bang my head against the wall.  These places are scammy!  If you can't return an item (there was a no return policy they said) and if the item is ridiculously overpriced (I couldn't have bought the same stuff for under $100) IT IS A SCAM.  "But they looked up the item online and showed me I was getting a great deal!" one SIL said.  I showed her how I could make a website in under 10 minutes with items listed for any price I wanted to put there.  Ayayay.  If you know you need an item like a cell charger, buy it from your phone's manufacturer which offers a warranty and a good return policy.  If you want a specific brand name item and you are tech savvy, go ahead and buy it on sale from legit resellers (Best Buy, for example).  It's infuriating that the most vulnerable people--the elderly--are such a huge target for scammers!

Overall we are having a grand ole amusing time even if we have gone through a record amount of Kleenex and fortunately we are all on the mend and hopefully this viral mess will be over soon (and hopefully people who scam old people will die a horrible fiery death!  It's infuriating that the most vulnerable people--the elderly--are such a huge target for scammers!).