Late Friday afternoon I went for a walk. As usual I was ruminating about something and not paying much attention to anything around me. It was getting towards dusk. Out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like large, dark Halloween ghouls on someone’s side lawn. I did a double take and realized they were moving. There were maybe a dozen of these huge birds – wild turkeys. They saw me watching them and sauntered away under the trees. But not very fast. Hey guys, don’t you know Thanksgiving is coming? Run!

(Note: I didn't have my camera with me; these turkeys were photographed in Michigan by Bill Diller. The ones I saw looked pretty similar. See also the USGS site for identifying wild turkeys.)

10:21:12 PM      trackback [] 

Aging and dating, gracefully

In today's NY Times Magazine, screenwriter Nancy Meyers talks about her latest movie, “Something’s Gotta Give.” I’ve seen the trailers – it has Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves. Nicholson plays a man who has an affair with Keaton’s daughter, has a heart attack, and ends up falling for Keaton. He’s one of those guys who routinely dates younger woman (a real stretch for Nicholson I’m sure) and wouldn’t normally look twice at a woman his age (she’s 55). But Keanu Reeves also falls for her. Then again, this is a movie.

Over here in real life, I’m doing the internet dating thing. My profile gives the range I’ll date as 39-54 (I’m 45). I’ve recently had responses from men 58 and 63. Their ranges are up to 5 or even 10 years younger than them. I also heard from one who said he was 35; when I responded that he was a bit young for me (he also seemed immature), he emailed back that he was really 46 but looked and felt a lot younger! All the older men say that they look and feel much younger – and I’m sure they do. So do I!

I’m willing to date somewhat older. Why aren’t they? I guess 10 years older than 63 would start to put the woman in the geriatric realm. But why not their own age? When I’m the age they are now, they’ll be geriatric, but that’s not supposed to bother me?

People don’t always look or act their age. I’ve dated men my age who were old farts and I have much older friends who look and act 10 years younger. If I happened to fall in love with someone much older than me, I wouldn’t turn away true love. But ideally I want someone my age, so we can grow old together.

At the end of the Times article, Meyer (who is 53) says that coincidentally with the movie, she has male friends who’ve started dating women their age. She says “it's nothing like they have ever felt -- something about it is pretty great. It's probably very relaxing for them to not have to be 35 in bed when they are 55, you know?”

9:02:28 PM      trackback []