First Quarter 2011--Service Requests from Villagers

With this column, we are launching a new quarterly report of services requested by our Villagers. We aim to keep you informed about the many services available to our members. We also want to invite your input for services we might add as well as for service providers you may recommend as positive additions to our nearly 100 approved Village providers.

Recommendations are always welcome; just call the office at 415-387-1375 or drop us an email at info@sfvillage.org.

Village Service Requests Report

Over the first three months of this year, the majority of requests the office received largely fell into into three categories:

** Computer Assistance. This was by far the most frequent request and Villagers got help from our generous and knowledgeable volunteers as well as from Village-approved service providers. 

**Home Safety.  This was the next most popular request, and we are happy to report that Villagers who asked received a home safety evaluation, which usually resulted in the installation of grab bars. Villagers reported satisfaction with the work done and its cost effectiveness. 

**Transportation.  Villagers traveled around the City, to and from appointments and events, either using our public transit system or our approved transportation service providers at a reasonable cost.

What Do You Do for Healthy Living?

B's Beef: Fooling Mother Nature

I confess: well into my middle years I remained in total denial of the aging process. It helped that I didn't have my children until my forties and that I jogged, skied and did my downward facing dog with the best of them. Although we are told that it's not nice to fool Mother Nature, in my fifties I even had "some work done", not so much because of vanity than to align the face looking back at me out of the mirror with what I felt.

So when a not so sweet young thing at the Five and Dime's check out asked me if I wanted my senior discount... I was SHOCKED AND DISMAYED to put it mildly. I stormed out of the store, red faced and fighting back tears and leaving over $100 of un-bought merchandise on the counter.

It took a couple of "think drinks" -- in my case that would be coffee -- at Starbucks to calm me down. Turns out that the store's senior discount feature didn't kick in at 65 as I'd thought but at 55. Still, for the next couple of months I avoided the place I would normally visit at least two or three times a week. Finally, after the slow, painful process of acceptance, I made peace with encroaching seniority. I also had a little heart to heart with the store manager.

"If you really want to make your graying clientele happy," I suggested, "have a big sign at every cash register offering the senior discount. Then instruct your check out people, when asked for it, to look dubious and ask for ID. Now, that would make my day -- along with legions of my peers."

The one area I found I couldn't micromanage is the mail. I remember the first time I received membership material from the AARP. It was like finding a snake in my mailbox! After I'd finally digested the fact that I qualified, I did sign up and carried my card in my wallet -- although it took me several years to actually use it.

Next, I started receiving brochures about cruises: nice, glossy spreads with lots of gorgeous white haired couples dancing the tango or playing shuffle board and shooting grinning natives with their digital cameras in various exotic ports of call.

Then I started getting ads for hearing aids and catalogs filled with gorgeous white haired people using walkers, denture cleaning gizmos, foot soaking gadgets, bunion correcting foot braces and (shudder) depends.

The final blow came just before last Christmas: I received not one but several brochures suggesting it might be time for me to pick a burial plot. And last but not least, two that offered a major discount on cremation. Advertisers: have you no shame?!

Of course I've learned to accept the march of time albeit with a somewhat dyspeptic sense of humor. However, I am bound and determined to make the best of every day, eat slow food, walk the dog, imbibe enough antioxidants to keep me in good spirits but still able to walk a straight line and continue to keep Mother Nature in the dark about my advancing years.

April fools, Mom!