Perspectives in Aging

One of the best parts of my job are the perspectives I get on aging. These are from people who haven't completely trashed their bodies; they're just getting old. Here's a few stories for you:
I had a patient a couple weeks ago who was in his late 80's and just found out he had cancer. I was all worried about how he was doing, so I asked. He said, "Well, my family and I are meeting with my oncologist next week to find out how long I want to kick around."
Against all nursing rules, I offered my opinion without even thinking, "Well, I kinda like you, I think you should stick around as long as you can."
"Mmm..I don't know," he says. "See, I'm 87 now, I figure I only have about 3 years left of my life expectancy anyways at this point. I don't want to be like this guy at church. He made it to a hundred and he looked all wizzened out. I don't want to look like that when I cash out."
All I could do was laugh and wish him the best.
Another lady last week was 89 and totally with it. Walking around and stuff. Mostly blind, though. She had me go through all 40 of her business cards with her looking for the assisted living place she lived so I could come visit her. Every place I read off she had a comment, "Oh, I need to call him. Oh, I should save that. That little stinker." So funny.
And then she was my tour guide to Arizona when she found out I was new. Like we don't have Highway signs these days. I was like, "Oh, I've never been to Globe." She's all, "Now, get on the 60, that's the freeway. And go around the mountain, and over a few hills, now you might see a mining shaft on your right after about an hour. The town is growing so much these days now that the price of copper is going up. You see, it used to be 60 cents, then it was 2 or 3 dollars and now it's $15 dollars and they are offering $2000 sign-on bonuses and $12 an hour or $5000 bonuses and $21 an hour for skilled labor. Anyways, then you'll get to this place, you'll see the sign called Oak Flat. You can camp there. Or you can...." We spent hours over a few days talking like that. Apparently I need to go get a map of AZ from the Chamber of Commerce put out by the Highway department that shows me all this stuff. Oh, and the North RIm of the Grand Canyon is the best, but according to her, I should take a mule instead of hiking. :o)