I apologize if I am repeating myself but for the life of me, I still can’t believe that my husband and I are senior citizens. And not just senior citizens but legit senior citizens approaching our seventies. This segment of our lives is interesting to say the least. We are pretty active and don’t sit still for long. But after an activity like weeding and bending in the garden for a few hours, stiff muscles seem to slowly creep in. My walk is a little slower for a day or so and it makes me feel as if I should be put out to pasture and then, like most things, it passes. We both try not to stretch upon waking up because it, at times, has caused cramps attacking various muscles. I really don’t remember having to worry about painful stretching when we were young. So we just get through it with some whining, howling and saying “uncle” until it stops.

Entertainment abounds at this age as each day a new adventure seems to appear as a pain, a kink or a spot. Our response to any questionable body dilemma is to say to each other, “Well, I sure hope that goes away.” We used to think that our elderly parents went to the Doctor sometimes unnecessarily. But now I have realized that just about every day there is a senior reason that we could ask, “Doctor, what in the world is this?” We are not ashamed to be senior citizens but we do wonder when all of this mayhem began to happen to our bodies and minds. We haven’t had anything debilitating yet, just irritating.

I have observed 80- and 90-year-olds who are full of energy, very active and happy. Our lives are what we make them. So, we will look at the sunny side of life and count our blessings. Luckily, we are still able to enjoy traveling and get satisfaction from many hobbies that we pursue. Dancing is still a must but the dip at the end of the song has gone by the wayside for fear of both of us falling together in a heap on the dance floor. Now that I think about it, aging isn’t so bad and should be looked upon as a badge of honor. We have survived almost 70 years of that roller coaster called life and can now hang around the slow-moving carousel if we like. We are proud to call ourselves occasionally cramping senior citizens!

Tina Jensen is a member and one of the coordinators of activities for the Escalon Senior Fun Bunch. She contributes a monthly column for The Times.