Cranky Old Men

Today as I have a conversation with my best friend over the phone I suddenly realise that he is right -  he is a cranky old man! 

Last year when a group of us were away he even bought a hat from Eumundi Markets saying exactly that! (He now wishes he had bought the t-shirt as well).

Why do Men seem to get so cranky as they get older? Male menopause possibly or are they just more vocal where they just thought about it before. Is it the realisation that they will never be able to race motorbikes, party all night then front up for work and function, pick up pretty wrinkle-less size 8 blondes for the night or sort out their differences at the pub with their fists?

As we get older our lives change and those changes start from the day we are born, or is it the vulnerability that becomes apparent as the working life remaining is less than what has already been experienced?

This is the same person that I met when I was 15 or 16 years old. In the beginning there were four of us now there are three (me being the only female). The boys all knew each other before I came along then not long after that we had the addition and subtraction of partners, wives etc; we lost contact for a while then we were all reunited at the funeral of one of the guy’s mothers, she was like a second Mother to all of us growing up. Something so good came from something so sad.

Our small group expanded to include two couples that had been good friend with two of the others; we were so close we all had the same tattoo to signify our friendship; mind you our kids thought we had totally lost it at the time not to mention one of the girls mothers threatening her 50+ year old daughter that she would disinherited her if she did – I think she still has no idea that it is there under her shirt.

At the age of 49 our mate since childhood was diagnosed with cancer, had an operation and Radiotherapy and after sitting on tenterhooks for some time seemed to recover well. At the same time one of the girls that had been suffering MS for a long time started to get increasingly worse. Long story short Kay was not only suffering MS but she also had cancer that had gone undiagnosed. She lost her battle on the 18^th April 2010 a week after diagnosis. In May Phillip wasn’t feeling very well, ended up in hospital as he had had a heart attack. He now has a number of stints in his heart and has changed his lifestyle accordingly (even though he was fit, not over weight and a non smoker) Al’s cancer returned but this time it was inoperable and the treatment didn’t help, we lost him 23^rd December the same year at 54.

My best friend I knows wonders why the other two guys have suffered the two largest killers in our society and why he hasn’t. This worries and at the same time angers and upsets him; men love to fix things and these things he can’t fix. On the inside of his forearm he has a tribute tattooed for Al, constantly has dreams with him in them and there are constant reminders of things they did together as well as all of us.

May be he’s just cranky cause life can be so unfair at times. 

We need to appreciate every day we are given as we never know when the situations that we have will change. 

xxx