If you are like some people, make that, some young people, whose every ache and pain— from sciatica to plantar fasciatis — makes them move and moan like they are 99-years-old, listen up:
You are really not that old, so stop acting like it!
Yes, there is the inevitable overuse (true story: a friend of a friend was recently diagnosed with tennis elbow from blow drying and straightening her hair every day), injuries and pains from the ghosts of football games past, but unless you really are on in years, maybe it’s time to live life with a bit more pedal to the metal.
A bit more like Virgil Coffman who decided as he got older to speed up instead of slow down. So he bought himself a hot rod. He bought himself a 426-horsepower, bright yellow Camaro with black racing stripes. A special-edition “Transformer” Camaro like the one feature in the blockbuster movie last summer.
Mr. Coffman is 102.
The purchase has earned the centenarian the distinction as being the oldest known Camaro buyer, as well as someone who could put most 80-year-olds to shame, if not their 40-something children as well, in terms of life-affirming vim and vigor.
Coffman, who wouldn’t know Megan Fox if she had sold him the car herself, had never seen the movie, but knew that he wanted the car nonetheless.
“I think it was just the new design and look that got me interested,” Coffman told AARP. “I enjoy the way it drives and handles,” he said. “I also like the fact it is quite a conversation piece.”
He has outlived a wife and his three children, and still does repairs on his own house. While he doesn’t drive at night because of the glare, he doesn’t have any plans to slow down anytime soon. Well, maybe he could afford to slow a bit on the highway. Admitting that he has gunned his new car up to 85 mph, Coffman says, “I’m pretty careful. I don’t want to lose my license.”
Or your lust for life.
Photo courtesy “>stp243@Flickr