Too old for fencing at a young age

Went out to work recently – the commute is a real bitch, I have to walk all the way across my yard to the writing shack – and there was a guy out there in the cold on the edge of my property, doing something but it wasn't clear what.

Fixing the fallen-down fence, turns out. Planned on putting a couple horses on the 4 acres to the south of me. He had a roll of used barbwire and some staples. He's in his 80s. Still rides horses. Was just in the hospital the week before. Tougher than me, no doubt, but thankfully I'm immune to being bothered by such things.

I've never cared for fencing. It bothers me. I had to repair a stretch of fence after putting my '65 Mustang through it when I sailed off Parkway Road thanks to some black ice back in high school. Replacing the busted tie rod on the car was more fun than stretching wire. And that's the last time I fixed fence because a mustang broke through.

You can't leave a guy in his 80s out there in the freezing cold, stringing fence all by himself. So I offered to help and did, a little bit. But just a little. I kept offering, but he kept at it and I think he could sense I was useless in the fencing realm. I exude that kind of thing.

He says to me, he says, "I'm starting to get too old for this."

I says back, "I've always been too old for fencing."

He takes a look at me and says, "I did lots of fencing when I was your age."

I didn't doubt that or have much else to say on the matter, so I watched him finish up and he said "I think that'll hold, what do you think?" and I thought so too.

Then he brought the horses over. They're good neighbors. Probably because of the fence, I guess.