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I just want to feel like it's not just me. Anyone want to talk about the phenomenon of trying to talk an aging parent out of a weird plan of attack?

This morning I did my best to stop my 84 yo father from taking a streetcar to the west end at eight in the morning in order to buy six pounds of ground beef that he intended to take on a train trip back to his place.

"But how will you get it home?"

"In my backpack."

"It won't be cold."

"Well, I'll freeze it when I get home."

"That's going to be something like 5:00!"

"It'll be fine. I'll cook it before I eat it."

I had to tell myself over and over again that he regularly does not kill himself with food poisoning when I'm not around. And yet.

"I'm going to freeze a water bottle. It will help keep it cold."

"Well, ok. If you insist."

This morning he woke up all anxious about whether the butcher shop would HAVE the beef he wanted and the upshot was that he did not end up going to get it. Rather than try and soothe the fears I just presented obstacles at every turn because while I ALSO thought going across the city at 8 AM for beef was a bad plan when he has a train at 11:30, I mostly just didn't want him to buy six pounds of beef and take it on a four hour train ride.