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When he was about the age I am now, one of my old beekeeping friends would not try what I found easy enough to do -- backing his pickup down my driveway. He blamed his inability to do it on an arthritic neck.

Now I find it increasingly difficult to back my little Isuzu pickup down my driveway. I feel like I'm turning my head enough, but I still can see nearly enough to judge anything.

I wonder where the failing lies? In my eyes or in my neck?

This worries me, out of the fear that one day, somewhere, somehow, I will be forced to take a driving test again. I don't think I can handle parallel parking on a city street anymore.

In the 60's, when I was driving my VW Bug all around Manhattan in New York City, where empty spaces on the street were few and far between, I became a master at wedging my Bug into little spots where you wouldn't think the Bug could fit.

So parallel parking looks like one more entry to be added to the list of the things that I used to be able to do that are no longer available to me now, and my only hope is that it is also on the list that the Fates keep of the things that I no longer have to do.

I wonder how often the Fates compare those two lists? When they do, my only hope is that the number of duplications is enormous.