applaud OP for trying to take the high road. Getting old is just hard, period. My father-in-law is 84, maybe a tad grumpy, but mostly one of the happier oldsters I know. That's rare. Any of us in this thread who live to be 85, with the associated aches, pains, and heartbreaks, will probably be pretty grumpy, seeing offense where none exists (e.g. tree branches, lawn mowing). BTW, did anyone else think the OP was using "mowing the lawn" euphemistically at first? I was like WTF, we don't need to know about.... oh.
Come on Bobrek! What could possibly go wrong with sudden and unexpected violence against a mentally ill, bi-polar; senior citizen that lives next door and has shown poor impulse control in the past???
My Mom is 94 and the happiest healthiest oldster you can find, she lives alone and still drives, plays bridge, has ladies game days at her house and is the beloved matriarch of her church. But still, the love of her life and all her friends have died. There are no positive developments in front of her. She's looking at incontinence as her next step. She says she would rather die in her sleep than wake up. And she doesn't even live filled with regrets. Imagine living 94 years self-punishing over failures. Cut those old people some slack. They make your teenage angst a joke.