How do you stay connected as you age?

I haven't lost any vision yet; I just got the diagnosis and stared AREDS2 vitamins and digging info research. I already have diet and exercise in place. If I lose my vision it will likely be a years-long process. Thanks for The Country of the Blind book recommendation; I just checked it out and look forward to reading it.
That was kind of you to cook the vegan and GF dish for your guest. Celiac is 20 ppm gluten and less, so if a knife or cutting board with a wheat bread crumb on it is used to also make a GF dish, I would be sick for a few days. Stirring GF pasta with the same spoon as wheat pasta has the same effect. Most people don't know the major ingredient in soy sauce is wheat; gluten is hidden in a lot of things. I know it is socially embracing to make a GF dish for a guest, but GF cross contamination (cc) happens a lot in restaurants and other places. My sister has never been tested for celiac, but thinks she is gluten intolerant and cooks GF and gluten based dishes. I can't eat her cooking due to risk of cc.

Hello. I love to read but lately my choices are history and biographies. I throw in an occasional piece of fiction. I will get a copy of Sipsworth and get back to you!
As far as being “open”, I’ve often been criticized for my candor, in business and personally. And, as you now know, I’ve never been a joiner but I’ve got to tell you that after I did the post you’re commenting on I felt a lot better. I posted because I knew exactly how that person felt and wanted her to know I commiserated.
Sorry, but I don’t know what your reference to “Episode #32” is. Is it something I can find somewhere here on connect.mayoclinic.org?
I live in a relatively small town and the groups I’ve seen in the community newsletter don’t seem to be appealing. However, I will now investigate book clubs and see what’s out there.
The classes were non-fiction/memoir classes. All women although open to anyone. Mostly older women and from all walks of life. Interesting group with interesting stories. I looked forward to it and after the first one, signed up for another. Even presented a story at a local venue and it was well received. As I mentioned in my initial post, one of the women in first class asked two other women and myself, to continue the memoir work and meet at her house. I took that as an opportunity to build some friendships. We met once a week. When Covid struck, we decided not to meet but our “hostess” and I would meet from time to time, she invited me to join her family and friends for a holiday dinner and I was under the impression we were becoming friends. One day when we were talking she told me flat out she wasn’t looking to be friends, she didn’t have time.
Anyway, I’ve decided it must be me. As a single woman with no children and no ex or dead husbands, who made her way in what was then “a man’s world”, and a direct and to the point person, who doesn’t answer to anyone and can pay her own way, and who is in her late 70’s, I’m not in any majority!
Maybe I’ll start a club!