A story about how Grandpa (my father) was unexpectedly active in his retirement

Hello and nice to meet you. I'm Osunu.

I'm working hard with my parents and siblings to come up with content for my 66-day daily posting challenge.
Today, let me talk about Grandpa (my father).

My father moves quite briskly for his age, but he has poor hearing. He bought a new, somewhat expensive hearing aid last year too. (For some reason, my older sister is the one who usually accompanies him for hearing aid appointments.)

In the past, my father would play classical records at high volume, which would make my mother hysterical. Now, my mother gets irritated by my father's poor hearing.
Either way, my mother is irritated.

I visit my parents' house alone a few times a month to check on them, and
one day,
my father and I were in the same room.
"Hey, [Sister's Name]"
my father called out my sister's name. (Lol)

Thinking 'oh boy,' I turned around, and he beckoned me, saying,
" [Sister's Name], [Sister's Name] "
even though we were making perfect eye contact. (Lol)

When I said, "It's me, [My Name]," he said,
"Ah!"
...and laughed it off.
(This has nothing to do with his hearing problems.)

Come to think of it, my father never calls his children by nicknames. He always uses our names without any honorifics.
I always felt uncomfortable hearing other fathers call their kids 'chan' or 'kun.' I wondered what kind of joke that was.
(By the way, my father doesn't even call my mother by her name. He just uses 'hey' or 'you'.)

It's not that I wanted him to use nicknames, but
I guess my father isn't good at expressing affection. He's not good at communication either (I inherited that from him). It's not that he has a craftsman's temperament or anything; I think he might slightly fall into one of the categories of adult developmental disorders (I probably do too). I suspect he struggled as a company employee, not just with office politics, but even before that.

After he retired, my father actively participated in nature observation groups, soba-making classes, and personal history workshops organized by the local senior citizens' club. I've heard that many people who held somewhat high positions at work tend to avoid such gatherings and end up feeling lonely and dejected, but my father was different.
My mother, my sister, and I were all surprised.

For about 10 years (maybe even longer?), he had been participating in a group that read classical literature.
When the teacher quit halfway through, he took over as the representative, prepared materials and lecture tapes himself (recordings of old NHK radio programs), set the meeting dates, reserved conference rooms, and borrowed cassette decks.
He even went with the group members to a university museum to see the manuscripts of the classics.

However, his energy seems to have faded recently, and that group disbanded at the end of last year.
Now, he just goes to a gymnastics class at the nearby community center.

"If you have fewer opportunities to go out, you'll get senile, blah blah blah..."
My mother's complaints and nagging never stop.

My parents' house was business as usual today.

That's all for now. Thank you very much.

(Day 18 of Rylan)