Single Set-ups

At my recent birthday party, as I predicted, the conversation turned toward my single status. Now strangely enough, my friends never set me up on dates. Perhaps I shouldn't say never, but I can count the number of times they have on one hand and that is in almost ten years.

So, while they "worry" about me being single, it seems they like to talk about it but don't feel compelled to take any action. Often when I meet people as I travel around, they all say to me with some conviction, "I bet your friends set you up all the time". "No," I reply, "not really." "Why?" they ask, and I never really have a good answer. I have asked my friends this question and here are some of the answers I get:
"You seem so together, it doesn't seem like you need help"
"I am too picky for you"
"I think you're too picky"
"I don't know any single guys"
"Well, I kinda like that you're always there for me and if you were in a relationship it wouldn't be like that anymore"
"I never think you need help with anything"

And the list goes on! As I look at this list and think back on these conversations, I really am puzzled. My friends obviously like/love me, they know I am not finding anyone on my own, they keep saying I should have someone, and I deserve to have someone wonderful in my life, so what's going on?

Now in fairness, I should tell you about the dates they have set up for me because maybe my response to these dates has colored their decision to not set me up anymore. And aside from that, I think it might help me to figure somethings out.

Set up with the age appropriate guy. - This is a guy who is close in age to me. There have been a couple of these. My problem with these guys is that although they are close in age to me they fall into one of two categories:
1. They really want a younger partner - really young who will not be a threat to them and who will see them as a good provider/mealticket/fill in the blank.
2. They say they want someone close to their age, but their "real" age is much older aka. boring! My 85 year old father is more interesting than some of these guys!

Set up with the much younger guy. This is a particular favorite of some of my friends who are themselves quite a lot younger than me. Some of the guys have been more than 20 years younger than me, and when I ask my friends why they would consider this to be a good match, they glibly say "Age doesn't matter", or "You don't look your age." Well, age might not matter when you are young, but when the guy thinks "Out of Africa" is a movie classic or only ever communicates via text messaging, then age does matter.

So, what is the real issue? Do my friends like me being single or am I just really hard to please? Are there no suitable men out there, or are they just not suitable for me?