Feeling old

[stuart little]

The aircraftery is closed for a while because for some time we've had a small leak in the corner of the shower base and I thought I should finally fix it.
This is one of two showers and it's a tiled job so quite a bit of work involved in opening it up. With the deconstruction of the base done, the wife uttered the dreaded words we all know, 'I've been thinking..'
And what was occupying her was, small house, just the two of us, two toilets yes, good but no need for two showers and if we (meaning I) removed it totally together with repositioning a few internal walls we could enlarge the small third bedroom, gain a big hall cupboard etc. etc. There are some suggestions from the head office that you just know will brook no arguments.
Now two weeks into the renovation, two to three to go and I must say its quite nice to get back into the sort work that requires ladders, a skillsaw, gib board, framing timber and a 20oz hammer.
But, the down side!
Somewhere along the line I've got old and full on 8 hour days are a struggle. I hurt in places I didn't know I had. I'm terribly stiff when I wake up in the morning and not, I might add, in the same way I was when I was younger. Tired out in the evening and recently the ultimate indignity of falling asleep at the dinner table and faceplanting my chicken salad.
I'll see the job through but unless I regain a bit of my former zing and enthusiasm this will be my last big reno job.
I'm nearing 78, over the hill and the downward slope is getting steeper

Join the club - mate!

 

[Delwood]

This happened on Friday.
Two professional electricians turned up at work to take photos of the electrical installation and meter. They were both early twenties.

I asked them if they knew what a Floppy Disc was.
The blank look on their faces
Even the words "Amstrad Computers" also meant nothing.

We would have died for a Floppy Disc-when I started in computers during my National Service (RAPC) all input was on punched cards or paper tape!

 

[clogs]

getting old.....
question, what is the average age of active members of this site.........?

PS....I have an easy day today....got up late.....have to trim n colour my wifes hair.....
then a dam good tidy up and putting tools away.....
it'll be a great day.......hahaha......

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The older I get the better I was.

 

[Lefley]

The aircraftery is closed for a while because for some time we've had a small leak in the corner of the shower base and I thought I should finally fix it.
This is one of two showers and it's a tiled job so quite a bit of work involved in opening it up. With the deconstruction of the base done, the wife uttered the dreaded words we all know, 'I've been thinking..'
And what was occupying her was, small house, just the two of us, two toilets yes, good but no need for two showers and if we (meaning I) removed it totally together with repositioning a few internal walls we could enlarge the small third bedroom, gain a big hall cupboard etc. etc. There are some suggestions from the head office that you just know will brook no arguments.
Now two weeks into the renovation, two to three to go and I must say its quite nice to get back into the sort work that requires ladders, a skillsaw, gib board, framing timber and a 20oz hammer.
But, the down side!
Somewhere along the line I've got old and full on 8 hour days are a struggle. I hurt in places I didn't know I had. I'm terribly stiff when I wake up in the morning and not, I might add, in the same way I was when I was younger. Tired out in the evening and recently the ultimate indignity of falling asleep at the dinner table and faceplanting my chicken salad.
I'll see the job through but unless I regain a bit of my former zing and enthusiasm this will be my last big reno job.
I'm nearing 78, over the hill and the downward slope is getting steeper

Never , ever stop. I’ve seen to many friends stop work totally, retire and do nothing!!!!!! Then they pass away soon after. It’s like your body knows it’s shut down . The people that keep going, even if it’s volunteer, etc and keep a busy life style seemingly last forever. Just an observation from my end. Good job on the Reno. You would not want the bill if you subbed it out to trades , especially if you can do it yourself.

Im not suprised! I feel like that some days and im 41 I'll probably be needed new knees before im 50 and my back is a bit dodgy. Ideally id find a new job but im not qualified for anything much else.
To be fair, chicken salad would have me falling asleep too. You don't make friends with salad

yes not many great stories start out with “ I was out having a salad with a few friends when ……”

 

[Kittyhawk]

yes not many great stories start out with “ I was out having a salad with a few friends when ……”

I see that salads are not flavour of the month around here
I'm incredibly fortunate that I don't have, or more precisely only have a very limited sense of taste and smell.
So my enjoyment of food comes from the different textures that it gives and as you might imagine vegetables, nuts, fruits etc score pretty highly on the texture scale whereas meat is pretty uninteresting.
Wife is very much into healthy foods which is no problem for me - I'm ambivalent on dietary matters - she prepares it and I eat it. Having nó sense of taste occasionally has its drawbacks though, being invited to dinner at the wife's sister's home, a tetchy woman who fancies herself as a master chef. So there is an obligation at table to say something nice about her culinary efforts, 'lovely bit of chicken' I said. ' Its pork' she snarled.
I started this post having a whine about aches and pains associated with a job that once would have caused me no distress whatsoever. On the other side, as mentioned I'm heading towards 78, wife to 72 and we have no health issues so perhaps diet is important and salads have an undeserved bad rap.

 

[Jacob]

I see that salads are not flavour of the month around here
I'm incredibly fortunate that I don't have, or more precisely only have a very limited sense of taste and smell.
So my enjoyment of food comes from the different textures that it gives and as you might imagine vegetables, nuts, fruits etc score pretty highly on the texture scale whereas meat is pretty uninteresting.
Wife is very much into healthy foods which is no problem for me - I'm ambivalent on dietary matters - she prepares it and I eat it. Having nó sense of taste occasionally has its drawbacks though, being invited to dinner at the wife's sister's home, a tetchy woman who fancies herself as a master chef. So there is an obligation at table to say something nice about her culinary efforts, 'lovely bit of chicken' I said. ' Its pork' she snarled.
I started this post having a whine about aches and pains associated with a job that once would have caused me no distress whatsoever. On the other side, as mentioned I'm heading towards 78, wife to 72 and we have no health issues so perhaps diet is important and salads have an undeserved bad rap.

Mobility is tops. Exercise as much as possible and lose weight.

 

[rogxwhit]

and lose weight

That's easy to say. Deciding which body parts to remove is harder ...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not for me.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Mobility is tops. Exercise as much as possible and lose weight.

Bicycle are our mode of transport. Been one or two kilos either side of 73kg since age 20. Wife the same for average 58kg.

 

[Fitzroy]

Not for me.

That's an 'in joke' that you need to have been around this site for a few years to appreciate and sympathise with.

I've often been humbled by what members of this site are up to at the age that they are, i loved the person a few months back who was going to take up woodworking at 85, bloody marvellous!

I wish I was the weight I was when I first thought I was overweigh, I wish I was as old as I was when I first thought I was getting old, I wish I was as fit as I was when I first thought I was unfit..... etc.

 

[niall Y]

I love the comment from a jazz musician, whose name I can't recall, which ran along the lines of - " If I knew I was going to live to such a ripe old age, I would have given up smoking and drinking years ago "

 

[Jacob]

Bicycle are our mode of transport. Been one or two kilos either side of 73kg since age 20. Wife the same for average 58kg.

I'm stuck at 79kg seems OK
Just getting back to cycling after long stretch of arthritis followed by hip replacement.
Did LEJOG for my 60th birthday and aiming to do it again before I'm 80. Gotta get some miles in first!

 

[Fergie 307]

One thing I'm trying to do is give up the booze. Not a severe alcoholic but a bit of a routine paid for the following day. 2 weeks into zero alcohol and feeling much better! Instead of relaxing with a drink you have to find something useful to do.

I rarely drink now, no particular reason I just fell out of the habit. I still enjoy a drink, problem is now I am so unused to it that a couple of pints of Guiness and I'm all over the place. Makes for a cheap night out!

 

[mikej460]

getting old.....
question, what is the average age of active members of this site.........?

PS....I have an easy day today....got up late.....have to trim n colour my wifes hair.....
then a dam good tidy up and putting tools away.....
it'll be a great day.......hahaha......

You do your wife's hair with your tools?? I have visions of multi cutter, tin snips, and a tin of Rustins...

 

[Lefley]

I rarely drink now, no particular reason I just fell out of the habit. I still enjoy a drink, problem is now I am so unused to it that a couple of pints of Guiness and I'm all over the place. Makes for a cheap night out!

I know,eh! I use to drink a few times a week. Up at 5 to work. Now when have people over every month or two. Have 6 beer up til midnight! Hate myself next day, feel awful til take Tylenol, then still feel awful dragging my arse around all day at work til next day. What happened to us!!!!!

 

[Fergie 307]

me n her just mixed n laid about 1 ton of concrete this morning...26-28 degrees n sunny......
now feel like I've been hit by a train....then it backed up over me....lol....
last week it was 2 tons for a conc pad in the garden....
these jobs are to small for anyone to come n do....
so what do u do but roll ur sleeves up....
biggest problem tho, go to bed knackered around 10 then up at 3 for a pee and cant sleep till 6.....grrrr....

Just been doing the same. Problem is mentally I still think I can do the same stuff I could at 30. The body on the other hand is saying, " you're sixty years old you *****, what on earth are you playing at". So stuff I would have done without a second thought now leaves me out of breath and aching. Just mixed and laid about a cubic yard of concrete and my back and shoulders feel as though I've been pulling a train, and that's just from shovelling stuff in the mixer and so on. Right as rain just bimbling about, but as soon as you get into some hard work the old body has a way of reminding you you aren't as young as you were. I dare say I will be as stuff as a board for the next couple of days. My dad bless him is 99 and has only really started to slow down quite recently. When he was well into his 80's I remember being concerned about him being up ladders trimming trees and so on. He has a magnificent pencil shaped conifer in the garden, about 20 foot high. We were standing looking at it and he said" I think I'll have to give it a miss this year". I was foolish enough to make some comment along the lines of age catching up with us all eventually. I got the full on Stupid Boy look as he pointed out that it was nothing to do with his age, his trimmer had packed up!

 

[Fergie 307]

You know when you are old, its when your waist size is bigger than your inside leg measurement.

Heck, I've been an old git for longer than I thought then

 

[Fergie 307]

I'm stuck at 79kg seems OK
Just getting back to cycling after long stretch of arthritis followed by hip replacement.
Did LEJOG for my 60th birthday and aiming to do it again before I'm 80. Gotta get some miles in first!

Used to be very keen cyclist, and Still have the Holsworth Pro made for me in 1978. In those days I could routinely do a 25 in under an hour. When I got back on it recently I came to the conclusion that I must have been remarkably more bendy in those days. Sadly I can't ride it comfortably now. As to speed, If I tried to go that fast then I think the first couple of hundred yards of my 25 might be on the bike, the remainder would be in an ambulance

 

[mudman]

A lot of replies here give me a lot of hope for the future. I'm 58 and I've always been active if a little uncaring about my health (smoking/vaping, drinking, eating too much). I've been a caver for many years and had previously been a woodworker and amateur astronomer. Due to long spells of working away from home, most things went by the wayside, caving trips became less frequent, my workshop gradually filled with junk and the telescope gradually collected more and more dust. Covid brought me back home to work remotely and I took the opportunity to rekindle my interest in astronomy and was enjoying evenings photographing the stars, caving trips restarted, I was eyeing the workshop with plans to tidy up and then I got hit at the beginning of 2021 by covid and I spent 6 weeks on a ventilator, 3 months in hospital with a few very close calls. However, I woke up with all my fingers, a bit of numbness in my toes and the strength of a newborn. I've recovered greatly but still have a way to go. Astronomy still takes a back seat as I'm too tired in the evenings to be sitting up late and my ability to skip over treacherous rocks has greatly diminished, but I have started on the workshop. New cabinets have been built and the accumulated detritus of my wife's desire to fill any empty space is gradually going. Lately I'd been wondering if there was any point in doing all of it if I don't have a great amount of time left and then I see some of you chaps still going in your 70s and 80s and it makes me realise that there is still a lot of life ahead of me and that yes, there really is a point. Stop, and you may never get going again, keep on at it and you should be able to live a long and fulfilling life. So, I'm finding myself more and more active all the time, back here with like-minded people and hopefully for a good long while to come. I ache a lot more when I do things, the back complains mightily all the time but I think that I can still do everything I use to, it just takes longer.
But yes, I do feel a lot older these days, but, it could be a lot worse.