The Damn I'm Old Thread - Putting Up With Being a Geezer

[Jerjo]

It's no secret that like a lot of our favorite musicians, the membership of PE is getting older. While we've got some whippersnappers here, I think the majority of us are boomers. Lino is even looking older. The junk mail from AARP keeps coming. And someone keeps moving my reading glasses.

This month I turned 59 and I've decided to buckle down combating this. I broke my ankle two years ago and I've just gotten to the point where working out it is really feasible again. I'm diving back into gaming and writing in an effort to keep my mind sharp. And I continue to flail away at teaching myself how to play guitar.

So what are you doing to stave off the inevitable?

[walt]

I turn 63 on December 1 and i've just joined a gym near me.Haven't been in a gym for almost thirty years.My sister belongs to this joint and gives it high marks so that set the idea in motion.

I'm not ambitious.I just want to sweat a bit; get on the treadmills, do some light weight training, that's it.I have no goals other than to, hopefully, take off a few pounds and get a bit more muscle tone on my old alabaster body.

My first day at the gym(Push Fitness) is tomorrow.Kinda looking forward to it.

[ronmac]

I'm "only" 55 and walking, while trying to change my appetite. It's really difficult, being a meat lover. But, I need to bring down my cholesterol.

[progeezer]

One of us has to dedicate himself to the pursuit of sloth & indolence. Since Dave Sr. won't do it, that mantle falls to me, and I take it very seriously.

[Vic2012]

58 here. I fought feeling old until this year. Nothing wrong with coming to terms with it. I've been going to gyms for over thirty years. I feel great but I'm a good 20 lbs. overweight (it's the beer and late night snacks). I even started listening to old country music. I asked this old redneck friend why am I into old country music all of a sudden, and his reply was "son, yer gettin' old." Well that's okay. I've got some Viagra stored away somewhere too for that special moment. Been waiting for that special moment for about 5 years now. I'm okay with that, as long as I get some laughs and get to hear some good music.

[Jerjo]

A week or so ago I caught up with an acquaintance I hadn't seen in years. He's still active, working as a designer/contractor, despite being in his 70s. There were a handful of people in the room that had turned sixty this year. When this was noted he said, "just you wait guys. I turned 77 this year. Up until then I felt the same way I did in my fifties but something switched this last year and now I feel OLD. And it fucking sucks." That put the fear into me. I don't have Geezer's contacts for weed so I have to find another means to hold out against this. Winter is coming and it ain't pretty.

[rickawakeman]

Just renewed my medical MJ certificate for year 2 of medical MJ in Mass. Living on keif and strong sativas. This and prog-metal keep me young. 57 this year.

[Duncan Glenday]

[Sean]

So what are you doing to stave off the inevitable?

I've found Dr Pepper makes a great pre-embalming fluid! I'm pushing 50 and still stuck at 35. Not a bad place to be.

[Sean]

I do think 50 is the new 35; just a bit wiser and a lot grayer!

[Vic2012]

Gotta admit, this 》 helps.

[soundsweird]

Just turned 63. We're going to get our first cold front later this week, so I can start hiking again. I always feel like crap all summer here in Austin, even going swimming doesn't cure the heat for more than a few minutes. I'm sure the cooler weather will make me feel 10 years younger! My much younger girlfriend and my fifteen-month old daughter make me feel old and young at the same time. Music, as always, is my savior in this crazy world.

[Dave (in MA)]

I hate it when the old lady or old man in front of me at the drugstore has to give their birth date for their prescription, I overhear it, and it's after mine.

[progeezer]

I hate it when the old lady or old man in front of me at the drugstore has to give their birth date for their prescription, I overhear it, and it's after mine.

When that happens to me I internally cheer & go "YES"!

I've been told by enough people on PE that I look 62 instead of 72, and I've seen more than a few people at the pharmacy not yet 60 who look like my older sibling.

[ronmac]

"You're only as old as the woman you feel."

-- Groucho Marx

Gotta admit, this 》 helps.

It certainly does.

[Vic2012]

This thread is hilarious.

[Boceephus]

55 in just a few days. I retired in 2011, but took up a part time job to help with renovations on our "fixer upper."
I'm getting some good exercise @ work, but my right foot has been giving me a lot of pain.
Gotta give myself props for being more productive than the whippersnappers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tom unbound]

Remember getting your pic taken in school ? LOL! I'm digitizing old photos etc. and am now sending friends their pictures from old school class photos. 1st, 2nd, 3rd grades. 1961, 1962, etc. ROFL !!

Staving off the inevitable ? I'm eating far less, and upped the protein %. As for 'keeping in tune', lately, learning the whole world of (amateur)video production (muxing, non-linear video assembly, editing, effects, soundtrack, etc) has been a great new trick for this old dog to learn.
Never stop learning. This alone will keep you young, even if only at heart.

[Gizmotron]

57 here.

Bicycling is your friend. Great exercise; low impact. It has been my go-to exercise since I was...6. I road-bike and mountain bike. But still hit the gym at least once a week and run once a week. I also backpack when I can. My pack never weighs less than 80 pounds (and sometimes 100). I kid you not...I always have to carry 3 to 4 gallons of water here in the desert and then there is the camera gear. And music. And wine (or Scotch). And the kitchen sink.

Exercise and a sensible diet are the keys. Try to pick you parents wisely as good genes help.

[walt]

A few weeks ago, my sister, who is the unofficial keeper of the Mattes family photo archives,gave me a golden oldie photo, one i haven't seen in..probably fifty years or longer.My sixth grade class photo from PS 178(Queens/NY.

What amazed me was how many kids i could name, after not having seen this picture in God knows how long.I distinctly recall the names of two girls i liked,another couple of girls i was so-so with; a few guys i recall being friends with.The names just jumped out at me.There were twenty five kids in the photo, i could name eight or nine.That seemed like a lot, to me.

I wonder how many of your sixth grade classmates you think you could name if you saw a photo of your old class for the first time in many many years.Just curious.

Silly question, i know.Whattdya expect, i'm old.

[-=RTFR666=-]

A few weeks ago, my sister, who is the unofficial keeper of the Mattes family photo archives,gave me golden oldie photo, one i haven't seen in..probably fifty years or longer.My sixth grade class photo from PS 178(Queens/NY.

What amazed me was how many kids i could name, after not having seen this picture in God knows how long.I distinctly recall the names of two girls i liked,another couple of girls i was so-so with; a few guys i recall being friends with.The names just jumped out at me.There were twenty five kids in the photo, i could name eight or nine.That seemed like a lot, to me.

I wonder how many of your sixth grade classmates you think could name if you saw a photo of your old class for the first time in many many years.Just curious.

Silly question, i know.Whattdya expect, i'm old.

I was able to identify 2/3 of my 6th grade class from 1971 recently on my elementary school's FB page. Yet I put down my car keys or reading glasses and 5 minutes later I can't figure out where the hell they walked off to. But that's OK so long as people are thinking I'm 10 years younger than I actually am.

[Gizmotron]

An alternative view:

I recently went to the funeral of my wife's grandfather. He was in his 90's and never exercised a day in his life. He drank a lot. He had one of the largest private collections of Jazz 78's and LPs.
Compare him to a number of young, strapping people that I have know that died suddenly from physical issues or from sudden trauma. A dear cycling friend of mine was killed when he was 19. He was run over by a drunk, non-licensed, here-in-the-country-illegally idiot at 10 am on a Sunday in a deserted downtown back in 1988.

Sometimes it really is your genes or your luck that matter more. That is why it is important to have some fun while you are here. Make a difference. Be nice to strangers.

Your mileage may vary.

[Zeuhlmate]

59.
Biking 12 km pr. day, 5 days a week, but my job is moving october, much closer. So I have to find another 'natural' way to excersize. Allready lumberjacking and chopping up wood for the fireplace both at home and at the summerhouse. Hates running.
Walks my Islandic Sheepdog in the weekends (wife and kid does it the other days), does all the shopping on my bike.
Weighing about 5-7 kilos more than I want to, but I'm eating ok healthy, and I like beers & redwine... but sharing a few beers or one bottle of redwine is enough.

Yeah, I've finally reached that age where a really satisfying bowel movement can be better than sex... firm enough to be easy enough to clean up, but not so
stiff that they hurt?

Not really - still having a nice life with my wife, since 1988 (3 kids). But sight and hearing have been better, and I have less energy to do what I really want.
The downside: "I am not young enough to know everything." (Mark Twain)

[progeezer]

Nothing new, but just about every research study done on memory & aging (Parkinson's & Dementia aside) has found that short-term memory is down the toilet way before long-term as one grows older.

An example I may have posted here before since I joined PE in 2006 is that I can remember & sing along to hundreds of NYC street-corner doowop songs I last sang with any regularity in about 1961 when I was 16. I remember every inflection, every vocal nuance and every single word.

The hundreds of different songs I subsequently sang in years of being a folkie & then a rocker, not nearly as much.

[Gizmotron]

Nothing new, but just about every research study done on memory & aging (Parkinson's & Dementia aside) has found that short-term memory is down the toilet way before long-term as one grows older.

An example I may have posted here before since I joined PE in 2006 is that I can remember & sing along to hundreds of NYC street-corner doowop songs I last sang with any regularity in about 1961 when I was 16. I remember every inflection, every vocal nuance and every single word.

The hundreds of different songs I subsequently sang in years of being a folkie & then a rocker, not nearly as much.

Yup. I understand. As RTFR666 says, we seem to easily remember all of our chums from when we were kids. I remember my kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Hunt) but often cannot remember that client that I booked last week.