roccobike

Good one Dfox Wait a minute, why am I laughing!

Olebiker

Let me tell you what happened this morning. A young fella showed up for the club ride this morning that none of us had ever met. He was about 6 foot 5 and looked to be in good shape. He took off with the flat-bellies as I expected.

When we regrouped after 24 miles he decided to ride the remaining 13 miles with the group I was with. A string of hills just kicked his butt and we had to slow down and wait for him a few times. After one of the hills he just shook his head and said, "I'm only twenty-three and I can't keep up with you guys. This is unbelievable."

I took inventory of the rest of the riders in our group. I was the youngest at 55. Jim is 64. The other Jim is 65 as is Chris. You know what they say: the older the buck, the harder the horn. They do say that don't they?

Pompiere

Some say: Old age and experience will beat youth and enthusiasm.

rickkko

I remember getting solicited by AARP when I was 49; 10 years for $40! Hell of a bargain 'cuz the card was worth 10% off lots of motels/hotels.

For the next ten years I rode a Harley all over the country getting that nice little discount everywhere. Saved a ton of $$$ with that card in my wallet.

I received a magazine and newspaper every month for 10 years but never opened 'em once.

Now they want me to renew but no need as my card still works everywhere!

My newest card, HomeTown Buffet Senior card. Hope to use if often this year.


..rickko..

sdr

happy birthday, rickko!

you beat me to the big six-oh by eggsactly 7 months to the day.

i love home town buffet - yum!

your neighbor to the north,

*sdr*

Trsnrtr

That's because we are so wiley and sneaky.

SugarHillGMC

Yeah, at 48 (I think it was 48) they started sending me that stuff too.

Well, just for fun I entered two roadraces last year. One just 2 weeks before I turned 50 and a second one on my fiftieth birthday. It had been about 14 years since my last RR (I never stopped mountain bike racing- the last 5 years on a tandem). Figured that a Cat 4, 35+ group should be alright. Well for both races they combined U35 with 35+ at the last minute. Little TOO fast for this body.
BUT...I finished both, and both times I found a few like conditioned racers to pace with. Nowhere near the front but definitely nowhere near last.
Guess the next group will be 55+ in 4 years- then I will get my butt kicked by some 64 year old guys.

John

hawkijohn

I started getting the AARP mailings before I turned 30. It's all about that dues money! - also how to saddle my kids with more debt and taxes they've lobbied for...not to get on my soapbox or anything!

webist

Or doing halftime shows at the Superebowl

Bearbig

I got my first mailings in my late 40's ( just had my 54th) , got so pi---d that I called them to get off
their list. Haven't gotten anything for a long while. Maybe I'll join when I'm in a walker as well. Until then
I will ride in "de Nile".

Jones'n for a ride but the high temps for today are only in the teens!!!!!!

stapfam

Did a race a few years ago and I had the Vets and Supervets combined as not enough in each class- Out of 14? I came second because no-one else finished. Next race I was taken out of the Fun sub-class and put into the Elite group as I had done so well in my previous race. Took a lot of arguing and getting lapped in the Elite races before I was put back.

trackhub

-Ride through a local college on a warm day, and you are absolutely convinced that the beautiful young women just didn't look like that when you went to college.
(Been happening do me for some time, actually)

-You no longer stay up to watch Leno or Letterman, because, well, they're just on too late.

-You look forward to a nice nap after dinner.

-And my personal favorite,,, Cops in their 20's call you "sir". Damn, that is funny!

oilman_15106

Bravo Hawkjohn

My thoughts on AARP exactly. Dumped my membership over their stand on Social Security & Death Taxes. Let your kids pay is the AARP mantra. If discounts are all you are interested in AAA pretty much has it covered with a membership. Plus is AARP going to tow your car out of the snow?

highlyselassie

I only recently hit the big two-o and do both of these, don't know whether that says more about me or you...

angel

More Companies Phasing Out Retirement Option (Onion article)
January 25, 2006 | Issue 42•04

NEW YORK—With pension funds dwindling as retirees enjoy longer, more capable lives, many businesses have opted to freeze their workers' employment status and keep them on the job through their sunset years.


"Under the new approach, our employees gain the advantage of lifelong job security," Hewlett-Packard CEO and president Mark Hurd said. "Even though our workers will no longer be able to collect a pension, they will receive checks as long as they are able to be wheeled into work and punch the clock."

Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, and IBM are just a few of the Fortune 500 companies that are phasing out the retirement option in favor of "indefinite-employment" plans, under which thousands of qualified workers will continue to earn yearly stipends in exchange for work.

"To the list of outmoded and costly business practices such as health insurance, overtime pay, and lunch breaks, add age-based quitting," corporate management consultant Robert Hopgood said. "Post-retirement-age labor is great for companies, and it's a great way for seniors to stay active."

American companies are following the model set by General Electric, which in the 1970s began requiring departing employees to give 45 years' notice.

Although the paradigm shift is highly admired among cost-conscious managers in the business world, employees question its practicality.

"I don't need to support my family anymore," said 93-year-old Alfred Nuzzo, who has worked as a products inspector for GE's small-appliance division for 68 years. "I have a dead wife and three dead kids."

Multitasking while dying on the job can take its toll. GE customer-service representative Esther Fischbeck, 88, is juggling career, widowhood, and early-stage Alzheimer's disease.


Supervisor Gladys Schiele, 93, inspects the work of data-entry clerk Jack Vandenbogen, 87.
"What is this?" said Fischbeck, clawing at her phone headset. "When do I go home?"

Responding to critics who say that phasing out retirement shows a lack of concern for workers, IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano argued that if companies didn't care about their elderly employees, they would not keep them on the payroll.

"We frequently honor their birthdays with celebrations, and our going-away parties are always respectful and appropriately somber affairs," Palmisano said. "IBM is like a family—you don't leave a family."

Lawrence Babbio Jr., president of Verizon, defended his company's newly enstated non-retirement plan.

"We believe in our workers," Babbio said. "Everyone is valuable and has something to offer, and we're not going to phase them out just because they only have a few years left to live. Even vegetative employees can serve the company by donating valuable, hard-to-find organs to our younger executives. And our comatose employees are very useful as product testers."

Saying that an older person in a wheelchair "shouldn't be pushed into a corner, but in front of a desk," Hewlett-Packard's Hurd said lifetime employment will make his company more inclusive.

"There's a place at our organization for everyone—the young, the old, the mentally incapacitated, the moribund," Hurd said. "All we ask of them is to work a regular 40-hour shift and honor our 'no mercy killing' policy."

He added, "We pride ourselves on the fact that, even after death, our employees can continue to contribute to the company's growth. In an uncertain world, we offer real job security—from training to the grave."
© Copyright 2006, Onion, Inc. All rights reserved.The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age.

angel

You will not be retiring! Don't worry!

Cyclist0094

The count down begins 364.5 days till Five-oh!
(My wife turns 50 in April )

To practice for our future , We are going to try the early bird special at the chinese buffet today, I am however going to pass on the free breakfast at Denny's .
My wife is practicing how to slowly count 93 cents in pennies from her change purse at 7:45 am weekdays

GrannyGear

The interesting thing about AARPsters is the dramatic differences in life-style and assumptions about themselves. Some people in their late 50's/mid 60's have prematurely resigned themselves to the recliner because they're meeting societal or self expectations. But then......there's the early 60's guy who regularly flies by me out on Sonora Road with an "On your left" and disappears over the first hill.

A few years ago, me about 55 y.o., I sweated up to the top of Mt. Lassen and found two elderly couples perched on an outcropping sharing jerky and gatorade. They were in their late 60's, didn't patronize "youngster" me, and modestly let slip they were "credit card" hiking through California....next stop the hikes to Upper Yosemite Falls and Clouds' Rest in Yosemite. Then there's the wrinkly 70's couple (apologies to Zonatandem) who shot by me on a downhill and banked like an F-14 through the first turn. Caught them at a rest stop. Sweet grandmotherly lady with a killer cycling tan offered me some homemade cookies. (Oatmeals and they were great.)

Truely-- life is what you, luck (or blessing), and determination make of it.

Guest

What is the point of AARP, seriously? I called to get information for my parents, who are really struggling right now, and it seemed to be more of a money hungry collection agency than a concerned support group for elderly,struggling adults.

Just wondering.

Koffee

DnvrFox

It definitely is NOT a concerned support group!

It has a tremendous lobby in congress for the purpose of advocating for its positions representing "RP's" I guess.

It has a tremendous marketing arm of all sorts of products, upon which it gives its imprimatur, thereby hopefully assuring some minimum level of quality and service. Many folks swear by their Medicare Supplement, for example. Also, thereby, reaping lots of money to the organization.

They have NEVER asked me my opinion on any of the issues for which they advocate. Anyone else here ever been asked? I don't know how they formulate their advocacy stands. In their behalf, however, I have never attended a local AARP meeting, if there are such things. BUt, if there are, I have never been noticed of the meeting.

Nevertheless, I am a member, as I believe that without a strong lobbying arm and representation, "seniors" would get pretty much run over by all of the lobbying by the medical industrial complex, the big employer bunch, the national CofC, etc. I've got to have someone speaking for me, even if I don't agree with them 100% of the time.

But caring, support and concern on a personal basis? Nope. Better a church or the local "Seniors" organization or center.

Just for the heck of it, I just did a search on their web site. This is my closest local chapter:

Chapters Near You
Search Results

Chapter Name: Douglas County
Chapter Number: 005370
Distance: 4.97 miles
Meeting Place: Castle Rock Senior Center
2323 WOODLANDS BLVD
CASTLE ROCK, CO 80104-2853
Meeting Days: 2nd Thursday
Meeting Times: 1:00 p.m.
Closed During: July August

AARP encourages chapters to meet in locations that are physically accessible to all persons, including people with disabilities.

Dchiefransom

What's wrong with a recumbent? I'll be relaxing in my "recliner" soon, hopefully in a couple of months. Not quite like this baby, though.

https://www.lightningbikes.com/r84.htm

BTW Koffee, the AARP was originally formed so the founder could get a targeted market group to sell life insurance to, not that he would ever admit that.