I'm extremely fortunate in that I've found a cycling group that has a huge age range. Sure, I'm toward the upper end of the range, but there are several guys (and a few women) that are older than I am. One of them is 55 and regularly rides centuries on his fixed gear. So at least within the group, there is very little age bias. If you can ride, it's all good. Most of the rides are pub crawls, and while most people have a drink at each stop, not everyone does, and that's cool. You'll see everything from spandexed roadies to blue-jeaned hipsters, and everyone gets along. One friend tends to call me "Mr." which kind of annoys me, but he's a decent guy otherwise so I let it slide. I do have sons his age so I can't blame him for being respectful. (In fact, several riders know one or both of my sons from high school.) Whatev.

I'm a local historian who regularly goes through old photos of prominent people within our community. I'm always blown away when I look at an old 1920's/30's photo of a married couple who appear to be in their early sixties, then I find out they were barely thirty when the photo was taken. We ALL look damned good for our age!

Heh, I remember a teen/20-something pet store clerk noticing by bike & saying it was too cold to ride (60 F & sunny). Sometimes I ride past a local high school which has preciously few bikes locked to their rack--I've seen their students wait for 15 minutes just to exit out of the parking lot with their cars with windows rolled up & A/C on despite beautiful weather. On local bike path I see very few teens exercising...mostly either 20/30-somethings that are already fit & maintaining or else oldsters that are fit or either trying to lose weight.

Here in Washington State, you can renew your drivers license online every other cycle and they send you a new license with your original photo. A few weeks ago, checking out with a credit card at the hardware store the pretty 20-something behind the counter asked for my drivers license. She looked at it, looked at me and said "you look so young in your photo". I got a good laugh out of it, but there is a bit of reality in there too.

In Va you can do the same and the new license is sent to you with your old picture. Even though my license hadn't expired, I had lost so much weight, about 100lbs at that time, I looked radically different than my old photo. Didn't want issues with someone stating that it wasn't me in the photo

Well, it was my turn today to bump my nose on the wall of reality.
I brought two very large boxes up to the counter at the Post Office today and the postal clerk, a man in his mid 50s, said Wow, do ya' have the grand-kids in those boxes?
Bump.
Ouch.

Now, I would love to have some grand-kids, (my daughters are in no hurry to provide them though) but, damn it, I didn't want to know I look like I could have grand-kids.

I am still active and don't shun physical work. I often buy Sand and Ballast in 56lb bags at the local builders merchants and Although on a trolley- It still has to get pushed out to the van and then get loaded. Last week I did my usual trip to the store and as I paid for the ten sacks they asked if I needed a hand loading up. "Yes Please"---The one that came to give me a hand was a young girl and I would put her build as XXXL. After 2 sacks I told the girl I could load on my own and I think she was grateful. She was puffing a lot more than I was.

I can top that. The girl in my instance was at a grocery store checkout, and said "Wow. You used to be pretty good looking."

"Thanks Mam, I imagine you were beautiful at one time, too"

Just a thought and a rare quick reply.

Bill

Reminds me of the title of a book: Beauty is temporary but dumb is forever.

Just noted. Lots of people hanging around on a Saturday morning. We're supposed to be out there riding. Unfortunately it's 25F out there and I have Christmas stuff todo.

Ditto and ice all over the place. I have been doing stretching and some weight lifting, and am SERIOUSLY contemplating riding on my trainer - just as soon as I complete this very important internet posting.

Did my ride around 04:45, 37ºF with a wind chill of 26ºF(20 mph winds with gusts in the 30s).

Tomorrow is supposed to be low 30s with wind chill in the mid 20s, only 10 mph winds predicted.

You are nuts Mikey, N V T S , nuts.

Bill

I don't have that luxury. I was reasonably sure that the World was coming to an end yesterday, so I haven't done anything for Christmas. I'm heading out to the Walmart soon. Stupid Mayans.