Going through the stages
#26
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My gradnfather on my Dad's side was over 100 years old and still saving for his old age. He often told me that a person was only as old as they thought they were.
He was in fantastic health right up until the day he died.
Cheers
He was in fantastic health right up until the day he died.
Cheers
#27
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Getting older, not always pleasant, but it sure beats the alternative!
Tim
Tim
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#28
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I always wondered if I was going to lose my hair before I went gray. Now it looks like it'll be a tie. I'm graying from the sides up, and I'm losing it from the top down.
#29
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When COVID first hit, I needed a safe way to exercise other than my other passion, bagging peaks on the local mountains for fear of encountering other heavy breathers, so turned back to my passion of my 30s and 40s, cycling. At 65, then, I found that I was so grossly out of cycling shape that maintaining 15 MPH was a real effort. Keeping at it and pushing myself, I have watched my speed and endurance increase. 14 mile rides have turned to 30, 40 and 60mile rides while speed has picked up, in part due to a modern light weight bike with better gearing. Now rapidly approaching 67, I am getting really fit, lost weight and just keep improving.
As an aside I saw a podiatrist due to a self inflicted injury - a overly long cleat screw unknowingly poking my fore foot due to some neuropathy due to another self-inflicted injury (moving an overloaded wheel barrow and compressing a disc <- what an idiot) - and when he asked my age, he said, I thought you were at least 10 years younger - just became my favorite health care provider.
But this is a roundabout way of saying, after reading all the posts about how performance really drops off after hitting 70 really has me concerned. Here I am making great strides and facing a big drop-off in the not so distant future is not exactly comforting. But then I know I can’t perform like I did in my early adulthood (no more centuries) either. I may have to just accept that decrease, but it sure isn’t easy when things are getting good.
For the time being I will continue to push myself and for the winter have planned for the first time, doing a structured training plan. Maybe I can hold off the inevitable for a couple more years.
As an aside I saw a podiatrist due to a self inflicted injury - a overly long cleat screw unknowingly poking my fore foot due to some neuropathy due to another self-inflicted injury (moving an overloaded wheel barrow and compressing a disc <- what an idiot) - and when he asked my age, he said, I thought you were at least 10 years younger - just became my favorite health care provider.
But this is a roundabout way of saying, after reading all the posts about how performance really drops off after hitting 70 really has me concerned. Here I am making great strides and facing a big drop-off in the not so distant future is not exactly comforting. But then I know I can’t perform like I did in my early adulthood (no more centuries) either. I may have to just accept that decrease, but it sure isn’t easy when things are getting good.
For the time being I will continue to push myself and for the winter have planned for the first time, doing a structured training plan. Maybe I can hold off the inevitable for a couple more years.
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#30
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I took him to another hospital where he was able to get the care he needed and he was back on his feet in two days. There I was told that for every day and elderly person spends in a hospital bed it takes a certain amount of PT to get them fully recovered.
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"It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels." -- Heinz Stücke
"It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels." -- Heinz Stücke
#31
Semper Fi
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Had my wake up moment last week, wife and I met with an agent to go over the various Medicare supplements, and "Advantage" policies. Came home and submitted my SSI and Medicare on-line stuff since I am in the 3 month window for my 65th BD. Wife hits her 3 month in December. I swear that my usual joint aches and pains became worse for a few days.
I took a class and exam to reactivate my engineering credentials two weeks ago, I was easily the oldest attendee there, including the instructor/proctor.
Ahhh, still happy to not be in the obits, and on the green side of the grass.
Bill
I took a class and exam to reactivate my engineering credentials two weeks ago, I was easily the oldest attendee there, including the instructor/proctor.
Ahhh, still happy to not be in the obits, and on the green side of the grass.
Bill
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Semper Fi, USMC, 1975-1977
I Can Do All Things Through Him, Who Gives Me Strength. Philippians 4:13
Semper Fi, USMC, 1975-1977
I Can Do All Things Through Him, Who Gives Me Strength. Philippians 4:13
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#33
Made it to 84 WHOOPIE
Individuals with disabilities have a particularly hard time on the medical hospital issue. Some MDS think that someone else's life is not of a high enough quality to work hard to save them. My son is paralyzed from the shoulders down, literally, and he is a Stanford law school graduate and a nationally known civil rights attorney, along with his wife, a Yale graduate. I always worry that some MD in a hospital will not think that my son's life is important or valuable and that he would be better off not alive. This has actually happened in the past.
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#34
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I think I've told this story before, but I got my first ever senior discount (river boat ride) and carded for beer on the same day!
Yeah, and I can also visualize them as they probably looked in high school... I didn't used to could do that.
Yeah, and I can also visualize them as they probably looked in high school... I didn't used to could do that.
#35
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When COVID first hit, I needed a safe way to exercise other than my other passion, bagging peaks on the local mountains for fear of encountering other heavy breathers, so turned back to my passion of my 30s and 40s, cycling. At 65, then, I found that I was so grossly out of cycling shape that maintaining 15 MPH was a real effort. Keeping at it and pushing myself, I have watched my speed and endurance increase. 14 mile rides have turned to 30, 40 and 60mile rides while speed has picked up, in part due to a modern light weight bike with better gearing. Now rapidly approaching 67, I am getting really fit, lost weight and just keep improving.
As an aside I saw a podiatrist due to a self inflicted injury - a overly long cleat screw unknowingly poking my fore foot due to some neuropathy due to another self-inflicted injury (moving an overloaded wheel barrow and compressing a disc <- what an idiot) - and when he asked my age, he said, I thought you were at least 10 years younger - just became my favorite health care provider.
But this is a roundabout way of saying, after reading all the posts about how performance really drops off after hitting 70 really has me concerned. Here I am making great strides and facing a big drop-off in the not so distant future is not exactly comforting. But then I know I can’t perform like I did in my early adulthood (no more centuries) either. I may have to just accept that decrease, but it sure isn’t easy when things are getting good.
For the time being I will continue to push myself and for the winter have planned for the first time, doing a structured training plan. Maybe I can hold off the inevitable for a couple more years.
As an aside I saw a podiatrist due to a self inflicted injury - a overly long cleat screw unknowingly poking my fore foot due to some neuropathy due to another self-inflicted injury (moving an overloaded wheel barrow and compressing a disc <- what an idiot) - and when he asked my age, he said, I thought you were at least 10 years younger - just became my favorite health care provider.
But this is a roundabout way of saying, after reading all the posts about how performance really drops off after hitting 70 really has me concerned. Here I am making great strides and facing a big drop-off in the not so distant future is not exactly comforting. But then I know I can’t perform like I did in my early adulthood (no more centuries) either. I may have to just accept that decrease, but it sure isn’t easy when things are getting good.
For the time being I will continue to push myself and for the winter have planned for the first time, doing a structured training plan. Maybe I can hold off the inevitable for a couple more years.
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Results matter
Results matter
#36
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(For those who have not been blessed with a sense of irony…please don’t take this seriously. I can FEEL people getting ready to write “what do you care about what others think?”. I get it. Honest.)
...
Acceptance - I dropped some change at the Newport Aquarium. A pretty young girl asked me if I’d like her to pick it up for me. “Yes!” and I thanked her profusely.
That is all.
...
Acceptance - I dropped some change at the Newport Aquarium. A pretty young girl asked me if I’d like her to pick it up for me. “Yes!” and I thanked her profusely.
That is all.
The Great Mandala, the wheel of life, which we all ride.
Each place on the wheel is proper.
Each place on the wheel gives a different experience, a different perspective.
Different challenges and rewards.
Acceptance doesn't mean capitulation; the wheel requires energy and commitment to living, in order to turn.
It's your wheel, as we each have our own.
Ride On
Thx
Yuri
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#37
Version 7.0
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Welcome back Dudelsack formerly The Weak Link. I always enjoyed your posts and threads that I would put in the dark humor meets tongue in cheek nouveau chic genre. I am 72 and getting to 70 was like getting varsity status in high school. The junior varsity kids just do quite measure up and “get it”. Varsity is a very tough league in which to play as many have pointed out in this thread for lots of reasons. I will just add a couple of observations within your list of stages.
(For those who have not been blessed with a sense of irony…please don’t take this seriously. I can FEEL people getting ready to write “what do you care about what others think?”. I get it. Honest.)
For those who recall being young and virile…
I have completed the fifth stage of grieving over my almost 70-ishship.
Denial - being given the senior discount without asking for it. “I don’t look that old. Do I?”
I have never been offered a senior discount which I assume was standard protocol of hey, if they do not ask for it, charge them full price. My best senior discounts are on ski passes, hotels and airline tickets.
Anger - “if someone under forty calls me ‘sweetie’ one more time…”
I have NEVER been called sweetie by anyone. But I hate “nice pull”.
Bargaining - “you know, if I lost some weight and coloured my hair I’d look a lot younger…”
I do not trust mirrors. I seem to look too young and prefer selfies. I think I look old in pictures which is in fact…the truth.
Depression - “I’m invisible to these college girls…”
At the gym, the college women, who are a lot stronger than me (power lifters), ignore me. I do get an occasional smile from one of them. This is all we can hope for.
Acceptance - I dropped some change at the Newport Aquarium. A pretty young girl asked me if I’d like her to pick it up for me. “Yes!” and I thanked her profusely.
On Sunday, my wife and I stopped at the Camp Pendleton marine base to show our badge so that we can cycle through the camp. My wife stopped more quickly than I anticipated and for a moment, I was caught clipped in. I started to fall to the right and a marine guard lurched to try to catch me. Fortunately, I got my foot out and down. He said, are you okay sir. Absolutely.
How bad would it have been to be caught by a marine preventing a clipless fall. Just let me hit the ground with dignity. Please.
That is all.
For those who recall being young and virile…
I have completed the fifth stage of grieving over my almost 70-ishship.
Denial - being given the senior discount without asking for it. “I don’t look that old. Do I?”
I have never been offered a senior discount which I assume was standard protocol of hey, if they do not ask for it, charge them full price. My best senior discounts are on ski passes, hotels and airline tickets.
Anger - “if someone under forty calls me ‘sweetie’ one more time…”
I have NEVER been called sweetie by anyone. But I hate “nice pull”.
Bargaining - “you know, if I lost some weight and coloured my hair I’d look a lot younger…”
I do not trust mirrors. I seem to look too young and prefer selfies. I think I look old in pictures which is in fact…the truth.
Depression - “I’m invisible to these college girls…”
At the gym, the college women, who are a lot stronger than me (power lifters), ignore me. I do get an occasional smile from one of them. This is all we can hope for.
Acceptance - I dropped some change at the Newport Aquarium. A pretty young girl asked me if I’d like her to pick it up for me. “Yes!” and I thanked her profusely.
On Sunday, my wife and I stopped at the Camp Pendleton marine base to show our badge so that we can cycle through the camp. My wife stopped more quickly than I anticipated and for a moment, I was caught clipped in. I started to fall to the right and a marine guard lurched to try to catch me. Fortunately, I got my foot out and down. He said, are you okay sir. Absolutely.
How bad would it have been to be caught by a marine preventing a clipless fall. Just let me hit the ground with dignity. Please.
That is all.
#38
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^ Lol ... honestly no ... not for me. The most attractive women I knew in high school didn't age well. The skinny wallflowers are the ones that look hot now.
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Proud parent of a happy inner child ...
Proud parent of a happy inner child ...
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#39
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But tell me ... did you really have women in your engineering classes? At that point in my life, I was either in engineering school (sausagefest), surfing (sausagefest), or working (rejection being the norm).
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Proud parent of a happy inner child ...
Proud parent of a happy inner child ...
#40
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Computer and EE classes were 90% male, for sure. But the campus was another story, and my electives were balanced. No, there were plenty of young ladies around.
#41
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I turned 70 this year and I'm proud of it. I have my health struggles and am over weight but I still ride 7,000 miles a year and enjoy life. When I started my adult riding life in 1982, I never dreamed that I would still be riding and enjoying it at 70. I figure that I've won and it's bonus from here on out.
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Keep the chain tight!
#42
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When my wife went back to nursing school, they had a couple classes where all the nursing students (mostly female) walked across the street to a large auditorium in the engineering building. Every week she said there were engineering students stopping to stare at them. The professor did say something about how it was important to gradually introduce the budding engineers to the opposite sex.
#43
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When my wife went back to nursing school, they had a couple classes where all the nursing students (mostly female) walked across the street to a large auditorium in the engineering building. Every week she said there were engineering students stopping to stare at them. The professor did say something about how it was important to gradually introduce the budding engineers to the opposite sex.
The women engineers tended to be married to other engineers... that was probably a personality thing rather than a lack of other prospects.
#44
Senior Member
Geeze,was it really that bad out West? Here in Ohio, I attended Ohio State '76-77, and Cleveland State '80-81 as an engineering student. The OSU year I was even lodged in the all-male upper-classmen Engineering dorm! So freshman year at OSU - lots of Bio- and Chem-Eng females in my classes maybe a few Civils.. ElectEng?? Never saw too many of those... Not much else. Four years later, for my 3rd year at CSU (I took classes part-time in between while working other jobs) the SAE/MechEng 'student lounge' was across the hall from the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) lounge, so we interacted quite often...
#45
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What bugs me is when woman around my age ‘give me the eye’. They never did that in my 20s and 30s! Better late than never? Don’t tell my wife.
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#46
Senior Member
At 73 I feel quite a few discomforts that accompany old age. Muscles ache, stamina is reduced, strength is reduced, and overall performance in my outdoor activities is diminished. I cycle more slowly and go shorter distances. My hiking is slower and distances shorter. Ski days have shortened a bit as well. But so what? This is what happens when you get older. No problem. As long as you remain enthusiastic in the things you love to do, you will be fine. I like cycling, hiking, and skiing as much as ever despite the discomforts and aches. Live life as much as you can. It's a mistake not to.
#47
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Individuals with disabilities have a particularly hard time on the medical hospital issue. Some MDS think that someone else's life is not of a high enough quality to work hard to save them. My son is paralyzed from the shoulders down, literally, and he is a Stanford law school graduate and a nationally known civil rights attorney, along with his wife, a Yale graduate. I always worry that some MD in a hospital will not think that my son's life is important or valuable and that he would be better off not alive. This has actually happened in the past.
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Momento mori, amor fati.
Momento mori, amor fati.
#48
Member
The "deck" gets reshuffled. That is probably a continual process, but I did not notice it until about fifteen years after high school. By the time you hit your 60s, how you take care of yourself is so much more important than how you looked when you were young. Genetics still plays a big role in various ways, but not in exactly the same way it did at 18 or 22 (having hair, for example).
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#49
Junior Member
In our senior years there is a good quote “ Happiness is good health and a bad memory”
Works for me
Works for me