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Author Topic: What Makes You Feel Old?  (Read 6148 times)

Ben

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What Makes You Feel Old?
« on: October 10, 2015, 02:17:35 PM »
Specifically, physical / mental changes to your body versus stuff like not knowing who a current celebrity is.

The change that has most affected me is the need for reading glasses. I'm apparently somewhat lucky in that I didn't have the need until after I turned 50. A lot of people I know started needing them after 40. It bugs the hell out of me, more, I think, than if I were to need a prescription for normal vision. If that were the case, I'd just have the glasses on all the time, or would elect for laser surgery.

With the stupid reading glasses though,  I end up keeping like a dozen pairs in everything from my toolbox to my fly fishing vest to my vehicles, and then I still end up sitting in a dark restaurant or going to the Home Despot and not being able to read fine print because I don't have glasses on me because I usually don't wear the kind of clothes with a pocket that will hold them comfortably. It's just super irritating not being able to see small stuff on my own without help.

A (currently) more minor thing is forgetfulness. I find I have to, more and more, leave myself notes about everything, and on the more serious front, have occasionally forgotten to turn a burner off on the stove or similar.

When I was younger and my hair first started thinning, I thought that would be the worst "old guy" thing. That hasn't really bothered me at all though. I've embraced the buzz cut and prefer it to long hair.

So what makes you feel old?
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Scout26

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2015, 02:54:51 PM »
I would answer this but I can't find my reading glasses...
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MillCreek

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2015, 02:59:09 PM »
In addition to finding it difficult to focus on close repair jobs, I dislike the musculoskeletal aches and pains.  Even in the absence of any trauma or strains.  Just general advancing decrepitude, I guess.
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Brad Johnson

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2015, 03:02:51 PM »
Every time I catch myself saying "When I was their age...".

Brad
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2015, 03:08:05 PM »
I may not be as old as some of you farts, but I already catch myself in "when I was your age" "damn kids" and "why didn't they have this crap when I was a kid"(usually accompanied with embarrassing my wife in Walmart).


Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.
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Fly320s

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2015, 03:08:33 PM »
Kids, eyes, knowing that I'll never be great at anything and that all my skills are degrading.
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HeroHog

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2015, 03:09:13 PM »
Becoming disabled and unable to work. I have held a job since I was 12 and was never out of work any longer than I wanted to be/was physically able to work.

Hair? Left in my 30's.
Eyes? All my life I have been blind as a bat.
Arthritis/Bad knees/back? Since my late teens/early 20's.
Memory? What were we talking about?
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vaskidmark

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2015, 03:38:07 PM »
If I had known I was going to live this long I would have done even more stupid stuff that has now caught up with me.

Except maybe not smoked.  COPD is a biotch.

Oh, lordy - there I go again, talking about my health.  Wanna seen my CABAG scars?  Let me tell you about .....

Yes, the folks I hang out with IRL seem so share many of the same conditions and we do get into "My __ is worse than yours" discussions.

stay safe.
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castle key

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2015, 03:54:18 PM »
Don't feel old, but stay off my lawn.
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2015, 03:54:38 PM »
I always win the "wanna compare scars" event with my double lower hernia and coccyx removal scars. NOBODY want's to see those!
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2015, 03:57:55 PM »
Oh yeah, passing out from standing up getting off the toilet, THAT made me feel pretty old...

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2015, 04:46:28 PM »
Quote from: HeroHog on October 10, 2015, 03:09:13 PM
Becoming disabled and unable to work. I have held a job since I was 12 and was never out of work any longer than I wanted to be/was physically able to work.


Dammit! You could've had the decency to wait a day or two before winning the thread. ;)

I'm 55 and get along pretty well w/o glasses (let's see if I pass the vision test for my drivers license again in a couple of months)  But I can't read the fine print on coupons, labels, etc any more -- even tho' I'm slightly nearsighted.  Also I gain weight a *lot* easier now than I did 10 years ago, and it's awfully slow coming back off.

My gray hair has a lot more to do with stress at work than age.
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2015, 05:28:47 PM »
Quote from: Brad Johnson on October 10, 2015, 03:02:51 PM
Every time I catch myself saying "When I was their age...".

Brad

Me too. When I was their age, when I was in the Army........
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2015, 05:44:07 PM »
I turn 59 later this month.  The aches and pains, forgetfulness*, eyeballs misbehaving, etc.  All the joys of getting older.
Like Ben, I embraced the buzz cut some time back, and the bald spot toward the back of my head no longer bothers me.

*Alzheimer's killed my maternal grandmother.  My mother was moved into a memory care center Oct. 1 this year because Alzheimer's is now killing her.  My mother spent years terrified about contracting the disease after watching her own mother die from it.
Now it's got me worried.  Every little memory lapse gives me pause.
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2015, 05:47:33 PM »
Quote from: Ben on October 10, 2015, 02:17:35 PM
Specifically, physical / mental changes to your body versus stuff like not knowing who a current celebrity is.

I lost track of current celeberities long ago.  Moving into progressive lenses didn't bother me.  Turning 40, or 50, didn't bother me.

What makes me feel old is, being creaky.  One knee bad, the other foot has a spot that will leave me hobbling within a block.

And the prostate cancer.
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #15 on: October 10, 2015, 05:55:40 PM »
Needing naps every now and then.
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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2015, 05:57:48 PM »
Quote from: charby on October 10, 2015, 05:55:40 PM
Needing naps that you seldom have time for every now and then.

Fixed that for you.
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Triphammer

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2015, 06:10:32 PM »
"Old" like in a bad way? I'm 62, finally making decent money, I've got a crew that does the hard work so I can supervise & make the Command Decisions. These are the bennies of getting older. The aches & pains came on slow so it's like they've always been part of my life. Glasses? I fought that one step  at a time. Bought a couple pair of reading glasses for home & in the truck. The best method I had was a 2" folding magnifier for my pocket  (getting hard to find) and a Fresnel type flat plastic magnifier for my wallet. I actually carried the flat magnifier since my 20's as an emergency fire starter.
 The mirror. That's what makes me feel old. If I'm not looking, my minds eye sees me @ 20. Until I look into that GD mirror.
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Monkeyleg

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #18 on: October 10, 2015, 06:19:18 PM »
Too many things to list. One of the biggest is watching and listening to young people. I realize how large a gulf there is between my age and theirs, and that there's no going back, no matter how much I want it.

Like Fly320's, I also have that ache knowing that I'll never be great at anything. No time left. It really hit me when I started playing guitar, and realized that in all my life, I was never as good or never will be as good in things I do as Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Keith Richards, etc were at what they did.
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BobR

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #19 on: October 10, 2015, 06:22:37 PM »
What makes me feel old is getting out of bed in the mornings and hobbling around on arthritic feet and knees until I can get them limbered up from rest. Just one of the small consequences of doing things in my youth that have caught up with me.

OTOH, riding my motorcycle makes me young again, with a respect for how quick it can kill me that has come with age. ;)


bob
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Ben

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #20 on: October 10, 2015, 07:06:47 PM »
Quote from: BobR on October 10, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
What makes me feel old is getting out of bed in the mornings and hobbling around on arthritic feet and knees until I can get them limbered up from rest. Just one of the small consequences of doing things in my youth that have caught up with me.


I have a bit of that as well. My feet got really picky about what shoes I can wear, and since my surgery a few years ago, my stomach got picky about food. These things don't bother me as much as the vision.

It sounds stupid, but I think I equate some of my "getting old" stuff with, "How would I survive the zombie apocolypse?"  :laugh:

The feet and the stomach cramps, they're something that would hurt for a while, but I recognize that it's a pain I can power through if needed and then when I stop whatever causes the pain, the pain stops. With the stupid not being able to do close up stuff, there's no pain, but it's also not something I can "power through". It's just there all the time and always affecting me without reading glasses, or if it eventually gets worse, without going in for eye surgery. I guess it's kind of a control issue with me as much as a "getting old" issue.
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Scout26

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #21 on: October 10, 2015, 10:08:24 PM »
My kids Birthdays...
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Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won't help.


Bring me my Broadsword and a clear understanding.
Get up to the roundhouse on the cliff-top standing.
Take women and children and bed them down.
Bless with a hard heart those that stand with me.
Bless the women and children who firm our hands.
Put our backs to the north wind.
Hold fast by the river.
Sweet memories to drive us on,
for the motherland.

BryanP

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old
« Reply #22 on: October 10, 2015, 10:51:45 PM »
My ever increasing need for reading glasses. That and my inability to stay up late and bounce back the next day anymore. I spent last night until 1:30 this morning upgrading our SCCM systems and I had to take a 2 hour nap this afternoon to recover.
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RoadKingLarry

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #23 on: October 10, 2015, 10:52:22 PM »
Being on the youngish side of the APS Olde Farte Society I don't feel too bad. Only have a few surgical scars, typical male pattern baldness, the top of my head may be showing lots of scalp but the beard is still magnificent , never smoked so haven't had any respiratory issues so far. On the other hand I don't need to watch the weather to know when a front is coming through or it's fixin' to rain, a few too many youthful indiscretions that occurred before I understood that whole mortality thing that never cease to remind me, knees, back, shoulder, wrist...
I quit worried about being "the best" at something and now take life for the shear enjoyment. I'll never be a world class sailor or Pulitzer prize winning photographer but those activities make me smile and that's enough for me but, if I manage to make someone else happy with something I'm doing then that's a bonus.
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BryanP

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Re: What Makes You Feel Old?
« Reply #24 on: October 10, 2015, 10:55:15 PM »
Quote from: HeroHog on October 10, 2015, 03:57:55 PM
Oh yeah, passing out from standing up getting off the toilet, THAT made me feel pretty old...


Ouch, that looks painful.

And yeah, micturation syncopy. It's a thing. Ask me how I learned that term.  =|
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