On aging...
 

I have lived in the same place for about 20 years and have about 300 friends that I see off and on throughout the year.


I just started to notice all my friends aging.
Time marches on.

Little kids ( as I remembered them ) are getting married.

All the wrinkles.

Many of my older friends have died.


At what point in your life did you notice that you're getting older?

I'm 42.


KT

I'm 40.

I feel older.

But thats not a bad thing. At least I'm not a walking landmine like I was when I was 20. And 30.

Not noticing it as much as you guys... But one of my close friends from HS is married and expecting a kid now... Kind of hit me when I found out she was preggers... I was like damn...


I don't want kids for a while... I have a considerable car collection to amass first... :D

Turning 40 Years hit me. I remember my Dad turning 40, I was about 16. He had a theme party "Life begins at 40" T Shirts, posters, everything. I remember walking around thinking "Who are all these old people kidding, their lives are over"

PS Never confide something like this with your wife, mine organized a suprise theme party with the theme "Life begins at 40" To make matter worse now my life begins at 40 shirt is faded from age!

That is a great line!

For me it started when my parents, both in their 90s passed.
I have lost two good friends and a brother in the past two years and my wife's younger brother is a grandfather.

Having said that, I think I am more comfortable with my age than I was 10 years ago. I am certainly having more fun.
As long as your body isn't cashing cheques you wrote in your foolish youth, life can be pretty good.

Les

I've had the shop in the same small town (15,000 pop.) for 25 years, have a pool of maybe 1000 I see fairly regularly. I think it depends a lot an what age someone is when you first meet them. Some don't change a great deal from 40 to 60. But adding 20 years on someone younger than 25 or so makes some big changes.
Jim

Went to one of the events for our high school reunion.
There were a lot of people there I wouldn't have recognized on the street. Some looked pretty good, some not so much....
I never had an anchor in time. No kids until a couple of years ago. Now when I see my boy getting bigger in the back of my mind I know I am getting older. I never really thought about it before.

I consider myself fairly active and young through snowboarding, biking and kayaking more so now than when I was in my 20's. But I think I am about to feel old today, I head back to College today and am thinking that the 18 year olds I will be attending with are exactly half my age. Other than that I do have a little grey hair but I started getting it in high school so thats never been a big deal.

I felt like 20 at 42. Is it life circumstances or your body that makes you feel old?

For me it was 2005 and I was 55. Went to take my pilot's physical and failed! Went to the doc and she suggested zillions of tests & I ended up with glasses, BP meds, Cholesteral meds, and a prostate "alert." I felt old at 55.
She suggested I start treating my body like a temple instead of an amusement park. Started jogging and then running marathons, lost 20 pounds, high blood pressure and cholesteral went away, prostate watch is still just a watch. Still needed glasses.
I got arthritis in my feet at 60 and had to stop running. I wanted to run the New York, Paris, and Rome marathons - didn't get to run Rome. Two out of three ain't bad I guess, but I'm feeling old again. Aches and pains everywhere all the time. It sucks.

I couldn't do this in my 20s or 30s. I'm in the best shape of my life at 45.
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I refuse to get older. It is never too late for a happy childhood!

I stopped worrying about getting older when I accepted the fact that there was nothing I could do to stop the process except take good care of myself.

55 is when it hit. Recovery rate on exercise and all of the friends aging and parents passing. Believe it or not there is still alot of good times though. Like the doc tells you need to change your life style because in 25 or 30 years you are going to feel the effects???WTF doc I feel them now so what does it matter:)

I attended my 35-year class reunion last month. Those people are getting old.

Same here on passing 55. Started noticing that the body just did not rebound as well as it used to. Still feel great most of the time but I realize that I am not 30 anymore.

I'm 51 and noticed it this year. Stress form work over the year and then out of work for a while. My hair turned gray early, just like my dad's hair did. Just seem to be tired more, can see the age in my face over the past 10 years, skin looks and feels thinner/wrinkled, so I started swimming/walking/jogging some. Lost some weight, but still need to work on it.

Don't know of any friends that passed on, as I've lost touch with almost all from high school. Never made it back to any reunions.

Glen, I swear, we must be related or something...
"I refuse to get older" has been -word for word- my motto for years, and it will be for many more.
"it's never too late for a happy childhood" is the perfect completion for it. ;)



Only reason why I could think I'm getting older is that I get more attention from women now than a few years ago...

This year I face 60. Although retired from the corp world, I'm actually very busy between 2 bands and smithing. Keeping busy is the key in my book. I feel great when I have a busy week more than when I just sit and do nothing. Then I feel like a slug. I know this sounds silly but 48 years of playing music and playing out has kept me "young". I look around me at stores and stuff and I see guys that are my age and less that jut look old and fat. I eat crappy, don't exercise, and smoke. Yet I've only gained 5 lbs since my twenties. I don't bounce back as fast from 3 a.m. club shows, but I still manage to work at the shop 2 days a week play 2 shows a week and get my home chores done. I think it's all in your head. Both my parents are dead now, and I have played at least 5 benefits this year for families in need of help after a loved one died at my age and less. Yes my hips are going out, arthritis is getting to my hands now, and it takes me longer to recover from illnesses like the flu and such but other than that I still feel great. The body may be preparing to die but my head is refusing to cooperate.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1283871299.jpg

So who's the old guy in the photo?
I've not changed a bit.......well except when i look in the mirror.
I'm still fairly spry, but the knees are starting to complain a little. Takes a while to staighten them out after squating to work on something.

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

My issue with getting older surfaced in my mid-late 40's. Made jokes about it at first, readers, groaning climbing out of the p-car. Chasing my dogs around one day and taking a big fall, my legs just couldn't keep up and I face planted over a bush onto my driveway. Laid there for 20 min with the dogs freaking thinking I was dead. Then not a week later I was building a long fence though only 42" tall. I dropped my hammer on the other side. Instead of walking all the way around, I jumped up on the fence and then jumped off. 42 inches. When I landed on the other side, I thought I was going to blow out both knees. Damn that hurt. That was the day I decided that getting old sucked seriously. Fast forward to now. 55. A hurricane just passed off the coast and the waves were fantastic. After they settled to 6 ft or so, I took the boogie board out. Jumped in for about a minute or 2 and jumped right back out. Trudged back up to our beach chairs and I told my wife I am too old to be trying this kind of stuff anymore. Does that suck or what?!

My 40's were a major turning point - now at 48 my overall health remains good but physical capability and subsequent aches and pains (almost constant) have greatly increased. Biggest contributors are the significant injuries of my youth - back, shoulders, and knees. Still workout at gym on regular basis but just last Saturday I pulled a calf muscle playing Frisbee with my son...

Santa. So be nice!

Start looking on Facebook and you will find your old schoolmates.

Have been to a lot of my reunions and enjoyed everyone of them. Going to my 40th next summer and cannot wait.

I turned 40 this year...and I am not in the shape I was at 20, that is for sure. But I went windsurfing after Earl went by this week-end. At first I felt out of shape catching my breath all the time, but then I felt alive again and put in some good runs...Exercise is key to stay in shape, and I will start kiteboarding now. My problem is just that I need excitement in my exercise. Gym or biking just does not do it for me.

I like that.

I hit a wall at about 43. Kept racing karts until 47 when a work accident put an end to that (neck injury). Felt about the same until around 63 which was good enough to work my ass off all the time, but not run sprints against those a third my age (which I could and would do at 40 against those half my age).

Now, I'm really off. Don't clean the house like I used to, don't wash the cars every week, hell, I don't even work that much. Well, the benefits are that I don't have as much pain as I read about here with some of you guys.

That is unless you figure getting really tired and sometimes sore is pain. I don't because tomorrow is always a new day.

I just turned 40 two weeks ago. I've lived here in Houston for about 15 years and in the house that I'm in for 13 years. It's the longest I've ever lived anyplace (previous "record" was about 6 years). I do realize that I'm getting older from little things here and there, but I don't feel old physically or mentally.

I remember noticing feeling older or less capable or something at 53. Now at 74 I work on my cars a lot more than I ever did and can do just about everything I need to do. Since I am no longer in a hurry I pace myself, and by paying attention, the arthritis, knee replacement, and back surgery do not come into play. Mechanicing keeps me flexible, but strength is down. The things that I can't do anymore, I've already forgotten about. Life is good.

Best,
Tom

I'm 42 and still limping from a touch game of football Sunday.

That's a big well done Tom. I hope I'm the same at 74...

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I'm 45 and I'm feeling good, There is nothing I can't do but like Tom I pay attention to what my body is telling me.
I walk for about an hour a day almost everyday without pain. I intend to keep walking and watching what I eat for as long as possible.

Meanwhile... I don't worry about getting old. It happens to us all and all you can do is make the best of anything that comes your way.
Yes the people you love will start dying off. I've seen my mother deal with that now that her friends are all in the 70s and 80s. But she's happy and enjoys life the best she can. My dad died about 12 years ago so it's been hard on her.

Just one last thing... I saw Michael Douglas on Dave Letterman the other night. He told Dave that he had stage 4 throat cancer. The type caused by excessive drinking.
One thing I was impressed with was his attitude. He seemed to be in good spirits.
I hope that attitude helps him fight through it.

Virus Spread by Oral Sex Is Linked to Throat Cancer - washingtonpost.com

I thought HPV had been linked to throught cancer

One thing that is not well known is that his wife is an absolute chain smoker. Being near her has to mean that he inhales a fair amount of smoke, so between that and a bit of booze am not surprised at all.

That said, he is a bit young for this to happen.

Every day is a good day but sometimes you really have a good day, isn't it all relative??? the alternatives are grim or are they???

Right now I have a brother-in-law, double wooden nickel 55, on his death bed for sure, cancer city.

I made this realization last week on my day off, I was touching up some stucco work and when I finished I hung some sheet rock in my garage. I was wasted to say the least, right then I said to myself, there is no way I could build another house myself. I would need at least 2 helpers, I would be the cutter and the finger pointer.

In two months I hit 62, I can't believe it. My knees are shot but they are still natural, I only ski 2-3 hours in a day now, running is a thing of the past but I can still ride the bike, can't rock climb anymore but hey, life is good :D

I feel pretty good for 49. The only thing that really bugs me is that my close up vision went away very suddenly in the last year or so. I wear readers most of the time now at work. Other then that, I am enjoying life.

getting run over by a car on my motorcycle started the spiral down. i cant sit indian style anymore. i cant really feel my entire right foot. and my lower body seems to ache all the time.

my vision..pfftt..in low light, like in the tunnel i work in..i can barely read my plan sheets. healing and recovering from exercise is a timely process. i pulled a hamy on my jog yesterday..i was laughing and crying at the same time. i must have looked ridiculous. i am still sore today.

can we look at the silver lining here?!! i have more money that when i was 20. i wish we could live life backwards..hahhah.

I'm 53 going on 12... and my wife thinks 12 is optimistic.


Ya big sissy! I get run over by cars two or three times a day and it doesn't slow me down!

But yeah... I do find myself thinking twice about any high risk activity that twenty years ago I would jump right into... but that is a good thing IMHO

43, Started wearing prescription sunglasses to see my RC planes. I have never had to wear glasses before. Mayors, Judges, Presidents, Senators and Congress (people) are about my age. That was when I realized I may be falling out of the hunt. Next thing I know they will be younger than me, Like being ruled by my kids. That and the "great white buffalo".

age 61, and I have decided I cannot do snowboarding anymore and need to go back to skiing next winter. My legs just can't do the board quick turns anymore, whereas skiing is more like floating down the hill.

And at 55 I needed glasses for reading.

I'm old when I get up in the morning for about 10 minutes, then I'm good till late evening...then I get old again....but only after, well you know.