You Know You're Getting Old...

[Jimbuna]

When you have difficulty remembering the thought you had a minute or so earlier.

[vienna]

Wait,....what?...


<O>

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by STEED

When your offspring pack your bags and dump you in a OAP home.

AHEM! Your acknowledged offspring...you know: just the ruthless jackals with their own copies of the will that are getting impatient! God knows I can't remember any of their mothers' names...

[vienna]

I gave this a bit of thought. I think the definitive moment was when I realized I was older than the President of the US. If there is anything heinous to blame Obama for, it is making me realize I am quite old now. If he runs again, I will not vote for him...

This subject brought to mind something I've thought about in recent years. I've lived in my present neighborhood for 40 years and have been in and out of the area about another 10 years. In that time, I've noticed a lot of overt changes; buildings torn down, buildings going up, businesses closing, new ones opening, etc. Some of the changes were far more subtle. A few years back, a clerk in a store I frequent made the offhand comment that I must have lived here a long time since he has seen me around for several years. After he said this, I thought about some of the people whom I had seen as more or less "regulars" in the area. I didn't really know any of them, they were just people I would see in the streets, in the stores, on the busses. Then I remembered one particular person. I never knew his real name, but his nickname was "Three Fingers" owing to two truncated fingers on his left hand. He was a low level bookie and I had been introduced to him by a co-worker at a bar we used to both frequent. It was a literally nodding acquaintance, both of us just giving a silent nod of acknowledgement on the occasions we noticed each other. He was already in his early 50s when I first saw him and I was in my early 30s. Through the years I watched him age. He was fairly healthy at first, then he began a long, slow decline. Walking became an effort for him. A few years later, I saw him walking with a walker. Then, he was using a motorized wheelchair. Next, an portable oxygen device was added to his needs. Then I saw him around no more...

I thought about the whole sequence, watching someone fade and decline, then fade off for good. The clerks comment made me realize: perhaps I have become some other person's "Three Fingers", the old guy they've seen around the neighborhood who is slowly declining and who will someday fade away, leaving behind the question "Whatever happened to that old guy..."...


<O>

[eddie]

I knew things were going bad the other day. I got up and put my shirt on but buttoned it wrong. Then spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how I did that in the first place! Ah, the Golden years!

That plus my youngest son just turned 40, and I get Medicare next month.

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by vienna

I thought about the whole sequence, watching someone fade and decline, then fade off for good. The clerks comment made me realize: perhaps I have become some other person's "Three Fingers", the old guy they've seen around the neighborhood who is slowly declining and who will someday fade away, leaving behind the question "Whatever happened to that old guy..."...


<O>

This is both poignant and true: why is it we notice ageing the most in those people who are "familiar strangers" to us; familiar faces of long-standing in our home town? And who indeed might be out there watching us in the same way...?

[Tango589]

6:00 AM is the time you get up, not when you go to bed.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by vienna

"Whatever happened to that old guy..."...


<O>

When I was young I thought I would be the exception to the rule and live forever...I'm beginning to perceive that is not going to be the case....Damn! I was just getting the hang of it all too!

[vienna]

Then there is the relative timeline of memories: when you are young, everything was a few years ago, maybe several years ago. When you age, years turn into decades. My teen age years? Fifty decades ago, an entire half century. Watergate, Nixon, the end of the Vietnam War? Four Decades ago. Reagan, Iran-Contra? Three decades ago. Everything is in lumps of decades, not years...

Add to this the realization that even if I live to be 100 years old, I will still have fewer years to live than the amount I have already lived...

I still plan to live to be 100; there are still too many people I have yet to annoy...


<O>

[Betonov]

I'm older than my own country
Can't se why you are complaining

[swamprat69er]

I intend to work and live until 2045. It is called 'Freedom 99'.

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Betonov

I'm older than my own country
Can't se why you are complaining

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by vienna

Then there is the relative timeline of memories: when you are young, everything was a few years ago, maybe several years ago. When you age, years turn into decades. My teen age years? Fifty decades ago, an entire half century. Watergate, Nixon, the end of the Vietnam War? Four Decades ago. Reagan, Iran-Contra? Three decades ago. Everything is in lumps of decades, not years...

Add to this the realization that even if I live to be 100 years old, I will still have fewer years to live than the amount I have already lived...

I still plan to live to be 100; there are still too many people I have yet to annoy...


<O>

Fifty decades eh?

You win the oldest on SubSim prize by a country mile

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Fifty decades eh?

You win the oldest on SubSim prize by a country mile

I caught that too. I was waiting to see if you would comment on it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

I caught that too. I was waiting to see if you would comment on it.

Comment?....took my breath away and nearly made me speechless