Getting old...

[crestofwaves]

We just had a mini conversation on FB about getting our SS checks and that making us among the seniors citizens. 

It started me thinking about the things I do now that are just old people things.  For example, I have always been a night owl and still am. But if it's cold out, and dark, I might choose to stay in.  So instead of dinner out on Saturday night when every place in NJ is packed to the gills with young 'uns, I might be the one to say, lets just eat in tonight and go out for a nice meal tomorrow in the daylight.

What are some things you notice in your "boomer" behavior?

[T2Friends]

Well back in the day I might stop out after work for a drink with friends and we'd be out for the night, going bar hoping maybe even end up at a club and do some dancing AND get up for work in the morning.  Now that was really in my younger days!  Now when I go out for a drink after work to wind down, it is rarely more than one or two and I am home by 8, in bed my nine.  I still make it into work, but in many ways I feel much worse for the wear than I used to, so now I don't even do that very often.    

[ProblemAgain]

[Kim]

I talk about the way it used to be and how the OLD ways were better....YEP...I am my GRANDPARENTS at the age of 48!

 

[crestofwaves]

Lol! Prob.

Kim, you are still a KID!

[Kim]

GOOD Crest, because I still ACT like one....LOL!! ONE of these days I will GROW UP!!

 

[ProblemAgain]

some of the things you folks are talking about is simply from developing good sense and good taste. course there is a fine line between that and getting picky but there is also a not so fine line on the other side headed straight to flipflops and walmart accompanied  by shitty music...so someplace in the middle is, all in all, not a bad place to be.

someplace between this...

and this...

so looks like this is the place.....

[Lucinda Stone]

I think we just realize things better now. Like T2 said it was nothing to go out after work-- oh those bowling nights-- and still be 1/2 in the wrapper for Friday morning production meetings... With age comes wisdom, now we certainly know better... I still stay up late and have a few drinks but I'm only driving my couch while watching TV, lol... I'm pretty sure this group would be a wild bunch provided we didn't have to drive after dark :)
I have yet to get my "senior " dunkins coffee, but damn, what am I waiting for??

[ProblemAgain]

hey look on the bright side...if you shop at kroger for groceries, after 55 i think it is, you get a senior discount of 10 per cent off on their house brands and that is even 10 per cent off the sale price when the item is on sale...it adds up when it gets taken off your bill at the register. why you can even afford new yellow pants and a white belt to go to the early bird special at the golden corral buffet....

[T2Friends]

So we can show off our tramp stamps?  LOL

[uno,dos,3]

As an elder statesman, 68 years old......I can give some of you a glimpse into the probable future. Most of the changes in me have been physical changes that have then caused mental changes. At 63 years old I was doing great...I jogged 3 to 4 miles about 4 days/week, felt great, went to Sedona every winter to hike the beautiful red mountains (from retirement at 62 yrs. old to present), almost all things were wayyyy better then good.

Then somewhere, around 65 yrs. old, age started having a larger impact on my body........I broke my left foot and had a pin put in it and was told no more jogging......so I started walking 3 to 4 miles.....after about 3 months I went back to the doctor complaining about pain in my repaired foot.....the results showed the foot repair was good....it was arthritis that was bothering me......when I walked I eventually started looking like the Kevin Spacey character at the end of 'The Usual Suspects'......limping for about 15 feet, then returning to a normal gait as my foot loosened up. Walking is not as calorie burning as running....I gained 25 lbs.....then I acquired type 2 diabetes and my right foot sometimes has a burning sensation at night....arthritis started effecting my right foot about 3 months ago. When I get out of bed in the morning I'm wobbly and REALLY slow for about 10 to 20 minutes.......this wouldn't be so bad except I get out of bed about 3 times a night when I have go to the bathroom. Several years ago noise started to bother me. I go to a lot of restaurants and make reservations for a table against a wall.....if sound hits me from all directions I get irritable as I can no longer hear what my companion(s) is saying. I ONCE went to a Buffalo Wild Wings.....the meal couldn't end quickly enough.....then I recalled that, when I was under 30, I sought out happening places like that. To wrap up.....I can't tolerate lines, sometimes I get a glimpse of my father peeking back at me from my mirror, I no longer have the balance to go hiking on difficult trails alone, I'm somewhat more forgetful then in my younger days......and as you can see above....like a lot of old people I like to tell people about my various maladies.

On the other hand....I still enjoy life. I'm active (at a slower pace), I travel alone with minimal problems, my sense of humor has never deserted me, I have made adjustments that have enabled me to keep on trucking. I'm grateful tor the life I've had....it has actually exceeded my expectations.....and best of all I'm happy to wake up every day AND I look forward to whatever future remains ahead of me.

Of course I still get jolted into awareness of my 'oldness'. Two (very short) examples. I take my 5 yr. old grandson hiking....he runs...asks me why I'm so slow...I tell him about my broken foot....his reply "old people break easy". 

On a different social site I got the following e-mail from a female in her very early 50's.........I just wanted to tell you how many times your humor has made me laugh out loud, I think you're brilliant. Too bad you're so f-cking old.

[Snagg]

We went to see a band last night, one that my fiancee is much more fond of than I am. An Amy Winehouse-style, rockabilly/soul revue-revival type act from Australia, best known over here for being in a Heineken commercial. I was far more impressed with the middle group, a bunch of kids who said they were from Nashville but sounded like they're from Muscle Shoals by way of Detroit.

The Nashville youngsters had that fire in the belly, and you could tell that they truly love Southern soul and R&B music, that they play it even when they're not getting paid to, and that it's probably what's in their dash CD decks and on their turntables at home. The headliner, on the hand, clearly saw themselves as a "retro" act, and the music came a distant second to the whole choreography and razzle-dazzle stage show. Very rehearsed, very arch and almost totally joyless, with the band members themselves being little more than faceless, just-hit-your-notes support for the diva-wannabe lead singer and her back-up singers. They had the moves down cold, but there was zero heart or passion.

What made me reflect on my age wasn't just how I sized up the different acts, but sticking around afterwards to talk with the middle act, I couldn't help but overhear how other, younger members of the audience were more impressed with the headliner's act - That it was new and exciting and borderline-revolutionary to them. Yet it was something I'd seen and heard a thousand times, done far better by other bands. The headliner very much works a hipster, "Up-and-coming-underground-sensation" schtick, relying more on hype and media buzz than on playing serious music, and I got the distinct feeling that they were strictly in it for the money, even keeping up an arms-length, rehearsed patter and jive with the fans while signing autographs at the merchandise table. Meanwhile, the middle act had already packed up their gear and could have been out the door, slogging the five-hour drive back to their home town - But instead, they were happy to stick around and talk music with the less-bedazzled audience members, excitedly recalling favorite songs by other artists who they admired and loved.

I bought their CD and 45, and I'll be playing them on my show. The headliners - Ehhh, not so much.

The middle act:

The headliner:

[crestofwaves]

The second vid sounds kind of like Amy Winehouse to me.  Or Duffy in Have Mercy.