[Closed] what happens when you get old?

lol i think everyone on STW has noticed your man-crush mol!

That's exactly what it sounded like it should mean.. I'm gonna adopt that little phrase if you don't mind.. very neat.. 🙂

Getting philosophical now. "Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed" is about having a choice about how you behave - not being enslaved by your immediate reactions and feeling. It's got value as a life philosophy.

A slight warning though - I think experiencing feelings of hurt are actually quite important in developing empathy toward others. By feeling/understanding the sensations of hurt, one comprehends other peoples' hurt and can avoid actions and words that hurt them, either intentionally or unintentionally.

A life of Hedonism is not all orgies, grapes and Bacchanalia you know?! 😆

Good old Rubens
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Emotions should not enslave you, but that does not necessarily mean they should be denied imo.

I suppose what I mean is that I'm not going to waste my emotions on stuff that I can't do anything about or dreary crap that comes from ****wits.

dreary crap that comes from ****wits

And you log on here? 😉

From the other perspective.

Can't wait to be older, sick of having no money, sick of people treating me like a child, sick of learning, want to DO! Somethings I have adult responsibility, but I'm not often treated like an adult.

even saying 20 will hopefully make a difference. Find myself daydreaming about job, house, car, settled, y'know?

Find myself daydreaming about job, house, car, settled, y'know?

It's not all it's cracked up to be!

Well - some folk like that kind of thing, I don't.

cottage, real fire, snuggled on the sofa. maybe a cat.

Sleigh Bells playing at top volume, LOL

The only thing that genuinely worries me about being 45 is the speed at which time flies past. I don't think it's solely a factor of age, but it does seem that being 60 is going to come round straight after 50.

Otherwise I'm still an immature, opinionated **** who annoys people, and I still crash from trying too hard/being crap.

What happens when you get old?

Don't you just keep marrying younger girls...

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Don't you just keep marrying younger girls...

50 is tougher to deal with than 40

Thinking about retirement plans, surrounded by people dying. Life is good and fun, but I can sense options and doors closing.

I'm sure I can deal with this existential crisis by buying something...

as you approach middle rage, you turn into grumpy cynical ****er convinced that youth is wasted on the young, only you know best and that somehow winning an argument on a internet forum will justify your dull and plebeian existence in the "real world".

body hair starts appearing in random places and you make young nubile females physically sick by parading you hairy bits in budgie smugglers on holiday thinking you "still have it"

Luckily I'm not there yet and with my earlier lifestyle choices, the chances of me making it are very slim so I can fade out of my 30's in a disgraceful mess

Good post from buzz, particularly the second paragraph. 🙂

tazzy - it doesn't have to be like that!

So ... phil ... enough reassurance for you?

Old is always 5 years older than you are.

I didn't really feel old until the last 12 months or so (I'm now 52). The opportunity for early retirement was grasped with both hands and I had lots of plans for riding, kayaking and stuff.

Then my father died, then my mum. Watching them both go (both mid-80s and fairly active) reminded me that we only have a short time. Not having parents made me realise that [i]I[/i] am now the "grown up". With that in mind, I'm opting to leave my current part-time job and make some headway into that ever growing list of "things to do before you die".

Fitness-wise, I've noticed that I take a while to get going each morning. However, I'm doing more cycling than ever, even if I'm struggling to keep up with the younger riders I'm always out with.

Wun...

FFS. I'm losing me touch. 😡

Must be cos I'm getting old....

old blokes see themselves as this

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when reality is this

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Don't you grow a beard again and commission a super niche 29er? Then you can blame unfitness on the irregular nature of your bike...JK!

I'm totally doing whatever the equivalent of 29er super niche is when I get old. Knowing my luck it'll be zero facial hair and wrought iron off road micro scooters as a revival *shudders*

druid - I thought you had completed the Munroes? There can't be anything else to do surely?

Mmmm, I find everyone I ride with is younger than me! Do you take glucosamine (TJ look away now)?

TBH I'm closer to the top pic than the bottom one Tazzy, thank God. 😯

Still got it; it never left me!

c_g- I've been on and off - and back on the Glucosamine. Be it all in the mind or not, it definitely makes a difference.

As for the age gap, it's usually so large that I could be the father of the folk I ride with. I don't know what that feels like to those folk - I can't imagine ever doing that sort of stuff with someone my fathers age when I was in my 30s.

druidh - well, I swear by it but take 1500mg per day.

It does sound as though the age gap bothers you but do you not find that mountain bikers are generally far more accepting? You like bikes and that's all that matters?

I personally go for the eccentricity card. 😀

Yeah but we need somone to comfort us when we've fallen off and bashed our knee, Auntie CG. 🙁

We've been getting old since day one. I'm 39 this year and have gone through year or so of hearing the clock tick louder. Sometimes even an all day bike ride just didn't seem enough to squeeze out of the day.

2010 was a pretty crap year (very little work and the knock on effects) and I've vowed never to have one as crap ever again.

I've just taken up skydiving and turning up seeing a 70 year old regular has certainly quietened the sound of [b]my[/b] ticking clock.

I'm fine with getting old. I'm not fine with leaving this world not having maxed out my time here.

Live everyday like it's your last and when the final day comes, you can at least sit back with a smile on your face.

Some days I manage to think for a few minutes about where I am and who I am. Those days seem to be harder to come by now.

I'm 37 and quite honestly feel about 20. I still do all the same stuff except I am in a better financial position and a lot mroe comfortable making decisions for me as opposed to for other people. Getting married was one interesting development, imminent kids another and also watching parents die and a couple of friends has made me reevaluate what I am doing. An opportunity arose to sell my business and while everyone was shocked that I did I do not regret it one iota. I'm still working but don't really need to any more. When I'm 41 I will pull the pin and that is a well vocalised plan which has been agreed to. While I'm here I'm enjoying myself and having a blast.

I'm going to be 55 on 23 April but thanks to being up there amongst probably the fittest 1% of my age group I feel about 30.

This is what you can expect:

You hair and beard go grey. You have to work harder not to get fat. Your testosterone levels diminish dramatically so erections only happen once a day and you develop man boobs as the female hormones naturally present begin to predominate.Your eurethra loses its flexibility so you dribble for ages after passing urine. Your gums recede. Your physical strength diminishes so that easy DIY job becomes harder and you ache afterwards. You fart a lot after eating carbs. Sudden noises startle and irritate you. You are less tolerant of idiots.

On the plus side? Your self-assurance increases and you really don't care a **** what people say or think about you. You seem better at avoiding trouble because you know the warning signs, you've been there before. Generally from a mental perspective getting older is pretty good; I wouldn't want to be teenaged any more, those were terrible times. Your social confidence blossoms, shyness disappears and now I can waltz up to anybody who looks interesting, look them in the eye, greet them and chat about just about anything. Pity I'm married really as I'd be doing a lot of er, horizontal PT.....

Sorry if some of that depresses you.

Dunno if it is the gay "coming out" thing for me but:

My twenties were better than my teens.
My thirties were better than my twenties.
My forties (I'm now 44) are better than my thirties.

I wish my body would do what I want it to (I still feel 17 inside!) but at this rate I'm going to be absolutely ecstatic when I reach my eighties if this continues!

Some young uns posting on here 😉 I'm 64 and still managing to do this sort of thing.
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🙂 why do people keep thinking i'm after reassurance? i'm cool with getting older, cant wait to have selective deafness and pay for things with small change to annoy the people behind me in queues 😆

cottage, real fire, snuggled on the sofa. maybe a cat.

Work every day, week in week out, nothing interesting happening ever... snatch a few weeks in the sun, then blam your youth has gone..

Don't let it happen to you! Save yourself, there's still time!

However, I'm doing more cycling than ever, even if I'm struggling to keep up with the younger riders I'm always out with.

I think age is irrelevant/just a number - one of my closest friends is 26 years old than me (i'm early 30s, he's mid-late 50s). The age gap has made no difference to our friendship - aside from a few "who" moments when he talks about stuff that happened before my time, but its now a running joke. I guess he must be similar age to my parents (they won't tell me how old they are!) but i can't imagine going away with/doing the same sort of stuff with them.

I don't really think about age that much, but its funny when it crops up in conversation at work - some of the people i work with started work here the same year i was born!

hmmm my age does become evident at work sometimes... attitudes from staff who dont know me assuming i don't know what's going on 'cos i look young and at the other end of the spectrum there's nurses who have been doing the job longer than i've been alive calling me up asking for advice on what to do and how to do certain things. very surreal.

You don't know how old your parents are?

No i don't...i could probably guess to within a few years. They were funny about age when i was growing up and we were never told/allowed to know. I don't remember my mum/dad having a 40/50th do or anything. Same with my grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. The only family members whose age i know are my sister and younger cousins.

Did you not have to put their date of birth on your passport app?

Erm...my passport is almost 10years old so couldn't tell you! Which reminds me i need to renew it. Is it so odd that i don't know how old they are?

It's a wee bit odd... aren't you intrigued?

My parents were 63 on Saturday just gone 🙂

A little bit...no pointing asking though, i tried when i was younger. We were a family that didn't talk about stuff, and its not much better now, although i did manage to force my mum into a discussion about early menopause last year. After that, asking how old she is should be a doddle!

Your parents share a joint birthday?

Awesome, eh? So much easier for remembering birthdays and only need to buy one card.
I'm not sure but I think my Dad might have lied to my Mum as a way of getting into her knickers and has had decided it best to stick with the story.

Is it so odd that i don't know how old they are?

Yes.

And Yeti's parents are twins, that is why he's so hairy.

only need to buy one card.

well its not that odd to me since its been like that for 30 odd years!

30 odd years

😆

Hug?... did I tell you my birthday was early January?

Fine, 31 then. I do know how old i am! 🙂

*accepts hug gratefully* No, Jan wasn't the month you mentioned *goes to check through about a billion emails to confirm*

You start telling stuff to yourself, things like...

Long hair still looks good on you
If I'd tried a bit harder I'd have been first XV, easy
people are really interested in what I say, so I keep saying it - again & again & again & again

you start coming out with 'teh' and 'tehy' in a typing frenzy trying to prove your RIGHT
You use out of date slang like 'for the win' and 'simples' but not in an ironic way
You keep harking back to 'the good old days' which weren't even that good
You imgaine that a life spent 'bumming around' means you have some sort of valuable experience to pass on
You mistake copy and pasting from the internet as 'research'
You think that having 'the last word' actually matters
You don't realise people are laughting 'at' you rather than 'with' you
You forget that a flounce is forever not just for Christmas

😆

You forget that a flounce is forever not just for Christmas

😆

Now I'm old I listen to this sort of rubbish. What the hell? when I was younger I bought a Van Morrison album.

Erm, with the big 6-0 being but 2 months away, I feel.........what the hell? Can't change it, can't fight it, but can find ways of 'just being' - to the max.

Am more physically fit than I've been for about 20 years, thanks to riding more. Not technically particularly impressive rider, and yes, I do fall off sometimes, and yes, it can hurt, but whatever - it's just great to be out there, 2 wheels, suspension and rider interacting with the terrain and loving the wildlife and views. Never had much of a competitive streak, and that's largely absent now.

And then there's everything else - my passions and enthusiasm seem as strong as ever, and I feel more confident in my thoughts than ever I did in my 20s and 30s. Love wild music of all genres (WOMAD regular for over 20 years), love strange movies, challenging ideas. Am at least as leftie/radical as I was in my teens and twenties, and now less worried about speaking out against something that seems to me unjust. What the hell - why not? You only have one life!

And then there's love and sex.......still seem to be interested in all of that, and still love women (though seem more capable of managing to be faithful than I did - perhaps having flings was partly a symptom of feeling insecure when younger, and always believing the grass must be greener......)

Hey-ho - just live it Phil!

It now takes me all night to do what I used to do all night.