As I creep up on 60 or it creeps up on me, it's coming next year, I find the list of things I can no longer do or do well is getting longer. Case in point: On vacation here in San Diego, brought along my old wetsuit, boogeyboard and a pair of fins to do a little surfing while we are here. Now the water is a tad chilly this time of year but the springsuit, short sleeves and legs should be enough for the 66 degree water. I watched the surfers at Ocean Beach and told my bride that I think I'll skip the boogeyboard and just man up and rent a long board. I surfed for 30 years but hadn't been on a long board in 15 years and at least that many pounds.

The first indication of a problem came while trying to squeeze into the wetsuit, the damned thing had shrunk considerably(???). Once I managed, with help, to get the zipper up the back, problem two quickly became apparent. I was so stuffed into it I could hardly move. Paddling was a nightmare but at least I was reasonably warm. I spent about an hour splashing around and managed a couple of pathetic rides but still had a lot of fun. The memories came flooding back if not my prior expertise and after an hour I had had enough. I thought about going back this morning but happily the water temperature had dropped to 64 overnight and getting into that water with an ill fitting wetsuit just wasn't going to happen.

I'm sore all over but it hurts so good and am glad I went but I think I'll stick to golf. (o;

I find my tree stands getting sturdier and lower as the years go by...and closer to home, come to think of it!

I'll be 63 Monday and it don't get any better than yesterday. It's tough to say "I just can't do that anymore" but, it's the damn truth.

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US Army 1965-1971

Drug out the dress blues the other day to show my youngest grandson, too big for him (12 years old) too small for me. Time not only adds years but inches also, hands doesn't work well with buttons or small zippers. Parts of the body are plastic and steel. Once up on a time I climbed telephone poles and microwave towers, now I try to find another way around stairs.

I'm thinking we're lucky that our mind goes first..... We don't know that which we can't remember.

My favorite story is at the expense of one of my best friends. Each winter, around the end of January when its the coldest, we have a campout. Appropriately named the Blue Ball. Traditional garb includes favorite clothes, often field jackets.

A few years back it was really cold and snowy. Our official fire tender, with the title "Fire F'er" was plying his trade. He had his old Marine Corps field jacket on, and it was open down the front. Another very good friend of his and mine was sitting next to me in a camp chair. Maybe we were consuming adult beverages. Because we were seated, with an old army blanket under us and tossed over our legs, we were comfortable (and we had near lethal doses of pain killer brew.)

But we were watching our buddy at the fire. He was cold. And he kept trying to button the field jacket. Every time he'd try we'd start to laugh. It was a good show. There was just no way it was ever going to button. He got out 40+ years ago. But he had pride, and kept trying. A few times I entertained the idea that maybe this time. But he sucked his stomach in as far as he could and still no joy. So he began to blame his wife for shrinking the thing. We almost died laughing every time he did that. Whenever we go out with them as couples, we always berate her for poor laundry skills and how she should be more careful with his precious field jacket. Even our wives are amused, and she doesn't take it personally at all. I guess she understands that maybe the problem is more internal than external.....

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Dick Burg

I'm just a month shy of my 66th. I find that I can still do every thing that I could do forty years ago. I just can't do them as fast, as high or as long as I could then.

....an old boy years ago told me he had come to the place in life where "Everything that doesn't hurt doesn't work".

I'm beginning to appreciate the clarity of his observation.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

Ah yes the golden years, a very big lie if I ever heard one.

The tour bus pulls into the state park and all the folks get off and read the plaque about the water fall and then get back on the bus and leave.

I can still do most of the things I used to do except it takes longer, looks less graceful, and I can't last as long.

I'm six months shy of 70. A number of things don't work like they use to!

Getting down on my knees is impossible. Doing routine maitainance things around the house like painting, plumbing and electrical work are really a pain now.

I used to shoot Service Rifle and High Power at Camp Perry.

Back then, just toting your stuff from the range road down to the 200 yard line was a royal pain, let alone getting into prone, sitting, sitting, etc. Those things are just impossible now. I really miss it....but just can't do it.

When I drop something on the floor, just the idea of bending over and picking it up makes me break out in pain!

Nope, things are not the same.

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G.P. Charlie

I'll hit 63 in December (I hope) and I have all the same problems of the posters above (except the wetsuit-surfing-haven't done that since I was a teen).

The thing I notice most is the arthritis in the hands. I can't shoot a single action revolver anymore. Hurts too much to cock it at least most of the time it does.

Fortunately, the trigger on my shotgun is a release , so, as long as I have the strength to hold it in till I am ready to shoot, I guess I can shoot trap.

I find I gimp a lot when I get out of the Pathfinder if I've been driving an hour or more. Takes from exit till I am in the store or house to straighten up and walk right.

But, I can still reach or bend down to get the object I've clumsily dropped on the floor. It's getting back up that's the problem.

Bob

Like Toby Keith said, "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

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Insert short witty words here

Here's some encouragement for ya:

Used to be an old (and I mean OLD) jazz pianist named Eubie Blake.
Up to the end of his life, along with being married for however long, he had numerous girlfriends simultaneously.

A reporter asked him how old you gotta be before your sex life slows down.

His answer was: "You'll hafta ask somebody older than me."

What a bunch of weenie butts!

I'm 63 and there is not a thing I can't do just as good if not better than when I was 30.

I gotta go lie down now after typing all that.

At 72 I don't do anything good anymore.

Y'all are dis-encouraging me. Stop it with these negative vibes!

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Georgia On My Mind

I am 69, just behind gp charlie. I am almost in the same shape I was 40 years ago! However I wasnt in too good of shape then either.

My eyes don't see as well... but I see some things a bit more clearly than I used to.

My Pop passed away last year at 74, and due to rapidly failing health we had to put him in a nursing home. A couple months before he passed he said "You gotta get me out of here, this place is full of old people." So I guess "old" is a relative term.

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Recycled Bricklayer

will be 60 in october. now, if i drop any money, it has to at least a quarter or it isn't worth the pain.

I'm only in my mid-50s, but I'm right there with the rest of you. 38 years of turning wrenches, mostly on heavy trucks and equiptment, has taken its toll. Not to mention that life in general ain't been no bed of roses. My body thinks I'm about 80.
It ain't the years, its the mileage.

I find the horses are getting taller and the ground is getting harder.

I will be 60 on my next birthday in March 2011. I was chewing the fat with a couple of young guy and girl fellow Wildland Firefighters on a fire still burning 2 miles from home. They asked about my Red Card status and were surprised at my arduous level. I replied once up and moving with a load on me I am like a mule. Its the getting going which is tough.

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My Mother likes me.

All of you youngsters in your sixties can expect things to get much worse as the years go by. Hope this makes you feel better. The good thing is it usually gets worse gradually.

Just turned 48 a week ago.

I'm thankful -

-that my wife is only 35 (my second, better wife) and she and our boys (8 & 10) are keeping me young

-that my son, 21, is following his path, fighting in Afghanistan and making me proud. And that my daughter, 18, is starting college in the fall and making me proud, too

-that my Mom and Dad are 70 and 72 and still going strong

-and that I'm still rolling out of bed in the morning, strapping on the iron and getting the job done. I'm not as fast or tough as I used to be (don't tell anybody!). I keep trying to lose a little weight, get in better shape, and remember to take my blood pressure medicine. I go to work without a vest because it doesn't fit and hope I don't get shot (guess I need to work harder on the "in shape/weight loss" thing). But I'm smarter than I ever was, a little faster than a lot of the younger guys, and settled in my life. Every day is better than the last and I'm only half way through, the future's so bright I gotta wear shades!

Of course any money I drop that rolls..... I leave it for the kids, I don't bend down for anything less than a buck these days. Change just ain't worth the effort!

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

I think it was Mickey Mantle that said: "If I'd known that I was going to live as long as I have, I'd taken better care of myself."

With any luck at all, I'll be 63 next month. Nothing particular is wrong but it simply takes a lot longer to get moving and it hurts a lot to get moving. Getting old is not for sissies!

I never rode the brake, however....................

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... a little behind in my work

Live it like you stole it!!!!!!!!!!

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

I'm 62 1/2. I plan things a lot differently than I used to. But I still have fun.

62.5 here - still can't pass up a coin on the sidewalk - unless my back is out - then I bend at the knees

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Lou

Apparently it's all about ergonomics!

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

When I whistle at young girls they laugh and tell me I'm losing air.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

I'll never grow up.But I'll always remember.

DG

Buncha young Whipper-Snappers here!

I'll be starting to play in the fourth quarter in a few months.

When I really notice the difference is when I yield to the need to work outdoors (Don't do that as often nowadays either!). I used to be able to spend a full day in the Texas sun without breathing hard. Now about 3 hours trimming trees or other manual labor and I'm used up for two days.

Bob

I heard the old boys years ago talk about their Baseball league down in Sun City. It was composed of retired judges, docs, various professionals now living at the Senior Center.

The pitcher had actually been in the major leagues back in WW2. They asked about his pitching. He said "Oh I still throw them just as hard as I ever did even in Yankee Stadium....but the ball only goes about half as fast"....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I'm chaseing 64 pretty hard and still kicking, just not as high or as often as I used to.

The three stages of man:

Tri-Weekly
Try-Weekly
Try-Weakly

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

On a more serious note: I turned 67 a few months back and like most guys, I have aches and pains in places I previously didn't know existed, but after cataract surgery, I now have 20-20 vision and all the colors are more vibrant.

The sights are a little fuzzy (without reading glasses), but the targets are crystal clear and I'm shooting better than I have in years. Of course, I'm still not very good, but I never was.

If any of you old guys out there have cataracts, don't put off having them removed any longer than you have to. Make an informed decision with your doctor of course, but I can attest to the fact the procedure is painless and the improvement in vision is both immediate and amazing.

John

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

LMAO! You guys are a riot! It has been two days and I am still sore. Surfing uses muscles that don't seem to get used for anything else and I'm paying for my fun. Ibprofen helps...a little. My wife explained it to me a few years back: "You haven't slowed down much" she said. "But you just don't heal like you used to." I hate it when she is right...fortunately it isn't often. (o;

Know what everyone's talking about. Seems like the other day I was 40 and my best friend & I were talking about 40 being the age where you begin to realize that you won't live forever and mortality becomes a real thing. Well, he's been gone for many years and I turn 72 next month. More aches and pains, less get up and go, veteran of carpal tunnel surgery three times, major surgery and ICD (heart) implant. But, you know what? I'm happy, thankful for my wife and family, our home and our health. I hope to see many more birthdays come & go.

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... ed ...

AMEN....moondawg....AMEN.....

what was that line about some parts of my body don't wake up at the same time as the rest of me ?

:-)

rayb

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"cumplo pero no obedezco"

I'll be 62 in December... my dear Pappy will be 89 in September. I'll share a coupla my favorite sayings as they both seem to be apropos here.

I have no idea where I picked this one up - I've slept since them and forgot! "Age is just a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind it don't matter."

This one is a favorite quote of my Dad and me. I believe it's attributed to Satchel Paige. "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are."

I had some other comments to make, but I forgot what they were.

Blessings,
Hog

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Isaiah 55:8-9
Phil. 4:13

I have noticed the days are shorter than they used to be.
Not nearly enough time in one now-a-days to complete a day's work.

Don't know if they shortened the nights too, but sure seems I don't get to sleep long enough.

My old friend Clayton had a saying "feels like my motor's racing & my butt striped a gear".

Now we know why they call us "over the hill" the only thing that's speeded up in my life is time itself.

Jim

I don't worry as much as I used too. Let them solve it for themselves.

The older I get, the better I was.

im still very young. at 26. however they say you should treat your body as a temple. and i have spent about 20 years treating mine as an amusement park. and its starting to show.

I used to run for hours, and not care. now i get winded going up stairs.
I had a doctors appointment the other day and she told me that joint wise. my bodies age is pushing 43.

I have 2 fused discs in my neck, a replacement knee on the right side, 2 metal pins in my wrist, metal plate in my skull. 1 3 year old gunshot wound to the leg. and i officially no longer feel like a spring chicken.

i've beat myself to this point haha. All of my friends can outdo me in almost any physical activity *besides range activities*.

so although i am not over the hill.......i understand the struggle getting up it.

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6906,6904,g23,g21,RIA1911,40c

It ain't the getting down on the floor to do something, it's the getting back up that kills me......

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

Hi:
I am pushing 75 and wish I was still working. Forced Disability Retirement four years ago which made my Wife and Children happy.
They thought that I was TOO OLD to be "Patrolling The Streets".
At present, my eye sight, hearing, and balance is going down hill but I am very thankful for each day above ground that I have.
Jimmy

I'm only 50, but there are several things that I can't do as well as I used to. I just can't remember what they are.

I know the M29 doesn't get out as often as it used to. I don't like the way my hands feel the next week or so. When I was young, I wished I was an athelete, now I'm so thankful that I wasn't.
I just turned 59. Hill? What hill, I don't remember any hill.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

I'll be 63 in July which is not good because my brain still thinks I'm 18. It attempts to get me to do things now that I did back then. The problem is after 3 back operations, 30 years crawling around on my knees in the bins of airplanes unloading luggage, mail and freight along with a recently rebuilt shoulder, the brain and body don't agree on what they should be doing. I think the body would most likely extend the middle finger to the brain but the arthritis setting in won't let that middle finger extend straight out.

CW

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