Wasn't it just yesterday......

walkin jack

walkin jack

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It seems like it was just yesterday that I was too young to do this, too young to do that, not quite old enough to look cool smoking a pipe or a cigar. Had to show my ID to buy booze, tobacco or guns and ammo or to patronize a local bar.

I know I've been old enough for some time now but it couldn't possibly been more than a few months. :confused:

Well this morning at breakfast Miss Pam cut me deeply. We were discussing the relationship of age to ability as it pertains to yard work and she lowered the boom on me. Never been kicked in the stomach by a mule but I now believe I have a sense of what that might feel like.

There was a lull in the conversation at one point and we locked eyes . I could tell something was running through her mind,and then in a very calm and quiet voice she informed me that I was the oldest person in our neighborhood. :eek:

SAY WHAT!?!?

I immediately shot back, more out of panic and shock that actual knowledge, "I most certainly am NOT!" The shocked expression on my face made her smile. That smile told me at a glance that I had already lost that argument.

Still I stumbled forward with my lame and pointless argument, " There's...oh yeah? Well what about...and don't forget Mr.... Then the truth dawned on me like that mule-kick in the stomach. Well ****! Half of these folks are younger than me and payin' others to mow their lawns while I'm out there humpin' along behind my Honda. So maybe age is just a number, what about that?!

she remained silent and let me bluster on but the smile stayed put. That was 4 hours ago and I ain't felt right since. In our 39 years in this house we've seen the occasional ambulance on our street. That was always sad. Now it looks like I might be NEXT and that is just down right scary.

How did it get like this? What happened to all those years? Where did all my hair go and whats up with all these wrinkles. I have always been grateful that Miss Pam didn't have that little mean streak some women have. It took 46 years but it finally reared it's ugly head.

Think I'll go eat some worms......
 
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My neighbor does mine. I HATE.....H A T E......HATE yard work. I'd rather pull out my own teeth through my nose than do yard work! Which is why my house has a small yard and my neighbor mows it!!!! Well, actually I used to until I saw the neighbor kid doing it one day. I went out to say thanks and give him a few bucks but his dad saw me and cut me off. Told me he has to learn what it means to have neighbors and what it means to do work without expecting monetary reward!

I still throw him a few bucks each summer when dad's not around

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
I have the very mixed blessing of living in an apartment for independent seniors. Yard work is done for us except for the little plots outside our doors. I appreciate that and I'm used to it--been living in apartments for thirty-four years.

I have three neighbors who are over ninety and a few in their sixties. I'm going on eighty, so I'm about in the middle. The last five tenants here who have died were all in their sixties, which is food for thought.

But I too wonder where the years, the decades, have gone. How has my hair gone silver and my beard white? When did my face cave in? At what point did my lungs start turning to linoleum and my legs not to work anymore? I can't have been widowed for twenty-one years, but there it is.

I find friends and neighbors offering to do things things for me that I always did as a matter of course. Sometimes it stings my pride a little, but more and more I let them.

Much as I hate it, there is truth in the statement that a man's got to know his limitations.
 
I have always enjoyed taking care of my own yard. By the time I was old enough to reach up and hold onto the handles of my dads mower I would walk along in front of him holding on to the handle. I took over and started mowing by myself when I was seven years old.

I don't really know why but it always made me feel good to look out at the yard and appreciate how it looked. That was my reward you might say.

We had that little 2-day winter with temps in the mid 20s and I have been busting my hump since April replacing bushes and flowers etc. I have spent in the range of 450 to 500 bux and done a lot of work digging and getting up stumps and hauling dirt potting etc but now that it's done It feels good to have my yard back and know I can still handle a days hard work.
 
I know the feeling only to well. The wife hired a general contractor to do work on our house starting next week. I've been in construction my whole life but I can't do diddley any more, even the simplest projects are beyond me physically. Its really hard on the ego to admit your failings. Oh well, I still have my reloading and shooting but even at that my eyesight is going.

Old age is losing its appeal.
 
My wife contacted the guy who mows the lawns and clears the sidewalks of the neighbors on either side of us today. He was mowing their lawns and she asked what he would charge to do ours.
She came back in the house and said he will be doing ours too.

I'm kinda glad I guess, we've got about a foot of snow since 6 AM, and it's suppose to keep snowing through tomorrow.
 
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I've had health problems....

...been on disability since 2002. I can't keep up with the yardwork. Our yard grows like a jungle and it's just too much. I'm ready to downsize and go condo, but it will be a few years until Missus Smiff retires and my son is more established.

I'm a lot older than my years. I'll be 62 in June and I have to do things at a slow pace and take frequent breaks. When I get to the end of my energy, that's it for the next day or next few days. It just doesn't recover.

I saw some of our wedding pictures (40 next April) and I can't figure out who those children in those photos are. My brother and I were talking about oldie music from the 60s and 70s and we thought, there's been a LOT of music since then because that was working on 50 years ago. No wonder kids think we are ancient history. That was the difference between The Charleston and the Twist. I told our son, you know, back in the 80's our first cell phone came in a bag and was called a 'bag phone'. He tells me that I need to get with the times and carry my cell phone everywhere I go. When I got into computers in the 80's we had two floppy (really floppy) discs to boot up a computer and it was a ******* leap when we started playing 'Brick Out'. No wonder I feel OLD.

What in the world does the spelling nanny have against the word *******?
 
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Walkin' Jack said:
I know I've been old enough for some time now but it couldn't possibly been more than a few months...How did it get like this? What happened to all those years?
Click to expand...

I thought getting old would take longer.
shocked.gif
 
When I was a kid my mother had us cut the grass twice a week. Tuesday from side to side and Friday from the street to the house. Augusta National would pale in comparison. I promised myself that when I left I would never cut another blade of grass. Left when I was 17. 70 this year. Still ain't cut none neither!
 
We have had so much rain here in the south central U.P. and the grass is four inches tall. If I thought I could get away with it I would barrow a cow to cut the grass. I will be 70 in December, my body has been used and abused and put away wet once to often. It takes 2 days to cut and trim the yards. I still do it but it is on my time table. In the winter I use a snow blower to keep the walk and drive way usable.

I have survived Vietnam, Agent Orange (so far), a couple of assaults by clients, so I guess I can cut grass and be the grumpy old back down the block for a few more years.
 
You Got a long way to go.

Walkin' Jack said:
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was too young to do this, too young to do that, not quite old enough to look cool smoking a pipe or a cigar. Had to show my ID to buy booze, tobacco or guns and ammo or to patronize a local bar.

I know I've been old enough for some time now but it couldn't possibly been more than a few months. :confused:

Well this morning at breakfast Miss Pam cut me deeply. We were discussing the relationship of age to ability as it pertains to yard work and she lowered the boom on me. Never been kicked in the stomach by a mule but I now believe I have a sense of what that might feel like.







There was a lull in the conversation at one point and we locked eyes . I could tell something was running through her mind,and then in a very calm and quiet voice she informed me that I was the oldest person in our neighborhood. :eek:

SAY WHAT!?!?

I immediately shot back, more out of panic and shock that actual knowledge, "I most certainly am NOT!" The shocked expression on my face made her smile. That smile told me at a glance that I had already lost that argument.

Still I stumbled forward with my lame and pointless argument, " There's...oh yeah? Well what about...and don't forget Mr.... Then the truth dawned on me like that mule-kick in the stomach. Well ****! Half of these folks are younger than me and payin' others to mow their lawns while I'm out there humpin' along behind my Honda. So maybe age is just a number, what about that?!

she remained silent and let me bluster on but the smile stayed put. That was 4 hours ago and I ain't felt right since. In our 39 years in this house we've seen the occasional ambulance on our street. That was always sad. Now it looks like I might be NEXT and that is just down right scary.

How did it get like this? What happened to all those years? Where did all my hair go and whats up with all these wrinkles. I have always been grateful that Miss Pam didn't have that little mean streak some women have. It took 46 years but it finally reared it's ugly head.

Think I'll go eat some worms......
Click to expand...

Jack:

You haven't even got the lid off the can of worms yet! That "mean streak" that you spoke of, is always there, on tap, and ready to cut you off at the knees. Last Fall, my neighbor started mowing my one acre lawn, that I've mowed for 62+ years. This spring I couldn't stand to see that happening, and started to mow my lawn again. Well, with all of the ailments, that go along with being 86 years of age, such as diabetes, arthritis, sore muscles, and a variety of other things, it keeps me nearly crippled, from one mowing to the next, But, the cute little snide remarks are always on hand to make one feel better. You have a lot of things that you don't even know exist, to look forward too. It gets better as time goes on, and almost makes you wish you were not so old.

Chubbo
 
Acre and a half in the "burbs of the Burgh".... mix of woods , ground cover and lawn................push mower.......almost 4 hours over the past 3 days.......

the cabin; 2 acres of easy riding mower lawn.........................................done by a neighbor.......

ya.............. I'm doing something wrong!!!


time to retire .................... to the cabin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oh wait.......... there is that "snow thing" in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny's.....course just sitting by the wood stove looking out the window.....................it is kind of pretty! :D
 
I'm going to put this in terms we can all relate to.

Even though I live in Michigan, I figure the lawn needs to be cut an average of 22 times a year. The current rate for this service is $25 to $30, so I'll average it at $27.50, which equates to $605. Add to that the Spring and Fall clean up of $125 each, for a total of $855. Coincidentally, the street price on a new S&W 686 Plus is $870.


Yeah, even though I HATE yard work, as long as S&W keeps producing guns I want to buy, I'll keep cutting grass. :D
 
Umm...I have a wife and 2 girls. One pre-teen and the other who thinks she is. For the life of them they can't figure out why dad would want to be out in the heat. Instead of "enjoying the cool indoors with them".
 
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