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Getting Old

#82
gln1955 said:
I turned 70 in September. I retired in 2020 after 35 years as a med school prof, but immediately hired back on as an adjunct. They offered a deal I couldn't refuse. I basically work four months out of the year just teaching and have none of the headaches of doing research or university service work. I gave notice in July that this would be my last year, finishing up next June.

I've had the best of both worlds, being free to do anything I want for most of the year yet still having my hand in doing something I've loved for my whole career. Working with very bright, very motivated twenty-something students has kept me from descending into grumpy old man thinking. It'e great to see the expression on my students' faces when they find out I'm in band that plays out nearly every week even if it is their parents' music.
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I worked in an academic health center for many years as a network engineer. Not the level of work that you did/do, but I was never happier. Luckily I have the chance to work at another one, albeit remote, if I want to.

By the way I saw this pattern a lot. Facutly retiring then they'd be back within a couple of months to help fill gaps. They seemed to always have problems filling positions as the pay gap was huge compared to the private world and not everyone wants to research/publish.
 
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#83
Man, I'm 44 and I already feel like I'm on the downhill side of things. I'm healthy and I don't think I have any less energy that I did in my 20's, so I'm thankful for that......I'm mean for this thread I'm on the younger side for this thread, but I know enough to know that life will never be as good as it was in my 20's or 30's.

My biggest issue is that when your 44, people your own age are boring (they go to bed at 9pm and need 8 weeks of notice to go have a beer), and nobody young want to hang out with you. It sucks.
 
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#84
GwenOnBass said:
Once I knew a guy who did time for knocking off a bank because he couldn't afford his heroin addiction.
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Now he could get by just knocking off lemonade stands, cause heroin is so much cheaper! But nobody wants heroin now, since fentanyl is so much better and even cheaper. Just be aware you may not survive the experience, at least not with the street version.

Have a friend whose daughter was pro bike racer. Wrecked out big time in Italy, broke collarbone and they gave her fentanyl, no pain, but when she wrecked again in France they wouldn't give her anything by Vicodin. Big pain!

Grateful to have never had desire to experience any of this. Just give me a beer and I'm fine, though I'm no angel, smoked all the pot I could get back in the 70's.
 
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#85
fishdude101101 said:
Man, I'm 44 and I already feel like I'm on the downhill side of things. I'm healthy and I don't think I have any less energy that I did in my 20's, so I'm thankful for that......I'm mean for this thread I'm on the younger side for this thread, but I know enough to know that life will never be as good as it was in my 20's or 30's.

My biggest issue is that when your 44, people your own age are boring (they go to bed at 9pm and need 8 weeks of notice to go have a beer), and nobody young want to hang out with you. It sucks.
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Don't worry, by the time you're my age, 71, you will be in bed by 8p. If you want to hang with younger people go to the gym, the young folks find us encouraging. The older we get, the more status we have for just showing up and being vertical. They love it when they complain about aches and pains and we say "Oh, I kinda remember what it was like to be your age." Shuts them up every time.
 
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#86
BassicJazzy said:
Don't worry, by the time you're my age, 71, you will be in bed by 8p. If you want to hang with younger people go to the gym, the young folks find us encouraging. The older we get, the more status we have for just showing up and being vertical. They love it when they complain about aches and pains and we say "Oh, I kinda remember what it was like to be your age." Shuts them up every time.
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Lol. Not much of a gym rat, but yeah that's where young people go these days, not to bars. They truly are the "grandma generation". Lots of my friends have kids now in their 20's, and with one or two exceptions they are very conservative when it comes to going out and partying.

As far as going to bed early.....if I follow in 75 year old dad's footsteps, I'll be staying up all night and sleeping all day. When he retired, he told everyone "don't call before noon if you're not dying". I come from a long line of night owls who sleep about 4 hours per day.
 
#89
I've been enjoying this thread since it started. It's especially fitting that I catch up on its latest posts while lying in a hospital bed on the mend from total knee replacement. This year was the right and next year will be the left. I'm 57, but mentally I'm definitely under 30. I play often with several bands and I firmly believe that music has saved me from being old mentally. Can't wait to limp outta here and rock out!!!
 
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#92
I'm chiming in here, just to be the young squirt again for a minute. :wacky:
Outside of this thread, I'm starting to look and sound more & more like an old fart.
I won't say exactly how old I am. But last month I started getting the Senior discount at Goodwill. And if I wanted to, I could move in to one of those 55 & older communities, now.
I've been spending most of my 50s thus far helping my mother who has dementia. Watching her losing most of her stuff & moving into memory care, barely able to walk is a real eye-opener. She's only 26 years older than me and suddenly that doesn't seem like a very long time.
With a little luck I'll turn out more like my dad, who can still ride a bicycle 60 miles at age 80.
It's always good to focus on the present, and be grateful for what we have while we have it. So I'm starting to view every gig, every volunteer shift, every camping trip, every happy hour with the buddies, etc as a gift.
 
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#93
GwenOnBass said:
But the programming in 1980 was much tighter.
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Basically, all consumer grade software, and a very large fraction of professional software, simply sucks. In the words of George Carlin, "I try to turn up the "brightness knob but it doesn't help!"

People who know how to design things properly end up working to design bridges, locomotives, airliners, and such - what's left over becomes "software engineers" and the designs of the software they make show it.
 
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#95
turf3 said:
Basically, all consumer grade software, and a very large fraction of professional software, simply sucks. In the words of George Carlin, "I try to turn up the "brightness knob but it doesn't help!"

People who know how to design things properly end up working to design bridges, locomotives, airliners, and such - what's left over becomes "software engineers" and the designs of the software they make show it.
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Whenever the blue screen of death happens I flash back to my first programming course lectures about fault tolerance and the hazards of
wayward pointers.
 
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#97
BassicJazzy said:
Yeah, he admitted in an interview that he had a heroin habit for 20 years. That's the difference between street heroin and medical grade heroin. Medical grade won't kill you unless you abuse it. Remember, heroin was invented to wean soldiers off morphine, which will kill you, medical grade or not.

I am fortunate that any opiates make me sick, therefore I never had any draw to them. When I was waiting for my physical for pre-op clearance to get hip replacement the guy in next room told Dr he was talking 25 Vicodin a day. He was still talking normally, and must have driven there, I assume. The Dr said "well, we have to start cutting that down now."
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I have seen some medical histories of people that take incredible amounts of narcotics daily, just for maintenance. They have built up a tolerance. If I took even half those amounts or even a quarter, I'd be in a coma.
 
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