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Getting Old

#122
In this moment's recollection, my fine employer always sends me to the most difficult worst client sites.

"If they're paying to fly me in to fix their problem, they're in real trouble," I conclude early on. This is how cruising at 35,000 feet becomes my liminal space. Everything bad is either in front of me, or behind me, and right now I have coffee and a book.

"I'm the pro from Dover," is the attitude I walk into a new newspaper with (in self-defense). It works. Some of that still leaks out from time to time :(

Here in the future, the only reality any of that still holds is in my own mind. I'm on Easy Street
as I return in one week to coach the students in Ari Cap's Beginner Evolution and Music Theory for the Bass Player cohorts. And cutting videos of my own bass studies so the students can see what their coaches do "behind the scenes."

Beats the snot out of another day at the fun factory.
 
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#123
KenSmithFan said:
Getting old sucks mostly for people who didn’t plan for it. I know a lot of people who spend more time thinking about what they will have for dinner than how they will retire.

I started maxing out my 401K in my 40’s and I’ve been exercising 4-5 times a week since I turned 50. I lost 40 lbs. and have kept it off for almost 20 years. I know that everyone can’t do that, but when I see people 100 pounds overweight glomming down a double cheese burger while whining about their diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, I just don’t have any sympathy. Life laughs at your excuses. I save my sympathy for people who have actual medical conditions that are out of their control.

Now spit out that cheese burger, get off my lawn, and get down to the gym!!
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Tough love! 😉
 
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#125
GwenOnBass said:
In this moment's recollection, my fine employer always sends me to the most difficult worst client sites.

"If they're paying to fly me in to fix their problem, they're in real trouble," I conclude early on. This is how cruising at 35,000 feet becomes my liminal space. Everything bad is either in front of me, or behind me, and right now I have coffee and a book.

"I'm the pro from Dover," is the attitude I walk into a new newspaper with (in self-defense). It works. Some of that still leaks out from time to time :(

Here in the future, the only reality any of that still holds is in my own mind. I'm on Easy Street
as I return in one week to coach the students in Ari Cap's Beginner Evolution and Music Theory for the Bass Player cohorts. And cutting videos of my own bass studies so the students can see what their coaches do "behind the scenes."

Beats the snot out of another day at the fun factory.
Click to expand...
Sounds like fun, and a worthwhile endeavor!

I have tried to mentor a young guy at my gym who bought an Indonesian Stingray and is trying to learn to play. He was originally a guitar player but wanted to play bass instead. After my counseling and guidance, and the various exercises and lesson material I forwarded to him, he has returned to the guitar, and the bass sits gathering dust.

Like some of the women I dated in my earlier years, who decided to return to their old boyfriends after experiencing me, seems I am good at reuniting people with their past pursuits!
 
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#126
GwenOnBass said:
In this moment's recollection, my fine employer always sends me to the most difficult worst client sites.

"If they're paying to fly me in to fix their problem, they're in real trouble," I conclude early on. This is how cruising at 35,000 feet becomes my liminal space. Everything bad is either in front of me, or behind me, and right now I have coffee and a book.

"I'm the pro from Dover," is the attitude I walk into a new newspaper with (in self-defense). It works. Some of that still leaks out from time to time :(

Here in the future, the only reality any of that still holds is in my own mind. I'm on Easy Street
as I return in one week to coach the students in Ari Cap's Beginner Evolution and Music Theory for the Bass Player cohorts. And cutting videos of my own bass studies so the students can see what their coaches do "behind the scenes."

Beats the snot out of another day at the fun factory.
Click to expand...
Did you know that there is an actual Easy Street in Port St Lucie, FL?

A friend of mine had an address there, but it had to be sold to help fund her residence in a long term memory care facility.
 
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#128
Paul New said:
I’m basically a retired ditch digger among astrophysicists around here.

Thank y’all for ignoring my ridiculous mini-rant. Don’t take that as permission to stomp all over my lawn!!
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BassicJazzy said:
We had a pretty high body count on some of the projects I worked on, particularly the government ones. We could have used a ditch digger.
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Captain Picard said that the wisest man in Star-fleet Academy was the groundskeeper.
 
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#131
Brown teeth. (Decades of coffee.)

1767450593599.png
 
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#136
bassdude51 said:
Grey hairs? HA! Try whites! (Doesn't help when my youth color was dark brown, near black.)
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I'll see that hand and raise it. Try no hair, except the forest growing out of my nose and ears, plus white hair on back, and back of the neck!

I have to explain to my wife that it is a sign of superiority and seniority in the ape world, and she should respect me for it. So far that isn't working.
 
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#137
BassicJazzy said:
I'll see that hand and raise it. Try no hair, except the forest growing out of my nose and ears, plus white hair on back, and back of the neck!

I have to explain to my wife that it is a sign of superiority and seniority in the ape world, and she should respect me for it. So far that isn't working.
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Excellent comment! Ditto with hair growing everywhere except where it is supposed too!

About ever 10 days, tweezers to the ear hair. Scissors to the nose nostril hair. Hair clippers to the eye brows. Arm hair won't stop growing!

"Ape world"..........correct!
 
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#138
Growing in the gray slowly is the plan.

Started the henna about 14 years ago. That's one self-care day every six weeks. Oh, the only cure for henna is scissors. Bleach won't touch it. Going lighter and lighter, bit by bit, and will ease into gray without leaving an abrupt geological band of red. Patience.

That reminds me
[old war story]
on the first day on the new job, on site
I am told to report to an office where they perform a mandated hair test. Failure will immediately invalidate my hire.

A few months later, at another site, an old colleague comes on board. It's his first day, and he is told to report to an office for his hair test.

Mike comes back to site, livid. The nurse runs her fingers through what very little hair he still has, and says there's not enough for a sample.

"Can you think of anywhere else I can get a hair sample?" she asks him, and she's serious!
 
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#139
If I let my hair grow out I still have most of it. And it's maybe 30% grey. But for years I shave it every shower. It grows about 10 different directions and is a disaster unless it's long and I'm not doing long anymore.
 
#140
GwenOnBass said:
Growing in the gray slowly is the plan.

Started the henna about 14 years ago. That's one self-care day every six weeks. Oh, the only cure for henna is scissors. Bleach won't touch it. Going lighter and lighter, bit by bit, and will ease into gray without leaving an abrupt geological band of red. Patience.

That reminds me
[old war story]
on the first day on the new job, on site
I am told to report to an office where they perform a mandated hair test. Failure will immediately invalidate my hire.

A few months later, at another site, an old colleague comes on board. It's his first day, and he is told to report to an office for his hair test.

Mike comes back to site, livid. The nurse runs her fingers through what very little hair he still has, and says there's not enough for a sample.

"Can you think of anywhere else I can get a hair sample?" she asks him, and she's serious!
Click to expand...
So he gave her the hairy eyeball.
 
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