This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

Not there yet myself dude. You might have to wait a while, wait for the return of Martin Skeedmore, who can out-[Controversial Moderator Edit] them all, whatever his age.

"ilxors in the '50s" would be a fun photoshop thread

ned at the sockhop

abbott being a sexy cold war scientist

huh

I got it, it wasn't hard to follow it was a simple piece of business.

i just want to see abbott as a sexy cold war scientist is all

I am a 53 year old ILXor in the Naughties. Does that count? My only time in the 50's occured when I was aged 0-5, from November, 1954 until Dec. 31, 1959.

did you see ned at the sockhop

NO

The sockhop ended some time before I entered high school in Sept. 1968. I was not inconsolable over this happenstance. I was a rotten dancer.

sept 1968 was like the gayest time to enter high school

everyone cool in those days were entering college

u cursed by the stars aimless

everyone cool in those days were entering college WAS GETTING DRAFTED TO 'NAM

yep -- that's where my pops was in '68 -- sent there two weeks after i got borned! booh hooh.

--a sometime ilxor in his 40s

everyone cool in those days were entering college WAS GETTING DRAFTED TO 'NAM WAS NOT ME, BY ANY STRETCH OF IMAGINATION! Skinny, geeky 13 year old, I'm just sayin'.

nED AT THE SOCKHOP OH MY GOD

aimless serious q did you at least smoke a lot of pot? and at least know a kid like trip fontaine?

if not you have destroyed any reason i have to respect actual early 70s HS kids

I am 10 years shy of 50 but this thread is making me feel old.

momus is almost 50

There's a Guided By Voices song about this.

nED AT THE SOCKHOP OH MY GOD

I really, really don't know how to react to this.

weve all reacted by blotting it out

Well I know that you're in love with him,
Because I saw you dancing in the gym
You both kicked off your Keds.
Oh, I dig that rhythm and Ned!

(I thought JBR's suggestion at first was an age progression of ILXors into their fifties and was thinking "oh it won't take much to imagine some of that.")

Ned, all you have to do is put on the socks. That's all. And we need a hardwood floor, and XTC's "Life Begins At The Hop". Now who will film this????

did you at least smoke a lot of pot?

I think the first time I smoked pot was roughly summer of 1970. Didn't do much for me. My friends included several 'heads', but I was just a dabbler. My older brother was into it pretty far by 1971. He still tokes up now.

I didn't really get launched as a pot smoker until college, where I spent most of 1974 stoned. Made my own bong from a glass lab beaker. I quit entirely around 1977 or so. I can't say I miss it.

and at least know a kid like trip fontaine?

Hard to say, because I don't have a clue who trip fontaine is. I did know a lot of druggies and hippies in the 70s. They were as common as daisies back then.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Pgo2kaznFU/RqsBjrRCKMI/AAAAAAAAARs/7wAJzhaYC3A/s1600/964.jpg

that link 404'ed me

(xxpost) Trip Fontaine is a character from the book/film "The Virgin Suicides"

Start at about 3:30 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_smJP8oRnE

Btw, Frank Kogan, who posts to a couple of the rolling genre threads on ILM, is 54.

Also:
Most of the time I dwell in a state of unreality, where I have amazing superpowers. And I am 50 years old.

-- Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, February 5, 2007 12:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Our cohort is few, but mighty.

abbott being a sexy cold war scientist

OH MY GOD WHY WAS I NEVER THAT

I remember Howdy Doody.

and i thought i was old for remembering leaded gasoline!

madonna, michael jackson, prince and ME -- i am now 50 and 1/2.

sept 1968 was like the gayest time to enter high school

everyone cool in those days were entering college

there is truth lurking here -- people in our sub-generation have a complicated relationship w/our older sibs, the 60s baby boomers. this usage of "gay" is uhm, anachronisitic, or something. (I entered HS in 72 FWIW.)

anachronistic! edgy, you mean!!1!

so is bimble part of this exclusive club?

I didn't expect to get shoulder and back hair this late in the game.

ha was wondering what you meant in the 40s thread

what's up y'all

had a cardiologist call me at 7am to cancel my appointment (snow)

this morning the dentist said that my teeth with metal fillings will all eventually need crowns; seems legit, the youngest of those fillings is 40+ years old

i went to the dentist for lots of work this past year, first time since forever, and it was all space aged nano whatever shit and i think the dentist and his assistant were legit smirking at my one old iron ore filling from when i was a teenager, fifty years ago, in an eastern bloc nation

oh hi, I'm 54 now

peeing takes a long time

backache is a thing

(knocks on wood)

As hinted above, I have a cardiologist now! My primary doctor, who has pretty amazing raw skills -- like hearing -- apparently, thought he heard a murmur in my heartbeat last month. GREAT!

It turns out I have an "unconcerning" prolapse which is a "2" (not a 3 or a 4), so it just has to be checked every year from now on.

Aging is a motherfucker.

all the best morbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmur_(album)#/media/File:R.E.M._-_Murmur.jpg

i am two years older than william hartnell in this picture :D

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1920x1080/p01hg14p.jpg

(obviously i have regenerated several times: also did not grow up in poverty etc)

He got paid five times more per ep than Anneke Wills was, to make up for the poverty stricken childhood!

what a feelin'

mainly feeling it in my lower back today

Rapidly approaching Sammy Hagar milestone.

Minutemen?

Can you hear me, Dr. Mu

Imagine my surprise

Just realized that the “ordinary guy” in Pavement’s “Stereo” is maybe a reference to “Dr. Wu.” I still got it!

Oh wait

I just went through all the tests you are supposed to do when you get to 50, only 7 years late.

Anyway, all passed 100%, so hey!

I guess that lower back pain is gonna go in the "what do you expect at yr age?" cart.

Thanks for reminding me. I just did the same with one test, the biggest of all, remaining to be done in the next few months. If the news is bad I will speed post my remaining backlog of screennames.

I was Big C diagnosed about five months after turning 50, so maybe i didn't get the other tests.

(i'm mostly OK now, just medicated)

He got paid five times more per ep than Anneke Wills was, to make up for the poverty stricken childhood!

― calzino

for two months and then he got sacked. quintessential "being in your '50s" experience tbh

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

HI DERE. Raise your hand if you have been rendered depressed, rudderless, and without direction because you've structured your life around a eight-hour, salaryman working schedule for so long that when you were inevitably disrupted out of your career you've become addicted to the anxiety and panic of not being able to focus. oops TMI

raises hand

in my case it took several years to work through the trauma of being ejected and to figure out other ways to live ... I won't trivialize the difficulties involved, but now the only thing I miss from my salaryman days is the income

i need the med coverage

As mentioned on the other thread, in January I was made redundant 7 days before I hit 50.
my skills are probably no longer in demand (manual software tester) due to an increased focus on automated testing, and to be honest, I think I have had enough of software/corporate culture.
The last few months I have been a stay at home dad, and will probably remain so while mk2 goes through his teenage trials and tribulations (3 more years).
The very idea of being the Office New Boy at the age of 50 fills me with dread, and I know it would bring on a lot of stress and anxiety.
I am in a 'fortunate' position in that due to life insurance, I have no mortgage and get a small occupational pension from BH so will not be made homeless or starve, but coming to terms with a very different financial outlook is still the big stumbling block.
That and daytime TV.
Thank goodness for 'Walter Presents .. '.

In other news : re lower back pain.
Having sat on my arse in an office for 30 years the last 2 years were very problematic re my back.
My solution : swimming.
I have started swimming 4 times a week (roughly 1km each time), and the change has been very noticeable.

Slightly overlapping with what I said on the Forties thread, but I was made redundant at 51, also due to having skills which are no longer in demand. My partner has always earned a lot more than me, so we were OK - but then he was made redundant last year, at 58. Thankfully his skills are still in demand, but he refuses to re-dose himself with the poison of corporate culture - so it's taking a while to sort things out, and we are having to be careful with money, for the first time since our twenties.

I cover my monthly outgoings with DJ-ing (a weekly gig and a monthly gig) and Discogs selling (I inherited a rare and valuable collection, and am being ruthless with my own). We also have a lodger, for the first time in nearly thirty years - a good friend, also in his fifties, going through a divorce and coming to terms with being on the gay side of bi. He hates his job and wants to change back to his old career, but it would involve a precarious salary drop, at least to begin with, which isn't great timing when you're getting divorced.

Despite this difficulties, my net life satisfaction level is still hugely in credit. I feel busy, fulfilled, and grateful for all I've got. But I can't deny the presence of a persistent low-level background hum, which says "You are uniquely unemployable. Everyone else can get jobs, but you haven't got what it takes." It's bullshit, but it's there.

Fuck those cry baby under 50s in that other thread. Here's to getting Saga Holiday ads and people ringing me to ask if I want to cash in my pension and/or release some equity from my home and to being told I can't increase my life insurance because YOU R 2 OLD.

Also I just put up a desk, not too shabby eh? I'll be paying for it tomorrow mind.

it doesn't start getting real until you can't remember your 40s

xp Incidentally my pension is not worth the paper it's printed on so who's laughing now Mr Random Cold Caller?

it gets really real when your pathetic gig income and Obamacare fast-track you to bankruptcy

what a feelin'

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 2, 2018 8:55 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right in my knees.

oh hi, I'm 54 now
peeing takes a long time

― WilliamC, Thursday, January 4, 2018 12:24 PM

Seven weeks shy of 56, but I found the secret: constant impotent rage keeps me young.

momus is almost 50

He’ll be 60 in February.

Fuck those cry baby under 50s in that other thread.

They're just coming to grips with their ultimate mortality, poor dears. Be kind to them.

I’m 55 and having a pretty good time.

I seem to have rediscovered my mojo this year: got serious about my job, holidayed in Japan, rekindled my interests in art and photography, good clothes (lost 40lb weight which helped), and the joy of short breaks by Eurostar.

eyoooooo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBlB8RAJEEc

Yeah, I got there this year lolsob

Yep, 50 now. No acknowledgment from any of my family or anyone other than people on Facebook.

Aw, Happy Birthday Christine! Welcome to the club!

(I actually got a video greeting of my favourite rock star singing happy birthday to me so I can't complain it was forgotten (but Covid put paid to the really super amazing plans I did have but hey))

Been there since July 25. Hate it.

lol u softies, it's been 4 years for me now and I had my first serious surgery in May

I've been there for quite a while now and it only gets, um, it only gets, um, never mind.

I better post in this thread while I ca

Lol

bookmarked this thread yesterday and not sure how i feel abt it haunting me there at the top of the page

half century club

come on in, the water is nice. i've been in for a few years now

i'll catch up in the later 2020s presuming they exist (and i do) (and ilx does)

I joined in April - my daughter turned 18 a week before. For her, it was pretty sad not to be able to celebrate under lockdown. For me, separated, terminally uptight about how to be around my "ex" wife, what a godsend not to have any expectations of a party or anything. Being 50 seems OK, although being Australian, the government acknowledged my birthday by mailing me a container to defecate in. That didn't really enrich the experience.

Today I became the father of an adult child.

This whole thing is zipping by so fast.

\m/

My sense of time is completely out of whack at the moment. I worked for 30 years before Covid lockdown, yet the months since March seems to have lasted forever and the years before them are now like the distant past.

I totally understand how you could feel that way! But at the same time, I’m having the opposite problem? Time is absolutely rushing past, how are we in October already? What the hell happened to September? Did we even have a July this year?!?!!

Yeah, my wife and I are both wfh since March and we both find M-F feels more like T-H used to.

57 next month
ask me anything don't ask me anything

My sense of time has gone through various gravity-bending events during lockdown so yeah.

Does T-H mean Tuesday to Thursday?

Hey gang!

Howdy!

Since I officially left this group in May, I have started How did I get here?? (Thread for ILXors in their 60s)

I’m still 16 months away. Oh the joys of youth.

(oops wrong thread, can't tell my 5's from my 6's anymore)

I was born in the age of Aquarius and turned 50 in the age of stupidity. Fuxk 2020 forever.

I have 5 months left in this thread

cue David Bowie

carroll o'connor was 47 when 'all in the family' started and 54 when it ended

I refuse to hear this

is it just that we had fluoride? idgi

Fewer three-martini lunches or three pack a day smoking habits.

yeah, smoking. but damn

And of course Wilford Brimley was only 50 in Cocoon.

I’m 51 now but have not officially posted in this thread before, so hey.

52 and never officially posted either but tbf i don't feel a day over 55

55 when the daleks first hove into view ppl:

https://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/persons/76723/76723_v9_ba.jpg

*checks notes* i mean 900

that's right

Redd Foxx was 49-54 during Sanford and Son

The Big One!

I measure my years against John Nettles. Bergerac is behind me, I can barely remember The Liver Birds, and I'm in a voice-over trough atm before I enter my Midsomer Murders phase in 2022.

I had a folder of writing and poetry to which I had stopped adding things in 1992, and just tucked in the back of the cupboard as I moved houses several times.
Today I was organising papers and I decided to take a look, expecting that I would realise what a talent I had put aside to go on with the rest of my life and be overwhelmed with remorse. And then I read it and pretty much every page made me either wince or actually gasp out loud at how bad it was. Don't think I will be starting a novel.

Not quite 50 yet, but I started doing a similar thing last year, reading old essays I had written at university. The ideas were dubious but the writing was quite well-done; for some reason, I had expected the opposite.

I knew this existed. Search needed the apostrophe.

I can never find.

Although I suppose I won’t need in a few years

Last year I turned 50 and hosted a pub quiz to celebrate. It was so much fun. I think it might even have been fun for other people too. I haven't seen my brothers since. Stupid covid.

hi y'all

things are great so far, tbh

Almost there, lurking in this thread with interest and trepidation

Welcome!

Soon. (Eight days.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1q2F_18cjg

hello all. it's nifty for now (53) but there will be some uh, tests v soon because uh, ppl have questions.

heh yeah I had a chunk of appendix and related area removed around a year ago due to polyps, my first major surgery (pretty minor as far as full anesthesia operations, but still)

Ah thete it is. I searched 'fifties'

A few more months and I will trade this thread for another. One non-COVID health scare this year, but I think I'm the clear for the near future, at least.

Wondering if somebody should use their magical mod powers to add (fifties/50s) to the thread title, or if we should leave it de-indexed as it were.

We should also have a thread for people stuck in the '50s, sitting around all day watching Happy Days reruns and listening to doo-wop.

ayyyyy *thumb up*

Only HOOS
Can make this world seem bright
Only HOOS
Can make his steen drive right

Happy Days was about the 70s; so was MASH (non controp)

I'm still not yet 50, but I remember having a discussion with someone whether they preferred the "70s 50s" e.g. Happy Days or the "80s 50s" e.g Stray Cats.

Lol

Only HOOS
Can make this world seem bright
Only HOOS
Can make his steen drive right

Saw someone who may now be in their 60s tweet about how he used to feel like the “weird uncle “ here when he was posting more here circa 2004 I guess

The day after my 50th late last year, I had to deal with a Rû$$iän R@ns0mwäre attack, then a couple months later a HBP event that sent me to the the ER, and then a month after that, I slipped on the ice and broke my radius/ulna, putting my drumming/guitar playing home fun therapy on hiatus for a while. That 'ol 'check engine' light comes on at 5-O, can't ignore it anymore.

3 years into the 50s.
3 years of unemployment.
no complaints as not having to worry re job/commute/office chaos in last 12 months have been an absolute blessing.
that and having mk2 (17 yrs, nearly 18) at home all this time has meant we have had a very different last era of my parenting groove than normal.

Hi!

could you repeat that Ned? my tinnitus is acting up

I said NICE WEATHER WE'RE HAVING

Aw, seeing Bimble and Morbs in this thread :(

One thing about being in my 50s is the accumulating weight of all the people I miss who are no longer here. I am aware that this becomes more and more of a thing, the presence of absence. I don’t like it.

Hello to the same decade as me, Ned.

For all of one week.

i have cancer now, as of last thursday. nobody knows but my partner and one friend and uh, now the internet. just don't let my 90 y/o mom find out, srsly. i'm good.

(i keep thinking of teh room when the mom says "it's official-- i definitely have breast cancer"

tbf, i don't have breast cancer.

So sorry to hear that. Hopefully there will be good treatment.

ty. this one is not so bad usually. 🤷🏻‍♂️

good luck Hunt3r

All the best. I'm sure it's a super stressful thing, but glad it's a not-so-bad one.

Indeed, hoping all turns out well!

All the best of luck, Hunter, I hope you'll get good treatment and get through this <3

oh hunt3r! good luck with your treatment - hope you're through it all as quickly as possible and hope you're not laid up for too long in the meantime!

srsly i don't know why i would ever do blurt that, but i do appreciate very very much.

*considers personal history*

i think i'm destined to crash out, ridiculously. doing something else. it think i've got plenty of time. it'll never get me.

*envisions cancer-tombstone (carved in old.css: Original ILX2 Live Stylesheet)*

"damn. it got me. :-("

Did my warranty just expire? I pulled a muscle in my chest, which makes coughing XTREEMLY painful. And last week my dentist put a temporary filling in one of my molars; she can't do a permanent filling until I get my wisdom teeth extracted. The first available consultation date won't be until the end of this month.

*jaw starts hurting again LAMF*

40th High School Reunion coming up next month. Pinch me.

Yikes. That’s me next year.

This is my 40th h.s. year too, but I haven't been to any reunions since the 10th. Hate those things.

I went to the 50th for my middle school four years ago. At least one strange experience too inside-baseball to detail here.

I don’t per se hate reunions but like WmC only ever attended my 10th. 33rd is this year.

Something is compelling me to go. Pandemic? My own kids in HS? In any case, recently waded into our designed friendbook page. One guy had a picture of himself with Scott Miller, because he was in a band with Miller’s wife at the time!

I just turned 50. Feel about the same as I did last week.

The only reunion I went to was the 20th. 30th didn't happen, either because of apathy or COVID. (I graduated in 1989, but I think no one got anything started in 2019; there was some talk about doing a range of adjacent classes. Then the world stopped.)

Because I already talk to my actual HS friends with some frequency, there's not a lot of urgency to meet up with the people who hated me (or vice versa)

I'm now older than Roy Orbison ever got to be.

Schoolfriends... I guess I'm in vague social media contact with one or two, but none who stayed in my hometown. Never went to a reunion, never even heard about one, though I suppose Xmas Eve at the Hotel Vic in New Brighton in '90s was almost that :) Still pals with a couple of undergrad-era ppl. But it's mostly another world.

I don’t mind HS people, am always happy to run into them, but was never that friendly with them to begin with, had a long commute so didn’t hang out too much after school, except on the subway! Also my high school was huge, so much so that I only know a fraction of the people who were in my class, even forgetting about someone in my neighborhood who went. Actually know a lot more people from my rival high school and socialize with them regularly. College is yet another story. I didn’t remain friends with most of the people I knew when I was actually in college, although I did start hanging out with and talking to my old roommate in recent years. But, due to one or two other friends, especially one I knew before college, I know lots of other people who were there at the same time that I hadn’t known.

This went a lot better than expected

I think the 7, 8, 9 years of a decade can hang heavy as you consciously or unconsciously prepare to move into another decade. I turn 57 in 2 months time - and this has felt the fastest decade so far.

A new set of concerns looking ahead: what's life going to be like when I stop working, how ready am i to live on a smaller income, can i afford to stay in London, where could I move to, what will I actually do to fill the time? Not coming up with any firm answers, and it seems to me impossible to know how the future me will feel. But one thing I've learnt so far is that comparing my situation with other people isn't a good idea. One of my friends of a similar age has just inherited, and is about to sell, a £1.5m house. Some comparisons will just make you unhappy if you dwell on them.

Get your shingles vaccine everybody!

Thanks. Was just discussing that the othe day whilst discussing the Merrychef oven. #OneThread

I had chicken pox pretty bad in my mid Twenties, so I'll need to get this.

Friend had postherpetic neuralgia and told me “don’t even consider fucking around with this, get the shingrix as fast as you can.” So I signed up and waited like 8 months, but yup.

Got mine almost immediately after I turned 50

You don't invited to have the shingles vaccine until you are in your 70s in the UK.

*get

I had shingles at 48. Not sure if had postherpetic neuralgia - but I couldn't sit back fully in a chair for ages afterwards without unpleasant irritation (I wouldn't call it pain though.

If you've already had shingles will the vaccine do anything for you? I had it all up and down my right arm and in a few spots on my back a couple of years ago.

(I turned 50 just about two weeks ago.)

shingles can recur and even become chronic, so I'd go with the vaccine ... I got it a couple of months ago along with flu and TDAP vaccines and didn't notice much of a reaction besides a sore arm

Yeah definitely get the vaccine. My mom had a case of it some years back and she was vehement about its awfulness. As soon as I turned 50 in March I arranged to get my shots.

(Other thing I did was get a colonoscopy, which you should also do assuming coverage is there. In my case they combined it with an endoscopy due to a bit of GERD issues, and I'm glad for that.)

The strange world of the UK's NHS:

You're eligible for the shingles vaccine when you're aged 70 to 79. The shingles vaccine is not available on the NHS to anyone aged 80 and over because it seems to be less effective in this age group.

apparently i am now older than Frasier's dad (John Mahoney was 53 during the first season)

I've heard that Paul Rudd is currently older than Wilford Brimley was when he was in Cocoon

The British equivalent is Victor Meldrew, Richard Wilson was also 53 when it started.

I don't OW!

i'll tell you what are nice: werther's originals

Oh hai, this is me I guess. Someone told me I don't look 50, but did I look 49 a couple of weeks ago?

One thing about being in my 50s: some days a knee or a foot or an ankle will just decide it isn't going to be cooperating. Minor inexplicable aches and pains will arrive and leave, with no precipitating event and no explanation.

Okay, I can mostly live with that. But what's novel and interesting to me is that I have become a connoisseur of pain, and can detect differences between types of it. Like, I get at least three distinct kinds of discomfort, and their particular flavors are as distinct as wine varieties.

Lyme arthritis: exquisitely sharp pain in the bursa of the left knee accompanied by a high fever. Lasts three days and then vanishes, mysteriously, for a decade.

Gout: excruciating pain in the right big toe, comes and goes on its own schedule. Supposedly caused by beer and beef and seafood, but even if I avoid those entirely for years at a time, the pain still comes and goes on its own schedule.

Garden-variety arthritis: just shows up from time to time, no logic to it. Every now and then, just for fun, there's an actual injury, a hernia, or a sprain.

My diet and lifestyle and exercise habits are decently healthy. I have weeks, months, and years of nothing going seriously wrong. Then I get a week or two where Advil is basically a condiment.

Whoops I forgot one more flavor: cervical radiculopathy, where a pinched nerve made one of my hands decide not to work for a week. Departed as quickly as it arrived. Never recurred.

Latest physical grumble (I have blessedly few, knock wood) is what seems like it may be creeping carpal tunnel in my left hand. I attribute this not to all the typing I do but to holding my damn phone all the time, which I am seeking alternatives to. It's starting to turn into a bit of a tiny chronic pain, which I dread — things that are going to start hurting and will just continue to hurt from now until cremation.

things that are going to start hurting and will just continue to hurt from now until cremation

This is, indeed, the downward slope. Welcome.

Not to be all Doctor Internet, tipsy, but: I was 99% sure I had carpal tunnel, but it turned out to be a pinched nerve in my neck (C5) showing up as pain in the wrist. Confirmed by nerve conductivity testing. Bodies are weird.

Huh! Yeah, I need to go for an actual exam of it, it's reaching that point.

I need to go to my doctor and figure out why my right shoulder (and sometimes my left, but always my right) has been hurting for six months.

At least I'll not wonder about my left shoulder in future years given the recent fracture. (I'm about 90% back but I suspect there'll always be a little tinge at least, though physical therapy has gone quite well.)

> pinched nerve in my neck

i had three weeks where anything but staring at the floor meant that my left arm developed pins and needles after 2 minutes and was unbearable after 5. it was basically the arm equiv of sciatica.

had 6 months of frozen shoulder on a different occasion. just couldn't lift it above 45' angle and was shouting-out painful when knocked for a good part of that. ultrasounds showed nothing.

both things just went away with time.

I had that in my shoulder/arm, and it also went away with some PT. Sadly I have awful sciatica right now, and it has lasted over a year. I’ve had two disc surgeries and last week I had a PRP shot. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

We're basically the same as used cars with high mileage and a fuzzy history of ownership.

Bartending has given me Shaker (Tennis) Elbow in my left arm -- it's receded a lot from when it was at its worst, but I think maybe it will always be with me. There are some angles where I just can't lift anything heavy, like a gallon jug of olives, unless I'm lifting straight up.

Going for a walk with a book in a bag over my shoulder used to be fine, until last year, when it resulted in a sore neck for the rest of the day.

Bartending has given me Shaker (Tennis) Elbow in my left arm

I hadn't considered that, I bet that happens a fair amount. Not an issue for me since we just do specialty gigs here and there. But regular 8-hour shifts would be rough, yeah.

My dad was a potter until he retired, and in his 50s he had to have elbow surgery for all the strain from throwing pots on the wheel.

@52 trying to determine an acceptable cost of my day to day happiness to maintain my health. i hate to think that snacks & cocktails have become my enemies but my BP & BMI are starting to say otherwise. And as stated, any exercise has to stay pretty low level and non-repetative to avoid constant body aches.

This all depends on personal physical situations, but I will say that just in the past year I've started low-level strength training for the first time — just dumbbells and pushups right now — and even at a frequency of 3-4 times a week for like 20-30 minutes I really feel a difference. I've always been ok on cardio stuff, I like to walk and hike, but I've never done anything deliberate to maintain muscles. I realized that if I didn't, what little muscles I have will deteriorate and that's how you end up seriously hurting yourself while, like, lifting laundry baskets or changing light bulbs. Highly recommend whatever level you can do it at.

Also yoga obv.

Can only speak for myself, but since the beginning of the pandemic I got pretty ritualistic about doing yoga everyday (the Yoga with Adriene videos are great!) and going outside and walking around. The end result is that I’m back to the same weight I was in college and my health overall feels more - I dunno, resilient?

I have tennis elbow in both arms, and I think it's probably from taking the garbage down to the RV park dumpster and throwing it in. I also have arthritis in both pointer fingers from various injuries, a painful left knee from decades of nurse's aide work and the incessent driving I do for my companion work now, and a stiff and very painful right ankle and heel from stepping off of a park fixture wrong in the middle of the night a few years ago.

since the beginning of the pandemic i've been doing tons of youtube strengthening, HIIT & stretching videos. working from home has helped so i can use late afternoon for exercise rather than getting home at dinner time after commuting 1+ hours every day. not back to college weight (pretty amazing ET) but in better shape than when i was going to the gym pre-pandemic. definitely get aches and pains with mysterious origin that luckily fade away after a few weeks. also go through the maintain health vs cocktails/ "i'm old & life is getting shorter" internal debate.

My view of health vs. cocktails/"good life" is AND rather than OR. Doing things to keep myself healthy makes it easier for me to enjoy cocktails and french fries. All things in moderation including moderation, etc.

Quite right

I turned 50 late last year and left my 40s much healthier than I entered them after getting back into running. And am still improving now as had a half marathon PB of 1:26 this morning so it's not all downhill.

Like others have said, the main reason I exercise (other than enjoying it and also the social side) is that I then don't have to worry about eating cake/pizza/beer

Half-marathon! Congrats, that's awesome. Running has never been my thing, but I admire the dedication it takes.

bloody hell, nice work groovypanda! not got a marathon planned have you? you're defintely in the zone for a sub 3 there

I think i’m finally “mid 50s” at 54.5. I’ve got a history of serious injuries:

-(broken femural neck/hip now bolted)
-3 separate incidents of broken rib(s)
-3 broken collarbones (plated and screwed, then de-plated, then finally resected (doc just cuts the last 6mm right off) to fix a-c arthritis)
-separated shoulder w/ a
-broken scapula
-3 broken metacarpals in right hand (third meta now w/ 3 wee screws, four and five were temporarily pinned) and
-finally, a broken skull with subdural hematoma and some scattered diffuse axonal brain injury. Severe traumatic brain injury.

Then prostate cancer with robot surgery last Dec.

The TBI is by far far far the most difficult- killed my career, almost my family, but we hang in there.

What I’m saying I guess is I’m “aging” well, all of this is me being good only at catastrophe. It’s a recipe for arthritis and joint issues. But no recent arthritis probs until the last 6 months— on the broken hip from 1991. That’s pretty dece outcome. I can still run just as terrible as always. I was told post-surgery that I would lose my hip, either in 6 mos or eventually, and will likely need a replacement.

still and as fat mantises kno (ancient iltrmb ref) my weekly endurance hours are 6 to 12 of combined bike and nordic ski (rollerski in summer). I got back on the bike for real 8 weeks after cancer surgery, now i can do 3 hour rides and I don’t really notice the diff even on my usual saddles, which are stereotypically minimal.

hopefully this is less brag than encouragement. do try to be kind and good to yourself. also try not to give up. the body often responds well. until it does not or cannot. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Wow. Wishing you well through all that.

thx. rereading, it sounds like a stupid humble/brag, sorry. the tbi does tip me impulsively to blurt out too much of my crap.

maybe the greatest thing that a couple months in a rehab hospital taught me is that i have no fucking clue the extent to which many many people i whom see or meet regularly have also had huge difficulties, and they are overcoming challenges i cannot imagine. nor could i meet those issues as well as they are. and never to assume that my issues are more challenging than another person’s. people are absolutely astounding and work far harder than i have. more than once i’ve learned that they are people whom i know. but until you start sharing stories and support, you may not have an idea. ppl are often amazing.

and now, back to “fightin’ the fifties”…

words to live by, thanks for the update

I did my first live DJ set in two years last night and spent a fair amount of time on my knees on the floor digging through the two LP crates I brought. After carrying the record crates back to the car for the night, the backs of my knees were in excruciating pain that only subsided overnight after bed rest. OK, I am officially out of shape.

My neck is fucking killing me all the time. The pain moves from one side to the other. I think it's just tired of holding up my head.

Two devices that made the random aches of my latter 50s bearable: a continuous ice machine and a USB rechargeable TENS machine.

The organ recital isn’t supposed to start until your 70s, people!

While we're trading health tips, these massage pillows are killer. I get sore shoulders and neck a lot, mostly from time at the keyboard typing. My wife and I both swear by this: https://zyllion.com/collections/body-massagers/products/zma13bk-shiatsu-massager-pillow-with-heat.

I posted about it on FB and got like seven friends to buy it, all of whom were happy with it. Sadly I do not get any commission from the Zyllion people.

One health tip I learned after having two separate basal-cell carcinomas frozen off my head - wear a hat if you're spending any significant time outside. Take care of your skin as you would any other organ of the body.

Re massage, those fleshhammer massage guns are incredible for local muscle soreness. I was a huge skeptic but a couple trial uses proved incredibly effective. I find less is more, i now rarely hit any spot more than 30 or 40 secs, in low or middle speed. Difference between “i cant walk down stairs” to no problem really.

In the days when I went to see bands on weeknights, I never called in sick the next day because I was hungover or tired.

Last night I went to see a movie and am fighting to stay awake. Even allowing for the time change and the stress of taking my mother to the theater, this is weird. But I assume this is a sign of my age?

I think it's more you forget how much of a struggle the next day was, when you were 20, even then.

just realised i am older than jean luc picard at the END of ST:TNG

(show was '87-'94, stewart was born in '40)

Hello. Today is the day.

My wife turned 50 two months ago which mentally prepared me. Not another option really. Keep on keepin' on.

Welcome to the suck

La Dolce Vita

Being 50+ is awesome. (One piece of semi-heartening news: apparently the surveillance state doesn't quite have me as pinned down as I thought, as I have yet to receive anything from the AARP in the mail. My understanding was that they pretty much sunk their hooks into you on your 50th birthday.)

The old boy may be barely breathing.

The old boy may be barely breathing.

The old boy may be barely breathing.

WTF? Sorry. Anywhere in less than a year I will darken the door of this thread no more.

- Huey Lewis and the Blecchs

My wife was traumatized by the AARP mailing a couple weeks before her birthday in July but nothing for me so far.

Some chronic pains/conditions aside, I really am feeling very lucky. A lovely spouse, professionally/financially doing well, theoretically wiser.

It's been a good spot, honestly.

Welcome to the club! I just ticked past 53 last Friday, one of those indeterminate years but one where it really very much feels like I'm "in my 50s."

- Huey Lewis and the Blecchs

I am happy to be Blecch with you

I only realized I was getting old when I was 38. I still feel uncomfortably 14.

my GF signed me up for AARP last year when we went to Utah so we'd get some kind of travel discounts on our trip to Utah

The magazine features many of my contemporaries: P-Diddy, Matthew McConaughey, Kathleen Hannah, etc.

That was my reaction to my wife's first AARP mailer: do you at least get a museum discount?

Goddamn right I'm going to take advantage of every senior discount at civic facilities - the nice pool at the Duarte civic center, the golden eagle passports that get you in to all the national parks, etc...

35 cent bus/train fares (off hours)!

First colonoscopy - lots of polyps and I have to do it again in two years. *sigh*

I've had two (I started in my 40s becz of some mild family history), probably due for another one next year. They were OK, the propofol worked as advertised. Tho it is a singular experience to wake up from a nap to some chatty cathy showing you pictures of your innards.

haven't had that yet.. I'm with a cheap HMO and they just ask me to crap on a piece of wax paper, take a swab, and mail it back to them. It even comes with a little 'biohazard' bag lol

My parents are super nervous about any kind of anesthesia, so when my dad had his first colonoscopy he insisted on just getting local anesthetics and staying awake for the whole thing. His description of the ensuing discomfort persuaded me to never ask for that. (And he never did for subsequent ones either.)

I've had two, plus a surgery to remove my secum (?!) and appendix, since the tissue there was too thin to burn the polyp off

... and it's time for another, lol. I always think of crut's immortal thread abt barium shakes "if I hear the word I will barf"

it me now.

happy birthday!

hbd and congrats on leveling up

congratulations with your quarter bicentennial

nice one Ledge, I will be here in three weeks time also.

I wish all of you well. Hope these years go better for you than they have for me.

Happy birthday!

Welcome welcome

ty all, i've been fortunate to get this far with only minor eyesight degradation so the slow bodily collapse still to look forward to.

Around here, we don't make too many long-range plans.

i just turned...........................................................................................55. i don't even know anymore.

happy birthday, ledge!

40 was the depressing one for me.

i was 35 when i first started posting here. that iz craycray.

Gosh, I would have been 29! That's a long haul when I think of it that way.

tells us about the onion on your belt grandpa--was it really the style? oooh ooh and trucker caps

hb, and stay well olds

55 too and also (approx) 35 when I first posted. Big up the 55/35 club.

Welcome to the club, ledge.

I didn't think you were older than me, Scott. I'll be 52 in December and I celebrated my old-ness by giving a career talk to students at the local high school yesterday.

yeah approx 35 for me too. i just think that i started ILB 20 years ago? and that was pretty early on for me.

x-post

55 too and also (approx) 35 when I first posted. Big up the 55/35 club.

― stirmonster, Wednesday, October 18, 2023 4:35 PM (eight minutes ago)

looks like a club that i am part of as well.

I'm 53, and I was a month away from my 31st birthday when I first started posting here.

I guess I was… 24 or 25 when I started posting here? I’m 46 now.

54 next month for me

Happy Bday Ledge!

jesus, we should start a bluegrass group or something. buncha fogeys.

I started ilxing in um 2004 or 2005, so maybe 33ish? I am now 52.

I will be 54 next month and I've been on here since at least 2001.

57 now, started posting at age 38?

Seem like Gen Xers feel comfortable here, we don't have to eat Tide pods or lip-sync to Dua Lipa songs

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

56/34 is same enuf

i think i came here because frank kogan told me to..........i can't remember. some connection like that. the steve forbert thing. i don't even remember what i mean by the steve forbert thing. i barely knew frank. just one of chuck's wack pack. i think dow and i are the only ones left from that.

55/35 here too. Can’t even remember how I ended up here, it’s all murky.

I got here via the Fake Matador Bulletin Board, I think?

I turned 58 this year. I guess I've been posting here for going on two years, which surprises me.

i definitely got here via the Fake Matador Bulletin Board.

I remember the TURN BACK YOU POXY FULE days

and when we had to move to that weird nether-board that time. that was scary!

the sandbox!

I found ILX googling "Charalambides"

i am the same age as i was when i got here

mark s. is eternal. and justified and ancient. mooooooooooo moo.

i got here cos i registered ireallylovemusic as a domain and then looked at alternatives.

49/27

I wish I could remember how I got here. Welcome to your 50s!

I was in my 40s when I found ILX. I will level up to the very selective 60+ age bracket next year. Not sure it’s a club I want to join but better than the alternative.

First post I can find was in ‘03, when our daughter was three, our son two, and I was 38.

Now she’s 23, he’s 22, and I’m 59.

Yeah I’m getting older too.

36 when I started posting here. I turn 58 in twelve days.

I never posted in this thread when I hit the five-o? Weird. That was back in 2021.
Diabetes, bad knees, worries about how to keep paying rent whe I'm old and not working... fun. I was told life after 40 would be a free blast but that was bullshit imo.

I'm 54/33, so pretty close to the 55/35 club. We've been in this car a long time!

HBD ledge. The 50s are fine I guess. For me I'm at that dreaded point of dealing with kids-turning-into-adults and parents-suddenly-being-very-old, both of which require a lot of attention. The good side of which I guess is that it doesn't give me a lot of time to think about being in my 50s. By the time things settle down one way or another I'll probably be almost ready for the 60s thread.

I remember the TURN BACK YOU POXY FULE days

You mean they're supposed to be over? I still get that when I log in on my phone!

one thing I've noticed is how quickly a year passes now... I picked up a card my stepmom sent and it was from August 2022. And it's basically been on my kitchen table for over an entire year (no I'm not a hoarder, I was using it to block my laptop's cam lol)

I imagine having children must intensify this quickening passage of time

being this old fucking sucks

Andy, I have found the opposite. I can't really remember not having children. I don't have any of the feelings I'm allegedly supposed to have, about it going fast or "wow how are they almost grown up now" or "the days are long and the years are short."

I respect everyone else's perception of their lives but mine has been different. I feel every fricking minute of the last 17 years. I love my children utterly, but I cannot characterize my time with them as short or brief or fleeting.

I mostly see an undending series of days in which I wake up and change a diaper and worry about lunchboxes and homework and pouring out cereal and finding shoes.

(Sorry if this is TMI but my 12-year-old son is still wearing nighttime pull-ups; he is intellectually disabled and always will be. There is no finish line; he will need almost constant care for the rest if his life.)

i feel time is going very, very quickly. i believe the key to slowing it down is having new experiences but that is easier said than done.

i was also told after 40, life would be a free blast but i have found that to be bs too. i have found my 50s to be my most difficult decade while also having more life highpoints than any other decade. wtf is going on?!?!

"You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old." - George Burns

(Sorry if this is TMI but my 12-year-old son is still wearing nighttime pull-ups; he is intellectually disabled and always will be. There is no finish line; he will need almost constant care for the rest if his life.)

Really feel for you YMP, that's a hard road. I know others in similar situations, and I think about it sometimes as a could-have-happened because my oldest son was born super preemie and hence at elevated risk for all kinds of disabilities. As it transpired, he was developmentally delayed and is on the spectrum but generally fine, graduated high school on time, enrolled in community college etc. So for all the struggles he's had — which were significant, daily emotional outbursts well into middle school — I feel like we and he are pretty fortunate.

53/36

Douglas told me to come

My fifties have been terrible so far. I turned 50 during the first summer of the pandemic and that’s kinda set the tone

having a kid in college and them asking you specific questions about what it was like when you were there and not being able to remember half the time is peak 50s imo

this thread exploded in great ways— unexpected honest ways. Stay well and be strong, as you have been! ❤️

Lots of folk itt with college age kids, mine are only just school age (4 & 7) - I was late getting on board the family train. Though my 30s were classic child free fun I was low level depressed the whole time which is luckily no longer the case, I'm a bit worried about being an old dad though. I'll save that for the 60s thread.

I was also born in '73 and have a 22 yr old son - that whole period went a bit too fast for my liking. Even though my life is infinitely sadder and more fucked up than it was in my 30's I don't really feel any nostalgic longing to go back anywhere. I'm just waiting to die now ... lol

I was trying to work out what these 2 number things you were doing. I'm 52/32 I think?

I’m leaving the 50’s next year (59/39 are my
numbers I think).

The 50s has been my hardest decade probably. It’s been “You’re exhausted and feel like you need a break - but kept going !”.

No major health issues as yet - for which I should be grateful. The strain has been mainly work and aged parents.

(i was using the format of age now/age started on ilx ?)

Yeah thats how I understood it.

my eldest is 31 now, old enough for me to have to do the maths in my head ffs

53/33 (although I had a different callsign back then)

My fifties have been terrible so far. I turned 50 during the first summer of the pandemic and that’s kinda set the tone

The day I turned 50 was the day the Taoiseach announced the the country would be locking down because of COVID. Amusingly, I had had all my celebrations the previous month, to coincide with half-term, and because I knew that flights into Ireland close to Paddy's Day would be ridiculously expensive. Since then, it's been a parade of disasters, but I'm aware that it could be a lot worse, and at least I can come here and moan about it.

53/31, found ILM via Feaky Trigger

i'm sorry if people are having or have had a rough time of things! i will spare you my whole sad story - maybe on 77 borad sometime but i never go there - but i feel you! hang in there! remember: things MIGHT not get worse. i tried to spare you all my dark moods by not coming here for years. you're welcome!

my kids have flown the coop but my 88 year old dad moved in with me after my mom died (covid-era funeral! what fun! i can't see the faces of the few family members who came and i can't hug them and none of them came to my dad's house after! yay!) and life can certainly be interesting in interesting times.

My fifties have been terrible so far. I turned 50 during the first summer of the pandemic and that’s kinda set the tone

I realise now that my post looks competitive, which was not intended at all. It was meant to be sympathetic.

I def didn't read it that way!

I'm 51, started posting here about 20 years ago.

My kid is 17 1/2. as I said above, my 50's so far have been fucking awful. A lot of people's lives have been awful over the past few years so that's not unique. turning 50 coincided with my mother's health going rapidly downhill and I spent about 1/4 of my 50th year taking care of her through hospice and dealing with her death on my own. I got laid off from a job three months after I turned 50 and finding another one has been almost impossible, I hit my 12 month unemployment anniversary last week and shit is as bleak as it can possibly be. There are some issues with my kid's social life that are causing huge stresses; lack of work; fear of money running out; wars blowing up everywhere...I'm frankly in a panic 1/2 of the time and despairing the other half. I take no pleasure or enjoyment in any of the things that I used to like. At least I'm physically healthy, or relatively so.

:(

Akm, best of wishes to you. Sorry for what you have gone through and what you are going through.

Indeed so -- very sad to hear this!

yes, so sorry indeed.

and trishy b, i'm certain nobody took your post that way.

shit is as bleak as it can possibly be... I'm frankly in a panic 1/2 of the time and despairing the other half

200% relating with this

also glad for the folks who are sailing through with less angstydrama

reading the chaos of other peoples lives is very humbling.

my 40s were horrid.
my 50s have been a lot less chaotic, so far.

genuinely hoping that things improve for various folks here.

if you guys ever need a hug maria and i are at 275 main street in greenfield ma almost every day of the week. i can also make you a cup of tea. and give you a record or a cd.

jesus i'm listening to the new pj harvey and i think it was made for saddo 50somethings. but in a good way. you need to have gone through some shit to feel it deeply. or maybe not. i would have liked it as a sullen teen. its so autumn!! (love it. go buy it. i'm gonna get a vinyl copy.)

I'm a bit worried about being an old dad though

The youngest of my four is 13. I don't have the energy level I had when the older ones were young, but I think I'm a better parent now. Certainly a lot more even tempered. He and I have a great time.

I have 20 days left in this club before I level up.

Best to all the ilxors in the club.

Yeah , lots of love to all here.

I’ve reached a stage with my work life where I still go through stretches of being in love with it , but I’m also just increasingly drained from the constant grind and stress of it and a feeling of so much yet to be done. I don’t want to retire yet but I would like a sabbatical, and it feels unfair that you have to be a tenured academic to get one.

the thing that is scary at this age is the precarity, if you get the ax at this age finding a good job at similar level (or even any level) is very difficult for most because of age discrimination. i know precarity in general is bad these days for workers of all ages but its more intense at this stage imo.

Depends on your field, I guess. If you work remotely as I do, doing proofreading/editing work, there's a certain amount of "on the internet nobody knows you're a dog" latitude — you can tweak your resume to seem younger than you are (I only have about my last 10-15 years of work available for examination), opt for phone interviews rather than Zoom calls, go through recruiters instead of applying for jobs yourself, etc., etc. I've started in an entirely new field in the past year, and just this week had my contract extended to the end of 2024, when I will be turning 53.

most alarming physical manifestation of my fifties rapidly approaching: massive uptick in the number of records in my collection featuring Robert Fripp… i even listened to Discipline yesterday and forgot to feel annoyed at Belew’s terrible vocals, who even am i anymore??

very conscious of work precarity at this time - working in the crumbling ruin of the brodcast tv industry (in a production rather than executive capacity) means i am stuck in a pincer movement between diminishing audiences/resourdes and (great!) younger players coming up with broader skillsets and lower salary expectations- it is definitely an ongoing calculation about how long i can hang in there, and lots of apprehension about what to do next

I really do like my work! I think I am pretty good at it! But the landscape is what it is

"i even listened to Discipline yesterday and forgot to feel annoyed at Belew’s terrible vocals, who even am i anymore??"

haha! i almost put on the sleepless dance mix promo single today when i closed the store today and then thought better of it when i remembered that i could just go home for the night!

maria has been a dutch translator for 30 years and her work has really dried up. instead of getting good translation work she ended up just proofreading really bad AI translations for agencies for very little money. which is the pits. so now she is my assistant manager. i might even bumo her up to manager this holiday season. i pay her really badly though. the end result is that i am working a TON more in back and we are making more but its still kinda scary because i feel like i can never stop. i'm working for two now. but she has done so much stuff with the store that i never had the time and desire to do so it has been cool. and she is so much nicer to people. i was always trying to be nice while feverishly working online. made me miserable.

Depends on your field, I guess. If you work remotely as I do, doing proofreading/editing work, there's a certain amount of "on the internet nobody knows you're a dog" latitude

This is also the work I do. In our household it's very much gone from two main wage earners to a main wage earner (my husband, who works a big job in big tech) and a subordinate wage earner, me. And my ability and desire to earn have dwindled to the point where every job that comes in now is so poorly paid and poorly organised that I just can't be arsed to deal with the downsides. People not getting back to me for weeks, then popping up with a boatload of edits that all need to be done by tomorrow. Not paying me. Not giving me any kind of visibility into scheduling, so sometimes I might get work steadily, then nothing for a month, but no email saying "hey, stand down for the next month, there's nothing for you in the calendar". It's very wearing. But obviously that puts a lot of pressure on him to not get laid off in a company that's lately proven itself quite trigger happy in the laying-off department. We're just trying to pay down our mortgage as fast as we can. If we end up having to rent out half the house when we're older, well, I'm happy to do that.

and trishy b, i'm certain nobody took your post that way.

Thanks team! I had a funny conversation the other day with an acquaintance of similar age. We hadn't seen each other since before COVID. It was an absolute shitshow of disasters. We were laughing so hard. "My brother died, and I couldn't even go and see him in the hospital when he was dying because my husband had kidney cancer and I had to stay at home and take care of him!" "I got rammed by a shopping trolley and I've had four operations and I'm in constant pain!" Being in your fifties is fun.

I don’t want to retire yet but I would like a sabbatical, and it feels unfair that you have to be a tenured academic to get one.

Husband's place used to let you take six months unpaid leave sometimes, but nobody does that anymore because they're afraid it would count against them in the next round of layoffs.

54 and my 20 year anniversary was a couple of weeks ago.

I've been intrigued watching my slow physical decline and the death of friends (May this year was a 3 funeral month) and am happily comfortable with mortality in a way I've never been. I mean I'm in pretty good health but mobility is what it is. I might try rocking a stick soon.

I'm trying to map out the rest of my working life with an eye to packing it in full time at 60 but there's a lot of IFS and buts to get there. Not least of which is a work ethic that is undoubtedly burning me up too fast.

I have turned into a cranky old man when it comes to the entertainment industry, and am fairly oblivious to anything that's happened in the past 10 years - which probably explains the descent into boutique Blu-ray labels and 60s tv. Haven't bought any music in years though I still watch and make, and have started running build workshops at festivals for kids to make synths etc.

My eldest wanted to go and see Mick Harvey the other week and I realised they were born in the years when Pink Elephants and Intoxicated Man came out. Mick seemed either appalled or impressed when I told him, it was hard to tell (given he had introduced Bonnie And Clyde that night as a song from a very long time ago).

this is how i know i'm not young. i've got this on deck at home:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/HgsAAOSwGWxk6pKs/s-l225.jpg

ha! i watched a few Petrocelli episodes too recently. So long, Barry.

Once you get into any of the NBC Mystery Movie series that aren't Columbo the end is in sight

Yay colonoscopy time again! It was fine, tho the prep pills this time made me throw up in addition to their intended effects, so that wasn't fun. The propofol remains pretty amazing to me, just like "OK you're going to take a nap ..." and then you wake up in a different room with the thing all done.

So many of my friends have gotten divorced in the last five years. I somehow thought if their marriage made it this far, it was for good, but ... no, the 50s (or late 40s) is when it's happening.

See it all around you, good lovin' gone bad

.38 Special tried to warn us.

Among a not-very-large group of friends, I've seen long-term relationships of 23, 18 and 8 years break up over the last few years. The two longest seemed to be solid from the outside.

There was a MAD cartoon when i was a kid in the 70s with an old married pair grumpily adjacent to each other which went like “we only stayed together for the kids, now we have no one but each other,” and well— my generation doesn’t want to settle for that maaaan

Went Outside for a work social lunch (and worked in the office) today and my Everthing is giving me Jip. Owwww.

this is like the platonic ideal of (australian?) sentences i do not understand

Sounds like you're quankers in the kulabaroo, mate!

keep it civil, nick!

I still have hair on my head whilst others of my batch are nake-headed - this is something to gratefully nod

I can take being a hunky, balding sex symbol. Life throws much harsher shit at you than a receding hairline.

I went way too long between colonoscopies, but the prep is now a lot better than it used to be--two cups of an undrinkable fluid as opposed to two whole Gatorade-sized bottles about 15 years ago. But yeah, the anesthetic is amazing. One minute they were telling me to lie on my side, the next they were shaking me awake.

When I had mine I woke up on the table, so could watch my colon being probed live. No discomfort, and the doctor didn't seem alarmed that I was awake.

if I can avoid this stuff by living on a diet of All-Bran and rabbit food - I will do to spare me this body-horror indignity, at least until I finally manage to drink myself to death!

may I recommen d Metamucil?

I put Benefiber in all water that I drink. I’m not in my 50’s, but I may be one day. I’ll be ready.

I'm not either but I'm observing a colonoscopy in 2 weeks and I'm so excited.

I guess there is a point where you have to overcome the awkwardness of being trapped inside an ape-like body with a point where stuff that goes in takes a route through your body and has to go out for the sake of functional bodily health. I'm not that squeamish these days, but that would be very testing for me.

this is like the platonic ideal of (australian?) sentences i do not understand

Wait, what bit was weird/unclear? My everything - all me joints - are giving me jip! Its not an australian saying btw, I cadged that from Granny on Metal Mickey. Now I think about it, its probably vaguely racist, I dunno.

yeah, 'jip' by any spelling has probably fallen out of favor

My late father used to say 'niggardly' which is a real word that he used correctly, but it always made me feel uncomfortable

wasn't sure what Your Everything was

no idea what Giving Me Jip meant

(i've heard of 'being gypped' -- yes, racist -- but my sense of it is 'being robbed' which doesn't quite match up to Your Everything)

never heard of Metal Mickey

it's cool though! honestly i encourage you to confuse me a la grunge speak!

Yeah gyyped is from gypsy but I take it what T is saying means pain.

Gyp is sometimes spelled jip. 'Gyp pain' or 'jip pain' might be caused by an uncomfortable but not serious ailment, usually described as 'a bit of gyp/jip'. It might also be severe and ongoing, as in 'that hip replacement is giving me gyp/jip'.

In other news, my shoulder hurts for no reason

In other words, welcome to the 50s.

re: T pain, yes "giving me gyp" is oldstyle Aus slang for "acting up", UK derived, apparently not from the derogatory term for Romani / travellers, but from the notion of having "Egyptian tummy" when unused to foreign food, hence pain.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gyp.html

also my shoulder is giving me gyp as well

Metal Mickey was uk kids TV series about a robot. Mickey dolenz from the Monkees was involved. it'll be on YouTube.

(also a suede single iirc)

I'm intrigued by all the colonoscopies in this thread. In the US do you all get regular colonoscopies once you hit 50? Definitely not the case in Australia, unless you have some specific reason. Here they offer you a kit where you have to scrape off some of your poo and stick it in a tube to get tested in a lab

yeah the only way i know the term is from the first suede album and i was mystified by it i wondered if it was some rhyme slang thing xp

oh no they open a tv studio up yer a hole and have a good long look behind the scenes to make sure theres no polyps hanging out in there

aaand i will add for XYs who are 50+ or any age: if you ever need a prostate biopsy— same venue, same prep as colonoscopy, but in addition to a video studio they bring in heavy demolition equipment— you may be longing for the oppty to get high and zonk out that is a colonoscopy. /oldsoversharing

In the US do you all get regular colonoscopies once you hit 50?

Yeah, it’s a standard recommendation. I think they’re maybe even dropping the start age to 45 now. I did my first one in my 40s because of some mild family history on the topic. I’m sure this is all driven to some extent by the gastroenterological industrial complex — it’s a big money maker. The place I go is a big, sleek suburban complex that is basically an assembly-line operation. One of the nurses told me they do up to 50,000 a year between three locations.

Both of my grandfathers had colon cancer, I should have a scope permanently stuck up my ass.

They have dropped the age to 45.

I waited until 50 and found I had 7 polyps, so I have to get another one in two years.

I should have a scope permanently stuck up my ass.

I believe that's called the ColoGoPro

My late father used to say 'niggardly' which is a real word that he used correctly, but it always made me feel uncomfortable

My mom got in trouble for this. She was a 6th grade teacher at a private school, and for a get-to-know-you class exercise she had the kids all turn their names into acronyms with each letter starting a word that described them. She did it too, and because she has an N in her name she used "niggardly." In retrospect not a great choice, but I think it honestly didn't occur to her. One kid mentioned it to their parents and Mom got called in for a meeting with the principal. She had to get out a dictionary and show him it wasn't any kind of slur, but she still apologized to the class for insensitivity. Fortunately this was pre-social-media era so there was no viral uproar.

a lot of friends who turned 50 recently have been invited to shit in a box by the nhs as some kind of colon cancer screening. wasn't a thing 6 years ago so I've missed that fun. might just do it anyway.

i did the cologuard test thing. but that was a while ago.

i was happy to do that instead of a colonoscopy.

I am good now until my early 60s, after two scope sessions plus one surgery to remove a difficult polyp

pro tip for drinking the stuff: aromatherapy! I was taking big sniffs of crushed fresh mint in between gulp sessions

If I'm shitting in a box it's getting mailed to a politician, not a lab.

Xxps lol @ eephus

Pretty much as soon as I turned fifty two years ago I got both my shingles vaccine and first colonoscopy booked. Strictly speaking the latter was a poo test first, being blunt; as some blood was detected the colonoscopy was ordered up on the safe side, and all was well aside from one minimal non-cancerous polyp. (TMI, granted, but these are the practicalities of the situation, and frankly I will always take the opportunity for tests, vaccinations etc. if offered or recommended -- though of course it doesn't hurt at all that I always had solid insurance coverage.)

I'm not sure there can be TMI at this age. Only going to get MI from here on out.

I still gotta do the shingrix. Keep putting it off because of the reports, being sick for two days etc. But if I get shingles I’ll be kicking myself.

do it, way better than shingles

The vaccine was terrible for me, but you gotta do it.

It's €250 here! Astronomical!

I'm intrigued by all the colonoscopies in this thread. In the US do you all get regular colonoscopies once you hit 50? Definitely not the case in Australia, unless you have some specific reason.

Yeah that was my experience. I have a family history of bowel polyps so was urged by my mother to ask for one, which I reluctantly followed up, only to have the hospital gastro dept say to me "why are you asking for this, you're too young?". This'd be when I was about 46 or 47 I guess? I did get it done after mentioning the fam history and in the end I did have polyps that I had to get removed (its been 5 years and they hounded me for a follow up recently but I honestly cant be arsed, too much other health crap going on).

Ha.... can't be "arsed" roffle roffle.

I finally got a colonoscopy at 59 and they found two polyps, both benign. They said come in in 5 years for the next one and here it is 7 years later (but I'm gonna do it, I swear!).

Also have an enlarged prostate (and higher than normal PSA readings) so have had that biopsy too - negative.

Prostate screening is complex and erratic in the UK. The NHS website tells you this:

There's currently no screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK. This is because it has not been proved that the benefits would outweigh the risks.

This thread is rough compared to the last one I was in.

First post by a deceased ilxor. Second post namechecks a deceased ilxor. Third post asks, What if we got lost in the 50's amirite.

I guess I'm not used to being the baby in the room.

welcome little bro <3

wow i was only 40 yrs young then, and i had so much optimism. ooh, and my teeth, i had those, too! ahh, what a time.

See, I'm like What's mookieproof doing in this thread? Weren't we just teasing him about looking like Jason Giambi?

You know... in 2005?

i was never that sweaty

dag

On a good day, like today, I feel so very on top of the world. Life is on cruise control. Nothing to prove, nobody to impress, just being me.

Safely married and housed and gainfully employed. Kids thriving and on their way to something resembling independence.

Then I remember that two weeks ago I was trying to get through a day without having a nervous breakdown, from the sheer pressure to keep up the appearance of being a functional adult.

For me it's really very binary: either everything's great or I'm a complete dumpster fire. Wish I could set a comfy middle.

is lowerbck pain the price we all pay in our 50's from being the upright vertebrates instead of horiozontal like nature seems to have intended

tis why i walk at least 3km a day.
i used to go swimming a few times a week,
but then the pandemic kicked in,
and i realised that a good-n-fast walk helped just as well, and such options were free.
if i don't head out for a few days then yeah, my lower back begins to lock up.

Yup, my morning walks, on top of my walks to work and back, are key things for me.

my family keeps tryna get 50+ me to stop my 10+ hrs/wk of outdoor shit (i mean, i broke my right clavicle for the 4th time this summer).

but i’m like- if i quit i might
1) die
2) drink harder
3) start smoking, it sounds relaxing and pleasurable and i do like a pipe
4) see if i can gain 100 lbs in a year just to piss you off and i like feeling accomplished

Nearly 54. I spent a few hours on my knees sanding and refinishing the hardwood floor of my dining room last weekend and i could barely walk on Monday. Finally starting to feel ok again but I think I'll hire contractors for home improvements from here in out.

i have walked an average of 15km every single day for the last 3 years, which i know seems a mad amount and is probably too much, but the benefits have been huge.

Doing 20 mins of walking a day is a miracle for me, I've become quite infirm and my knees are developing a smidge of arthritic pain now.

I mean, I can walk fine, I dont need a cane or anything. I'm just saying - use it or lose it is DEF a thing.

I walk ay least two miles (or bike at least five miles) pretty much every day.

It's not like a huge GET SWOLE kind of workout, but I find it both sustainable and salutary.

On days when I don't do one or the other, I feel the lack of it.

I walk or bike a few miles most day, that's how I commute and get around, but I can't say I feel any different when I sit all day

That said, I'd almost always prefer to get high and watch history documentaries in my underwear and/or eat nachos and drink pinot grigio while playing a mandola.

I am a simple man.

daddy told me: be a simple, mandola man!

I'm actually enjoying going to the gym more than I ever have before, just doing cardio and some basic weight stuff, nothing crazy, but pretty regular when I can. Been super busy with work/family stuff the last few months and have had fewer opportunities. I really feel the difference between when I exercise regularly and when I don't, physically and psychologically. Feel a bit better about everything when I'm exercising more, everything seems more doable and manageable.

Absolutely. I've been limited the last six weeks due to travel, work, and illness. This week is the first time I've been able to go and start getting my legs back and it makes such a difference.

My boss bikes to work every day - she uses an ebike. Maybe a 3-mile, 15-minute ride, along a very established and popular bike trail.

I'm 15 miles away, which would take a an hour-plus even under ideal conditions. So I do bike/train/bike. That is, I bike (or scoot) about half a mile from home to my nearest train station. Then I take my bike (or scooter) on the train, then bike (or scoot) a half mile to the office.

I can do this twice a week in good weather. Not sure I want to be doing this in February or August, but November is perfect.

i did the bike/train/bike thing every day, it was about like ymp's and it was pretty easy and great. and still way less time or frustration than driving and parking in the city, even with reserved parking. recommended. also recommend ebikes, but not from personal experience.

from one who knows, until you live in amsterdam, wear a damn helmet eh? no guarantee but worth it. if you're accosted while riding without one by some shitheel, i support severe abusive language. but if you're in traffic wear one FOR YOU.

Hunt3r speaks wisdom.

So many people use the app-based temp bikes/scooters here, and almost nobody wears a helmet. They almost all ride on the sidewalk, they often put more than one person on (frequently a minor), and they are generally a menace.

Tangentially, I know a head injury expert, who broke it down like this: imagine something goes terribly wrong and you, as a pedestrian, are the victim in a car accident.

Let's say you start with a settlement of a million dollars. If you weren't in a marked crosswalk, cut that in half. If the walk light wasn't in your favor, cut it in half again.

Since hearing that, I strongly prefer crossing streets at designated crosswalks and with the walk light in my favor. No, it will probably never become an issue, but I'd rather be in a strong position if it should come to pass.

Ditto helmets. Do I always need a helmet? No. Do I always wear one? Yes. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

try having your partner of 15 years, at the then-latest moment of extreme stress and disappointment, tell you "you're not the person i married."

some things are not recoverable. no insurance will make you whole.

you're not the person i married

To which one plausible response is "well, neither are you." I have been married 22 years and it would be very surprising if we had remained the same. Sympathies to you Hunt3r

Thanks. Yeah, we are now at 22. I can assure you she is the same lol. It’s kind of annoying.

One of my romantic criteria has always been "generous capacity for change, but general lack of capacity to become evil."

I am okay with my wife cganging and surprising me - in fact I find that prospect exhilarating. But I want the surprises to happen within the context of the basic goodness we perceived in each other from the beginning.

Like, over time, people change. Take up yoga or needlepoint. Learn to play the oboe or ultimate Frisbee. Embrace Islam, or Goth culture, or go vegan. Okay. Cool cool, we can adapt.

A change toward incompatibility - or, conversely, a refusal to accept that your partner is allowed to change? Different kettle of fishies.

My wife and I are at 21 years of marriage. I have now heard of several couples in the last couple of months having had issues at 22 years. Fingers crossed.

you know what I miss is healing after you get hurt, or getting well after getting sick instead of having things just drag on and on and on

is lowerbck pain the price we all pay in our 50's from being the upright vertebrates instead of horiozontal like nature seems to have intended

― | (Latham Green)

not in my 50s but god the back pain is hitting hard this week

they wanna do an MRI and a DEXA to check for bone density

all i can think about is those TERFs who keep saying that i have the "bones of a man"

i fucking wish

apparently they don't do back braces anymore, they've found it can cause muscle weakness. we'll see what the physical therapist suggests... what with the scoliosis i'm not sure what "sitting upright" actually looks like

at least since starting estrogen i've been able, for the first time in my life, to understand what people mean when they say "relax"

A change toward incompatibility - or, conversely, a refusal to accept that your partner is allowed to change? Different kettle of fishies.

― don't let days go by, Listerine (Ye Mad Puffin)

it's weird. i am, in fact, demonstrably not the person my ex married... that causes problems for a lot of marriages, but not for mine

what caused the problem was that i _kept changing_. she said, i wish you would just stop changing.

it took me a year to figure out that, contrary to her insistence, she _had_ changed since we married. we all change, all the time. sometimes people grow together, sometimes people grow apart. we both knew that, both agreed on that, going in... people change and they're not compatible anymore and that's not a failure, that's not anyone's fault.

there was, of course, more going on in our relationship. there were a lot of things left unspoken, a lot of fucked up things we didn't acknowledge

thinking about this:

some things are not recoverable. no insurance will make you whole.

― digital chirping and whirring (Hunt3r)

i was... i was relying on her to make me whole.

i was thinking today about the old jimi hendrix song "51st anniversary". and hendrix meant it a certain way, it wasn't something he wanted, but i always thought it was a romantic song. i wanted that, not just the "happy ending" but the pain hendrix sings about too. i wanted to reach my 51st anniversary with someone, to go through all that with someone. i wanted the life i saw my ex's grandparents have, feeding each other when they couldn't feed themselves and whispering sweet nothings to each other.

it might have been possible with her. i was 33. it's not possible now. and yet... i don't see that as a loss. i'm living on my own, have been for a year, for the first time. i was never able to take care of myself, before. always needed some woman or another to take care of me.

the last two years have been really hard, really painful. those two years cost me a lot. hurt me a lot. i'd never felt that kind of pain before. people i loved - not just my ex - are gone from my life forever. i loved those people, many of them, more than i loved myself.

so now i'm whole. there's nobody i love more than i love myself. i used to expect people to care for me in ways that... nobody can care for me in those ways, really, except me. i have four more years - three and a half, really - until i reach my 51st anniversary with the person i love most in the world. i feel like i got a good shot of making it.

the nhs obviously monitoring this thread because i have now been asked to shit in a box

Stop throwing up on the carpet too, while you're at it.

i'm a-shittin' in a box
i'm a-shittin' in a cardboard box

Sorry, I prefer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt0spqQtMKg

I think this is relevant to this thread bc it's a generational thing, but I hate that sketch with a purple passion.

You can also tell who belongs in this thread and who doesn't by who recognized the "Baby Come Back" melody in it.

I do not belong in this thread, but if you're waking up sore and your back is hurting you might want to evaluate your mattress.

When I was a kid I could sleep on a pile of rocks and feel fine, but now when my mattress gets old I can feel it in the morning.

while that's true, until you're in your fifties it may be harder to get how this decade is kind of turning point for the body, it feels like to me anyhow -- I say this as a person who in his fifties achieved a level of physical fitness I'd literally never had before, presently arrested by sports injury, praying for healing & doing my PT. but the 50s bod, it is its own zone, at any rate, I could not have really grokked how true this is from the perspective of my 40s

having said that anybody with back pain should yes absolutely ask "how old is this mattress and is it serving my needs?"

the nhs obviously monitoring this thread because i have now been asked to shit in a box

the box just cracks me up, it's so humbling. what's up mr. cool guy. still keeping up with the music I see! not goin' gently into that good night, nossiree, not you. here, shit in this box and mail it to us then, if you're so cool

My HMO just has you shit on a piece of wax paper in the toilet... then you take a swab with a little thing that resembles a thumb-drive... wrap it in a biohazard bag and drop it in the mail

lacks the romance of the box imo

I measure myself against Larkin's "Aubade", published in his mid-fifties. Do I have similar experiences? Yes. Do I react to them as he does? No, so I must be doing ok...?

Best part of the box is putting it in the mail bc you have to deposit your deposit in yet another box

I’m 2 years away from 50 but they made me crap in a box a couple years ago

I'm way past alla that as Ive already had the bum cam, but they still send me the test in an envelope every few years anyway.

My HMO just has you shit on a piece of wax paper in the toilet...

While we're on the topic I got the results today from a lone polyp they took out at my look-see a few weeks ago. "Adenomatous," which is not cancerous but can be pre-cancerous, whatever that exactly means. Very common, they say, not to worry, eat a good high-fiber diet come back in five years.

I could probably stand to increase fiber tbh. Anyone have favorite ways to do that that aren't just, like, adding fiber to juice or whatever?

Metamucil (or its generic equivalent) comes in capsule form now. It's the easiest delivery system, imho. Certainly easier than having to mix it up, let alone trying to maintain a high fiber diet.

I hated broccoli when I was growing up, but at some point realized it was really nutritious so I decided to make peace with it. Now I absolutely adore it and cannot imagine an evening meal without it.

popcorn is pretty high in fibre

Psyllium husk (aka metamucil) is easy but I would start slow.. like one capsule after a meal, then gradually upping it... it can definitely cause a bloated feeling, and numerous runs to the toilet

Tipsy forgive my cynicism but there is a whole industry devoted to everyone being "pre-cancerous." That is, if you don't have cancer, you are merely waiting for it to arrive. That is a standing assumption for a sizable chunk of the medical industrial complex.

Most very old people (90+) will likely have some cancer somewhere. In prior centuries, they would have died before this became evident (or was masked by some other condition).

Something else might kill you first (heart disease mostly, but liver disease probably wants to be in the running as well). The only question is whether the "something else" gets you before cancer does.

Yeah this is why I pushed back (and I *really* had to push hard) on the hospitsal demanding I do a follow up colonscopy. They found a few polyps. They got rid. The procedure itself is way more invasive, and especially these days with the risk of either covid or MRSA , why the fuck would I want to do an invaside procedure I'm not sure I have to?
They rang me. Emailed me. Sent letters. I called and told them I wanted off the waiting list. They said theyd contact me again in 3 months. We did this dance for a year, and at one point they called my effing MOTHER (who freaked out cos she had no idea what was going on) bcs I hadnt calld them back? Even though I'd said I wanted to leave it? GAH. It was a whole thing.

Thanks YMP, good perspective. I did read that 50 percent of everyone over 60 has adenomatous polyps — something to look forward to y'all — so it doesn't give me a lot of concern. And yeah, I know past age 70 or so they only even do the scope if there's some specific reason — because anything you develop at that point is unlikely to be the thing that kills you. (And even if it does, you'll still be clocking your expected lifespan.)

I fully expect die of something else WAY before my colon gets me. Ditto cholesterol or my prostate gland.

I may be severely deluded (correction, I am probably severely deluded) but right now I find myself more worried about climate change, gun nuts, car accidents, my booze-beleaguered liver, and - fuck it - zombies.

In what I presume will be a massive shocker, I suspect the medical industry has a bias toward recommending tests that are (1) easy to administer and (2) lucrative in terms of reimbursement.

I literally went to see someone about a hernia and came out with a colonoscopy appointment and a recommendation to do exactly nothing about the hernia.

Both of my grandfathers survived colon cancer, and they took no care of themselves. They were really hard to kill. I like my odds.

Perhaps it was only semicolon cancer.

IRL LOL

I will say, my dad's dad actively wished for death for a while after they took part of his bowel.

lol ymp

Colorectal is easy to catch, easy to fix, at least compared to other cancers.

Wait around for the "perforation" and you'll be the one they're depositing into a box.

Hello knee pain, my old friend
I've come to talk to you again

I am not sure if this is the right thread for this particular ventfest but fuckit.

Two days ago I went to meet my son's school bus and the bus was already there. (For context, it is a special ed bus and if I m not there, they leave and take him back to school and it becomes a Whole Thing.)

Annnnyway I started to run to catch up with the bus. There was a jogger with a dog, and I tried to dodge around them but tripped My face, my glasses, and my phone had a serious disagreement with the sidewalk.

My wife was out of town, I needed urgent care, and my son was having a meltdown. Also my phone was smashed, which meant that anything requiring two-factor authentication (which is a lot of things) would be impossible for a while.

Of course I will be okay about maybe I will someday look back on it as comical - a parenting injury! - but right now I just feel stupid and embarrassed.

Plus my face looks like hamburger and I don't know how to go to four business meetings and a follow-up doctor's appointment without having to address the whole episode.

oh ymp, i’m really sorry.

Ouch dude, that sucks. And I don't know about you, but for me physical injuries hit a lil different now. Not that I have many of them. But just much more aware of overall corporeal vulnerability and how long any one thing can take to recover from.

Yikes, that sounds painful. Hope you mend quickly.

i've hit my face on the pavement a couple of times while out running, i know that pain well and fuck me does it hurt! you never really think about how little cushioning your face has compared to other parts of your body until you whack it full-force into a slab of concrete. but the worst bit is that longterm it's left me feeling a bit wary and vulnerable in moments where previously i wouldn't have had a care in the world. anyhow, heal quick ymp!

As someone who also had a recent face-meets-road bad fall (I have a slightly Vulcan eyebrow now thanks to one scar), I empathise. Christ just last night I was unable to sleep cos I was having horrible intrusive thoughts about falling over and going to the hspital and feeling so embarrased and frightened, even though it happened over six months ago.

Thanks for the empathy folks, I will be fine but I definitely feel like this is oart of aging. You will get injured more easily. You will heal more slowly. Health complaints that would have been minor and temporary start to get, vexingly, more permanent.

When you're 22 and you hurt your knee, it might hurt for a few days. When you're 52 and you hurt your knee, that's basically going to be how it feels, forever. You get used to it, because what other choices do you have?

I now totally get the olds’ fear of falling and how it influences choices of activities. I used to disparage horsewomen who got to a certain age and quit jumping. I’m not there yet and hope I never will be, but after more falls this year than in my entire riding career up to this point, I am getting more selective about what horses I jump. Biting dirt after coming off a horse at speed—this is a very different thing for a 50-something than a 15 year old rubber ball of a rider.

I slept so poorly last night. Everything hurt. I feel my age today and I hate it.

Hope you feel better jimbeaux.

Have you tried an electric heating pad? I got one and makes a world of difference. Sometimes I use it just because it's comforting, not because I have any specific injury or complaint.

I have tried them for my back specifically, usually not when trying to sleep. I might give it a try. Thanks, and I hope you feel better too.

I definitely feel like this is oart of aging. You will get injured more easily. You will heal more slowly. Health complaints that would have been minor and temporary start to get, vexingly, more permanent.

When you're 22 and you hurt your knee, it might hurt for a few days. When you're 52 and you hurt your knee, that's basically going to be how it feels, forever. You get used to it, because what other choices do you have?

seldom has a poster been so otm. over a month ago I threw my back out...by coughing. at the outset of an incredibly busy workweek. I could not really stand up straight for two weeks, nor get out of bed without incredible effort and pain. aging requires a deeply philosophical outlook to be tolerable.

I saw a friend on Saturday, he's my age, he hurt his back reaching over to open a window.

it was so embarrassing because it happened so fast, and I was due to meet my coworkers at ten -- and I'd already been up and around, they'd seen me just earlier that morning -- and they called: where are you? and I said, oh, ahem, well, I'm trying to get out of bed, but turning over is proving to be a real whole thing, give me ten minutes. it was like this for two weeks.

because I COUGHED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQosOF8bKQ

I have a thing now where every time I fly in an airplane, and all the sitting that entails, will result in a back injury upon reaching my destination. Happened when I flew to Spain (as I reached down to open a mini fridge in the hotel), and it happened in Sweden in June when I bent down to photograph a wildflower.. just like a rubber band snapping in my lower back, if sucks

oh that's data for me -- this was the morning after a long flight.

What about changes in weather?

I have had, since I was 19, a knee that sometimes clicks when the weather changes, but I haven't noticed anything with other things. I went from heat to heat on the flight though (mid-atlantic to deep south) so I'm not sure about that.

My left knee used to pop like bubble wrap in the mornings. Lately it doesn't do that as much. I wonder if it's altitude/humidity related.

Long flights and long drives both mess with my back/shoulders.

Somebody mentioned heating pads, I will also throw out this specifically for back/shoulder/neck stuff: a massage pillow. I have this thing and my wife and I love it to pieces: https://zyllion.com/products/shiatsu-back-and-neck-massager-pillow-with-heat-zma-13

On a flight of 3+ hours, I have to get up and walk around, my legs hurt so much. I think it's related to poor circulation.

Get you some compression socks! (I don't actually have any, but I should.)

ooh

I am suddenly visualising us all sittting under blankets round a fire, croaking tips at each other at how to deal with the old lumbago.

Don’t mind me … I am just getting a looksee at what I am in for next year

lol Trayce I will take all the advice! Starting to realize that consciously trying to minimize/avoid current or future pain is going to be a focus from now on.

Got the shingles vaxx #2 yesterday... I'm feeling it today: achy, mild chills, slight headache. Plus my arm hurts
Glad I'm working at the kitchen table

the shingles vax was rough but it's definitely worth it to prevent shingles

I didn't really feel the first dose at all, outside of the injection site.. but #2 is kicking my ass

hang on, this is available for all over 50s ?

CDC recommends that adults 50 years and older get two doses of the shingles vaccine called Shingrix (recombinant zoster vaccine) to prevent shingles and the complications from the disease.

each dose is a different microchip

Seeing Diane Feinstein in the wheelchair was enough for me to message my GP about it

cdc = America. nhs says 65+

Thraed of Shingrix

ahh, thats what i thought i remembered.
i.e. 65+ for us in the UK.

The shingles vaccine doesn't guarantee that you won't get shingles. But this vaccine will likely reduce the course and severity of the disease. And it will likely lower your risk of postherpetic neuralgia. Studies suggest that Shingrix offers protection against shingles for more than five years.

FIVE years?? I thought it was good for life :-(

shingles thread... looks like some longer term study data was published last year. one study saying protection lasts at least 7 years and another study saying up to 10 years.

My aunt (79) has had it for years. It's been agony. The shot feels like a punch in the arm, well worth it.

If you had chickenpox as a kid is shingles off the cards or no?