This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

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.

The person followed up when asked about Cologuard's pretty high NPV (negative predictive value):

What I’m saying is that NPV is a great number for them to sell the test, but doesn’t tell the real story. This is a screening test. NPV is the likelihood that a negative will be a true negative in ALL PATIENTS SCREENED. The problem is that we test an enormous number of patients without disease, so OF COURSE there will be a high rate of true negatives. A 99% NPV can mean that I tested 100 people and all tested negative. 99 were true negatives, 1 was a false negative. That hypothetical test would have 0% sensitivity despite a 99% NPV.

Cologuard’s 99.94% NPV and 92% sensitivity means that in the total population if I test 10,000 people there will be 9994 true negatives. However, if I test 10,000 people WITH CANCER there will be 800 false negatives.

All that ignores the very poor sensitivity for adenomas and the loss of risk reduction through polypectomy.

I would argue that what patients care about is “if I have something, will this test find it?” The answer to that question is that if you have a premalignant polyp, the test will miss 3 out of every 10. If you have an existing cancer, the test will miss almost 1 out of every 10. That is the number that an individual patient cares about, in my opinion. NPV and PPV would be great if you were going to go straight to treatment or ‘make the diagnosis’ based on the test result. However, Cologuard is really a ‘rule out’ test as what you are trying to do in practice is rule out the patients who don’t need colonoscopies. For that purpose the sensitivity is not high enough. In my opinion.

I am deemed to be at high risk for cancer (immunosuppression messing with cancer defenses) and had some "precancerous" polyps a few years ago, so the medical profession has had a couple good looks up in my undercarriage.

Agree that the anaesthesia aspect is really very pleasant. I find myself wishing there were more experiences like that in life. Get ready Get ready Get- oh wait, you're done? Um, okay. Bye.

that is weird. last colonoscopy i had was like the best sleep ever. today i am wired up with the 24hr blood pressure machine. i have popped my back somehow and am struggling to get in and out of seats

The place that I go for colonoscopies is kind of amazing — big sleek office park building that is basically a colonoscopy factory. You get moved through it with dazzling efficiency from one room to the next, just this constant churn. Everybody is super nice and good about answering questions, so I don’t just feel like another slab of meat moving through. But I can’t imagine how many they do in a day. (Or how much money they bring in.)

xp Sorry about your back!

But I can’t imagine how many they do in a day. (Or how much money they bring in.)

Can't speak to your colonoscopy factory, but the fact that the soonest I could get mine (at a hospital) was end of August/beginning of September shows that they must have plenty lined up!

just this constant churn

lol

Re-reading that note from my primary physician (above), it sure looks cut & past if not AI generated.. and has a gatekeeper vibe (the home test is cheap for the HMO, colonoscopy is expensive)... I don't think I have any family history, but I just thought it was expected that everyone gets one, he kinda paints it as an option

in the UK, everyone from 54-74 gets a screening kit in the mail every two years. for free obv.

i don't believe colonscopies are offered unless something comes up in those, or if you're in a high-risk group

i’ve been thinking seriously about buying some Sebagos

is that the same as Topsiders?

lol I always keep a pair of Sperrys around.

I had a very 50s realization the other day: I do not have quite the boundless energy I have been accustomed to for most of my adult life. For whatever reasons of genetic luck or disposition, I have generally had great reserves of energy, always happy to go places and do things, able to stay up late and still feel fine the next day. And over the last year or so I've noticed that all of that is just not as true as it was. I think I'm still pretty energetic, but I've also come to value recharging time much more as a necessary component to an active life. Not complaining, it's ridiculous to think I'd have as much zip at 55 as 25 or 35. Still a bit of a thing to realize consciously.

Boat shoes are pretty convenient and useful imo

But the class/taste implications do make them complicated to wear.

At 50 I have become the thing I never thought I would become … a morning person

I am absolutely a morning person — up by 6:30 and accomplishing most of my day's work by 10. The afternoon is a total wasteland, and then I catch a second wind (for writing) between 8 and 10 PM.

morning kicks so much ass

I had a dream this morning that I got up super early, before the sun

So not gonna happen

I like being up early, but I don't like getting up early. Been contemplating pushing myself to do it more, though.

(the challenge is that I've always been bad at falling asleep, which is why I tend to stay up late until the battery totally runs down)

I'm still very much not a morning person. Ideally in the summer I would go out for a run at 6.30 or earlier, before the heat builds, but when the alarm goes off at seven I feel like I'm drugged for the next 20 minutes, by then it's too late and I'm doomed to a slow sweaty lunchtime run.

transitioned to morning person around 30, doubled down on mornings when i had kids and 5-6am was the only time i could enjoy not being interrupted

early morning exercise is difficult! but there is no better feeling than knocking over a swim first thing and still sitting down to breakfast before 7am - I don’t get to that level of discipline often but when i do it feels great

At 50 I have become the thing I never thought I would become … a morning person

I used to be a real morning person in my thirties, but now that I am 55 and post-menopausal, I no longer sleep, so I am some kind of ghost creature who is not fully awake at any time of day. I don't really know what to do about this, other than trying to get more exercise.

getting more exercise is the killer. planter fasciitis and then the complications from the compensation-posture are making that flipin difficult- always something. last week also there was the "oh yes your prostate will bruise easily with bike riding etc and it'll hurt, it's just part of the deal" reveal

*plantar fasciitis

early morning is my reading time and now my knee's borked there are no 6:30 jogs anyway. these days it's an hour's walk timed to get to sainsburys just after they open (so out at 7:20 or so)

plus i spend the odd hour awake between 2 and 3. or woken by the 4am bird.

Planter fasciitis is what you get from walking around a farm.