- My knee still doesn’t feel right after that hiking trip two weeks ago.
- I started listening to really old music.
Have I crossed the threshold?
My coworker and I had to rock-paper-scissors who hurt the most to go home early
But… but… I’m not even 20 yet.
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Same. I’ve had shit joints since I was a kid. Sometimes I feel like I got a head start on aging 😛
I dunno, I think a second “not dead” condition needs to be added.
What’s really old music? Like Greenday?
Then there are those of us who were already adults when she was on the Mickey Mouse Club.
I mostly listen to music from my parents’ youth. Growing up I listened to the oldies station a whole lot (Oldies 98.1 used to be so good!). I’m Gen X, they’re boomers. So classic rock is definitely in the mix, but also artists like Petula Clark, the Supremes, Tommy James and the Shondells, etc. There’s a great station on SiriusXM called '60s Gold that I listen to pretty much every day.
And then when I need a change, I switch to New Wave / post-punk or Grunge.
I start my day on 1960s English prog and ska, and end my day on 1970s Italian and Turkish prog and pop. I dunno what’s out there
Oh you mean music from the 1900s?
You are a menace and must be stopped.
So, you mean music composed before 1800? Bach and Mozart should be fine, whereas Beethoven is way too modern.
Bro don’t
I didn’t even know who the weekend was until a couple years ago. Green day I do because I like the band a lot.
I had never heard of them until a Letterkenny episode mentioned them multiple times.
Getting a new phone is annoying rather than exciting
They can pry the headphone jack from my cold dead hands
Well, of course it does with no proper universal backup system.
The change itself is pretty straightforward if you use Google services
Well, I thought so. Unfortunately it only backs up the minimum, and only for supported apps.
I thought Fairphone would solve this for me, but the thing is too damn chonky.
Nope, you’re describing not being young, that’s nothing like being actually old. Growing old has a bunch of stages:
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joint pain
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can no longer dance all night
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hangovers last all day
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dentists start talking to you about your gums
But then you get to the phase of
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skin losing elasticity
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liking dinner parties
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marijuana is now a medicine
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developed distinct preferences about stuff like threadcount
And then after that the next phase is more like
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a lot of time worrying about your parents
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all body fat migrates to one or two of its favourite spots
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seriously consider putting everything on lanyards
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your favourite singers are all dead
And so on, you get the picture. That’s as far as I’ve traveled but as far as I can see the phases after that involve things like bladder leakage and losing friends to alzheimers.
Yeah, for me the big thing wasn’t even that my belly is becoming more and more of an issue despite my weight being the same, it was how how many cancer checkups are all of a sudden free and done regularly and how doctors always do a routine full checkup no matter why I went there. (am 40+)
I’m getting toward the last, my favorite singers are dying. My wife and I just saw the B-52s in concert. They are in their mid seventies. They were in their thirties when I started listening to them. Ugh.
Good god I have tickets to see AC DC next month…
Downpayment Blues (but yes really)
Highway to (Nursing) Home
My mom once planned a trip up to my city with some of her friends to see a concert, they made plans a few weeks out but by the time the day arrived, she was coming up for two funerals, the group was smaller by two people. She told me “can’t make long range plans when you are old, go see people right away because if you wait they might be dead!”
I remember my mom telling me about phases of life as she experienced them:
- All your friends start getting married, you go to a lot of weddings
- All your friends start having kids, you go to a lot of baby showers
- Many of your friends start getting divorced, and you have to deal with trying to be friends with the former couple separately
- Many of your friends get married a second time, weddings again
- Many of your friends start having grandkids
At the time she concluded with “Some those were hard, but it was all okay. But now, all my friends are dying…”
I worried about my mum constantly since I was only 14/15, she had heart disease and died three years ago at 54. My dad also has heart problems, copd, diabetes, psoriasis and arthritis in his hands. He’s only 55 and I don’t know if he’ll even live to retirement age. I’m only 27.
Edit: Should’ve included this. I also have ulcerative colitis which is a form of IBD Irritable Bowel Disease and I do shit myself several times a year) so my bowels are fucked already. Again I’m only 27. By your metrics I’ve met two of the conditions to be old due to shite luck with the roll of the dice of life.
I’m hoping it calms down when I get out on a different medication. The new one I’m on doesn’t seem to be working despite the fact according to the manufacturer it should start working in 48 hours and I should’ve noticed a gradual difference at this point and it should work fully within 3 weeks. Anyway there’s a specialist nurse that’s my main point of contact for care for it and she wants to put me on a biologic that’s taken as an IV drip which would mean I’d see an improvement quickly. The consultant that makes the decisions and has the final say disagrees and wants me still on the one that doesn’t seem to work. I’m in hospital again after only leaving a month ago and my symptoms are worse today so the current treatment that I’m on in hospital may not be working so the nurse might end up winning the argument. I’m hoping she does because I’d love to get rid of the flare I’ve had since January and feel like normal again.
I grew up with my grandparents. And while my grandpa has been dead for years, lately I’m acurely aware how my grandma - now 91 - doesn’t have much time left. She had a few really close calls already, and covid was absolutely not nice to her health when she got it.
Stage one: Effortful noise when rising from a low chair/sofa
Stage two: Inability to rise from a low chair/sofa. Beanbag? Nooooo….
My own turning point was finding myself unable to get out of the bath by just standing up. It was comic but also terrifying. I eventually worked out I could lever myself up with my arms. Phew.
Multiple of your friends have cancer, died of cancer, or of other illnesses. But mostly the cancer.
You wonder if your bowels are OK. They are not.
Seeing a lot of my dad’s friends starting to drop off has hit me and made me prize my own relationships more. Every day is a choice you make for what you prioritize.
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You’re not old until the music you don’t consider old becomes old.
I remember someone referred to a song as old, and it was maybe 4 years old.
It felt new to me, but he called it old. Is 4 years the cut off? Lol
(Though some people do just listen to the top 20, but I seek out classics and indie stuff)
A few years ago already, I started to have more stories about I’ve done that cool stuff, rather than I hope to do that cool stuff
To be fair, I had the honour to spend some time in a south American observatory and it offers a shit ton of “cool stories”
I can’t drink as much as I used to without experiencing an all-day headache the following day.
Hah! Yeah, I’ve read about people having multi-day hangovers. I’ve definitely never had that happen before, but I’m “only” 44, maybe time will tell.
Sometimes between 25 and 40, you’ll realize you “can’t drink like you used to.”
From here, you’ll almost never be out til last call again. Certainly not without regrets. And it’ll dwindle to where you’re learning to cook instead of asking the Uber driver to swing through McDonald’s on the way home.
You’ll find you’re amid a new hobby, and an old hobby is in the rearview.
Welcome to midlife. You’re probably as old as your parents were when they had you, if not older.
25 … Uber …
This comment alone makes me feel old. I don’t think Uber Eats was a thing when I was 25. Certainly not where I lived (in a fairly large metro area)
Do you have to hold your phone “further” away to see it? No? Then you haven’t crossed the line yet. You are like the roller coaster after it has crested the hill, the backend is still holding on, but you are starting to see where you are heading.
Yep, I’m fighting the need for reading glasses. They look like a giant pain in the ass. But then again, my husband has his text messaging app set to a really big font, so I figure he’s way worse off than me.
When young people talk about the video games you played when you were their age as if they were written in hieroglyphics and relics of a forgotten age.
are you telling me you don’t remember Dune the videogame?
I turned my head to the right to look at something and sprained my neck.
So when just existing hurts, you’re old.
You start looking for what the signs of getting old are. Seriously the big first thing that sorta marks the end of what I consider to be my healthy youth was jumping off a dock and having to take a moment after landing. Happened in my thirties.
Some things I’ve noticed in my early 40s:
- You talk about things like property taxes and 401k contributions more often than you ever thought would be possible
- You seriously weigh whether a drink is worth the bad sleep and headache it’ll cause you
- Your pop-culture references are lost on younger folks
- You start referring to college-aged people as “kids”
- You need reading glasses but you’re in denial about it
- Injuries take longer to heal
- Those of your peers who haven’t taken care of themselves are starting to have serious health issues
- You care more about flossing, skincare, fiber, and hydration
- You still rock bottom eyeliner like you did in high school
- You’ve seen fashion from your high school years go out of style and then come back as “retro”
- You see the utter confusion on your nephew’s face when you explain that you used to keep a quarter in your bike pouch in case you needed to call someone, because he doesn’t remember a time before cell phones and his generation isn’t allowed to just roam around unsupervised on their bikes
- You have strong opinions about things like laundry detergent brands
- Birds become fascinating
- You have no problem spending a few hundred dollars on a new kayak paddle, but the price of cold cuts these days is just unacceptable
You may fascinate the elderly with a bird
That’s bang on. Aside from the quarter. I used to call collect and they would get “Would you like to receive a collect call from ‘Hidadcomepickmeup’?”
My friends did that, but my mother would’ve killed me - she thought that was no different than theft lol
Good o’le “Bobwehadababyitsaboy”
I also remember when CarrotTop did the C-A-L-L-A-T-T commercial, so that’s fun/old…
Remember the 10-10-321 commercials? Or actually I think it was 10-321 originally.
cold cuts? Have you seen the price of a bag of chips? Ridiculous. I don’t need to spend 5 bucks to hate myself later after I’ve eaten too many.
$30 to buy an old mechanical pencil on ebay you remember having in highschool? No problemo.
