Getting old

[old man emu]

The pace of Modern Living is making Old Age strike sooner than ever. My son, 31 years old, was clobbered by the feeling of Old Age this week

 

He runs a digital marketing business and took on an intern who finished high school in 2019. She has only just started so is learning the business from the bottom up. One of the skills my sons wants her to master is creating stuff with Photoshop. He set her the task to us Photoshop to design a poster, and told her to recreate the poster that was the one he learned from, I am Legend.

 

She floored him by telling him that he had never heard of that movie. The movie as released in 2007, so she was only 5 or 6 years old. He told me that her ignorance of the movie, which was one of his favorites, made his feel like an old man. The length of generations is becoming shorter.

[willedoo]

I've never heard of it either, so that must make me feel young.

[Yenn]

The time to worry is when your kids retire. Mine have, but luckily the grand kids are still nose to the grindstone.

[willedoo]

I don't know whether I'm getting old or just old fashioned. Have a bit of trouble getting the head around the current fashion of blokes running around with a few days growth of beard. I guess I'm of the generation where people either grew a beard or were clean shaven. It seems odd to see government ministers fronting the media looking like winos. A lot of them look like they've just crawled out of a bin skip and chucked a suit on.

[onetrack]

I'm obviously old, because I get cheesed-off at the number of blokes (and a lot of pretty young girls) sporting enough tattoos to make a Yakuza gang member jealous.

What is it about scrawling a pile of ugly tatts over your arms and legs and chest, that makes you look like a graffiti-ed billboard?

 

I doubt whether any of these people understand the problems associated with filling your largest and most important body organ, with a huge quantity of inks and dyes, that do not meet, and do not have to meet, any medical standard.

Then they also lack the understanding that a tattoo is a violent immune system reaction, whereby the skin is trying the reject the inks and dyes.

 

I also doubt whether they understand that tattoos have always been a method of intimidation of onlookers, a sign of mental health problems (a form of self-harm), and a consistent mark of criminal tendencies.

There's also the huge cost of getting these tatts, and failing to understand that they are largely propagated by the outlaw biker community and most tattoo parlours are offshoots of OMCG's.

 

It's bad enough when a bloke shows up tattooed over 2/3rds of his body - but I'm saddened to see very pretty young girls destroying their natural beauty with this crap.

And of course, they are a marking for life - and as we know, skin sags, loses its shape with muscle wastage with age - and most of the reasons for getting the tattoos will have no relevance whatsoever in 40 years time.

 

I read a medical article a while back, that said that your skin is the most important defence to diseases, and infections entering the body. It appears keeping your skin in good shape, is an important factor in being able to resist viral infections.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Guest

[old man emu]

I've said to my son, "What are people going to think about how people your age with tattoos look when they get to my age?"

He said, " Nothing, because when people my age get to be your age, they'll be the same generation that got tattoos when they were young."

 

Try arguing with that logic!

[Marty_d]

I've never heard of it either, so that must make me feel young.

Worth a look. I quite like Will Smith in movies. This one's based on a 1954 novel by Richard Matheson.

[Yenn]

My grand daughter has tattoos of all of her kids names. I wonder if it just to ensure she doesn't forget them. I would be sure that was the case if they were upside down on her belly.

[kgwilson]

A bloke I know said his wife had a battleship tattooed on her chest but when he first met her it was only a rowing boat.

 

You know you are old because everything hurts and what doesn't hurt doesn't work & your get up & go got up & went.

[facthunter]

I don't GET the TATTS thing. Too hard to turn the page. AS for all the piercings a good pruning would fix that. It's dead easy to be an individual today and you save $#1tloads. I've never been a slave to fashion. Stick up for freedom to be different. Nev

[farri]

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were getting into our car, at one of our local supermarkets' car parks! 3 cars down beside us, we saw a lady friend of ours trying to get her husband into the passenger seat of their car but he was stubbornly refusing, a bystander was looking on but didn`t know what to do! I watched for a couple of minutes then decided I had to do something to help so I went over and said hello to them then politely told the husband he had to get into the car so they could go home! it didn`t work! I had to physically force him down, push him into the seat, pick up his legs, put them in the car then put the seat belt on him...This guy is 80 years old, twice my size, and has dementia! his wife is almost 80 and less than half his size.

 

Old age, plus dementia is a tragedy! This guy was a big, strong, hard-working farmer! he and I used to go reef fishing together.

 

Franco.

[Red]

Worth a look. I quite like Will Smith in movies. This one's based on a 1954 novel by Richard Matheson.

 

Its very very good

[Red]

I hear today that 119 people in Australia die of cardio vascular disease. Corona virus doesn't compare.

 

 

Anything that shortens your life is to be resisted, just because there are things that have been out there killing us for a long time that we need to fight does not excuse us from trying to fight a new killer

Its easy to look at the numbers of deaths so far and think its relatively low level stuff (perhaps even easier if you live in a sparsely populated and little affected country) but this is just the beginning, Winter in Europe is going to be a shit-fest

[nomadpete]

Franco, that is heartbreaking.

Just keep up your flying as long as you can. Im sure it keeps the synapses active.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Guest

[onetrack]

Frank, that is a sad story, but not uncommon. I have several friends, and a couple of relations (by marriage) who either currently have dementia, or who suffered from it, for a long time.

 

The saddest part is how long these people can live with "no-one home" up top. The mother of a friend of the wife is 96, and has had dementia for over 15 years, and for the first few years it was undiagnosed.

 

The wife and I were in a quiet pub having lunch about 18 mths ago, and we noticed this elderly couple and a haggard-looking woman in her 40's having lunch near us. The man was in his mid-80's, but a big, powerfully built, fit man.

 

The woman who was obviously his wife, was in her early 80's and a bit frail. The old bloke got up and came over to our table, and the younger woman followed him, a few steps behind.

 

Without any intro, he said straight-out, "I was born in 1934! Not 2004!! So I don't need to be treated like a baby!" At that, he walked off, towards the toilets. And the younger woman followed him, offering apologies.

 

It was pretty obvious the old bloke had dementia, and the younger woman was his daughter or carer - and she was making sure he got to the toilet, and found his way back to the table again, without wandering off.

 

It's truly awful the stress on carers and partners, they live every waking moment, wondering if their charge is going to wander off, and they end up being blamed for not being a good enough carer.

 

Locally, we seem to get about one dementia sufferer a month make the news, where they've wandered off, (or worse - driven off) and can't find their way home again. A good percentage are found deceased.

 

One local bloke, only in his 60's wandered off, took to a local major highway heading SW into heavy forest country, and wasn't found for weeks, despite many sightings, and a huge police search.

 

His body was found weeks later, accidentally by road workers who were working along the highway. He was found only 4 metres away from the road, and it was conjectured he was avoiding being found, while he was wandering.

 

https://thewest.com.au/news/perth/ian-collett-body-found-in-search-for-missing-man-ian-collett-ng-b88873573z

Edited June 7, 2020 by Guest

[Old Koreelah]

...His body was found weeks later, accidentally by road workers who were working along the highway. He was found only 4 metres away from the road, and it was conjectured he was avoiding being found, while he was wandering.

One thing I stress when training rescue personnel is that during any search, only the females do the calling out. Most of our customers have been kids with major cognitive disabilities or dementia patients. They usually try to elude us, often out of fear. Having a bunch of blokes tramping thru the bush calling their name just spooks them.

 

That said, put in the same situation wouldn't want to be found either.

I'd rather end my days in a forest than a nursing home, but that would just spoil someone's day when they stumble on my carcase, not to mention the forensic and legal rigmarole.

 

About time we finally stopped the crazy Christian lobby denying people's choice to die with dignity.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Old Koreelah

[willedoo]

One thing I stress when training rescue personnel is that during any search, only the females do the calling out. Most of our customers have been kids with major cognitive disabilities or dementia patients. They usually try to elude us, often out of fear. Having a bunch of blokes tramping thru the bush calling their name just spooks them.

 

Same principle applies to automated voice warnings in aircraft. Russian psychologists identified that a female voice kept the pilots calmer and more focused than a male voice, hence their lady, RITA (all caps because it's an acronym). She's a lot more passive than the American Bitchin' Betty. Only drawback is, some commands in Russian take quite a bit longer to deliver than Betty's English and RITA is quite slow talking as well. It's fortunate that 'terrain, pull up' in Russian is fairly brief, but some others are long winded compared to English language systems. I read about the new replacement system for the old Bitchin' Betty. Apparently if you ignore her warnings, she gets louder and more aggressive. Apologies for thread drift.

[facthunter]

I'm with you on that one OK. There is" snuff the old bastard and get the cash" aspect. THAT needs to be covered. You wouldn't do to a dog what's often done to old people.. Being deaf isn't the same as being stupid either.

These days people aren't productive till they may be say 25. I started selling newspapers at 11. Also nearly EVERYTHING like infrastructure you see out there has been built by OTHERS who have gone before you. A lot of roads and drainage was done in the 29 to WW2 depression. The Harbour bridge was built in the early 30s..

By a strange sort of irony I'm CONSIDERED" lucky" to have WORKED ALL my life. There wasn't anything coming in IF you didn't. so you took what was there. I picked fruit in the holidays at Orange. Worked during the week at night and each weekend doing engines up later, and did Army Camps to help pay for my flying.. Drove the most disgusting old rubbish cars to get around and a few times had only a motorcycle to get me to work and Uni at Night.. From St Mary's to Kensington across Sydney 4 nights a week regardless of the weather.. Paid my own Uni fees out of a piddling teachers wage.

I wasn't the only one doing this sort of thing. Some pilots are "poor little rich kids" whose family fund them. There wasn't much evidence of THAT in Newcastle where I started (and eventually finished, after a stint at Bankstown) my CPL + Instructor rating..but It didn't JUST happen and fall in your lap.

The harder you try the luckier you get. Easy credit has destroyed a sense of value. Instant gratification is the go with a low boredom threshold. and there's little satisfaction in having something (junk) that came easily, TOO easily. Nev

[facthunter]

Willedoo, we used to say the GPWS was saying "Don't THINK, don't THINK". I cant recall whether is was a BLOKE voice or a LADY. I know it's distraction if you can't do anything about it and all that does is annoy you when you have other REAL problems to deal with.. Nev

[willedoo]

By a strange sort of irony I'm CONSIDERED" lucky" to have WORKED ALL my life.

I know exactly what you are saying there, Nev. At times I've been told how lucky I am to have my little bit of paradise. Luck didn't come into it, just a lot of hard work and sacrifice and spending half a life working away from home in remote places to pay it off. Some people just don't get it.

[willedoo]

Willedoo, we used to say the GPWS was saying "Don't THINK, don't THINK". I cant recall whether is was a BLOKE voice or a LADY. I know it's distraction if you can't do anything about it and all that does is annoy you when you have other REAL problems to deal with.. Nev

 

Ah, the old sink rate. Don't think is probably not bad advice at a certain moment. Unclutter the mind and just let training do the subconsious thing. You probably don't need a machine nagging to tell you that.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Guest

[facthunter]

I think it comes on when doing a simulated single engine approach on a B 727 where you never get much flap extended.. Nev

[spacesailor]

O K,

Austria was one country were they did the humane thing, trouble was it was Always too easy for relo,s to get two or three doctors onboard to end a life sooner than needed.

And yes I cared for a dimensia person for over ten years, almost drove me nuts, and had to get help plus resplte, for a Holiday from stress.

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

... By a strange sort of irony I'm CONSIDERED" lucky" to have WORKED ALL my life. Bankstown) my CPL + Instructor rating..but It didn't JUST happen and fall in your lap...

I get your point Nev, but I doubt you would have enjoyed having everything handed to you on a plate. One of the most demeaning things to do to a person is condemn them to "sit down money".

 

I got the best of both worlds. Raised by hard-working parents who taught us the lessons they'd learned in The Great Depression, my generation got a free education and was able to pick and chose between jobs. As a student I worked 20+ jobs in several industries. Luckily I've never been on the dole; the only times I've been in a CES office I walked out within an hour to a job.

 

The harder you try the luckier you get. Easy credit has destroyed a sense of value. Instant gratification is the go with a low boredom threshold. and there's little satisfaction in having something (junk) that came easily, TOO easily. Nev

 

Abso-bluddy-lutely! It seems to now be government policy to destroy any incentive to save: near zero or even negative interest rates punish those who put something aside for their retirement.

A whole generation of our best and brightest are saddled with enormous student debts. Many will never work in the industry for which they trained. No wonder so many are turning away from long-term commitments.

The quest for home ownership - the main glue that held together the great democracies of the world - is coming unstuck.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Guest

[Bruce Tuncks]

I have had a charmed life, and now I don't want a medical death but one of my own devising.

How about getting drunk on champagne at the hangar, snacking on seafood and then donning a breathing mask connected to nitrogen?

But at the moment life is great so maybe tomorrow?