Winter afternoon musings.

[Power Hungry]

Originally Posted by cleatus12r

Morning thoughts.....

DAMN!
We should only have one more day of this and then the highs for next week will be 60 degrees warmer!

Holy crap, dude! And I'm sitting here complaining about the same temp on the + side of the scale.

As for the injury side of things... I've been pretty fortunate, I guess. A few stupid things aside, I suppose I've come out okay.

Born with a double hernia, I made it to almost 30 before I finally had to get them fixed. One in 1997 and one in 2004. The first surgery I could barely move for almost two weeks while the second surgery had me up the next day and back at work. The other consequence of the first surgery is that they apparently cut a nerve that runs down the inside of my left leg, so I have minimal feeling on the inside of my leg from my groin to my knee. The leg works fine, so I just deal with it. Just glad it wasn't a few more inches to the right.

2 dirtbike accidents (one in 2005 and another in 2006) both had interesting outcomes.

The first one left me with 2 fractured ankles after coming up short on a double jump and casing the bike. Thank goodness for extremely stiff riding boots or my ankles would have been completely buggered. As it was, I could barely walk correctly for almost 3 months, and couldn't roll my ankles outwards for nearly 2 years.

The second one had me come off my bike head first from about 12 feet in the air when my back tire caught a jump wrong and the bike mule kicked me off. Basically I took a nosedive into the dirt, getting a concussion in the process. Also, because I extended my arms as I was travelling towards the ground (picture a diving position), I ended up tearing the muscles in between several of the ribs on my left side. This actually may have saved me from breaking my neck, but it hurt like hell when recovering. It took almost 6 months for that to heal up, but I'm glad I'm still alive to talk about it.

Another dirtbike injury in 2010 had me hyperextending my right shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff. After avoiding that surgery for several years, I finally had that fixed and everything works great.

I still seem to refuse to accept the fact that in my 50's. I don't generally have many physical ailments that restrict me from doing things, I just have to remember that while I may party like a 25 year old rock star, I don't recover like one. In some situations it may take me a couple days to get over moving some furniture or working on a truck.

As I say, I've been pretty fortunate in the physical department. My eyes have gone to crap, but the body is still holding up alright and there's very little I can't do. I just have to use a little more care when doing certain things, particularly heavy lifting. It's not that I can't lift something, it's just that 2 days later I regret it.

This getting old business is for the birds. I'm glad there are people like Jack that show we can still be plugging away in our senior days.

[cleatus12r]

There's a reason dirtbiking looks fun but I will never do it. I've seen way too many Youtube videos of people hurting themselves doing that and skateboarding. No thanks!


When my dad retired 10 years ago (FINALLY), he had his back and both rotator cuffs done in the first 3 years. I'm a lot like my dad in a few ways; we both kind of ignore stuff and then just keep working as usual once we feel like we can because we can't sit still and do nothing. He didn't do any physical therapy and as soon as he spent a few days doing nothing in his chair with the ice water pump thing on his shoulders he was back to normal stuff....fencing (driving posts manually and dragging elk around and gutting them for people).

I hope that I am still able to do what he does to this day at age 74 when I get up there. He's no longer the invincible Superman that I used to know but he can still outwork most every 50-something I've met and he leaves those young "kids" on the fire department in awe when he starts doing stuff.

Like you, I don't really "feel my age" and most days I don't feel much different than I did in my early 30's other than the changes that come with a wife that loves to cook and is very good at it....well....I don't look the same. I CAN finally grow some facial hair though. That started about the time the metabolism changed at 37.

[Power Hungry]

Originally Posted by cleatus12r

Like you, I don't really "feel my age" and most days I don't feel much different than I did in my early 30's other than the changes that come with a wife that loves to cook and is very good at it....well....I don't look the same. I CAN finally grow some facial hair though. That started about the time the metabolism changed at 37.

Yeah, I'd have to say that I may be a little "rounder" than I used to be. I'm okay with that, though.

I think the thing with your dad is that he doesn't just sit around. That'll kill you faster than anything. Life without a purpose seems to have a way of saying, "Screw it. I'm done." You hear the stories about 90 year old folks out cutting hay or chopping firewood like it's just a normal thing for them. They have a purpose and they just keep on chugging. Obviously, good genes and a reasonably healthy lifestyle are important, but a reason to keep going is also just as important.

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by Power Hungry

...<snip>...
This getting old business is for the birds. I'm glad there are people like Jack that show we can still be plugging away in our senior days.

Yep, old as dirt. Was 80 last January. I've heard that "quality lasts"?

Still able to to most physical tasks. Been helping my contractor on a deck rebuild at my house, mostly doing simple things like painting and helping to carry big heavy things like 16 ft deck planks.

But, speaking of hernias, in the past 4 years I've had to have 4 hernias repaired! Guess I have a flimsy gut. Thankfully, all repairs went well and I was only laid up about one day each time, but two of them were emergency surgeries and I was in bad shape when I went to the emergency room.

I still hike when I get the chance. A couple months ago went on an 8 mile hike, climbing about 1200 ft in the mountains where I now live. I think the "key" is to stay active.

Got my first Covid-19 shot two weeks ago. No reaction to speak of, except for a very slightly stiff feeling arm. It was the Moderna vaccine.

- Jack

[cleatus12r]

Originally Posted by Jackpine

I still hike when I get the chance. A couple months ago went on an 8 mile hike, climbing about 1200 ft in the mountains where I now live. I think the "key" is to stay active.

When my dad retired, my whole family worried that he'd just quit doing things and become a couch potato. I mean, he'd worked so hard all of his life that we thought he might take advantage of the down time. No such luck. Mom can't keep him out of the shop or from working on things around the house, fencing in the spring, cutting down trees for firewood (or splitting the firewood with my brother's family), and maintaining fire department equipment. We all feel that it's kept him around a good long time.

He's almost done restoring/resto-modding a 1954 F-100 that he started over 25 years ago that sat for 20. He's just waiting on the hood to be painted so he can get that on. I should put pictures of that on here.....

Got my first Covid-19 shot two weeks ago. No reaction to speak of, except for a very slightly stiff feeling arm. It was the Moderna vaccine.

- Jack

My dad just got his follow-up shot last week. I'll leave my personal thoughts out of this conversation but I am very glad that you're doing well afterward! My dad did fine too.