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oldtimer

Full Member
Sep 27, 2005
3,173
1,791
82
Oxfordshire and Pyrenees-Orientales, France
I'm not often given to offering unsought advice and even less prone to advising those younger than me ( which is now the majority of humanity). After a working lifetime as a professional educator of students and pupils ranging from 6 to sixty years of age, I reckon I've learned more from them than they have from me. However:-

I've just got back from helping to plant a hedgerow with fellow villagers and found out that two neighbours had lost elderly parents over Christmas. Our Christmas was pretty good with both our sons and daughters in law and our three grandchildren. Our daughter-in-law hosted before going up North to take her share of our grandchilden to visit their other grandmother, a poignant time for her as the other grandfather died two Christmases ago. It turns out that she too is rapidly slowing down and rarely leaves the house due to lack of mobility. The annual crop of Christmas messages also highlighted how many friends and ex-colleagues are no longer with us. .My "weddings and funerals" suit has seen more funerals than weddings for quite a few years now.

So perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that our sons are beginning to enquire more pointedly about our state of health and that our younger son's partner, who happens to be a doctor, has now twice reminded me that, contrary to my own belief, that I am not immortal and muttered darkly as she left that I should be thinking about altering the goal posts. Whatever could she mean, I haven't played rugby for over 50 years?

We've had a good time with many adventures to look back on, but it's getting harder to do the things we used to and Madame has had to give up riding horses, driving at night and scrambling in the mountains because of osteoporosis and incipient cataracts and I've been having a needle shoved in my eye on a regular basis. Those hospital appointments play havoc with one's travel plans.

So here comes the advice:-

Don't delay. Go on that expedition, visit that wilderness, learn that new skill, take the children camping, carry out that conservation project, buy that van and convert it- Do it NOW and post it here with trip reports and plenty of photographs for us older ones to share your experiences and remind ourselves that once we too were once young and had a long future ahead of us. You'll bless me in fifty year's time!
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,946
7,705
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Sadly, sound advice I needed thirty years ago :)

I have been saying the same to every under-forty year old that will listen. Interestingly, I have found that if I do stuff with younger people (as opposed to a group of old codgers like me) I am livelier and happier. So, my own advice for the aging is don't just hang around with more old people; it makes you old :)
 

wingstoo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 12, 2005
2,274
40
South Marches
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming .... WOW what a ride.”

Well I can live in hope I guess...
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,663
McBride, BC
Oldtimer: You got it right. I don't regret the stuff I didn't do.
Should have done more of it instead of frittering away the time.

Do the weird stuff before you get too stiff to bend over to do it.
Does not need to be risky, just unconventional.
Gawd! Last grouse season, we argued about who would fall over, picking up a bird.
I hope everyone finds that funny. Eventually, we did.

I want to do a night shift in a Tucker Sno-Cat, grooming major snowmobile riding trails.
Same for a shift with a highways snow-plow sander truck.

I confess that I have got into the habit of reading the obituaries in the local papers.
I've outlived some dear friends and outlived some self-propelled anuses.
 

Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,770
1,500
51
Wiltshire
Dad had a phone call at 0600 from a friend before Christmas.

His wife had died some weeks before, he had just recieved a card from someone who only gave a first name, -adressed to them both, -he wanted to know who it was.

Of course my Dad didnt know but he could support his friend who was in a state.

(and be a bit annoyed at being called up at such an hour)

I was glad my Dad could help.

Christmastime is often events like this; I remember how it was when my Mum died.
 

GuestD

Need to contact Admin...
Feb 10, 2019
1,445
700
You'll bless me in fifty year's time!
I've learned off others, including their mistakes. Things change as you grow up, and, unfortunately, they change when you grow old, so be positive and make your own changes before you have too. I made the decision to move before I had to. From that idyllic "house in the country" into a flat in a quiet town. Everyone said I would regret it, but the opposite is true. I can lock the door and take off without having to bother with ground maintenance etc. After several decades of living "off grid" and the work it entails, I'm looking forward to another adventure; spending sometime travelling in my own country, spontaneously.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,504
3,444
65
Exmoor
When I think of the opportunities I've passed up in my life... I could cry!
Mind you i have taken risks and done spur of the moment things and had a few life experiences I'd never have had if I had stayed stuck in my groove.
Too many people live 8 track (remember them?) Lives. Got to press the button now and then on that crazy moment.
I'm terrified of heights but on a college open day where I was on my motorcycle training stand with my boss they had an abseiling experience from the roof of the college about 4 floors up. My boss bet me a tenner I couldn't do it. With my heart in my mouth I took the bet and won the tenner. I loved it! Even did double or quits. Won £20 from him.! Gave him the opportunity to win it back but he wouldn't do it. :)
 

Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,770
1,500
51
Wiltshire
My hands are shaking.

A lot of my family are from Newport, in South Wales.

There is a device there called the Transporter Bridge.

My Great grandmother, my Grandmother and my Mother all have been over the catwalk.

I am breaking that family tradition.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,663
McBride, BC
Hindsight would suggest that I was really dying back in August 2019.
The surgical intervention has had a profound effect on both my physical and mental well-being.

I think that I know now what it's like to have been given a second chance.
My brother claims that I really do have just 8 lives left now.

I have no advice, sage or otherwise, to offer.
I need to cross off some things on my bucket list this year.
 
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CLEM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 10, 2004
2,418
428
Stourbridge
A welcome post and very wise words that I myself along with many others no doubt appreciate and need. Thank you for posting
 

wingstoo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 12, 2005
2,274
40
South Marches
My attitude is simple, live each day as though it was your last, plan as though you have twenty years left.
No... Live each day as if it is your first... Then get out there and enjoy it, change things that if it were your last day you wouldn't need to worry about...

Make every day a POSITIVE day, Make a difference for some thing or some one... Make it a day to look back on and for everyone to remember you by...
 

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