Grugger’s Way

Aging Accelerates After Sixty

I’ve really noticed a difference is how my body has reacted to physical changes during the past two years.  I am just a month away from age 62.  I now feel, for the first time, like an “older” or “elderly” man.

This really sounds bad, I know, but in fact I always expected this to be happening after I turned 50.  I don’t know what “normal” is supposed to feel like at this age, since….like you…I have never been down this road before.   I felt great at fifty.

I even felt pretty good at 60.  I knew I was slowing down some, and the pace at work was becoming more difficult to keep up with.  I recognized that the 30-year-old’s in the shop were quicker on the uptake than I was.  They reminded me of myself thirty years earlier.  They treated me well…with deference even…and I wondered if I was as considerate in my thirties.   By the time I arrived home on a Friday night I was thoroughly exhausted…mentally and physically…and by Sunday afternoon was dreading the return to work on Monday morning.  So I retired just one month after I reached sixty.

The past year I have really begun to feel the early morning stiffness in the joints.  I am affected by the cold weather this winter moreso than ever in my lifetime.  I am a regular consumer of ibuprofen during these very cold days.  I still get outside.  There is a driveway to shovel and dog doo to pickup and a deck to shovel off so the dogs have some space without a foot of snow cover so they can hang out while I am off running errands.

I am spending more time at the computer because that is where I feel most comfortable; like I am accomplishing something without having to move around outside a lot.  My spouse thinks that I ought to move around outside a lot more, and that would help my aches and pains.  I don’t know.  I still hope that some yoga and stretching will slow down the aging process a little, but I realize “age” is here to stay: it can’t be reversed.

Dream on - Back to the Navy!

Last night I again dreamt that I was being recalled into active duty with the U.S. Navy. Now, I’ve been retired from the Navy since February 1995.  Isn’t it about time that my mind quits thinking that I still have to go back some day?

Back in 1969, I got out of the Navy after my first four year enlistment in order to attend college.  Five years later, I was consistently having dreams that I was still on active duty.  Many times I would awaken with a start!  I’m late for muster!  Where am I? 

Admittedly, some of these mornings I was pretty well hung over, but not always.  The dreams finally got to me and I just gave in: I returned to active duty and remained on active duty for the next 20 years.

Last night, in my dream (I won’t call it a nightmare, exactly), I was busy trying on my old uniforms to see if they still fit and filling in scads of paperwork.  I was all concerned that my security clearance information was 14 years out of date and I would have to re-create fifty years of personal history (DD 398 Statement of Personal History, if they still use the same old form).  Look, see?  I still remember that stuff!   I need to move on!

I guess dreams are just tricks that our brains play on us from time to time.  Perhaps you, too, have a career deeply imprinted on your brain that will stay with you until you die.  For myself, I wish these dreams would just go away. 

There are better things to dream about; much better fantasies than being back in the Navy. 

My First Time to be Trapped in a Fire was scary as hell, and I was fortunate to get out of that mess with no injuries.

I was a television news reporter and there was a big wildfire just on the edge of town, but still within the City Limits.  I drove my car up the road until law enforcement stopped me, along with all the other “looky loo’s” and told me I could not go any further due to the danger involved.  That made sense.  Ok.  So I got out of the car and began walking up the road, carrying my video camera and battery pack.  I was wearing a business suit and walking along the road toward the wildfire when I heard someone yell to me.  Not “At me,” but “to” me.  I turned and saw the town’s mayor and chief of police in the chief’s cruiser right behind me.  I moved over to the side so they could pass.  We were all well-beyond where the other cars had been stopped. 

To my pleasant surprise, they “recognized” me from TV and invited me to JOIN THEM!  Ha!  Far OUT!  Up the hill we went, past all the law enforcement and fire officials, right past the barricades and into the fray!  Wow, it was great.  I thanked them for the ride up and hopped out with my camera and headed toward the thickest smoke I could see.  Great video for tonight’s news was all I could think about.

Fifteen minutes later, I am encircled by fire and smoke!  I can’t get out.  I am trapped in a forest fire!  I can see firefighters beyond the smoke and yell to them.  (Not “at them” but “to” them. Ha ha)  Fortunately, for me, they hear and see and respond.  They beat a path to me so I can escape.

Of course, they challenged me and my sanity and questioned what the hell and how the hell I got up there, but I weasled my way out of that…mumbling something like “the Mayor and Police Chief brought me here.”    

That night, on the news, not only did I have “exclusive” video as we liked to promote in television, but I had a heck of a story to tell, too.  (Rapid City, South Dakota; 1972)

And my suit?  Smelled like smoke. Forever.  Cleaned it more than once too.

113-Year-Old Man Celebrates Every Day

Tomoji Tanabe lives in the Land of the Rising Sun, in the town of Miyakonojo, on the Island of Kyushu.  He is the World’s Oldest Man and he was born on September 18, 1895.  1895! 

You may ask yourself what a 113-year-old man has left to celebrate; but if  you think about it, he probably celebrates every morning he is able to rise once again to greet another wonderful day.  This man, who receives a cash gift each year from his home town for being its oldest resident, still reads the newspaper every morning, can walk without assistance, avoids alcohol and smoking…and drinks milk.  Now there’s an advertisement endorsement for you–Got Milk?

He said during his birthday celebration that he would like to live another five years.  Have YOU ever thought about whether you would even WANT to live so long?  I don’t believe I would, but I will have to see how I feel in—another FIFTY YEARS!

Mr. Tanabe lives with his son and daughter-in-law.  Let’s see, the son would be HOW old?  Hummm.  He could be 95 or so.

Even though Mr. Tanabe is the World’s Oldest Man, he is not the oldest Human Being.  That honor remains with a woman named Edna Parker, born in 1893, who resided in a nursing home in Indiana, USA.

I guess the single largest GROWING demographic in the future will be people over 85.  There will be quite a few turning 100 as well.  There are SO MANY ISSUES that the developed world faces in dealing with it’s aging population, we could not even begin to discuss them all right here.  Suffice it to say…medical and financial security will top the list.  Perhaps housing after that.  We should all be aware that many of these issues are on the table during this Presidential Election Campaign in the United States.  Keep informed.  Be involved.  It’s Your Future.