Aside from the physical ( no one has mentioned crepe-y skin yet) , weird appreciations such as -

The pleasure of lawn mowing
My new double door fridge
Spending time in the garage marvelling at the steel shelving units
Loving a good quality tea towel
Huge appreciation for battery powered gardening implements
Earnest discussion of vegetable patches
Enjoying silence

I could go on…

As for the young people advice thing - love mentoring my younger work colleague and seeing her turn into a powerhouse of knowledge

Repeatedly turning the radio in the car to TripleJ (us alt 90's kids in oz worshipped it) and find myself asking out loud "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT" and turning back to the classic rock musics.

Sore feet / lower back ^^ see above

Silence

Actually groaning when the phone rings

Looking forwards to new Law and Order and Time Team re runs..

Lordy..

Good, bad, ugly type sitaution.

UGLY: Many of the normal age-related things listed above (sciatica, neck/shoulder issues from work, lack of sleep without the aid of some sort of gummy, don't like driving at night because my eyes aren't great). I excercise twice as hard for half the results. It's weird seeing normal cuts or whatever heal in twice the time it used to take.

BAD: Feeling out of touch with much of what people 15-20 years younger than myself value in art. Like stem to stern at times. I teach people in their 20's, mostly, and year after year I feel deeply isolated from what many of them consider art, if they think about art at all. My kids helped keep me current for years, but even there...wild, man. Bleak scene out there, almost unilaterally. Social media has ruined peoples' brains. Except Pink Pantheress, she rules.

GOOD: I'm 'unc' at work now. A newer hire met me the other day, like a normal interaction that turned kinda weird when it registered how long I've been there. "Oh...OH, you're THAT guy?!" I also teach at a campus separate from the main one, so I'm not as visible. Better to be a ghost I guess. My own mentor died this year, so it's really strange to have moved up the pole a bit, too. I'm also more confident in, well, like everything, because I just don't care about much outside of my family and friends and people who need help around me. I'm better at drums lately, too. That's cool after many years of playing.

Living vicariously through my kids.

Patton Oswalt had a funny bit about aging, wokeness (whatever that is), and the inevitability of irrelevance.

https://youtube.com/shorts/6-YMuFoFzxs? ... cey2z1wk1i

Good one re: night driving, Isaac. Mine isn’t great if it’s merely dark out, but it’s still very manageable. But throw in rain, and it’s a real problem. It’s like I have Vaseline in my eyes.

Saturday night banger is PJs by 8pm and a glass of wine.

Hairy shoulder blades and ear hair.

Me personally, getting mistaken as my kid's grandpa, even though I'm not even 50 yet (just have a lot of white hair). I tend to keep my beard short these days. A longer beard seems to age me 20 years.

Meeting the parents of adult people you know, and the parents are the same age as you are.

A year or two ago, I pulled a muscle in my groin getting up from sitting on the stairs. Hurt like hell for at least a week.

I definitely can't drink like I used to without feeling like complete dogshit in the morning, which is certainly a good thing that's made me cut back.

One thing I really enjoy about being senior menu aged- I like myself better, and I think I’m not unattractive. I felt hideous for a long, long time.

I usually hurt the day after playing a show. I haven’t been using my rock muscles enough.