I was reading something on my phone yesterday and was noticing that I was having trouble focusing. My instinct was to rub my eyes as if there was some debris in there or something. It didn't really fix the problem.

Wife noticed me struggling and handed me her reading glasses: "Try these."

Text cleared up and was in focus right away.

Fuck. I now need reading glasses.

It seemed like this happened overnight.

Like: my fetish for women with gray hair is becoming age-appropriate

Dislike: I no longer have the motivation to fuck the whole neighborhood

Agree with everything so far. My vision suuuuuuuuucks, I have readers, computer glasses, and distance glasses. And my vision still sucks.

I like getting wiser (and by that I really just mean less stupid).

I feel like I understand music a lot better than I did 25 years ago, that's nice.

I like going gray, wish it would go faster, I think I'd look cooler.

All the stuff I don't like mostly just involves muscles and joints being 53 years old. They're holding up alright but require a lot more attention and maintenance than they did when I was 30.

Hey! I was thinking about starting this thread for ever.

Things I like:

- Time moves faster. More patience. A three hour train journey used to kill me, nowadays I don't care. Workdays are therefore easier as well.

- Need less sleep. Means I won't be murdered if I don't get my seven hours. Easier times all around.

The good: people assume I've amassed valuable experience and knowledge, even if I'm mostly sitting around thinking about guitar finishes or some shit.

The bad: if I consume anything outside of lean protein, vegetables, and rice, I feel and sleep like hell for 3 days. I used to be able to eat burritos at midnight FFS..

penningtron wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:46 am I used to eat burritos at midnight FFS..

Same.
Nowadays, it's antacids at midnight.

penningtron wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:46 am I'm mostly sitting around thinking about guitar finishes or some shit.

Let's start a support group. That and pickups are all I think about lately. Got a swamp ash Warmoth strat body to finish, trying to decide what color to dye it, leaning green....

Just had a brief version of this with my young colleagues, as I hit my 36 year anniversary with our employer a week and a half ago.

Better:

I do less at work and it's OK because as one of the old timers with all the experience all you really need to do is teach youngsters and step in to "solve" some mystery problem you've already solved several times. Also I learned how to say "no". I did stuff back in the day that was way out of my realm of responsibility. I learned a lot, but I was constantly moving. I sit and pontificate a lot more these days. Sitting is good.

I don't work around the house/garden nearly as intensely as I did 20 years ago, partly because I have a wife now that helps and partly because fuck having a constantly mowed and weeded lawn and garden space. The fruit trees and veggies don't seem to care about weeds, the natural lawn is better for the hens to forage in 'cause it has way more insects, and leaving all the stiff aster to grow and bloom is what feeds the bees so they can hibernate all winter

worse:

yeah that eyesight thing sux, and bifocals make my head spin. My eye doctor says just wear cheaters, so I do.

I can't sleep late anymore. Granted, I get up for work at 4:30am so sleeping until 7 is a luxury, but all that means by 10pm I'm spent and nodding off as I read to the kids.

It's been years since I picked up a pair of drum sticks. Somewhere along the line there, I stopped doing that thing that I've done since I was 10 and I don't know exactly why it happened but it's less and less of a deal as the years go by

I'll be 56 in three weeks.

Dislikes:

Joint pain, including a finger on my fretting hand that is going to need surgery eventually, and which is significantly affecting my playing.

Parents near to the point where significant decline in their health is right around the corner. Decisions will need to be made.

Spotty memory.

No savings or retirement, which has been freaking me out for the last couple of years. I'm in an industry where I can work for a long time, but my partner is already talking about where she wants to live in ten years or so when she stops working (and she will be able to).

The adage, "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was," held true for about ten years, but now it's...a different paradigm.

Assumptions made about me because I am a visibly-older white man.

Likes:

I am very good at my job and have been doing it long enough that I have solutions to just about any problems that come up, and can advise co-workers about pretty much any situation they ask me about.

Being able to re-watch, re-read, and re-listen to all sorts of stuff that I couldn't fully grokk when I was younger. Age and experience (can) promote empathy, and does wonders for the appreciation of art.

Better understanding of what stuff to sweat, what stuff to ignore, and what stuff to delegate.

jfv wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:20 am I was reading something on my phone yesterday and was noticing that I was having trouble focusing. My instinct was to rub my eyes as if there was some debris in there or something. It didn't really fix the problem.

Wife noticed me struggling and handed me her reading glasses: "Try these."

Text cleared up and was in focus right away.

Fuck. I now need reading glasses.

It seemed like this happened overnight.

Just turned 50.

I stopped reading for a while and realized it was because I was becoming far-sighted. I have a nice pair of prescription readers but I fear ruining them so I use the ones I get from Dollar Tree for $1.25. They work fine. I cannot really compute without them either.

Things I like: Grey hair looks good on me. Yeah I think that's about it.

Things I dislike: Lots of stuff to do with physical fitness, but I think just having taken up smoking again is a big part in that. I don't feel old in my head, though. Oh, and sleeping is becoming more difficult. Tried Benadryl, and it works, but leaves me groggy for hours after waking. Maybe I'll try magnesium again...Finally, slightly balding around the cowlick, luckily I'm tall.

ChudFusk wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:22 am Like: my fetish for women with gray hair is becoming age-appropriate

Dislike: I no longer have the motivation to fuck the whole neighborhood

There's a LOT of beautiful older women in Los Angeles, holy cow. I am not referring to the ones who have surgical procedures either. A few in the neighborhood even.