I'm 57 today. WTF?? I was 27 just last week! Where did the time go?

[DFW]

In my head, I still think I got all this stuff I want to do, all these ideas I want
to put into action, places to go, etc etc. Suddenly I'm looking at 60 (if I even get
there) heart stents in place, daughters who are older than I was when I met my wife,
and talking about stuff to do after retirement (yeah, right, like I'm gonna retire
before I'm 80).

I remember in detail what it was like looking at 30 being a few years off. Thinking I
had all the time in the world to conquer it, and that I was immortal, so who cared about
anything?

Surprise, surprise. I'm not immortal, time does creep up on you, you really DO get grey hairs,
and you do get shit like back aches and stuff when you get old.

But the hell with it: heart stents, back aches, children who are grown, yeah, yeah, it's
all real, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit back and mope about it.

Warren Zevon sang "I'll sleep when I'm dead," which, come to think of it, he now is. But
I'm not, so until Mother Nature tells me otherwise, it's full speed ahead. I've still got
a lot of stuff I want to do, so put that mortality lecture in the "to do, but later" file.
I'll get to it when I get to it. I'm in no rush.

[trof]

1. I'm 10 years ahead of you. Life is still good.

:-)

[UTUSN]

2. Happy birthday, if you still want to observe them. I don't. Great o.p. thru & thru

I still seem to myself to be immature, never to catch up with those "old" people in my life. Yet in recent years I am frequently shocked when people (younger, of course) make some kind of reference, deferential or otherwise, to my great age, which I myself don't exactly see in the mirror. After all, my mother's hair went white at 40 and all her family have white hair, so why wouldn't I at whatever age without this necessarily correlating to AGE?!1

But another anomaly is that I frequently see other people who look to me to be old or older than I am and whenever there is opportunity to find out, it turns out that they are YOUNGER than I am!1

This is just disgusting!1

Not to mention that the days/weeks/months/years are just FLYING by!1 And, yes, there's all that stuff the o.p. mentioned about having tons of things left to do -- and yet there are all these HOURS dawdling on this magical DU!1

[DFW]

5. I don't get a lot of free hours, but sometimes I'm a prisoner

When I travel between Köln, Brussels and Paris, I usually take the Thalys train, and it
has a (usually functioning) wifi service in it. It's good for answering email, perusing
DU, and composing song suggestions for the Freedom Toast (they said they might really
record "Rush, the big fat gas bag" hee hee!). If I'm going to have to be confined to
a seat for a couple of hours, I might as well make use of it, right?

[lost-in-nj]

3. you can STILL do it

maybe not all of it

but what ever you want

really

do it... there is no reason not to unless it hurts someone

and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!





lost

[DFW]

6. Good points, and I haven't ignored them

When I wrote my "turning 50" post, before I even heard of DU, I said there was still
some stuff I wanted to do, like learning Cantonese, swimming with a whale shark,
learning to play the fiddle like Aly Bain and the five string banjo like Earl Scruggs,
and meeting my grandchilren. Well, I haven't done any of that stuff yet, so I have
my work cut out for me. I have made a modest start, though--playing 12 string guitar
like Leo Kottke (and trading solos back and forth with Howard Dean), and learning to
speak Swedish, Catalan and Dutch. It helps that I lucked out with the most perfect
partner a male of the species could ever wish for. I met her when we were 22, got
married (a mere formality by that time) at 30, and are still very much together now.
Whichever of my long-term hoals I don't accomplish will be mitigated by the fact that
I have had her company for 35 years:
from here

to here

to here

to here

[Bryn]

29. Awesome pictures!

Thanks for posting them. I enjoy seeing them. You have a beautiful family. Sounds like you've been having a wonderful life. Truly a blessing for you. :hi:

Happy Birthday! :toast:

[DFW]

30. Thanks, Bryn!

A lot of pieces fell into place, and we worked hard at the rest of it.

You never know when the ride is over, so I figure make the most of it while we can, in case
we come back as a cockroach or something the next time around.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Happy, happy! *hugs*

[DFW]

7. Thank you, Thank you!

My present to myself: As I had to be in Brussels all day yesterday, I'm taking today off
here in the Düsseldorf area, and THE SUN IS SHINING!!!! Nothing short of amazing!

[old mark]

8. Very happy year, DFW-

I will be 62 in August and at times when I catch myself in a mirror, I wonder who that old fart is...

Funny thing is that I used to act grown up and find I enjoy things more when i don't, so I don't.

So many of the people I grew up with are dead, and I'm still here, and having a great time just hanging around.

mark

[DFW]

9. Sounds like a plan to me!

Hanging around, in my line of work, anyway, means usually not eating breakfast and dinner in
the same country most of the time, so I cherish down time plenty. I have enough colleagues
who have departed this world as well. Some of them got unlucky. Some were downright stupid,
as in not going to see a doctor when they felt bad, or, worse, not following a doctor's
advice when he said their life was at risk. One guy from back in Dallas was told by his
doctor to get an angioplasty and possible stent implant right away. When my doc here said
to do that, I did--that day. Saved my life. My Texan colleague said no, hunting season was
almost over, so he put it off for a week, and dropped dead of a heart attack on his hunting trip.

I have way too much yet to live for to play games like that. Like the old commercial said, "It's
not nice to fool Mother Nature." Things to do, places to go, and miles to go before I sleep,
especially when it's the kind Warren Zevon was singing about. Acting grown up is for working
hours and younger types who feel the need to do it after hours.

And if that old fart in the mirror looks like me, hey it's all just a clever disguise.........

[Blue Diadem]

10. Happy 57 DFW. Wishing you many many more!

It sounds like you're living life to the fullest.

Happy Birthday!

[DFW]

19. I do try! Thanks!

[rolltideroll]

11. Happy Birthday!

Don';t worry, I am 27, and I feel very old. At my age in Alabama, unmarried and childless is a sign I am going to die alone, probably by starvation or neglect.

[DFW]

20. Move to Massachusetts! LOL

Buy a sweater first tho..........

[rolltideroll]

24. I like Mass

I gotta get married and soon.My family is going to start worrying about me, and my mom keeps trying to get me to go out with women from the local Creationist/No Sex/Anti fun/Womens Temperance/Anti Suffaragist/Anti Science evangelicalchurch. As a socialist athiest, yu may be right, it may be a good time to grab a bug out bag and shag northwards.

[DFW]

25. Or get over here to northern Europe

This is where I met my spouse to be at the tender age of 22. No pressure to get married (DUH!! it only
took us eight years! LOL), and we were so used to each other by then that the ceremony and the paperwork
were just dreary formalities by the time we got around to it. For that matter, it was my brother who
invited us to OUR (and his) wedding. No one cares--in Mass or here in Germany, if you're a socialist
atheist, or a green buddhist, or whatever. It's what kind of person you are that counts, not what label
you attach, and more important, not what label anyone else thinks they have a right to attach to you.
Sounds like you could use a brief change of scenery.

[Heidi]

12. Happy birthday, DFW!

I'm really, really, really glad you're part of this community. :hug: :hug:

[DFW]

21. Wow, thanks!

I don't know what I ever did to deserve THAT, but I'm flattered and more than a little humbled :blush:

[Heidi]

22. You've been kind to me and many, many other DUers.

I'm not big on the whole "deserve" thing because it assumes a "just world," but you're truly a light here, and I appreciate you. (I also appreciate not being the only expat voice around here.)

Happy birthday. :*

[DFW]

27. I very mcuh appreciate the appreciation!

A smile and a hug from up here in the Rheinland!

[Lil Missy]

13. Happy birthday!

I'm 30, going on 60. :)

[livetohike]

14. Happy belated birthday DFW!

Keep on truckin' :toast:. I'll be 57 in July.....

[geardaddy]

15. Happy Birthday

:party:

[auntAgonist]

16. ah you're not getting older you're getting better!

Happy birthday to you. I hope it's the best yet.

aA
kesha
:hug:

[Call Me Wesley]

17. Happy Birthday!

:toast: I hope you're having a wonderful day and countless more to come! :hi:

[DFW]

18. I did, thanks! And I know a guy named Wesley, too:

[woofless]

23. 1952, me too.

10th of May. '52 babies rock out loud. HBD

Woof

[DFW]

26. Year of the Dragon!

Many of us do tend to breathe a little fire now and then.......

[latebloomer]

28. Another one here!

Turned 57 in January.

Have kids late- it keeps you from feeling old.

Except when they turn 14 and constantly let you now how hopelessly out-of-date you are

[DFW]

31. Funny thing about that

My girls have been letting me know how out of date I was ever since they could talk.

That pretty much stopped when they moved out of the house and discovered what the English
expression "financially dependent" means (their native language is German).

[Bertha Venation]

32. DFW, all I can say is

aging is hell. But I'm glad to be here. Sounds like you are, too.

:pals:

[DFW]

33. It definitely beats the alternative!

:hi:

[Skittles]

34. my grandma used to say, never complain about getting older

but remember that many fine folk are denied that privilege

[graywarrior]

35. Happy B'day, DFW!

And I hear you....the older you get the faster it goes. I still feel like I'm 27 (well, emotionally I'm 12)

[DFW]

36. It really hit me when I realized that for the first time, our president was younger than I am

That has NEVER happened before in my lifetime.

Not that I feel I have missed out on the chance to run for the office, but it still makes me
stop and think about it.

[graywarrior]

38. I know...Obama's being younger than me actually got me depressed

I feel so old.

[PassingFair]

37. Happy Birthday, DFW!!!

Take care of yourself!

The common-sense community needs
every hand on deck--every day!


:hi:

:party:

[Critters2]

39. At least you have children. I'm 50, and have left no real legacy at all.

Not even children.

I've been doing genealogy, and realize that the really interesting history will end with me.

I commiserate with you, but you have reasons to be grateful. Try to focus on those. :hug:

[retread]

40. The sign in the convenience store said, "You have to have been born on or before

March 21, 1988 to buy beer." 1988?? That was yesterday wasn't it???

[Critters2]

41. In 1988 I'd been ordained for 2 years.

That can't be right!

[Flying Dream Blues]

42. Lots of great people are '52 vintage!

Enjoy your birthday! (I'm a late '57 model myself, so I can definitely relate...still getting used to my fifties, but starting to see how quickly I'll be 60.)
:hug:

[marlakay]

43. Happy B'day!

I am 52 and I know what you mean the years seem to fly faster and faster especially since my kids all left home. I had them young so we have been kidless since 2000.

My job ended two months ago and my head feels rummy from doing nothing the last few months. It actually felt good to do our taxes the other day, got my blood flowing.

I am looking into doing some house sitting to travel around cheaper.

This is the time in our life to say, its not over yet folks as a old guy in my health club use to say to me, every day he woke up on the sunny side of the dirt it was a good day!

[DFW]

45. My top brass told me the same thing when I turned forty

"Better to be over then hill than under it"

As for the house sitting, we have been letting some friends from Michigan do that for
years. With the euro being so expensive, they could afford the airfare over here, but
not a hotel for two weeks. So when we take off for the States on the summer, they come
here and become Europeans for two weeks, and everybody's happy.

[emilyg]

44. Happy Birthday

[DFW]

46. To all I didn't respond to individually:

Thanks for the HB wishes. The non-trivial aspect of this shook us awake last night at 3 AM.
Our elder daughter called us from the States and said her sister was in a bad way, and we
should call her. We did. A close friend of hers (not romantically linked) from undergrad
school became afflicted last summer with some crazy kind of aggressive mouth cancer. They
were trying everything they could to treat him. He is now in London, and just sent a good-bye
email to all his friends that he was told he had three to four weeks to live, looked like
a freak after all the unsuccessful surgeries, and wanted to see nobody.

My daughter, usually a rock of fortitude, was a wreck, ready to ditch her studies (she is
15th in her class at Law School, and her professors love her) and blow her savings to fly to
London. As it is, she has some important paper due Tuesday, and she can't concentrate on
anything. My wife and I tried to console her, but you can only say so much. This kid is 24,
and he will be dead in a month, and he knows it. What do you tell someone who really cares
about him about how to handle THAT?

Whatever beefs I may have, serious or trivial, seem rather small in the face of that kind of
news. I think a lot of us luck out more than we realize.