What are your plans for old age?

[zorkan]

Went to a funeral last week. My cousin died aged 79 but he had been suffering from dementia for a few years and his cause of death was kidney failure.
Creeping up like an express train I'll be 75 in 5 days.
As far as I know my internal organs are okay and I can walk, jog, cycle, do yoga and my BMI is perfect.
Travel always seems tempting, but apart from walking I don't enjoy it anymore.

This guy has been thinking way ahead.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/

Can't go back. Even Shakespeare was thinking of this before he died aged 52.

Crabbed Age and Youth
Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare:
Youth is full of sports,
Age's breath is short,
Youth is nimble, Age is lame:
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold,
Youth is wild, and Age is tame:-
Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee;

[Icarus]

The man who wants to die at 75 has a misleading notion. he asserts that people past 75 can no longer be productive and do not contribute, etc.

Bullshit ! I am 94, can and I still do work, create things mechanical,sometimes muster the strength and wisdom to help a younger person, volunteer at math tutoring classes, and a few other useful things. Mr. Emanuel has my blessing if he wishes to take the gas pipe.

What the hell, I am still learning things and will continue in that quest as long as I can.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/



   

[Anne D.]

I plan to work until I keel over. I have no hope that U.S. Social Security will still be solvent when I get to "retirement age." Especially with Elon Musk now with his thumbs in the Treasury Dept's pudding.

[Anne D.]

The man who wants to die at 75 has a misleading notion. he asserts that people past 75 can no longer be productive and do not contribute, etc.

Bullshit ! I am 94, can and I still do work, create things mechanical,sometimes muster the strength and wisdom to help a younger person, volunteer at math tutoring classes, and a few other useful things. Mr. Emanuel has my blessing if he wishes to take the gas pipe.

What the hell, I am still learning things and will continue in that quest as long as I can.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/



   

Kudos. Very sincerely.

[zorkan]

Well done Icarus. You are an inspiration.
There are always things to learn.

But I see that old age has been redefined.
You were suddenly old when reaching 60.
I had this confirmed to me by a doctor.
So I walked the length of England to prove I could still do it.

The new definition of age:
Young old age is 65 to 74.
Middle old age is 75 to 84.
Old old age starts at 85.

Shakespeare again.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50423/sonnet-2-when-forty-winters-shall-besiege-thy-brow

I'll get to know his works better.
His wisdom is better than any religious script.

[billy rubin]

as of several weeks ago, i am now the same age as my father when he died.

it encourages a certain perspective on mortality, and encourages me to ride my motorcycle faster.

[Asmodean]

Hmm... Yeah...

This is a difficult one for my somewhat-gerascophobic self.

In a perfect world, I'd just live my best until I fell over dead. It doesn't work that way too often for comfort.

I've seen a family member get cancer and let it consume more or less two whole decades of her life. Living on and on in constant fear of death and your own mortality is... Draining. For everyone involved. Focusing always on the ever-increasing inevitability of there not being a happy ending. I suppose that's one way of "doing this."

On the other hand, I've seen this kid a while back [interwebs - not personally acquainted], who, upon learning that he probably wouldn't even live for as long as said family member of mine spent dying, decided to see and do as much as he could and make the most of the time he had. And so he did, pretty much right up until his final week alive.

I know I'd rather have two years as him than twenty as her. I am, however, neither, and so I walk my own yellow brick road towards the inescapable light at its end.

So, my plans for old age? I have none. there are no guarantees in life, and me getting to that age is far from certain. I work. I get involved in causes. I teach and learn. In my own way, I try to help the younger generations do better than I do. I have meaning in my life. I am for a purpose. I wish to live and die this way - today, or five-six decades from now.

Aspirationally, that's how it is. Looking at the whole picture, however, adding some emotional baggage of failed aspirations, broken dreams and unhealed scars... It's complicated. It's a balancing act, but then, what in life isn't?

[billy rubin]

what you need is a motorcycle.

it simplifies things.

[Asmodean]

A self-balancing act above certain speed, you say..? That goes wroom and what have you..?

Hmm... Mebbe so... Mebbe so...

[billy rubin]

yes. the stability improves with velocity.

above 100 mile per hour, a correctly set up machine trackslike a locomotive.

at slow speeds, theyre tippy and awkward, so the solution is never to go slowly.

[Icarus]

Hmmph !  Some of the most fun I ever had with a bike was when going very slow. I was pretty good at trials riding and not as good at closed circuit road racing. In either case there is a mental component.

My problem at race courses was too much analysis, including "what ifs" like high siding out of a corner at speed and a whole rash of other thoughts that a competent racer best not embrace. 

[Asmodean]

Well, it appears as though The Asmo suddenly does have plans for His Divine Dotage after all. Motorbicycling.

His fun does have become a bit too tame over the past decade. Cruising on motorways while having His divine bottom seat-massaged.

Weakness. Weakness, He tells you!

[zorkan]

What's wrong with one of these?

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/17667964?store=610532&utm_medium=VLA_paid_search&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgr2GyYTBiwMVU5RQBh1knA0lEAQYAiABEgK85fD_BwE

Also easier on the saddle.

[Asmodean]

What's wrong with one of these?

...That:

£519,495

 

[zorkan]

It may be a footballer's car but it's a snip compared to what the part owner of Manchester United drives.

"The most valuable car to ever change hands is the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe. It sold at an exclusive Mercedes-Benz auction in Stuttgart for an astonishing £113 million ($146 million) back in 2022."