Some things have been happening that make me wonder. Things I saw in elderly people when I was a kid. (Elderly to a kid could mean 40. Now it clearly is at least 20 years old than I am and maybe even older than that.)
You can make me feel better by saying that you suffer from the same things. This will only work if you are under 30.
✔ I get cold between 2 and 3 p.m. every afternoon. I have memories of an “elderly” relative wearing heavy wool sweaters during the summer. It goes away around 5 p.m. when I get my daily hot flash. (Damn things should be good for something!) I even get this to some extent during the heat of the summer. My hoodie is my best friend.
✔ People are mumbling more these days. They don’t speak up especially at the end of a sentence. I have to ask them to repeat themselves and they say the first part extra loudly drifting off at the end (again). What’s wrong with them?
✔ I like my music loud (in my head) but the first thing I do is turn it down because it’s giving me a headache. (It’s really hard to bounce and dance to swinging tunes like “Mony, Mony” unless it’s LOUD!)
✔ I want to do anything until the day of. Then I wonder why on earth I agreed to do that? I have to change clothes and put on makeup (sort of). This doesn’t include eating. I am always ready to eat – anytime, anywhere (mostly). Perhaps I’m just a spontaneous type of person now.
✔ There is nothing as pleasurable as a nice nap except a nice mocha latte. Stretching out at that time of day when you used to be in “one of those” business meetings and just dozing off. There was a time I worried about missing out on something. Now I believe that “it” will find me and I will be refreshed and ready to go.
Are these symptoms of aging? No, can’t be. I’m not 90 yet.
So click on this video and see if you can turn it up LOUD and dance around (even in your chair!). It’s worth it just for the outfits.
I sure hope these aren’t signs of advanced age…I related all too closely to most of them! I typically say that I don’t really feel my age, but maybe I do!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t feel my age at all (well…maybe the lessening of energy). When I started to think about all these weird things I’m sure some are age related. I don’t think you age in your head unless you become very inactive. My brother is 85 and very active (physically and mentally). If you saw him you would guess he’s in his’ 60s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree, for sure. I am confident that activity is what holds off the negative attitudes that sometimes accompany age. I don’t take that for granted either. Some of my friends are aging very rapidly because of health-related issues that hold them more inactive. Your brother should be an inspiration to all of us, Kate! Fantastic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
He is an inspiration. We still argue about who is going to die first.
LikeLike
I am so with you on wanting to do something until the day of. And the chilly thing, yes! I wear a hoodie all winter in the house and switch to one of CH’s flannel plaid shirts in the spring and summer. I also have a beach towel wrapped around my waist most of the time over my clothes. CH calls it my dress.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We sound very similar. I have some very warm LL Bean shirts that I wear from October to May. That’s in addition to the hoodie. Oh yes, and the undershirt.
LikeLike
Naps are good!
Some music must be loud – especially on road trips – with or without the dancing there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You need music in a car to keep you awake!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good Lord, we wrote about the SAME THING this week! And I didn’t copy, honest I didn’t! When I was young, I swore I’d never become one of those old frumpy teachers. I don’t THINK I ever did. Just ask me…I’ll tell ya…I stayed fun and hip right up until the very end! I still feel like a youngster on the inside, but the body…ummmmmm, well, that’s a very different story! Like you, my body these days has its own personal weather system. I just keep telling myself, “It’s natural – be glad you’re still alive!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s way better than the alternative!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I can relate to every one of these, Kate. Especially the mumbling. Why is it I can hear certain TV shows perfectly, and others I can’t make out a thing they’re saying? No way is that my old age showing up!
LikeLike
We love Elementary but between the British accents and background noise, it’s hard to hear. My husband has earphones that help a lot for programs like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know exactly what you’re talking about! Maybe we need to check into those headsets too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He loves them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s so true – people are mumbling more these days. Even me. I keep catching myself saying things out loud when I am all alone. And when I do it, I mumble.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think talking is going by the wayside, replaced with electronic thingies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When my son starts sentences with “when you were young, back in the dinosaur days.” I suddenly feel young enough to wrestle him to the ground. Great post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s why I didn’t have kids! They keep you young and make you old all at the same time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are a wise woman!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No you sre not old….except maybe for the mumbling and the afternoon shivering and the naps. 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly my thoughts!
LikeLike
I feel pretty good for my age until I’m around a group of younger people and have no earthly idea who or what they are talking about. I feel so out of touch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They do have a language of their own. It’s a subset of English although when it comes to electronics they are amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The only thing I can add to your list (and what others have mentioned) is how FAST dialogue is now on TV. I don’t understand them half the time, and it’s not because I can’t hear them. The kicker is when we watch old Columbo or Gunsmoke episodes, and I understand every word. Harrumph.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That dichotomy proves that the problem lies not with our hearing ~> it’s the constant annoying loud sound effects of car crashes and sirens that drown out dialogue and with actors, like Johnny Depp, who mumble their lines, slurring words together, as if they are drunk, or have marbles in their mouth, instead of enunciating.
That’s my theory any way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you’re right!
LikeLiked by 2 people
You sound like my mother. “Get those marbles out of your mouth” was one of her favorites. She’d yell it at the TV or one of her kids. Nancy you are on the right track. A lot of shows even have background music going on. All of the background noise is very distracting. They should have older people overseeing these shows!
LikeLike
We watch TV and movies with subtitles on . . . subtitles we can glance at if we need “clarity.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel you on the nap and latte one for sure! I can say I’m closer to 30 than 40 (just for a bit longer anyway), but my preferred dinnertime is 5! That’s surely a sign of something, right? My excuse is that I get up at 4:30 every morning for work. Yeah, I’ll stick with that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a long day. I have a teacher friend. Her “lunch period” is around 10:30 so when we go out she wants to eat at 4.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I could be friends with her. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know I’m getting old because as a kid my grandma would fall asleep on the sofa with her glasses hanging off her nose, and now I do the same.
LikeLike
Yep, I know how that works too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ugh, me too, except I start feeling the why-did-I-agree-to-go-to-this the day before, not even the day of. And I never take naps, but might start soon, thanks to Joey. And as far as music goes, it’s so annoying when young(er) haha people turn the music up in the cat roaming room at the shelter. The cats feel EXACTLY as I do about loud music.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why would anyone turn up the music in a cat room? It’s not soothing to the cats.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tell me about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup . . . I agree to do things
and look forward to doing them
until it’s time to go do them
when instead of wanting to go do them
I find myself wishing they was already done
LikeLiked by 2 people
You captured it in a diddy! or maybe it’s a ditty.
LikeLike
I’ve noticed that as I get older, I cherish quiet more. The dog barking right now is making me nuts, for example. Why did I not stick with sweet, quiet cats? Oh, right, husband wanted dog. But I am still plenty warm and people aren’t mumbling. Yet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re still young! I remember when my husband thought people mumbled and I thought he was nuts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve been feeling old for years.
It doesn’t help when I realise my eldest nephew is almost 50, and it doesn’t seem that long ago that he was a babe in arms.
I heard some really loud music in the car going by the other day, and said aloud ‘Tinnitus is just around the corner girlie’.
And i can’t hear Hubby above tthe noise of the vauum cleaner.
On the other hand, i can still hear the sirens way before seeing their flashing blues and twos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My nieces and nephews have kids almost out of college! How did that happen?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, know how that feels too. My great niece now has a two year old son!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Technically my niece (who is only 4 years younger than me), has grandkids in college. I try not to think about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yikes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve finally learned to embrace the idea of “old”, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still behave like a child sometimes. I so get it about the mumbling and the hesitancy about planned events. I’m the one that wrote them on the calendar, and even looked forward to them, but then the day rolls around and I get all “does that have to be TODAY?”. Apparently I’m never going to grow up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a lot of company!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Kate! You are absolutely right with this one!!! I am 71 but when I am on my bicycle I feel like 17. That’s the good part. The bad part is how much longer it takes to “get over” something like a cold or to “heal” from something like a sore knee!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Recuperating! What took hours now takes weeks. Also the energy drains faster. I usually take a mid-day nap once or twice a week. If I don’t I get very tired. It’s not as prevalent in the summer so maybe we can call it “winter disease.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I can relate to these – especially the mumbling and not wanting to go somewhere after agreeing to it and even looking forward to it… until I actually have to get ready and leave the house. My husband accuses me of mumbling when he can’t understand what I say, and not listening when I can’t understand him when he’s talking. It certainly couldn’t be him!
LikeLike
The mumbling — we do the same thing to each other. My husband says his hearing is 20-20. Ha! What is it about plans? It sounds like fun (and often is). It’s just that get ready and go thing.
LikeLike
I know what you mean about feeling, and looking, older. Most days I’m okay with it, but there are times when I wonder. Like when one of those insipid AARP magazines shows up in the mailbox. Who in this house is getting this, I always wonder?
LikeLike
The AARP is in my husband’s name so I don’t worry about that. No one ever told me that eyebrows go gray too. Bummer. And why do I feel 16 (most of the time) inside?
LikeLike
I don’t care whose name the AARP things are in, it’s the fact that they’re in MY mailbox. Not good for my sense of well-being at all! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reminds me of something I have been saying to my husband for the past decade. “I never imagined being with a guy as old as you.” Of course I am visiting my young dreams of a virile 30 year old. Since he’s older than me I write AARP off as “his” even though I am more than age qualified for it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re not old because I’m not old because even if these things are happening it doesn’t mean it’s age because age is just a number and numbers can be manipulated because that’s what people do to make things better so that’s what we’ll do here because we’re just not old.
I rest my case.
LikeLike
Numbers are so misunderstood aren’t they. When I reached thirty-nine, i just moved on to thirty-ten, thirty-eleven etc etc. A few years ago now (?) I had my thirty-thirty fifth birthday… and so it goes on. I am still in my thirties! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the way you think. Most of the time I don’t care. I like being able to pull that “old card.” I use it when I want to get out of something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s also good for discounts in some stores and the odd free ride on a bus! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol…I love that way of aging and counting.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh the nap! Most days I’m afraid if I indulge I won’t be able to sleep that night. Because falling, and then staying, asleep have become difficult tasks. Another age thing I think.
Any time of day I LOVE Mony Mony!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Don’t feel so bad, I just went down stairs to……. and that was the problem. I couldn’t remember why so I came back up stairs… and then remembered! I’m not old either, my memory lapses are simply the signs of living in a stressed world!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I like your thinking. I didn’t even touch on memory because that is a post all it’s own. If I had a dollar for every time I forgot why I went into another room….well you know the rest.
LikeLike
Yes of course I know the rest, you would either lose count of the amount of $$$ accumulating, or forget the process completely! 🙂
LikeLike
I was thinking that we could have lunch in Paris with all the $$ but we’d forget to catch the plane (chartered of course).
LikeLike
OMG I was made to feel old when I was 40! Young people have no concept of old!
LikeLiked by 2 people
No they don’t. I frequent some “beauty” sites with helpful tips. I can’t believe the 20-somethings writing in with wrinkle and aging issues. Really? I looked great until I hit my 60s! Stop the selfies!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My favorite dance song is Mony Mony! I knew it… we are sisters!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I love songs that are great to dance to!
LikeLike
I can relate to the mumbling, Kate…especially while on the phone. As for being cold, I freeze all day. Great video!
LikeLike
That’s what I like Affirmation that I am not alone! Put on your sweater sister!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love that video! I know exactly where you are coming from Kate. I used to think my parents were old when they were actually only in their early 40’s. Now I have kids of my own in their 40’s! What does that make me? Elderly I guess, along with you. Someone needs to come up with a different word. Elderly sounds so old…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does, doesn’t it? Sounds like gray hair, walkers and bent over people without teeth. Even my 80-something brother isn’t at all like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think we are in much better shape than our parents were at our age. My kids will probably out do me when they become this age. Keep the mindset of 60 is the new 40!
LikeLike
All true. I remember my mother looking so much younger than her mother too. Her mother wore braids wrapped around the head with those black clunky tie up shoes (my Mom wouldn’t be caught dead in them) and a long dress with a flowered apron over the top.
LikeLiked by 1 person