The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.
---Madeleine L'Engle Camp
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
---anonymous
I am now officially ancient. Senior by decree and not merely WebmasterWorld post number.
...I must aver,
I thoroughly examined him.
And iamlost's not only merely a senior,
He's really most sincerely a senior.
Yes, let the joyous news be spread
The weird iamlost at last is a senior!
--with apologies to the Coroner
The fact that the part running things seems stuck at age 17 while the other parts increasingly groan is, frankly, an insufferable nuisance.
Note: I'm Canadian, we mix and match metric and imperial to our heart's delight; we know that US-centric differences exist but have to look them up.
Once upon a time I could:
* run up stairs to rappel tall buildings in a single bound (take that Superman!), these days I look for the elevator if staying on the sidewalk isn't an option...
* scale a 12 foot vertical wall at speed, lately one 3-feet high has me looking for a gate...
* do a 50k (31 miles) with 30kg (66 lbs) gear cross country hike (ruck march, yomp) in under 8 hours, now just the thought of either exhausts me...
* lift a full 45 imperial gallon (54 US gallon, 204.5 litre) drum and carry it 100 feet (30.5 metres), now I need an extended coffee break after rolling one on it's rim...
* thought LALO, HALO, and HAHO drops to a 1-metre target great fun, now I believe jumping from a perfectly good aeroplane at any height to be suicidially stupid... umm, that the An-225, A380, C-5, or bumble bee can actually fly...
* helm a multi-thousand ton ship at speed through a constricted channel by radar alone, yet now I find daylight driving a car in traffic a nuisance...
* happily go days without sleep, currently I find afternoon naps quite pleasant...
* do arithmetical, even algebraical, calculations in my head, now, more oft than not, I pull up my phone's calculator...
* see in the mirror a ripped body in freshly ironed clothes, more oft than not now the clothes are ripped and the body could use a massage...
* eat three helpings of everything and then clean up everyone else's plates, increasingly three appetizers do the job...
Ah well, I was born male and we simply get older while women mature with age. 'Tis a wonder and a joy that the ladies put up with us guys past maybe 15. If there is anything that could be classed as divine intervention...
For you younger fellas, a bit of wisdom, with which do as you will: women communicate multichannel simultaneously while us guys are fortunate to single channel in sequence. Women are sensory mavens, men barely aware. Put another way: men are Apollo Guidance Computers, women are iPhones. This is the biggest difference between the two genders.
Now, barring accident, disease, war, social collapse et al I've got one to a few decades left to like and to love and to lust after the weirds and wonders and women. May they be as fun and as intriguing and as fulfilling as any preceding.
To you each and all: Be well, live long, find joy.
