Is something changing or am I just getting lazy ?

I was brought up with the adages of hard work never killed anyone and there's no such word as can't ! I bet this rings a bell with other members ! So your adult life is spent living up to those words, I'm not looking for some medals pinned to my chest because I know I'm not in isolation with what I'm saying. I'm not going to bore you with my life story but I have pushed myself hard and part of that was to try and bury my CDing, many will know the feeling of not firing on all cylinders when part of your brain is elsewhere !
I'm now in my early sixties expecting CDing to have passed but instead another door has opened, mainly due to realising and accepting the true facts since joining the forum.
I have 60' trees and ridge tiles on my house damaged in the storms which at one time I would have tackled without hesitation but now the hidden part of me is sensing the risks and possible dangers and making me see sense. Or is it now an excuse to be lazy ?
At one time I couldn't wait to get the latest tool catalogues, now I just look at the stack of tools in the garage and think I don't need anymore ! I really am more interested in clothes and shoes it's almost like Teresa playing catchup !
The hard work hasn't killed me, and it has given me a reasonable life style, so do I now start beating myself up because I think I'm lazy ?
I guess all I'm looking for now is a few guilt free years to be Teresa when I choose.

It's OK to let your inner girl out sometimes hon - she's been waiting a really long time. And a girl can't have too many clothes or shoes. :)

Lazy no, with age comes wisdom to know ones limitatons. Hard work hasn't killed me either but it has beat me up a lot. I too have a garage full of tools and lately thinking about selling some that I know I will never use again, thus giving me some funds to spend on my feminine side. Why shouldn't we sit back and enjoy our well deserved time off.

Lisa

Teresa, I'am doing the same thing. Just retired in sept. 66 yrs old about to be 67. Find it very hard to do what I use to. Worked my rear off since the age of 14 and hate to ask someone to do what needs done, Also seems they never do a good enough job. But have decided that I'm better off safe than sorry. One little slip could mean a wheel chair or worse. Believe me I know, fell off a ladder, crushed left heel, tore left bicep and rotater cuff,broke right thumb.Eneb with surgery none have healed properly.

I fight the same feelings. Lately I have been pushing myself out the door to tackle at least one project a week. Some weeks that amounts to mowing the lawn, a 2+ hour job. I still work 3/4 time and have some other commitments but I used to do it all with one hand tied behind my back. The body just doesn't want to do everything all the time anymore. Hard work has afforded me a nice lifestyle and more free time, so it was not wasted.

I think what "tends to happen" is that once we hit 55ish and have suffered a few bruises and scratches, [motorcycles anyone?] we know that we can absolutely STILL DO most things...

BUT we have learned that it takes much longer to heal up when "things" don't exactly go as planned. There is a big difference in healing up in a few days or a week and "suffering" for 2 or 3 weeks IMO.

I call that well earned Wisdom. Scars are nice little reminders I believe.

Nothing "dangerous" about the dressing I do...

Nothing wrong with letting a younger person do some of the heavy lifting as we get older. If you saved enough and have a comfortable lifestyle, why not hire some younger person to do the work. There is a point where it becomes too dangerous to climb ladders. I lost a friend when he fell off a ladder. No one was around to help him. I fell off a ladder two years ago and the scars are still there. I was lucky I didn't break my leg. Now my shins are all scared up and going bare legged with skirts is not pretty. For some of the routine maintenance I do them underdressed.

I don't see it as lazyness. I am a couple decades from your age and I hit the point awhile ago that I no longer do certain things. I use to love. working on my cars, took great pride in it. Now I see that my time is better spent doing other things so off goes my car to the mechanic when ever it needs something.

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Originally Posted by Jenelle

I don't see it as lazyness. I am a couple decades from your age and I hit the point awhile ago that I no longer do certain things. I use to love. working on my cars, took great pride in it. Now I see that my time is better spent doing other things so off goes my car to the mechanic when ever it needs something.

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I have to agree. I have been a mechanic all my life. I used to love to work on my own cars. Now, I just do not feel like crawling around in my driveway to change my own oil, when it costs me $5 more to let someone else do it AND dispose of the oil.

As everyone else over sixty has pointed out part of being mature is just understanding that some things are better left to people younger and fitter. Or at the very least get help from someone younger. What on earth do you you have to prove, except to your own warped idea of what you think you should be able to do? I bet there is noone in your life saying you should be able to do this or that. In fact I expect people say, look at what that old guy (or girl) can do. Wow I hope I can be as agile/strong/able when I am the advanced age of over over sixty. I am not saying you are old and decrepit. Just that being older and understanding one's kinda obvious limitations has nothing to do with cding or gender and everything to do with an unrealistic self image. There is nothing wrong and a great deal of right with being old.

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Originally Posted by devida

As everyone else over sixty has pointed out part of being mature is just understanding that some things are better left to people younger and fitter. Or at the very least get help from someone younger. What on earth do you you have to prove, except to your own warped idea of what you think you should be able to do? I bet there is noone in your life saying you should be able to do this or that. In fact I expect people say, look at what that old guy (or girl) can do. Wow I hope I can be as agile/strong/able when I am the advanced age of over over sixty. I am not saying you are old and decrepit. Just that being older and understanding one's kinda obvious limitations has nothing to do with cding or gender and everything to do with an unrealistic self image. There is nothing wrong and a great deal of right with being old.

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The only problem with this is that I am only in my early 40s.

I too think as we get older we tend to be more careful so we won't get hurt because we know it does hurt. We now do our risk taking by going out dressed??? Jaymee

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Originally Posted by Jaymees22

I too think as we get older we tend to be more careful so we won't get hurt because we know it does hurt. We now do our risk taking by going out dressed??? Jaymee

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I have YET to find the courage to do this.

Hi Teresa, I'm 71 and still in great shape I don't let my age hold me back.

I just turned 60, and am on a low fixed income, so i cannot afford to hire much done at all. I spent 11 days in subzero cold working on me 1976 Dodge, and am reaally not looking forward to having to work on my car, for the rest of my aging life too. Poverty sucks.

I think you are more aware that you are not as invincible as you were "when you were twenty." :)

Sometimes I still think I am invincible.

I do look over my shoulder more to see who I have passed. :)

Lazy? Maybe, but it can be that you just got off the horse for too long and forgot what you can do. There are 80 year olds out there that do circles around young kids... Just get started with something small and it will come back.

Hi,

Its called pacing your self you know age and pace, time to rethink if you have not, time to slow the horse up a bit ,

Im coming up 67 in Aug and still working on house roofs, still have 4 more days of work. hey im mad still. friends still ask me can you do this job, well yes mam .... yes this crazzy woman still working on house jobs... not learnt to stop yet have i, arrrr.....

...noeleena...

I think it's just practical rationality, Teresa. :)

60' trees and ridge tiles would be regarded as hazardous and working at height in Health & Safety speak...

You'd need a team of two workmen and a cherry-picker or three-fellers with an Irish accent would do... ;)

You're just being prudent - take your risks somewhere else... you seem to have plenty of passing trains and local coppers to assist - and remember what happened to Rod Hull... :eek: And the emu never made it either....

Kryptic Katey x

Teresa:

I could have written your OP. At 63 I find I can do almost everything I could do 10, 20, or more years ago -- just not as much. I used to be able to work all day and come home, skip dinner, and go help a friend paint the interior of his house -- drinking beer and snacking til the wee hours, go home, shower, grab a few hours sleep, go to work all day, and repeat. We worked long and hard, and we partied long and hard -- not drinking excessively, just having very long full days and nights, always going going going strong.

Now when I get home from work (attorney), I have to force myself to get up after dinner and do any chores at all. If I get up and do chores around the house before work, then mid afternoon I want a nap at work, which I can't, of course, do. Who stole the stamina, damn it?

On top of the lost endurance, this chick wants more Rhonda time. I'm over being discreet. It's not that I'm out to everyone, just that I fearlessly (most times) go out as Rhonda and just go where I want when I want. Old fears and paranoia (or well honed sense of situational awareness) occasionally pop up and I don't do exactly what I set out to do, but that doesn't deter me. Maybe my energy has gone to fortify Rhonda and the quest for more "R" time.

I don't yet shy away from the ladders and tools of my hobby and craft filled youth, but I also don't get up on the roof with the leaf blower and walk the edge blowing the gutter clear and risk a 2 floor fall as I used to do when I was invincible.

As far as tool catalogues and tools, it's rare that I pour through the catalogues or wander the tool aisles any more. I have most of what I need if I choose to do the work, and the latest and greatest is no longer an interest. When I was young, I would ask "what's wrong with me?" about having a feminine side and liking to dress/act as a female. Now I ask myself the same question - this time about my lack of energy/stamina and even the desire to keep up the old grind.

Sigh. All this makes me want to go buy a dress.

Peace, all. Going back to bed now.
Rhonda

You know your getting older when happy hour is an afternoon nap. lol

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Originally Posted by Feminin Allisa

Lazy no, with age comes wisdom to know ones limitations........Lisa

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I must have been a right old wise owl from an early age. So much better to pay a nice man to come and do the work for me. :heehee:

Seriously, I am having a chimney breast removed from my house at this very moment of typing, during a week of my annual hols. It is definitely within the scope of my physical ability, but making tea for the guys and watching Stephen Hawkins discuss Stem Cell research is definitely my bag this week. Oh, and I went shopping with my wife and bought a lovely maxi dress and denim jacket. Does life get any better?

In regard to those tools, it's like a bad stock market. Sell, sell, sell! :heehee:

Rebecca

I worked hard all my life and now I'm taking time for myself and enjoying life.

I've been retired for a few years but until a year ago I was working full time as caregiver to my wife. After she passed away I've had to learn how to be single and retired. I have the tools and plenty of jobs to do. Many of them I get done but there are times when I'd just as soon dress up, have a cup of coffee, surf the web, change clothes and do it all again. There is a reward for all the hard work we've done but sometimes I tend to draw down on those rewards a little too quickly in favor of trying to get pretty. I don't know if it's lazy or an expression of the Pink Fog that is not limited by other obligations. I was kind of leaning toward the latter earlier today, but it may be a little of both. The trick is to find out where life goes from here and there are lazy paths, pink fog paths and hard work paths that can all be followed to see where they go.

HI Teresa,
At 60 I think it's OK to slow down, surely. I know what you mean about getting more dressing time. I've read that CD'ing can tend to increase in our later years. I think it's a bit of 'get as much in as we can before we shake off the mortal coil'.
Thing is we should stay as active as possible .. makes for a better figure, you know. 60' trees .. sounds like you need an aborist, Ridge tiles .. be careful. I made quite an impact falling through the patio roof and landing on the glass topped table below.

Christen x

I don`t see it as laziness, Teresa. It`s recognising your limitations.

I may like to use machines or other tools, but getting the job done safely is my primary concern. I don`t believe in spending a week to do something that can be done in ten minutes with a machine.

Clearing trees knocked down by a storm is hazardous work without the right equipment and a good sense of where the safety issues lie. It`s all too easy to be injured or killed because something fell or rolled on top of you or a branch hits something after it`s been cut from the trunk.

As we get older our motto gets to be," Pace yourself." I know I'm probably lying to myself, but I tried working with a bunch of 40 year olds about a month ago and I was exhausted every night when I got home.

I have worked and supported myself sinse i was 11 ys oid. At 76.75 yrs, I still feel guilt if I do not do the jobs and chores that need done. The body will start to put the dampers to you chores, by making you question whither is a heart attack. or allergies causing the gasping for breath. Thanks to the Financial institutions I trusted to turn my 401k into a 001k, and living longer than i planned for, hiring things done kills my scotch heart to pay to have something done that i have the skills to do. Age is slowing me down, and causing my pride to stand down, darn old age.....

None of us are growing younger. At least we aren't facing the alternative as of yet. I decided early on I should pursue what my heart wanted and save the day job for later if that didn't work out. As that tended to put me into a life that was less than financiallycomfortable, I had to learn how to fix things that broke as replacement wasn't possible. I was later able to use those skills to secure a place in my later years that provided a decent pension (almost enough to live on). I have never regretted it, but over time it was physically punishing. I had always fixed my own stuff (from necessity, which, as we all know, is a mother , but also because if something screwed up, I would know what it was), but as I retired I knew my future didn't include crawling under cars, sheet rock or any heavy lifting. Serious health problems had begun to rain down and multiply. I couldn't kneel or even squat without severe pain (plus a lot of difficulty getting back up), my back had been seriously damaged at work and a severe depression after my partner's death 3 years ago that I'm just pulling out of (minus medication or psychobabble) which left me close to bedridden. I am going through a newly available course of treatment for the longest standing health concern. and am trying to lose weight (about 20 lbs so far this run, cumulative 40) and get at least some exercise (mental as well as physical). It's ultimately a losing battle, but I intend to fight as long a retreat as I can manage.

I really must thank you all for your replies, I'll know when I'm lazy, when I can't be bothered to Cd ! Besides the wife's to do list is getting longer and luckily mine is getting shorter, I've just torn it in half !
Rather worryingly I don't mind using the chainsaw, their big mistake was allowing me to buy a bigger Husky and as Katey and others pointed out tackling a 60' tree tangled in another raises safety issues. Last time I downed a 45' conifer the nearest I got to a health and safety officer was my demented 30 year old son flapping round like a headless chicken, thinking I was going to drop it through the house ! It went exactly where I planned, AX MEN has a lot to answer for.
Maybe it's not so much about being lazy but remembering things. I fitted a new clutch cable on my mower yesterday, could I remember how to fit the new one ? Sometimes I think it's safer to order two replacements, the first you destroy in finding how to fit it and hopefully you fit the second before you forget again !
Maybe I'm not getting lazy, just older and wiser ! OK so the wife has a different version to that, bless them that's why we marry them !

Hi Teresa,

Well I think is it just natural evolution of one's common sense to take things a bit easier as you get older. I still find myself doing a lot of things I used to do 20 years ago but my body does not respond like a 30 year old the next day :doh: Is it being lazy, absolutely not. If you work hard all your life, nothing wrong with taking some time to just smell the roses . . . or buy a dress :battingeyelashes:. If Teresa, wants to play some catch-up . . . why not. She deserves some fun as well.

Hugs

Isha

At one time I would never consider paying someone to do something I could do myself. Then one day, many years ago, I was laying on my back on the cold ground in mid November putting a new muffler on my car. Every couple of minutes a bunch of dirt and rust flakes would fall in my face and get in my eyes. Then I realized that I had more than enough money to pay someone else to do this, so why not?

As far as I'm concerned, it's not laziness. It's common sense.

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Originally Posted by Teresa

I'm not looking for some medals pinned to my chest because I know I'm not in isolation with what I'm saying.

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I'm not looking for someone to pin a medal on my chest, and not just because I don't deserve it. Those breastforms are expensive and I don't want that pin to hit in the wrong place. Know what i mean?