Even peppers get old

First, go read this piece by Wayne Bosak at SurvivalBlog. I’ll wait here.

When you’re a young man (or woman) in your 20s or 30s, life is full of time to do all the things you must and many things you just want to do. But as Mr. Bosak points out, we don’t stay forever young. And as we age, our world of necessity draws in upon us. I know that I’m doing better than some folks my age and far worse than others. I honestly never figured that I would age this badly. I was always in good health, except for seasonal allergies. But the hard work and harder play of my youth has used up a lot of the ability I wish I still had.

But I did enjoy myself, often immensly. 🙂

If you’re young and happening by here for some reason, listen to my advice. Get in good shape. Build muscle mass in your 20s and fight to keep it from there on. Fight hard, because it will save you in the long run. Hydrate well and get plenty of sleep. Eat good food and avoid the processed crap as much as possible.

Work intelligently. I can’t remember how many 90 pound sacks of cement I just bent over and snatched up on my shoulder, taking it where it was needed. I never bothered to get a hand truck when I could just brute force carry something heavy. “Why make two trips?” I never listened to my body when it started warning me that the damage was mounting. “Pain is weakness leaving the body,” and I just doubled down. Unknown to me, I’d been having migraines since I was in my early 20s, perhaps even a teenager. Undiagnosed, my thyroid started failing when I was in my 30s. At 40 my gallbladder had to come out, but gastric reflux is still a thing to manage. At 42, my back gave. I’m pushing 62 and it’s neuropathy in my feet. I am not going to get a break.

It’s a battle to get all the things done that need doing. I persevere. I come from good hillbilly stock and I don’t know any other way to live.

I’ve attempted to teach Son and Daughter better. As I’ve mentioned, Daughter inherited my crappy thyroid and so she fights her weight constantly. Son has tried to squish off important body parts twice in his career as a welder, and breaths air you can see. At least he’s using a respirator now. He sees a chiropractor twice a month, not because his back is bad, but to keep it from getting bad.

If I live long enough, I’ll see if what I’ve told them helps. I hope it does.

I got out and worked today. It was cold, especially when temps two days ago were in the upper 60s. But I braved the mid-40s, hauled trash to the dump, raked up some of the recent storm mess, then hoisted the backpack blower and blew off the rest-mostly. I worked a bit on my new antenna setup, hammer drilling in cable management parts. My back is reminding me of that it was cold, damp and that I should not be doing these things, at least not on the same day. Used to be I did all that in the morning.

I can feel my world drawing in. It’s still pretty large yet, but it won’t be forever. And I shall work every day left to me. Because when I stop, I’ll stop permanently.