I remember it well: 1961, sitting in study hall my junior year of high school. I was mentally doodling, because back then we weren't allowed physically doodle because of the Priesthood ban. But then I boldly word down '2000', and then under it, '1961', and subtracted, getting 39, meaning 39 years til a new century.

Further intensive math, including integers, imaginary numbers and assorted primes, revealed that I would turn 55 in 2000, which was an age completely unheard of for a high school student!

Which is when it hit me! Not only might I reach the age of 55 (mind blown!!!), but might even . . . at which point I apparently swooned.

When I woke up in the nurse's office, I was a new person. I was now possessed of a steel resolve to live as long as I could. We didn't have seatbelts back then, but from then on I would tighten my pants belt before getting in the car...

How many of you are surprised, or even shocked that you're still alive?

And...according to the basis on which we 'appreciate' the Bell-shaped Curve, half of humanity has lives that are from a tiny bit "under par" to way, way under par.

Are we all of us here on the positive side of the Bell-Shaped Curve distribution, or are some of us just overachievers when it comes to being happy/content when maybe we ought not?

I was going to say more, but my laptop is running low on ink.

I've outlived my usefulness.

I spent a good chunk of my life longing for retirement. But now that I'm close to retirement, I find that I like my job. I like working. Go figure.

Imagine - getting PAID to do whatever you want: sleep late, stay up late, travel, read, enjoy the company of your favorite people/critters, I could go on forever.

I spent 30 years in the Federal coal mines (as it were) and I've reclaimed 20 of them. Life is good.

You are old enough to be buds with Russell M Nelson. Just make sure to hide the Dos Equis and tequila bottles if you have him over to your house. You can keep out aluminum cans.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I 11 years old. I assumed that I would be called to a mission within the US, but the lord had other plans and sent me to Thailand. While I was there, I diagnosed a fellow missionary with diabetes. The doctor loaned him a couple of his textbooks from medical school so he could learn about diabetes. I also read from those textbooks, and learned that type 1 diabetes reduced life expectancy by one third. At the time, life expectancy for males in the US was 72, so I did the math and realized that my life expectancy was 48 years. I now see 48 as very young, but I had just turned 20 at the time, and it didn’t bother me that much.

Life expectancy for diabetics has increased over the years, but still based on current statistics, I have outlived my life expectancy by eight years.

In 2008, I survived the “widow maker” (a myocardial infarction caused by a blocked left anterior descending artery). That’s fatal 90% of the time, but I suppose some of us have to make up the 10%.

In 2020, I suffered two subdural hematomas. The survival rate for a single subdural hematoma is roughly 50%, and I had two at once. Plus, the treatment was significantly complicated by a recent heat procedure.

Oh, and I have kidney disease, hypothyroidism, and a few other issues.

I have no explanation as to how I’m still alive (and relatively healthy) other than the good die young.

I’m hanging on long enough to see flying cars.

I'm hanging on long enough to see flying pigs. That sort of ensures eternal life, right?

Uh Oh...please stay with us Kathleen!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDwu_EdJCo

Or so it seems to me...

Thank you for thinking of me, BeenThere, I'll have to hatch up a new reason for living. Maybe meeting all the exmos would keep me around for a good long time. And hopefully for you, too. :)

We're peers--sort of--agewise. Whereas you're a Pedigree Lamanite, I'm just a mutt.
Nice to see you posting again. Hope your hiatus was not for unpleasant reasons.


We're peers in that today I turned 75. Mark Twain quipped, "Youth is wasted on the young." Determined to not let my old age get wasted, and to stave off geezerhood, I bought myself a Bronco--the "Sasquatch" edition with the high suspension and big wheels. Yesterday I took a course Ford runs to learn its capabilities. I will definitely be getting into the Great Basin backcountry. Sure, I like Moab, Arches, and the scenic spots, but I find the remote regions along the Utah-Nevada border peculiarly appealing. A reflection of my dark soul, perhaps!

Please don't ask me to act my age. I've never been this old before!

Happy Birthday, caffiend!

:)

I am busy misspending my old age just as I misspent my youth. I highly recommend it.

Doing the right thing is best in measured doses.

Hey, maybe they'd do better if mom wasn't here all the time. I think I enable everybody in my life. Pretty sure I do.

I'm actually getting healthier as I look Medicare in the eye soon.

Being good little Mormon boys, when my brother and I were in our early teens, we calculated how old we'd be when the year 2000 rolled around and Jesus Christ returned.
What the flip? I just checked the calendar and it's 2022!

Yes. Jesus social secretary has a lot to answer for by letting him miss that date. So hard to get good help these days.

to come in 2000 and then all the Y2K stuff. My "husband" was getting big barrels and storing water, etc. And I've said before, I really did sit on the sofa with my dog and count down until midnight (which I hardly ever do). I was hoping it would end, but I knew it wouldn't. My life was such a mess at that time and my hopes were dashed.

I'm 70. That birthday hit me kind of hard. I now consider myself an old fart. Here are some lyrics I wrote. Now I just need the music.



Our days are numbered from the beginning
And nobody knows those numbers but God
But he isn't talking, he's keeping us guessing
I guess I'll keep living 'cause I like the odds

I like the odds of waking tomorrow
Been doing it daily for all of these years
But if I don't wake up, will I even know it?
Yes? No? Maybe? It ain't one of my fears

'Cause I'm living now
I'm alive somehow
Might not be the best life
Might not be my last life
Might be the same life lived over and over and over and over...
Yeah, I'm living now

I emailed the devil to see what he'd offer
He said there's no profit in souls these days
The market is glutted and no one is buying
And it costs too much to haul them away

I hadn't planned on living this long
Expected to die young but something went wrong
Sometimes I'd fly and sometimes I'd fall
I'm just surprised that it worked out at all

So I'm living now
I'm alive somehow
Might not be the best life
Might not be my last life
Might be the same life lived over and over and over and over...
Yeah, I'm living now

I dropped by the Buddha to get his opinion
On purpose and meaning and dharma and sh!t
He made us some nachos and poured fine tequila
And said life is messy, man, just deal with it

So I'm living now
I'm alive somehow
Might not be the best life
Might not be my last life
Might be the same life lived over and over and over and over
Yeah, I'm living now

If it weren't for the women who took pity on me
I wouldn't be here to sing you this song
For reasons obscure they took personal interest
They nursed me and cursed me and pushed me along

So I'm living now
I'm alive somehow
Might not be the best life
Might not be my last life
Might be the same life lived over and over and over and over
Life could've been better
It could've been worse
But that would mean writing another whole verse
So I keep living
Just living
Still living

  

I hope you have a few more verses in you.

May you live long enough to see the US annexed by Mexico.

I'm 58. I love my job as a school nurse, but I can do math.

I applied for a new job with the county.

They called and made an offer on Friday!

Here's to another decade of work. I'm looking forward to it.

A 42% raise is helpful as well.

Since you've reviewed the primes, if you are going to die in your prime, there are only 4 choices left, 79, 83, 89, 97. Thinking you will make it into triple digits is, um, presumptive. Consumptive. Something.

So which prime has your name on it?

And will the wordle word of the day when you die be "inure"?

I like presumptive. Being in my early 60's I like the idea of 101, 103, 107, 109, 113 - as long as I'm still coherent and moving around. Motivation to exercise and eat well. But, I'll cede that 127 would be a bit presumptive.

Actuarial tables says ... if you make it to 97 good odds of making it to 99 and if you make it there you are likely to hit 101 ....

A friend of mine’s patriarchal blessing told him that he would live as long as he chose to.

He’s in his mid 60s now, and so far, he’s still choosing to live.

That's a standard line in the Second Anointing blessing. Obviousy the patriarch was familiar with it.

Interesting. I wonder why Gordon B. Hinckley bothered with all those cancer treatments and surgeries when he could’ve just chosen to live.

I'm sure there was a prophetic purpose to his undergoing chemo- and radiation therapy. Perhaps he was trying to conceal from the membership his control over life and death.

Well, ElderOldDog, if your heart stops you wouldn't want to go on living anyway, would you?

What about Barnabas Collins ?

Hope I make it til your hundredth birthday party EOD. You will have one no doubt.

I long ago decided to live well. Leaving Mormonism increased the odds by nearly 100%. Made all else possible. So far not going too badly even though I never ever forwarded a single chain mail letter.

In my youth, local church leaders frequently opined that the Lord would return around the year 2000.

In 1999, I remember busily installing a "fix" onto our junior high school's computers to counteract the possible deleterious effects of Y2K. About the same time, my stake president called me to work on the high council. Little did I know that, four years later, I would be questioning everything I had learned as a member for the previous 47 years.

I took the slow approach to leaving the church. From the time my shelf broke, it took me just over one year to resign my membership in October 2004.

Cuz X