The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Just another old guy rant


I'm in a funk. As I wrote the other day, with age comes not wisdom but pain. Pain in the joints, mostly, but not just in those joints. I get more headaches (even counting all those hangovers I used to suffer), I feel the heat more (and, believe me, it gets hot down here), and now I suffer from a bit of vertigo.  I had to get a friend to come over and fix a sag in my porch ceiling. Because if I had to tilt my head back to put a screw in a ceiling panel, I'd likely fall.Yep, I had him over to screw my roof.

We are supposed to look forward to our alleged golden years. Trust me, if this is what they think we should look forward to... they don't know what they're talking about. Speaking of those "golden years", a friend remarked... "Yeah, they're golden, alright, you give the gold to doctors and dentists." He could have added handymen, tax collectors, mechanics, and the pharmacies. And gas stations... can't forget the gas stations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I made it this far. There were more than a few times I thought I wouldn't; a couple of times when I was pretty sure I wouldn't. But I have. And I have a lot more years to look forward to.

That's another thing about becoming a senior citizen... you stop looking forward and spend a lot of time looking backward.  Wistfully.

I'm not saying retirement hasn't been good to me. It has... so far. I have (mostly) my health, I have a decent (not great) pension, I have savings that should last, and I have a great partner (Faye) to share it with. Life has been good to me and it continues to be.

But that doesn't mean I don't feel the aches and pains of aging or don't worry about the future for my son and my grandchildren. That's probably why I harp on certain things like I wrote about yesterday. I failed to be active, I chose to just "go with the flow", and I look back and say... What the hell was I thinking???




2 comments:

Tom Sightings said...

Oh, I know all about those aches and pains. I usually avoid drugs, except for the occasional aspirin, but lately I've been trying "Glucosamine, plus MSM."  Can't really tell if it works -- I guess if it's not enuf. to notice, then it doesn't make much sense -- but have you heard of it, know anything about it?

As for looking back wistfully, you don't wanna know about the drugs for that -- but you might have taken some in college!

Douglas4517 said...

 I may have to start taking that stuff (Glucosamine, that is) but I tried it once before and it didn't go well with my stomach. Didn't go to college (unless you count the on again/off again times I went to junior college to pick up some extra cash from the GI Bill). But you didn't have to go to college to try those drugs.