Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[synchronicity]

Dearly Beloved put me in a hammerlock yesterday and drug me to our financial planners semi-annual seminar instead of jujitsu yesterday. Tried to remain non-grumpy about it. But there were were with about 80 other people mostly my age +/- 5 years or so. A few a lot older and a few a lot younger at either end of the Bell Curve. But it really takes you aback when you see that many other men in your age range and almost want to shudder at their physical state. Since a lot of us geezers and geezoids were thinking of retirement planning or in it already one of the speaker's mentioned the latest stats show a life expectancy of 90 for our generation and income sector. Last time I took one of those on-line evaluations I came in at 85. So we'll see, but all I could think of was "90 huh? I wonder what the last 5-10 years will be like for most of these bonzos."

Sat through a couple of energy companies sales pitches for us to maybe shift our "portfolio" into. Some portfolio, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. I couldn't help but wonder if tertius would be amused, horrified, pissed off, or fascinated. One was deep gulf drilling in the Mississippi River Canyon and the other was shallow sandstone fracking on privately owned land in the PA Appalachians.

You realize that there's as much if not more BS coming from most "Financial Planners" as there is from most "physical trainers", right?

Also, LE from early geezer age is longer than most people think, although as you say, the last several years of it may be a whole lot different than most people imagine. Er, not that that's been a motivating factor for myownself in this "picking up heavy things" craziness what gets talked about here.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Oh, yeah I do synch. We've hitched ourselves to a few bad ideas over the years. But the guys we use these days are quiet and low key types who are not the fast talking and "very excited to offer this" like Vince and the Sham-Wow. Although I just loved to hear Vince's pitch on that. Made me laugh like Hell. "It's made in Germany! They always make good stuff!" Too bad he got popped for soliciting a prostitute.

The men in my family have a history of strokes and I hope to Christ I can manage to not have one myself. I know damn well I am taking better care of my health than The Old Man and his piece of shit sperm donor ever did.

[tertius]

I'm going for a mixture of amused and appalled, probably. Energy can be risky stuff, and it only takes one overly-optimistic geologist to screw you over when the wells go dry two years ahead of schedule, and the company value plummets. And nobody beats the market, in the long run. *shrug*

I'm not surprised by your assessment of your peers, though. Not in the least.

[Mark E. Hurling]

These folks were pretty up front about their success rate it appeared. Around 70% for hits on their attempts. Our planner guys do a fair job of screening before they let companies of any type talk to their clients. Which is not to say that all the stuff we've trusted even these guys with has worked out well. But that's the nature of the market.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

5 minutes warmup on the bike.

Standing Overhead Press: 150 lbs, 2-1-2-2-2. This was something of a surprise since last weeks 145 went up without a lot of strain. But maybe it was just one of those mornings. My form was not the greatest for some reason, so there was that too.

Barbell Row: 240 for 5 sets of 3.

Claw Grip: 220 for 2 sets of 5.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Barbell Row: 240 for 5 sets of 3.

Explosive training for the midback, I see. :-)

I know. I'm a dick.

[tertius]

Explosive training for the midback, I see. :-)

I know. I'm a dick.

At least it's a respectable weight.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Youse guys crack me up. Respectable, I dunno. I use the bumper plates as a loyal Rippetonian kool-aid drinker since he recommended that in SS:3. I do know that it gets a fair amount of attention from the Usual Morning Suspects when I set it down again between reps with a slight "whump" and people who are not even using 225 in deadlifts (if they deadlift at all) get a WTF look on their groggy visages.

Weight: 248.

Did a GXP this morning after oversleeping last night.

Also appropos of nothing other than a big ick factor for me at least was the results of the plumber having dug up and replaced a five foot section of drain line. He left it out in the back yard for me to see. The drain was a 4" pipe of which a root had gotten into and grown to block it 3/4 of the way. No damn wonder the thing kept backing up. I was afraid to get too close lest this thing looking like a prop from Alien lash out and wrap itself around my ankle and drag me screaming off into the darkness. Home ownership really sucks and gets expensive when nearly 60 year old plumbing starts to degrade.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Also appropos of nothing other than a big ick factor for me at least was the results of the plumber having dug up and replaced a five foot section of drain line. He left it out in the back yard for me to see. The drain was a 4" pipe of which a root had gotten into and grown to block it 3/4 of the way. No damn wonder the thing kept backing up. I was afraid to get too close lest this thing looking like a prop from Alien lash out and wrap itself around my ankle and drag me screaming off into the darkness. Home ownership really sucks and gets expensive when nearly 60 year old plumbing starts to degrade.

You're gonna give me nightmares. My house was built during the Truman Administration.

[tertius]

You're gonna give me nightmares. My house was built during the Truman Administration.

You might actually be in a better shape, in some regards. That's early enough to still be focused on quality, and before the mad rush to put up houses as quickly as possible. Mid-century houses are often more prone to problems than stuff built between 1915-1945 (though Depression era buildings are sometimes weirdly put together, in my experience).