[A.W.Dille]

I was working on my bush hog today. Having to remove the blades after hitting a tree stump yesterday. 1 5/16 socket, 3/4inch drive ratchet with about 12ft of cheater pipe and still a strain. 1/2 an hour to get one blade off. Wore me out. Have to get the other one off tomorrow. Hopefully it goes better. Not fun being 60.

[Sirrotica]

Just wait til you're 67..............

I took the left upper control arm off of my K3500 today to replace the bushings and eccentric cams for adjusting caster and camber. i just can't swing that 3 lb hammer as hard as I could even 5 years ago, to shock the upper ball joint taper out of the knuckle, so I didn't ruin the ball joint boot.

Tomorrow I get to fight the right side. The strength I used to have just isn't there anymore. Even after turning wrenches all my life, Working on cars and trucks just gets tougher as age creeps up.

As people have been telling me for years, Getting old isn't for the faint of heart". so true.

[Greg Reid]

Be 62 in August. Thursday, I was cutting a tree up that fell after the storm. The blade got pinched. I could see right away which way I needed to move the tree to take the pressure off. I briefly thought about getting a jack to raise the trunk since, well, I'm almost 62.
But, there's a perfectly good oak branch that I can use to jack it up with and bracing it my left knee, I reach over to my right and start pulling on that chainsaw....then BAM!...there goes the back!
I almost passed out. I could hear my wife talking on the phone to her sister about 50 yards away but out of sight. I started picturing myself falling out and laying there waiting for her to miss me...which would have been some considerable time!
I went to work that night and could barely get out of my truck. Took off Friday night and was laid up for the entire weekend. What really made me mad was that I've had the same injury 4 or 5 times and it crossed my mind that I was doing something stupid at the moment.
In other words, my mind is stronger than my back now and that ain't saying much for either one!
And yes, as they say, growing old ain't for sissies.

[Jack Gifford]

I took the blades off my Woods mower and sharpened them last summer. However, I was only 78 back then.

[Bills Auto Works]

Not quite as old at 57 & in great shape health & fitness wise, but am feeling my age this morning!

I lifted the bench seat out of the Cat Conv & carried into the storage area, then the same with the complete conv top, then lifted the turbo 400 into the stand. That along with bouncing around on the zero turn for a few acres & I can feel it! LOL

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

[Half-Inch Stud]

Also on the precipice at age 55. We're practicing Retirement, the Quarrantine happens so we blend in.

Well lawn work is easy until i crouch down to dig and....tough to get up! Really i can get up but the whole body gets stiff rather quickly when crouched down with shovel digging dirt from a ditch pipe. Walk away like a hunch back, then evolve to upright.

Hippie vegan stepson says I gotta eat the right food. He's a Ford Mechanic so you know he works hard all day.

Gotta walk the dog 4x/day or more...i welcome the task, but really...

In all things, I gotta warm-up to it.

Transmission installs? Moving Heads around?, Spare Engine Build?! Theses thing feel heavy.

[Half-Inch Stud]

I observed my parent sitting the couch all evening. Figured THAT inactivity is the key to decrepidness.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Hippie vegan stepson says I gotta eat the right food. He's a Ford Mechanic so you know he works hard all day.

LOL. I had already left the page before I got this, so a bit of a delayed reaction there.

K

[The Champ]

I'm 66 and still quite active. But....

The after effects of 4 major surgeries can make some activities very painful. One of the reasons is that my last surgery they had to carve out my core muscles on the right side due to scar tissue from my first cancer surgery that suddenly started to grow and in addition to my core muscles, ruined the rest of my right kidney (now gone) and into my liver (resected). I was on the table for 8 hours and told that I would not golf for at least 12 months. I though my doctors were crazy, but the were right.

Surprisingly, I can golf with no issues whatsoever (and I'll be golfing 18 for the first time this year tomorrow - finally the governor in MN has allowed the golf courses to open). One would think all the torque in a golf swing that it would cause pain issues, but it doesn't.

However, simple things like changing oil, polishing rims, painting, hanging wall art, pick up yard debris - anything where I need to bend down, contort my body usually ends up with me taking 2 tylenol 500 mg's (the only non prescription pain killer I can take due to my reduced kidney function).

Last August, after a rim polishing episode, I talked to my wife about buying a Quick Jack 5000, to lift the cars up 21" so that I can sit down while polishing rims. Seeing as how her Camaro is the main culprit that needs rim polishing, she agreed that we should invest in this tool. It really works well for that purpose and also makes it easier for me to change oil, although changing oil still has after effects.



We hired a paint contractor to paint the interior of the house this month, but I did all the accent walls - which took me parts of 4 days to accomplish. It also required taking everything off the walls and moving the furniture. This past weekend, we started putting all the wall art back up. Yup, tylenol to the rescue...

I got the oil changed on the Camaro last Thursday, today the GTO gets done. While the Quick Jack makes it easier than when I used a pair of car ramps, just getting down on and up off my creeper is an adventure - lack of core muscle strength issues...

The big picture is I'm still as active as my body and tylenol will allow. I'm upright and vertical and enjoying all the things I can still do. I just realize that if I need to bend over or get down on the floor or ground that there is a price to be paid.

When I called the ambulance to take me to the Mayo Clinic back in September of 2006, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Turned out that emergency lung surgery saved my life two times - as that's how they discovered that I had renal cell cancer in my right kidney.

[SRR]

Being 63 I can relate! My basement flooded and got the carpet wet in the bedroom so I spent the last day off cleaning and drying it. I spent the next day in bed with a very sore back.

[TAKerry]

I turned 56 in feb. I have been working construction since I was about 15. Knees are all but wore out and my back gives me trouble. Other than that im pretty good. Still have my strength, but my hands tend to get a bit weak. I do admit I am not as healthy as I should be, a bit overweight but def. not obese. I did notice when I hit 50 it seemed getting things done became a bit harder though.

[TAKerry]

All in all, everything considered, getting older beats the alternative!

[lust4speed]

My 60's were a breeze but the 70's are definitely getting tougher. I had an older friend that has now passed away. Don was always getting himself in trouble by acting like a younger fellow and that finally did him in. He fell out of a tree he was pruning and broke a few bones. That accident didn't stop him and then he fell off a ladder while painting his house, and the family took away his ladder. He fell a few months later when a 5 gallon paint can slipped out from under him. Anyway, now when I'm about to do something risky I ask myself if Don would have done it. If the answer is yes I then stop and have someone younger do it. Good idea to learn from other's mistakes...

[einstein]

Originally Posted by TAKerry

All in all, everything considered, getting older beats the alternative!

I'm looking forward to the alternative.

[gary bennett]

Originally Posted by A.W.Dille

I was working on my bush hog today. Having to remove the blades after hitting a tree stump yesterday. 1 5/16 socket, 3/4inch drive ratchet with about 12ft of cheater pipe and still a strain. 1/2 an hour to get one blade off. Wore me out. Have to get the other one off tomorrow. Hopefully it goes better. Not fun being 60.

60, you are young. Wait til you get 81 like me.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Quick Jack 5000 hmmm

[mgarblik]

I try to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes it works, other times not. Still working on cars every day and the biggest issue for me is leg strength and eye site. Have a hard time seeing wiring and connectors under the dash. I use a floor jack to put truck tires and wheels on now. Used to just lift them on the studs. They are about 70-80 Lbs. My back tells me to use a jack. Use power tools when I can.

[Gordon Church]

Turning 60 in July and stiff in all the wrong places!

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I try to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes it works, other times not. Still working on cars every day and the biggest issue for me is leg strength and eye site. Have a hard time seeing wiring and connectors under the dash. I use a floor jack to put truck tires and wheels on now. Used to just lift them on the studs. They are about 70-80 Lbs. My back tells me to use a jack. Use power tools when I can.

Agree with Mike, Working Smarter is better, I try & practice that everyday. Ordered a new pair of slip on Merrills two weeks ago, as between hard ground outside, & the concrete & the ladder in my shop, my feet get a workout every day. What a major difference after putting the new pair on. Just outside & in & around my shop, on the fitbit, am currently registering 15K to 22K steps a day. If any big swap meets were going on, I could easily quadruple that each day.

A.W. , throw this out, might worth the trouble to buy a Torque Multiplier. Have been watching a few obscure auctions for a Torque multiplier, know its just matter of time before can pick one up affordably.

[66sprint6]

Bending over into the engine bay, over the fenders or whatever is something that I can't do for as long as I used to. Other than that, I'm 57 and i feel great.