new thread
This morning I got some bad news, a friend i've known for
30 years now died last night. He had been ill for a while
and had several health issues.
This just goes to prove that life on this planet is very short,
and very fragile. If you are saying to yourself you're going
to grow your hair long tomorrow, or do something else tomorrow,
do it today. You never know when lie on this mortal coil will
end be sure to live for today not tomorrow.
finally i'd point out that the ripe old age of 58 i've had alot
of friends, relatives, co-workers die over the years. And it
is a safe bet that masny more of them will die in the coming years.
As they say the only sure thing is death and taxes.
When we get to the point where our yesterdays greatly outnumber
our possible tomorrows it is best to focus on the present because
dwelling on the future can be too depressing. Enjoy growing hair
and being jealous of these young guys with their wicked awesome
long hair.
But then when i'm in my 80s or 90s I fully intend to be that awesome old man who still has long hair (waist length or longer) be it grey, white, or sliver. MPB does not run in my family,
so I should still e able to have long hair until the day i die.
Yes and you are so right. Do it NOW! Don't wait. It only takes but a fraction of a second and suddenly you're gone. I had an Aunt and Uncle who planned their whole life to take a trip to go to Switzerland. But........they couldn't go until they were retired because "WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE ENOUGH INTEREST IN OUR BANK ACCOUNT TO PAY FOR THE TRIP!" My Uncle dropped dead of a Heart Attack a week before the trip and my Aunt never did get to Switzerland. She DID however see a travel movie about it in a REST HOME following a Stroke.
Justin~
ps: Sorry to hear of your friend of 30 years.
Thank you.
I'm sorry about your friend.
What you say is very true. Life is what happens while you're making plans - as the saying goes.
Time speeds up too as we age. Each year is a smaller percentage of our whole life and makes time pass quicker. I remember how first grade seemed to take forever. Now a year is gone like a month back then.
The religion I used to belong to was filled with people who were mostly miserable but said they would be happy when....not now. No, be happy NOW. Do NOW.
Hi Jason,
Thanks so much for your excellent points! Definitely gives me something to think about. Hope you're having a great week my friend!
Ted
Hi Ted,
Thanks for your thoughts. It's good to recognize how fleeting life is so we can appreciate it before it's too late.
I hope you have a great week as well.
Jason
I'm sorry to hear that.
Carpe Diem!
Who wants to be lying on their deathbed regretting the day they played hooky from work and went skinnydipping in a creek and then met up with friends for dinner and drinks.
You aren't going to say to yourself: "I spent too much time looking at rainbows and playing with the grandkids"
What you are going to regret is the missed opportunities and experiences if you spend your life (Spend your Life...think about that phrase) for gold, and then not have life to spend the gold on.
I suppose, if you are religious, you could take consolation that you will be rewarded in the next life, but as an atheist, I only have one go at this life...no do overs, no post mortem reward...so I better make the best and most of this.
Thank you.
So true.
Your words ring so true and sorry about your good friend.Having seen the entire older generation of my family pass I know the clock is ticking for myself as well.Problem is what do I do about it?I can safely say I've lived over half my life and I wonder if I'll remain as healthy for what's left.So far,knock wood,I've been very fortunate but do know I have to decide when its time to stop to smell the roses.....
Mârk
The best thing to do is live for today, you never know what the future will hold.
I can safely say I've lived over half my life and I wonder if I'll remain as healthy for what's left.So far,knock wood,I've been very fortunate but do know I have to decide when its time to stop to smell the roses.....
Yes life is very short, the best thing is to do today what you
want to accompish, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
There couldn't be a better time for your words to ring true for me and for the state of Oklahoma. As you know, 26 people died in a tornado in Moore and Oklahoma city on May 20th, ten of them children. And, then on May 31--this last Friday--18 more were killed (with 5 or 6 still being reported as missing/unaccounted for) when another twister hit the city and surrounding area.
I believe wholeheartedly that people should live for the moment in a lot of ways. I have no idea about what all the stories of all the victims here were. I'm sure they would all tell you the same thing, because none of them expected to pass the way they did.
For me, personally, my answer is Jesus. It's pretty well known here on the board that I'm a Christian. I've known Him since age 9 and everyday since then, He's given me reason to love Him all the more. My point is, that is how I get through times like we are discussing. I'll be praying for you, that you find the comfort you need to find at this time.
Have a good day.
Steve
Thank you. I have to think it is very scary to live in
Tornado Alley. And I have to think it is even scarier to
know there are no storm shelters nearby.
I am sorry for you loss, but I do appreciate your sharing the importance of living life to the fullest.
I come from a line of long-lived guys who all had adventurous lives. I currently do geologic consulting, work seasonally as a Park Ranger and travel for FEMA.....when home and "retired" I have a gazzillion hobbies on a 30 acre ranch.........and I do all this with long hair ! Just turned 70 on Sunday !! (Only the hair....I still claim to be 26 and look like Tom Cruise....giggle)
There is nothing sadder to me than seeing someone come to the end of their adventure, without having one.
Thanks for sharing and again, condolences.
Walter
Thank you.
Now, that's living life, Walter! You do all longhairs proud with your various interests and occupations. I'm sure you've done much to break down discrimination against us.
Three of my grandparents lived into their 90s. My grandfather insisted on working up on the roof even at the age of 91. He had spirit and liked to hitchhike around town. He did this in the middle of winter at the age of 96 and caught pneumonia and died three weeks later. Not a bad way to go though, relatively quick and painless and active until the end.
Jason;
Thanks for sharing the wonderful stories of the "youngins" in your family........my Dad was still an active FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR in his 90s !! Great pilot......scary driver...giggle.
In what way was he a scary driver?
I would mention that now that i'm 58 years old I find it scary how
fast a number of drivers go. All of the roads off the expressway
here have speed limits of 30 or 35 but a lot of drivers still fly
down those roads at 80+ mph. And then they wonder why pedestrians
get hit, accident happen, etc.
I would also mention that in the civil war group i'm in i'm one of
the youngest members. The aversge age in the group is probably around 72.
And finally i'd also mention that where I work we have alot of
customers who are up there in age. We've got customers who are still working at their own business well into their 90s and will continue to work until the day they die. The owner of the company I worked died this past year and he was 94 and was working every day until the end.
Sorry you lost your friend, man. Yeah, at our age (I'm 66 now) losing friends in "our" generation has become more than occasional.
When hiking with a friend about twenty years ago, he said, "No one ever on his deathbed wished he had spent more time in the office." That led to our talking about things we'd always wanted to do more of, or at all, but hadn't. A few years later, I heard my friend had died. I wondered how many things he wanted to have done had remained unlived.
One thing I said I had wanted to do since childhood was take a very long walk. Our talk led to my, a few years later, setting out from Boston walking on back roads towards home in San Francisco. I doubted I'd go that far with it, but the route lay ahead of me if I chose to. After 300 miles I felt I had lived enough of that dream to see what it was like, and that I didn't want to devote many more months of my ever shortening life to that endeavor. So from Rome, NY, I came home, and I have not since had that urge, which had bugged me for a lifetime. By extinguishing that nagging urge, that walk was the best three weeks of my time I had ever spent. Plus, it was a very cool hike.
A few years after that hike, I came down with what I was told was likely a fatal disease. One thing I had always wanted to do was grow my beard out to see what it would look like long. The day of that diagnosis, I began to grow it out. And just this year I am making major strides toward recovering from the disease. To celebrate the recovery, am I going to cut off the long beard? Hell no! I found I really like it!
The disease had destroyed most of my muscles. I am now undergoing physical therapy and building up my muscles again. I've been walking and increasing my mileage, and I am able to hike about four miles a day. Not too shabby for a guy who's 66, and who knows damned well he is past middle age, because he doesn't know anybody who is 132! But damn it, birthdays happen.
Bill
-------------------------
Hopefully all your damaged muscles can be restored to normal function. This disease has been devastating for you. May you be fully healed from this.
--------
My beard has gotten a lot longer too. I just measured and found my longest beard strand is 19 inches.
I had my own health scare. A DVT was found in my right leg on December 24th 2012. I was given heparin and I am taking warfarin as a followup. Warfarin tends to increase hair shedding. I am taking lots of hair vitamins to offset the warfarin side effects.
Scott
(For those of you who may not know, DVTs are deep vein blood clots in the leg.)
Scott, I've had DVTs twice, both times in the right leg. The first time they put me on Warfarin and I had a lot os shedding. I probably had about half of my hair fall out, but this did not look as bad as it was due to the layering effect. A few months later, I noticed a row of inch long strands sticking up where my part is. They were all new strands that had started growing at once, when I quit the Warfarin. The earlier shedding also made my mane look less dense near the ends, and within a few months my longest strands were about 3/4 as long as before.
The second time I got a DVT they put me on Xarelto. I didn't see any drastic hair change from it, but perhaps whatever damage it might have done had already been done by the Warfarin episode.
By now, I likely have a DVT starting again. Both previous treatments got rid of the DVT, but they caused me to bleed in too many places so the doctor yanked me off of both meds earlier than he would have liked to. He will probably have me scanned later this year, and if he finds another DVT, well, we'll have to see what he thinks we should do. DVTs can be fatal, so they shouldn't be ignored.
My hair now is denser than it has been in years up on top of my head, but sparser down below my ears. Only a few strands reach my nips, where used to lots did. I don't know whether the higher quantity of hair up top will in a year or two lead to such down lower or not. Time will tell. Also, the hair up top is extremely straight, something I've never had in my life before. Down below my ears, there's still some wave in my longer strands. My mane has gone through changes every decade or so throughout my life, so I never know if any new change is due to meds or due to genetics - what it was going to do anyway.
I recently had a 16 inch combout. That was about the longest I see now. Several years ago, I'd sometimes get one over 20 inches.
My beard is sparser near its ends, and it's probably about two inches shorter than before. Recently it got a bunch of short hairs appear on my chin, and due to their short length (about an inch or two) they stick out more than they grow downward. I don't know whether this is a new shorter terminal length for hairs rooted in my chin, or whether it's a mass of new hairs sprouting at once like what happened two years earlier with my part up top. As I said about my mane, I now say about my beard: Time will tell.
I most certainly am still producing hair. Larry still complains about all the hairballs on the floor.
Bill
-----------------------------------
I went to the hospital with the blood clot incident. After 8 hours there, I reached critical mass and had a meltdown from the stress of being there. They wanted to keep me there for maybe 3 days. I walked out after signing a release, not caring if I lived or died. The stress would have killed me if the blood clot didn't.
I am 95% certain as to the cause of the blood clot in my right leg. I had a 10 year plus bad habit of falling asleep on my couch for a few hours at a time, sitting up. This causes blood to pool in the legs. Pressure on the backs of the knees from the couch cushion compresses the deep veins in the legs, further exacerbating the problem.
My advice: It is best to lie down on a couch, if you want to sleep there.
I hope to get off the warfarin in the not too distant future. I can then substitute natural blood thinners. Examples are cranberries, raw garlic, and cayenne.
There is a treatment to dissolve clots using an ultrasonic catheter. It is inserted into the deep vein and it totally breaks up the clot into fragments smaller than a red blood cell. They do this at Stanford medical facility.
Scott
Hi LHIA,
My apologies for the late reply! I am very sorry to hear of your frind's passing. I am sure he is not suffering anymore which is a good thing. And you make very good points about life being short. I have been trying to follow that example in my own life. As a dialysis patient I know I have to be on that machine every other day until I get a transplant. Believe me, I enjoy my days off dialysis.
Ted