You know you are getting old when:

[Woodtroll]

The temperature in this part of the world rarely drops low enough for most southern Californians to need something to keep their ears warm, but we have more than a few nitwits here who take it to the other extreme by wearing dark-colored knit caps and/or sweatshirts with the sleeves pulled down and the hood covering their heads during the summer months when temperatures are near or over 100°F. I realize this is simply the "daily uniform" they've chosen for various reasons, but when I'm sitting in my truck with the air conditioner on and I'm still sweating I can't imagine what these people were thinking when they got dressed that morning.

Some of the younger crowd here will do the same thing, and then they round out their outfit with shorts and sandals/flip-flops. What the heck?

 

[HanauMan]

Guess that it is just another sign that I'm getting older, I feel the cold (and heat) more than I did when I was younger. It has been around 40F here recently in the mornings and I wander around in my old lined M65 field jacket and knit cap (the tuna boat look) and there is a girl down the road going to work in a sleeveless top, but she has inked arms to display to the world.

 

[2jakes]

The temperature in this part of the world rarely drops low enough for most southern Californians to need something to keep their ears warm, but we have more than a few nitwits here who take it to the other extreme by wearing dark-colored knit caps and/or sweatshirts with the sleeves pulled down and the hood covering their heads during the summer months when temperatures are near or over 100°F. I realize this is simply the "daily uniform" they've chosen for various reasons, but when I'm sitting in my truck with the air conditioner on and I'm still sweating I can't imagine what these people were thinking when they got dressed that morning.

Then there are goobers who go jogging in the evening wearing dark clothing and
although they have a right to be on the
streets.
When they swerve towards the middle of
the road...they need to have a license
plate on their behinds or at least reflective
tape somwhere!

 

[3fingers]

Then there are goobers who go jogging in the evening wearing dark clothing and
although they have a right to be on the
streets.
When they swerve towards the middle of
the road...they need to have a license
plate on their behinds or at least reflective
tape somwhere!

My workday begins at 6:00am therefore it is still dark on my way in. There is one dingbat in particular who jogs daily in solid black clothing including his shoes. He runs in the street. His hood is always up. He appears in your headlights as a dark spot on a black background. I guess he must be an apprentice ninja.I stopped once and politely informed him that he was extremely difficult to see. His opinion was that I should MYOB. Very well then. I await his being squashed with no particular emotion.

 

[Zombie_61]

My workday begins at 6:00am therefore it is still dark on my way in. There is one dingbat in particular who jogs daily in solid black clothing including his shoes. He runs in the street. His hood is always up. He appears in your headlights as a dark spot on a black background. I guess he must be an apprentice ninja.I stopped once and politely informed him that he was extremely difficult to see. His opinion was that I should MYOB. Very well then. I await his being squashed with no particular emotion.

I'm convinced some of these people dress this way deliberately because they're hoping they'll get hit by a car so they can sue the driver and collect a check.

 

[Touchofevil]

The kids at school consider the music of the eighties, oldies music. I tell them that I was in high school and college during that decade.

 

[2jakes]

My workday begins at 6:00am therefore it is still dark on my way in. There is one dingbat in particular who jogs daily in solid black clothing including his shoes. He runs in the street. His hood is always up. He appears in your headlights as a dark spot on a black background. I guess he must be an apprentice ninja.I stopped once and politely informed him that he was extremely difficult to see. His opinion was that I should MYOB. Very well then. I await his being squashed with no particular emotion.

Sooner or later, odds are that they will be in front of my video lens.
Been covering the news for 28 years.
There's a lot of dingbats still running out
there!

 

[tonyb]

Another sign of getting older is when you get to that day, as I have the other day, of being fed up with having Isaac Asimov eyebrows and thus visit the drug store to buy a small pair of trimming scissors to keep said eyebrows under firmer control.

When the hair on your ears grows faster and thicker than what’s left of the hair directly above those ears.

I got a cordless little clipper gizmo, not a cheap one. Makes short work of that ear hair and keeps my moustache out of the soup. I occasionally use it to cut the hair from my dome, too, when I’m feeling too lazy and/or cheap to pay the barber a visit, which is becoming more and more the habit. The results of the home job and the barber’s (“just cut it all off, man”) are nearly indistinguishable.

 

[Zombie_61]

The kids at school consider the music of the eighties, oldies music. I tell them that I was in high school and college during that decade.

"Hey kids, gather 'round and let ol' uncle ToE tell you what the 80s were really like."

 

[2jakes]

When TV channels used to sign off at the end of the night with graphics like this. Many also played the National Anthem to close out the evening.

 

[2jakes]

When it came time to write a letter in pre-computer days, you used a typewriter. And if you made a typo — there was no backspace option, just the saving grace of liquid paper to cover your mistake

 

[GHT]

View attachment 137916
When it came time to write a letter in pre-computer days, you used a typewriter. And if you made a typo — there was no backspace option, just the saving grace of liquid paper to cover your mistake

When I was in the corporate world and got my first posting as a head honcho, in what was a small distribution centre with about twenty vans and trucks, my regional manager paid a visit and asked if there was anything that I needed. "A secretary," I replied. "But you haven't got a typewritier," he said. "I don't want a typewriter," I answered, with tongue firmly in cheek.

 

[LizzieMaine]

White-out was for kids. The real typists used this:

If you were a real pro, you tied a string thru the hole in the middle and hung it from a hook at the side of your desk.

 

[HanauMan]

Had one of those when I was taught typing in Junior High. Always managed to rub right through the paper with it. Oh my, the memories of typing endless repetitions of letter patterns to train all my fingers and thumbs.....and at the end of semester I still couldn't type worth a bean. Alas, I never became a real typist, let alone a pro with a string through my eraser!

I'm typing with two fingers on the keyboard as I'm writing this.

 

[scottyrocks]

Had one of those when I was taught typing in Junior High. Always managed to rub right through the paper with it. Oh my, the memories of typing endless repetitions of letter patterns to train all my fingers and thumbs.....and at the end of semester I still couldn't type worth a bean. Alas, I never became a real typist, let alone a pro with a string through my eraser!

I'm typing with two fingers on the keyboard as I'm writing this.

These are my experiences, as well.

Also, young people these days don't know how different it was on a manual typewriter. You had to have some finger strength, especially those pinkies.

In between those awful eraser-brushes and Liquid Paper/White-Out was Correctype. This stuff was small sheets of paper with a powderyish side that you slid into the ribbon holder and typed the same character over to 'erase' (cover) a mistake.

It was popular in the days when you would type carbon copies. You could use the Correctype sheets in between copies to erase the mistake. Liquid paper became more popular when Xeroxing replaced carbon copies.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Having spent my entire broadcasting career pounding out scripts on a manual typewriter, to this day I have a very percussive stroke. Computer keyboards don't tend to last very long for me.

 

[2jakes]

Never took typing in school.
My pernicious strokes has caused fading and malfunctioning of certain letters in my keyboard.

I love apple, but have to rely on “Diction & Speech” which is built-in App
to complete this post.


I'm hoping I won't get a sore throat this winter!

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm just happy that this, at the time, seemingly important technical skill - typing - that I learned from a "learn how to type" book when I was, maybe, ten (or there about in the mid '70s) and that I didn't use much after graduating college in '85 until, I think, the early '90s when word processors crept into life is a reasonably valuable skill (or, at least, a good to have one) in the digital world today (since so many of the trading and financial management skills I learned early in my career were superannuated by technology).

 

[Zombie_61]

...Also, young people these days don't know how different it was on a manual typewriter. You had to have some finger strength, especially those pinkies...

I started out typing on an old Underwood manual typewriter that I bought at a local thrift shop. By the time I took the typing class in high school I already knew where the keys were, I just had to learn how to type properly. Our school had electric typewriters, but I still did my practicing and homework on that old Underwood so I got pretty good at adjusting the amount of pressure I used depending upon which typewriter I was using. By the time I got a job that required regular use of a computer keyboard it felt like I barely had to touch the keys.

...In between those awful eraser-brushes and Liquid Paper/White-Out was Correctype. This stuff was small sheets of paper with a powderyish side that you slid into the ribbon holder and typed the same character over to 'erase' (cover) a mistake.

It was popular in the days when you would type carbon copies. You could use the Correctype sheets in between copies to erase the mistake. Liquid paper became more popular when Xeroxing replaced carbon copies.

One of the duties I performed at my last job was creating/filling out the documents that accompanied the Space Shuttle parts we processed. One of those was a form that consisted of five pages with carbon paper between each page, and I basically had to type the part information and lab results--mostly five-digit numbers, seven columns with four to seven rows depending on the part--onto that form. The "problem" was that we were not allowed to make corrections on these documents. Didn't type hard enough for the data to be on all five pages? Start over. Make a mistake at the bottom of, or anywhere on, the form? Start over. Pen ran out of ink while you're signing it? Start over. Rubber Quality Control stamp didn't transfer the ink legibly, or you accidentally held it upside down or sideways? Start over.

I think it took an hour the first time I did one, but with practice got it down to 10 minutes before long. Eventually they allowed computer printed forms that made things a whole lot easier, but for many years that form was the most unpleasant and stressful part of the job for everyone who got stuck performing it.

 

[Touchofevil]

"Hey kids, gather 'round and let ol' uncle ToE tell you what the 80s were really like."

They do ask about the eighties like I used to ask about the “Olden Days” when I was a kid. I tell them the truth.