# Becoming 50



## Alain De Vos (Nov 24, 2021)

Recently I became 50. I bought myself 3 books. Maybe you did something differently. Buying a motorcycle, wind wind in the hair. Feel free to elaborate, because there is not one way. There was never one way.


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## SirDice (Nov 24, 2021)

Turned 50 a couple of months ago. Got drunk, didn't do much else. It's just another year.


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## mer (Nov 24, 2021)

Turned 50 a more than a few years ago.  Same as I did every day:  Thank you God for letting me wake up above ground today.
Other than that, went fishing, had a sip of a nice Islay.


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## covacat (Nov 24, 2021)

0x35


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## Zvoni (Nov 24, 2021)

Turned 50 this June.
To celebrate i jumped out of a perfectly fine aircraft....


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## mer (Nov 24, 2021)

Zvoni said:


> Turned 50 this June.
> To celebrate i jumped out of a perfectly fine aircraft....


Since you're here telling us about it, I'm assuming you had a working parachute or the plane never left the ground.


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## Zvoni (Nov 24, 2021)

The first one….. 
A childhood dream realized after over 30 years
i‘m now 170 jumps short of 1,000 jumps


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## Crivens (Nov 24, 2021)

A good chute serves you well for 10 years.
A bad one for the rest of your life.

I trust planes more than chutes,   so this is not my thing...


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## garry (Nov 24, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> Recently I became 50. I bought myself 3 books. Maybe you did something differently. Buying a motorcycle, wind wind in the hair. Feel free to elaborate, because there is not one way. There was never one way.



I think of 50 as the time of greatest strength.  At 60 I moved into the forest for six months.  No electricity, water from a spring uphill from my cabin.  I fell trees, limbed them, reduced each tree to 2-foot lengths of chopped firewood, cleared land and started a garden -- mind you all without gasoline (100% hand tools).  Built a ladder and an elevated deck starting from pine and cedar trees and using old-world adze, froe, drawknife,  stossaxt and chisels.  I think 50 is the peak of intellectual strength and obviously you fit that profile.  Happy half-life!  Keep going!  Join a commune!


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## mer (Nov 24, 2021)

garry said:


> Happy half-life!


Awesome way of putting it.


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## drhowarddrfine (Nov 24, 2021)

Zvoni said:


> Turned 50 this June.
> To celebrate i jumped out of a perfectly fine aircraft....


When I was in my 20s, I used to skydive often enough to get up to 20-second freefalls. I'll never forget one time, when I was training for my first few jumps, there was this girl who was as new as me. She was a real chatterbox. Till we got on the plane. Then she got real quiet.

When it was her turn, the jumpmaster told her to get into position in the doorway. She stepped out onto the wing. He yelled, "Are you ready?" And she let go. Then she grabbed back onto the wing! "GO GO GO!", he yelled. So she let go...but grabbed onto the static line that newbies have which pulls the chute out after you fall so many feet. 

I'm not aware of any of this. All I see is the jumpmaster leaning toward the door with a concerned look on his face. What happened is, by her grabbing the static line, the chute came out too soon and didn't grab enough air to deploy properly. He was watching her spin down to the ground where, fortunately, her reserve chute automatically deployed at 1200 feet saving her life!


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## drhowarddrfine (Nov 24, 2021)

Back on topic.

I've been fortunate to be very healthy my whole life. Never had an operation. Never had any serious disease. I kid everyone when I tell them that, when I was 24, my doctor said I was a perfect physical specimen.  I think I should credit that to all the sports and activities when I was younger. I was in great shape back then and it has served me well......and then there is now.

About 10 years ago I got an umbilical hernia. The doctors say that, since it doesn't bother me or cause any issues, we should just keep an eye on it. About five years ago, I started having gallstones a couple of times a year that can be pretty painful but I really don't want to have any body parts removed. Three weeks ago, I showed my doctor a large lump in my lower abdomen and that is another hernia. That one MUST be fixed.

I'm falling apart.


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## gpw928 (Nov 24, 2021)

To me, old people always seem to be about fifteen years older than I am.
I do recommend the serenity of a rural lifestyle, but definitely favour power tools...


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## drhowarddrfine (Nov 25, 2021)

gpw928 said:


> I do recommend the serenity of a rural lifestyle


I used to own 127 acres in the Missouri Ozarks and can't agree more. I miss it so much.


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## astyle (Nov 25, 2021)

Sorry, I'm a child of the stone jungle, and making a pilgrimage to downtown Ikebukuro and Shibuya Crossing is on my bucket list. NYC and Times Square back in 1999 was the closest I got to feasting on a town's full-press assault on the senses, including smelling a Sbarro's on nearly every corner. I'd rather smell sukiyaki. Hopefully I can afford to fly to Tokyo before I'm 50...


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## Zvoni (Nov 25, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> When I was in my 20s, I used to skydive often enough to get up to 20-second freefalls. I'll never forget one time, when I was training for my first few jumps, there was this girl who was as new as me. She was a real chatterbox. Till we got on the plane. Then she got real quiet.
> 
> When it was her turn, the jumpmaster told her to get into position in the doorway. She stepped out onto the wing. He yelled, "Are you ready?" And she let go. Then she grabbed back onto the wing! "GO GO GO!", he yelled. So she let go...but grabbed onto the static line that newbies have which pulls the chute out after you fall so many feet.
> 
> I'm not aware of any of this. All I see is the jumpmaster leaning toward the door with a concerned look on his face. What happened is, by her grabbing the static line, the chute came out too soon and didn't grab enough air to deploy properly. He was watching her spin down to the ground where, fortunately, her reserve chute automatically deployed at 1200 feet saving her life!


Well, my longest freefall was 72 seconds from 16,000 ft/4,800 m
All in total i'm currently at close to 12hours freefall time with 2,160 km/1,350 miles total distance
Since i'm very thorough packing my chute i was spared a reserve ride up until now


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## Zvoni (Nov 25, 2021)

But there is one thing i noticed about people, when they pass the "50"-mark:
pretty much everyone states: "I'm counting backwards 'til retirement....."


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## SirDice (Nov 25, 2021)

astyle said:


> Hopefully I can afford to fly to Tokyo before I'm 50...


I've been to Tokyo 14 years ago, would love to go back again. It was such an amazing trip.


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## jbo (Nov 25, 2021)

SirDice said:


> I've been to Tokyo 14 years ago, would love to go back again. It was such an amazing trip.


That's what every third dutch person I know tells me. What are you guys doing over there?


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## Crivens (Nov 25, 2021)

I spent my 50th alone at home during lockdown. On my 51st I was able to go to a restaurant. For my 55th I want to sit next to a fire in some clearing, drink a cold one and watch the young ones try to put up a tent and tell them stories about the past.


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## SirDice (Nov 25, 2021)

jbodenmann said:


> What are you guys doing over there?


Gawking at the dressed up maid girls in Akihabara.


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## George (Nov 25, 2021)

Around 50 most men need viagra.
I feel like there are stages in life. Each stage/phase has its nice parts, and things that you can't do yet or can't do any more.

I hope that on my 50th birthday I wilI really have suceeded in my job and have lots of experience in it.


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## Zvoni (Nov 25, 2021)

George said:


> Around 50 most men need viagra.
> I feel like there are stages in life. Each stage/phase has its nice parts, and things that you can't do yet or can't do any more.
> 
> I hope that on my 50th birthday I wilI really have suceeded in my job and have lots of experience in it.


Wasn't there a movie with the Quote "I should have taken the blue pill?"


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## Zvoni (Nov 25, 2021)

Crivens said:


> I spent my 50th alone at home during lockdown. On my 51st I was able to go to a restaurant. For my 55th I want to sit next to a fire in some clearing, drink a cold one and watch the young ones try to put up a tent and tell them stories about the past.


In 2013, me and some friends went to a 2-day Open-Air-Festival (incl. camping)
Now at the camping site were about 30,000 people, with some 15,000 tents.
Of those tents pretty much 95% were those Pop up tents (Lookup "Quechua")
Everyone laughed at us, when we pulled out our "old-fashioned" tents, since we needed some 30 minutes to put up our tents.

Yeah, but when the Festival was over the "spectacle" for us was beginning.
We broke our tents down within 10 minutes, arranged our chairs, lazybags etc. in a row, popped some beers and watched all those "cool" people trying to fold their Pop up tents back together......

Man, we laughed our asses off.....


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## Crivens (Nov 25, 2021)

... and then there is me rolling out the gore tex bivy, preassembled with ground sheet, mat and sleeping bag. Toss in your backpack, apply some bugrepellant and jump in. Next morning you roll it all up, strap it and toss it into the trunk. Or strap to your backpack. Yes I'm lazy.


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## fernandel (Nov 25, 2021)

George said:


> Around 50 most men need viagra.
> I feel like there are stages in life. Each stage/phase has its nice parts, and things that you can't do yet or can't do any more.
> 
> I hope that on my 50th birthday I wilI really have suceeded in my job and have lots of experience in it.


I like to know when have young people time for sex because 24 hours sitting on the phone...or doing everything virtual?


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## fernandel (Nov 25, 2021)

Crivens said:


> A good chute serves you well for 10 years.
> A bad one for the rest of your life.
> 
> I trust planes more than chutes,   so this is not my thing...


From student time and still doing...


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## Argentum (Nov 25, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> Recently I became 50. I bought myself 3 books. Maybe you did something differently. Buying a motorcycle, wind wind in the hair. Feel free to elaborate, because there is not one way. There was never one way.


When I became 50, on that very day, I visited Walhalla in Bavaria. No additional celebrations.


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## astyle (Nov 25, 2021)

fernandel said:


> I like to know when have young people time for sex because 24 hours sitting on the phone...or doing everything virtual?


 and FreeBSD is powering all those VR servers to make it possible!


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## dclau (Nov 26, 2021)

Turned 50 ~11 months ago. I surprised myself with a 3.6 KW photovoltaic system for the weekend house.  Got kidnapped by a horde of friends, the rest you can imagine, since the birthday party was coupled with new years madness. Except for the hangover, no bits flipped. Life is good.


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## grahamperrin@ (Dec 2, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> I bought myself 3 books.



Which ones?

I have no recollection of turning 50 (and there's nothing in Google Calendar or Photos to remind me) so I probably did nothing. 

(Turning 40 was memorable because it coincided with midwinter camping with a group of friends.)


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