Nobody beats the odds

[darkmatter]

Nobody beats the odds.
Just got the word today that a co-worker and friend of over twenty years passed away this morning. I’ve known him since 1988 when we just happened to sit next to each other at orientation class for the migrant nuclear workers coming in for the outage. We were both ex-Navy submariners and making our living supporting our families by traveling on the road doing contract work. He was within 2 years of beating the record for surviving a heart transplant. He always perturbed his physicians by continuing to work full time when they wanted him to stick around to be probed like a lab rat. The doctors wanted to know why he survived so long----well, I know, it’s because he continued to live and enjoy life.
I’ve seen a large number of my peers (co-workers) pass on in the last few years. I just looked up a co-worker I haven’t seen for 15 years on facebook and saw a fat gray-haired guy with a cane! What’s up with that? I know nobody beats the odds, but I’m gonna try anyway. I may have gray hair, but I braid it up out of the way and tend to my garden and chickens. I still cut firewood and spilt it by hand, I refuse to give up and take it easy. Too many of my co-workers took a desk job and died within 5 years.

Curmudgeons live longer

 

[turney31]

So sorry about your friend.

So many people retire and die soon. Has me puzzled. Great Pic.

 

[eenie114]

My JROTC Sergent said today that he "flatly REFUSES to grow up and get old." He's in great shape.

So sorry about your friend.

 

[chickenzoo]

I think keeping chickens helps one live longer - a lot of work involved in the hobby

, Sorry to hear about your friend.......

 

[Mattemma]

Sorry for your loss. Good outlook on living. My mom is the same way.65 and up on a ladder stainning her house instead of paying someone.

I recall my embarrassment when my grandmother(her mom) made me(a teen then) hold the ladder while she(in her 70's) climbed up to saw off tree branches.Cancer took her,but she did all on her own until she was too sick.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I'm sorry for your loss...

This summer I visited one of the curmudgeons in my life. He owns the farm I worked on as a kid, and was the high school science teacher for 35 years. He's ninety now, and a widower. He still tends the garden, although he didn't plant it this year, and he still heats his house with firewood he chops himself. He hooted about how he had "foxed" his kids out of the land, by donating it to the Eagle Preserve for a rehab facility and Center, but with the conditions he wants. He will die knowing the land he loved is intact.

He is a quintessential Alaskan Old Fart, and will make it for at least another decade. Living how he wants, where he wants and the way he loves. Keep the attitude, and maybe you will beat the odds.

 

[gritsar]

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Sorry about your friend. I'm with you! I may ache and creak and groan, but I ain't stopping for nobody! This post sort of reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Anne LaBastille. She wrote Woodswoman and subsequent sequels about how she went into the Adirondack wilderness, built a cabin with her own two hands and lived alone on a lake there with a series of German Shepherds. Well, that was many years ago. Awhile back, I found out that this great naturalist and independent woman was in a nursing home with Alzheimers, and I kept checking for word on her. Just found that she died in July this year, sadly. She lived on her own terms until her mind and body betrayed her.

Old age will have to be on roller skates to catch up with me. I keep telling my DH that no matter how much we hurt, we have to keep moving or we'll turn to stone.

 

[sourland]

"Nobody beats the odds", but I intend to keep running until my time runs out!

I start my day early and usually do not return to the house while there is still dayight. Extreme heat, cold or rain do chase me indoors. I sometimes do physical things the 'hard' way. When questioned, "Why?" My reply is, "I do it that way so that I can as long as I can." I treat this old body with respect and although it doesn't do things as readily as it once did, I'm doing OK for someone who has entered his 8th decade.

 

[darkmatter]

Thanks everybody, my friends wife called and had me also post to our work related site:

http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/ind...8midda7c0&topic=33333.msg151716;topicseen#new

He had many friends among us.