Author Topic: You know you're middle aged when  (Read 185745 times)

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1125 on: 12 January, 2021, 08:17:36 pm »
... when you slip over on ice and land on your arse...

Is the general response to:

a) point and laugh; or
b) look concerned and ask if the 'old guy' is alright?

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1126 on: 12 January, 2021, 08:29:33 pm »
When carrying a load of shopping from M&S in a courier bag,  up the hill to the flat _hurts_.     I'm starting to contemplate a wheelie trolley  :facepalm:






It's a clumsy thing to drag around & keeps catching my right heel.  It took all the stuff from yesterdays visits to Tesco, M&S and Aldi,  but I still had to drag it up the hill.  The stair climbing bit works well though.

Very green transport mode. Pity these things are mostly designed for folk nearly a foot shorter than you!

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1127 on: 12 January, 2021, 10:21:55 pm »
So’s your wheelchair! The handles could do with being a bit higher to avoid me getting a bad back.  I’d still probably drive you into people though  :facepalm:


The trolley is Ok , and the fact that you can take the bag off & use it as a platform trolley was useful when I had 4 boxes of wine delivered.  2 boxes securely strapped on & dragged up the stairs as opposed to 4 trips up 8 flights of stairs with a box in my arms.
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1128 on: 12 January, 2021, 10:59:11 pm »
Sorry! SO much is designed for the 5'4" female! To be fair, this means the average 99cm 3-year-old can push a baby buggy with ease but my house-husband friends get backache.
D uses shopping trolley to transport astronomical kit to Baker Street Irregular Astronomers' meets at The Hub, Regent's Park. He's average height fora bloke but the trolley bags are too weak for heavy astro kit. I think I'll buy a golf trolley one day.

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1129 on: 12 January, 2021, 11:50:44 pm »
That trolley will take 106Kg of me standing on the platform for short periods. The bag seems fairly well put together, though not Carradice or Ortlieb standard.
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1130 on: 13 January, 2021, 07:53:11 am »
... when you slip over on ice and land on your arse...

Is the general response to:

a) point and laugh; or
b) look concerned and ask if the 'old guy' is alright?
Yes.

Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1131 on: 13 January, 2021, 09:20:03 am »
So’s your wheelchair! The handles could do with being a bit higher to avoid me getting a bad back.  I’d still probably drive you into people though  :facepalm:


The trolley is Ok , and the fact that you can take the bag off & use it as a platform trolley was useful when I had 4 boxes of wine delivered.  2 boxes securely strapped on & dragged up the stairs as opposed to 4 trips up 8 flights of stairs with a box in my arms.
+1 re. the wheelchair. Pushing that with Helly, tech. gear and baggage does get the back, especially when having my own heavy pack as well.
Same with her bike - couldn't use saddle as head fell round; bars too low, I had pack with camping gear.
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1132 on: 06 March, 2021, 07:51:26 pm »
.... you get an invitation for a covid jag and you're not especially poorly.  Considering your age.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1133 on: 07 March, 2021, 08:36:06 am »
You get a leaflet advising you about the COVID jab. Your wife does too.

Yours is for “Older adults”, hers for “Adults”.
It is simpler than it looks.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1134 on: 07 March, 2021, 09:41:00 am »
When your friends start getting eBikes.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1135 on: 07 March, 2021, 09:51:14 am »
When you cycle up a long hill and get clapped at the top and refrains of “well done”.  Would they have done that if I was younger?

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1136 on: 07 March, 2021, 10:19:15 am »
^Yebbut maybe it was because you were on a lying down bike and they thought you waz disabled.

When I started teaching my Physics colleague would use the example of the Tacoma bridge (fimed in black and white) as an example of resonance - the f'in dinosaur!  I use the much more current example of the millennium bridge... which was 3-5 years before my students were born!

Also, when your colleagues listen to the same music as you do, but in an ironic/retro fashion (because 80/90s music is now "classic rock" in the same way as the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd were in the 90s).
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1137 on: 07 March, 2021, 10:26:29 am »
It seems this thread has become "You know you used to be middle aged..."  :demon:
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1138 on: 07 March, 2021, 10:30:40 am »
When a university friend subscribes to The Oldie:facepalm:
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1139 on: 07 March, 2021, 11:02:43 am »
It seems this thread has become "You know you used to be middle aged..."  :demon:

60 is the new 40 or even 70 is the new 40, as I wrote before  ;D.

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1140 on: 07 March, 2021, 11:42:22 am »
When you cycle up a long hill and get clapped at the top and refrains of “well done”.  Would they have done that if I was younger?
My experience is that if you're very small you do get clapped at the top of a hill (as in I've witnessed it happening, not that I've been small and astride a bike at the top of a big hill).
Rust never sleeps

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1141 on: 07 March, 2021, 11:42:52 am »
.. you no longer bounce when you fall off your bike.
Rust never sleeps

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1142 on: 07 March, 2021, 11:43:13 am »
Quote from: Cudzoziemiec
It seems this thread has become "You know you used to be middle aged..."
It's one of those irregular declensions isn't it?

 I am middle aged and could pass for young in favourable light*.
 You are getting a bit long in the tooth and are you sure you're up to it?
 He or she is a decrepit old has-been and hasn't got long for this world.


*Nothing brighter than 20W.

Quote from: hubner
60 is the new 40 ....
I have thought long and hard about this comparing my current capacities both mental and physical with my 40 YO self and have come to a conclusion.  To wit. Balls, utter balls. :)
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1143 on: 07 March, 2021, 12:43:16 pm »
^Yebbut maybe it was because you were on a lying down bike and they thought you waz disabled.

When I started teaching my Physics colleague would use the example of the Tacoma bridge (fimed in black and white) as an example of resonance - the f'in dinosaur!  I use the much more current example of the millennium bridge... which was 3-5 years before my students were born!

Also, wasn't the Tachoma Narrows bridge collapse due to some sort of It's A Bit More Complicated Than That aerodynamic effect, rather than simple resonance?

Anyway, now I'm feeling old.  I thought the Millennium Bridge only just opened...


(And yes, people do occasionally cheer you on or tell you that you're cripspirational when you ride up a hill on a recumbent.  It's slightly less annoying than the ones who mansplain that recumbents can't climb hills.)

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1144 on: 07 March, 2021, 12:59:25 pm »
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster: great band.  Endorsed by Amplifier's Sel Balamir.


The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 2015, yesterday by Mr Larrington, on Flickr
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1145 on: 07 March, 2021, 01:18:05 pm »
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure was a combination of resonance (torsionally too-flexible deck, primitive supporting cables) and Von Karman vortices forcing the oscillation once it started to twist.

The well-known Millennium Bridge oscillation was preceded by the very much larger Auckland Harbour Bridge doing much the same thing when it was turned over to pedestrians for a public holiday. Only motor vehicles ever get to go over it now.

An ex-boss was the first engineer who advised the Millennium Bridge to be closed on opening day and was part of the team validating the corrective refit.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

andytheflyer

  • Andytheex-flyer.....
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1146 on: 07 March, 2021, 01:24:20 pm »
When you cycle up a long hill and get clapped at the top and refrains of “well done”.  Would they have done that if I was younger?
A few years ago, I was standing in crowds by the road in Whitchurch (Salop) at the top of a small rise, waiting for the Tour of Britain to pass by.  A lady on her shopping bike. c/w handlebar basket, came out of Tesco's and up the hill, at a suitably sedate pace, but well done her.  She got a rousing chorus of clapping when she got to the top.  Magic!  Don't think she knew what was going on and why we were all there!

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1147 on: 07 March, 2021, 01:44:25 pm »
^^^ ;D Unlike the posters in this thread, this video never gets old https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOur8qXvpnk&t=1s

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1148 on: 07 March, 2021, 03:42:04 pm »
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure was a combination of resonance (torsionally too-flexible deck, primitive supporting cables) and Von Karman vortices forcing the oscillation once it started to twist.

The well-known Millennium Bridge oscillation was preceded by the very much larger Auckland Harbour Bridge doing much the same thing when it was turned over to pedestrians for a public holiday. Only motor vehicles ever get to go over it now.

Hands up everyone who has never walked in step with a bunch of chums over a footbridge just to see what would happen.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

yorkie

  • On top of the Galibier
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #1149 on: 07 March, 2021, 03:55:04 pm »
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure was a combination of resonance (torsionally too-flexible deck, primitive supporting cables) and Von Karman vortices forcing the oscillation once it started to twist.

The well-known Millennium Bridge oscillation was preceded by the very much larger Auckland Harbour Bridge doing much the same thing when it was turned over to pedestrians for a public holiday. Only motor vehicles ever get to go over it now.

Hands up everyone who has never walked in step with a bunch of chums over a footbridge just to see what would happen.


My favourite cartoon on this subject was many years ago in an issue of Scouting Magazine. There are two Boy Scouts (that dates it!!) approaching the Forth Road Bridge, the elder scout is shouting "Break Step!"  :-D
Born to ride my bike, forced to work! ;)

British Cycling Regional A Track Commissaire
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