Originally Posted by SkippyX

EDIT: Sorry 'bout the long post.

I'm approaching 50 years of age. It's only a couple of years away.

Recently a buddy of mine was helping me freshen up my resume and he remarked "Holy mackerel, you've never had a good job in your life, have you?" I had to admit the truth of that. Right now I fix computers for a living. That's a dead end job if ever there was one. With laptops, smart phones, smart TVs and pad devices, the desktop is going to be a thing of the past soon enough.

My wife and I live in a house that's paid off. I just finished paying off my child support. I have no credit cards and I don't buy anything on payments. If I don't have the cash for it I don't need it - or I need to save the cash to buy it. I guess I'm a bit different in looking at it this way - why pay some guy for the privilege of using his money when I can simply save the money and not pay interest?

Instant gratification isn't a big thing w/ me.

So, as I approach 50, and I realize that I'm past the half-way point of my life I've started thinking about my own mortality. I know that if I take care of myself I should have another 20-30 years in me (according to the statistics). However, I also hear regularly of guys my age simply dropping dead - or contracting cancer and going the hard way. I also realize that those 20-30 years won't be 20-30 years of "young and strong", they're the fading years of one's life. Those are the years that your powers slip away gradually until - if you're lucky - you live to be a feeble old man that dies quickly of a heart attack or a stroke.

Bummer way to look at it, isn't it? But, you have to admit, it's truth. There's nothing wrong with recognizing truth.

Right now my goal is to become as fit as I can be at my age and maintain the best level of fitness that I can in the coming years to make those years as good as possible. What good is it to be 78 if all you can do is sit in a chair and look out a window?

That's one of the reasons I started bicycling in the first place.

I also had another realization. The years I've lived thus far were all dedicated to taking care of other people. I worked to support a family. I worked hard so my boss would realize the value in keeping me around. He made out - I didn't. I've done my best to do right by other people, and I've realized little economic gain from it myself.

Now, I'm not crying about it. This isn't me sobbing into my coffee about how unjust life is. Again - simply reality. No harm in seeing things as they are, right?

So, in the realization that I've never had that "big adventure", and that the opportunity to have one comes rarely in one's life, I'm thinking that I should do it soon. I don't think I'll ever be in as good a position for it as I am right now. I've minimum responsibilities. Our household bills can be handled by either my wife's or my income. I have no debt to speak of. I can find yet another dead end job at any time. It's not like there's a shortage of crappy jobs. I'll never be healthier than I am today (although I could stand to be quite a bit more fit than I am now).

So why not?

There's my rant. My goal is to get in shape to do something of exactly this nature.