Forms of Communication

As I have mentioned previously, my longtime friend Just Bud Fox is on tumblr, but I'm not. I don't fully understand how tumblr users communicate with each other, but they often "quote" each other's posts in order to reply to or comment on them publicly.

In response to another user's comment, "Remember the ‘90s, when getting email was fun?" JBF responded:

Come grow old with me? Some Assembly Required and I have been friends since 1985. Of that time, we lived in the same place for less than two years in the aggregate. We used to write big long letters and have periodic two hour phone calls. Then email took over. More contacts. Less content. Lately, we mostly text. We are aging through technology together. Gracefully, I hope.

I hope so, too. It feels a little weird to have known someone for that long, but also gratifying.

Well-Intentioned

This morning I got on the T and stood in front of a young woman, roughly college age, who asked me if I wanted to sit down. I didn't think I was looking particularly old today, but I didn't want to shoot down her intended good deed, so I thanked her, said it wasn't necessary, and that I was only going two stops to Sullivan. But it didn't exactly make me feel young...

Milestone

I turned 50 last week. There's a lot of significance attached to that, whether we like it or not. When you turn 40 you figure that, roughly speaking, you've reached the approximate halfway point of your life. Add another decade to that and, on average, most people will be past their halfway point.

Of course there are exceptions. My paternal grandmother lived to 90 and her mother lived to her mid-90s, so genetically I have some longevity in my favor. But the odds are also much higher that one's quality of life in the "second half" will be worse than the first. It's hard not to start taking stock of one's health, and all the things that could go wrong.

I don't smoke and I drink responsibly and in moderation. My blood pressure is reasonably low, my cholesterol numbers are decent (but could be better), and I don't have arthritis or any bad joints (yet). On the other hand, I am lazy and don't exercise. I am slightly overweight, though my weight has been stable for nearly a decade. My father developed diabetes in adulthood, as did his mother, so I have to watch out for that possibility, but I don't have the greatest diet and I snack a lot.

I'm at much higher risk for skin cancer than the average person, so I have to be vigilant and see a dermatologist twice a year. (I hate heat and humidity, so not going outside isn't a problem for me.) Both my grandfathers died of lung cancer; as a child both my parents smoked and I was exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke, before anyone realized how harmful that is.

I could arrange these things on a board in pro and con fashion, to see the bigger picture. My lack of physical activity will probably end up affecting my quality of life in twenty years or so in terms of mobility, and may also put me at higher risk for heart disease. This is serious, and I know I should do something about it.

But today, right now, I feel good. I have minor issues, but overall my health is good. I know people who have had hip replacements before reaching 50, and thankfully I haven't had to deal with anything like that. It's somewhat true that age is not a number but a state of mind; there are things we can't control, and things we can.

Part of me wants to see what would happen if I just kept going the way I am, without making the effort to exercise, but it's not like I'd get a do-over. I guess it's time for me to think about taking better care of myself.

Medical Advice

Yesterday I saw a podiatrist. X-rays were taken which showed the presence of a small heel spur, confirming that the pain is, as suspected, due to plantar fascitis. But the small size of the spur means it hasn't progressed far and is still manageable.

I already know the basic parameters of what I need to be doing: ice, not heat; various stretching exercises; heel cushion inserts for my shoes; and wearing shoes with a defined heel. In other words, flatter shoes are bad. I spend the summer in boat shoes and flat-soled sneakers like Vans, so I may have contributed to this unknowingly.

For people whose pain does not get better, the podiatrist typically recommends physical therapy, and if that doesn't help, a cortisone injection. I hope my situation does not progress to that point. I just want to be able to walk with as little pain as possible.

Pain Management

The past few days have been interesting, if not exactly pleasant. I've been in considerable pain whenever I walk, but I can't exactly give up walking. Here are a few things I've discovered.

First, pain relievers aren't helping at all. I tried both naproxen and ibuprofen, and neither made any difference. Given that, I don't see much point in taking them. Icing my foot has helped; I just have to remember to do it. Also, stretching works the foot and leg, though that hurts too.

What has also made a difference are gel heel cushions in my shoes. It seems obvious, but they do make walking a bit less painful. Also, I found that using them in a pair of shoes with a relatively flat sole was more comfortable than in shoes with a more defined heel. That goes against advice I read to use arch supports, but I've never had good arches so maybe that's why flat shoes are working better for me. Of course, I don't want to be limited to wearing one style of shoes.

I've been a fast walker my whole life, so it's frustrating to have no choice but to move more slowly.

While looking for canes online, I found that there are collapsible canes, something I hadn't thought about in decades (in college I knew a guy with worse vision than me, who used to use a folding cane to aid in getting around without tripping over curbs and such). If I'm going to choose that option, even occasionally, it would be nice to have something compact that I could store in my bag or in a pocket, so I ordered a folding cane. (My local CVS had only standard canes, and I can imagine myself losing one of those.)

Maybe it's something I'll only use if I've been walking a lot, or if my heel is feeling particularly painful, but I think it would be a good idea to have one around.

Ow

I think I might have plantar fascitis. I've had pain in my right heel for a couple of weeks but I didn't think much about it until it started getting more painful a few days ago. Today I was out for a few hours and did a fair amount of walking, and after an hour or so my heel really started to hurt.

I have not talked to a doctor about this, but some quick online research combined with what I can vaguely recall from our published content where I used to work suggests that PF is the most likely cause. The initial treatment is pain relievers and ice, and stretching is also recommended.

The bad thing is, we're making a very brief trip (just overnight) trip to New York this weekend, and that always means a lot of walking. It wasn't mentioned anywhere in what I read, but I think a cane or walking stick might help, since it would let me take some weight off my right foot when walking. I may try to find one tomorrow. It's a medical aid—and a fashion statement! Right?

Getting old sure is fun...

I Don't Wanna Rock As Much Anymore, and Preferably While Sitting Down When I Do

Last week I went to the Paradise club to see the band Stars, and it got me thinking about a number of things.

I've been to dozens of shows at the Paradise over the years, possibly more than a hundred, but as I walked in I realized that it had been at least three years since I'd last been there. The Mrs. is not much of a live music fan, and her tastes remain about where they were when she was in high school and college; even the bands that she loved then aren't enough of an enticement to her. She also tends to go to sleep fairly early, which doesn't work well for seeing bands at clubs.

So when a band I want to see comes around, I either find a friend to go along or go alone. And even though music is a highly personal experience, I don't enjoy going alone, which makes me less likely to want to go in the future.

As I watched one of the opening bands last Friday I thought about how much I used to enjoy going to see bands play live, and how it isn't really as meaningful to me anymore. I'm approaching 50, and having to stand on a concrete floor for two or three hours surrounded by people who weren't even born when I saw the Pixies play in the same club (as the opening act for Throwing Muses) definitely takes some of the fun out of the equation.

At this point I definitely prefer shows with seating, but the possibility of that depends on the band and the venue. Between bands I went up to the balcony and found a spot to sit down for a while, but when Stars came on I had to get up again, or else I would have been able to hear the band but not see them, and then I might as well have stayed home, which is sort of what I was thinking by that point anyway.

I also don't get all the kids who are either filming the show or texting their friends. If you're doing that stuff, you can't be enjoying the performance in the moment. Sure, I could film a show and watch the video later, but I would rather use my memory to recall the experience, and I worry that this type of specific experiential memory is something that young people aren't going to have, or know how to have.

Also, you may recall that I don't drive, and Boston's early-to-bed transit system means getting home from a show probably involves a cab ride; last week the cab home cost me $25, after having paid $25 for the show ticket. Imagine if I lived further away from the city.

As it is now I only go to see a handful of shows a year, but going forward it's probably going to be fewer. Age is relative, or just a number, but it's still a reality that must be faced. Fun ain't what it used to be.

Brain Fail

Middle-age forgetfulness is creeping up on me in earnest. Today I discovered that I left my phone charger at the hotel. It's inductive, which means you don't have to actually plug it into the phone; the phone's back rests against the face of the charger and is held in place by little magnets. That's cool and all, but it also makes it easier to forget about. I picked up the phone off the desk in the room and ignored the charger.

I called the hotel, but they didn't have it. Housekeeping probably just thought, "another stupid tourist forgot their charger" and threw it away. Fortunately, my phone has been discontinued, and a quick look at the Verizon web site showed that I could get a replacement for only $10, which is interesting because direct from HP (Palm) it's $70. Guess which one I chose?

Bonus embarrassment: when we left my mom's last night after picking up the dog, I left my phone on the kitchen counter, but realized that after we'd been on 95 for only a few minutes.