Feeling my years

I am feeling very much older than my age today.

My shoulders upper arms and thumbs have been achy for a couple of weeks but today they are hurting like H***. I don't know what I have been doing apart from knitting and a bit of gardening but I am used to those activities.

I tried washing down the woodwork today but arms hurt. Even pushing the vacuum cleaner was painful. I am P***ED off. I don't know if its just muscle tension or not.
I have already popped the paracetamol. Not a happy bunny!

I remember my mum telling me she had changed the 'nets' and had stood on a chair to do this - she was 70+ then, and I read the riot act to her, telling her to let me do those things for her - I am now older than she was then, and find myself doing the same thing - it is really a question of how we approach things, forgetting that the body is older than the mind seems to think it is, then being reminded when we find we can't do what we intended to do when we got the chair/step ladder out, and if we do do it, we are exhausted afterward. Writing that, I think I should now be more sensible, and think about the consequences should I have an accident, and need to be looked after. (that all sounds a bit convoluted, but hope understandable!).

Can't carry my vacuum cleaner up or down stairs so had to buy a second one! Can't drag a cylinder cleaner either. Not too good at opening childproof lids either, need to get a child to do it

Daren't stand on chairs - can get up - but can't get down again!

My godmother who is in her nineties hurt her arm when she fell off the chair she had balanced on a table to get something off a shelf !!! She has promised not to do it again

When my MiL was still living in central London my daughter had to drive all the way in from Bracknell one evening to change a lightbulb for her. It wouldn't have been so bad if MiL hadn't forgotten the whole thing within a few weeks and told us that her neighbours did everything for her.

Yup - PRIMARK!!

Primark? Please no.

Well, I'm very tired tonight ! Have been to Edinburgh - where it was teeming down all day - with eldest and youngest DGDs. (23 and 13) Eldest had a massive hangover and no raincoat, having been at a party last night...youngest started off a bit sullen but was able to flit around Primark cheerily enough . We got soaked, but ate a lovely large lunch and this helped with the 23-year-old's hangover. She and I fell asleep on the bus coming home.
I'm putting it down to my age......or as Les Dawson used to say, 'I'm just a knock-kneed, knackered old nose-bag....'

I use a step stool, wide top to stand on and easy to carry around . It lives in the broom cupboard. Only downside is that there is no rail for balance so I only use it when others are by me or it is close to a wall or cupboard I can just touch with my finger tips for balance.

A good idea if you need to change a light bulb is to put the new one in a plastic bag along with a dishcloth (to clean the shade) and put it over your arm, its there for when you bring the old one down. I have an extra long feather duster for out of reach jobs, a rubber glove for opening jars and a long handled stick with the grabber for reaching. Oh isn't old age wonderful!!

Aka I think realising it is happening is halfway to doing something about it. I do the shoulders back, stand tall thing. Tend not to worry about the grumpy face though.

I don't feel my years until I come to open a bottle or jar! They're not just childproof they're 'older person' proof - it's only the 'tweenies' who can open the darn things. Thank goodness for Lakeland!!

I also don't feel my years until I have to get down on the floor to play or change a little one! Fine getting down but a devil of a job to get back up.

I'm doing the long life lightbulb change over though stupidly I had these lights which are flush in the ceiling in the bathroom and at the moment we are down to two lights waiting for the electrician to change them as DH just refuses and always has and the bathroom is too small for my stepladder method which is three lightweight sets of steps in three heights ,me on the tallest with one on either side. Makes me feel safe. That was a very long sentence with very little punctuation!

Like the idea re long life bulbs, I'll get some and try to do that. Wouldn't it be good if they only used screw in bulbs though - I hate bayonet fixings and fear breakng the whole cheap brittle plastic thingy plus it is a 2- handed job. Re jars, I always release the pressure by using the blunt end of a bottle opener /can piercer under the lid in 2 or 3 places. Once the jar is no longer sirtight, it is much easier to open. Will take on board the advice re chairs though and be sensible

Brilliant idea about the lightbulbs Charleygirl!

I wasn't joking - I do know of several ladies who have rented out their spare rooms and are very happy to have done so, although upheaval has been caused to houses in the process. I think you just have to keep what you love best. One of my friends is getting her allotment dug over, has a new garden fence erected and a greenhouse built and is over the moon with her arrangement, but was very resistant when I first suggested it, over a year ago. Another of my friends who was left with a very large house has had it completely refurbished over the past twenty years, and the garden beautifully maintained, and has only had to pay for the materials, in exchange for doing her lodgers' laundry and cooking them meals from time to time. It works very well, not all men who are alone want to live completely by themselves.

Re changing light bulbs, that is now beyond me so what I am doing is as each bulb dies I exchange it with a long life 10 year one.
Opening jars- I start with running the top under hot water and then I use a towel to open it and it usually works.
I have considered renting my spare bedroom but where do I put the clutter?

I think that the sense of balance is not so acute as we get older and it is sensible to take that into account. There are some simple exercises that help with balance - I do a few of these at Pilates, but I'm sure other GNetters know of others. I find I can still do most things I did when younger, but it takes me longer and the recovery period is longer, but as I now have plenty of time that doesn't matter. I am however totally defeated by reading the gas meter, which is sub floor in the pantry, at floor level. By the time I have kneeled down, I am looking through the wrong bit of my bifocals and all I see is a blur! I now ask my teenage neighbour to do it for me, and for which I 'pay' her in homemade biscuits.

I still do all my own decorating, but as I live alone, I now take the precaution of telling one of my neighbours if I'm using ladders, as in 'I'm painting the hall ceiling today. If you don't see me around in a couple of hours, can you please check. The back door is open'. I understand that fear of getting old and not being able to deal with everyday things, so I have started to plan ahead a bit. I have completely cleared the loft and will now keep it that way. I have contacted my gas supplier and asked them to move the meter higher so that I can read it myself. I have a big garden which I enjoy looking after myself, but I am gradually shifting it over to a more low maintenance plot. I'm the sort of person that is less scared of the future if I can plan for it.

j08 I agree - I send DBH to the gym. I used to be the one shinning up ladders, he hates heights, but he has had to learn to do it and now I wait for him to come home to change bulbs, as my hips won't let me. It's frustrating. Even getting into the eaves where the fusebox is kept is a problem. Loft - forget it. I think we may get one of those loft ladders that are retractable staircases with a handle on one side, we have had them before and they are excellent.

After years of children handing bottles to me to unscrew, I find it galling to have to hand them to my teenage son. It was even worse if neither of us could open them and had to wait for DBH to come home!

Have decided that if I ever find myself living on my own, I shall advertise a room to rent, and only DIYers and people who love edging and mowing lawns need apply.

Thanks Anno for making me feel better!

I agree about not giving in and being 'weak and wobbly', though I know some people can't help it. But I was out shopping the other day and I noticed how I was holding myself - like an old lady. So I pulled back my shoulders, tucked my bottom derrière in, pointed my feet into the forward position (rather that at a 45o angle), fixed a smile on my face (rather than the old grump I'd spotted in the window) and sashayed down the street. I feel years younger, or do I kid myself?

We just have truly wonderful neighbours! Two of them have just been round to lift our new combi oven and move the ancient one into the garage. Neither of us able to do it.

We are truly blessed with all these lovely people.

Bleach bottles have the hardest caps to get off. Somewhere I have a wrench which works for that but also have a nutcracker which can be used for bottle tops. Lakeland's Jarkey is invaluable for breaking the vacuum in jam jars.

The important thing, I think, is to keep the DH fit and healthy by doing lots of walking. Don't give in to being weak and wobbly.

I trust a solid chair more than a step ladder. Have learned over time exactly how to distribute weight to keep it stable. Coffee tables and the like not so good. #seesaweffect

Having been divorced for nearly 30 years and bringing up 2 children on my own I became very capable and quite good at DIY - painting, general fixing up etc. Now I dread a light bulb going, I've become very wobbly on ladders - this also goes for changing the kitchen clock, painting ceilings etc. I can't undo jars, bottles, ring pull cans - thank goodness for those bits of equipment that help us with that, But it makes me feel pathetic. I now have to wait for my daughter or a nice neighbour to help.