Have you noticed the lose of an ability as you get older.

I can still touch my nose with my big toe (though why I would want/need to do that escapes me for the moment. ?)

It`s more a question of what I CAN do now, which is a lot less than what I can`t!

What a question! Where to start?!

That's me Bathsheba - I shall join you on the 'official' list

I recall reading that one of the criteria of youth is to be able to put your jeans on without holding on to anything. Can't do that anymore. Officially old.

I can get in the bath but I can no longer get out again. So shower it is.
I can kneel but have great difficulty getting back up again.
I can't open jars (basal thumb arthritis).
I can't run, it's a kind of wobbly, slightly-faster-than-normal walk these days.
I can't sing anymore
I can't get a solid night's sleep. Ever. It's always punctuated with trips to the lav. How I yearn to lay down my head and not stir for 8 hours!

But I can cut my own toenails!
And I can say the alphabet backwards

I can't balance as well as I used to. I have to take extra care climbing ladders and trees.

I was told that how long you can stand on one leg, with your eyes shut, is a good test of fitness. I must be very unfit - can't do it at all!

I also struggle getting back up from kneeling when gardening (must stop kneeling, before I get stranded, I just keep forgetting).

I have a mental picture of my various medical issues standing in a queue (certainly no social distancing here!) When each gets to the top, it reigns for an undetermined period, before going down to the back. Occasionally they all seem to have take a communal short holiday, but regrettably come back invigorated and often indulge themselves in a bit of queue jumping. During their holiday period, should I enjoy the respite and start doing various things that they would normally not allow me to do, the news of my activities obviously reaches them and they rush back greatly irritated to wreak vengeance.

paddyanne

My handwriting's a disgrace,I used to have lovely neat writing now its a scrawl at best .That'll be because the only thing I handwrite is Christmas cards .Maybe I should give myself lines to copy every day to improve it .

I find the same, so perhaps it's a case of use it or lose it, paddyanne.

merlotgran

I was amused to hear Joanna Lumley say how delighted she was when her doctor wrote 'Still cuts her own toenails,' as the result of a check up.

So can I but I have to sit on the loo to do it. It's the perfect height for a comfortable reach and focal distance!

Yes, I saw that, just brilliant!

I can cut them but painting them a lovely colour tends to result in nail varnish in unexpected places.

Not the same when wearing "directoires" Urmston

I used to be able to do cartwheels. No call for them these days.

No agility problems, can still run, walk, bend, climb, touch my toes etc., but, my sense of smell has deteriorated and, like others, my grip is not too good, now have trouble opening screw top jars and bottles, probably due to having trigger finger - am awaiting hospital consultation, which has been postponed due to covid. But all in all, don't feel much different to how I felt in my 30s and 40s.

I can kneel down quite well. But I can't get back up very easily and have to sort of roll to one side and haul myself back onto my feet, a bit like a beached whale. Can't wait for my TKR op.

I haven't been able to get in and out of a bath for a long time but am reasonably agile otherwise.
My joints are okay with running but my bladder isn't!
My hands are quite arthritic so opening jars etc. is difficult and my grip is not very strong.
I can do more now I am retired than when I was working. I was very stiff with sitting all day at a desk.

Nothing much different from when I was younger but then I never did do anything strenuous or adventurous!

I can’t kneel on the floor any more. Knees do play up now and then. The rot started several Christmases ago, when I was kneeling on the floor for ages, wrapping presents. Why on earth I didn’t sit at the dining room table to do it, I don’t know - I dare say it was covered with a load of cr*p, as usual, and I was too lazy to put it all away.

I can’t see dust unless I put my glasses on, but funnily enough that doesn’t bother me at all (where’s the slut emoji??)

Laughterlines It's so true - do everything before you're 75! I belonged to two walking clubs but had a nasty fall (sapling in long grass!) and I swear that as a consequence my osteoarthritis kicked in and my rambling days were over. My mobility is poor but I can hobble around with my 3 wheeler but how I missed rambling and cannot believe how I rely on strong painkillers now. Do everythin g while you can as no one knows what tomorrow might bring? Take care everyobe.

I knelt down on the floor without thinking once and jarred my knee so badly it took 2 months to recover. Since then I am very careful how I kneel down. A couple of years ago we went on a tour of China and I was the only one in the group who could use the squatting toilets without assistance but I’m not sure I could do it now at 68.

However I think that Covid has put a stop to any travel to exotic parts of the world now anyway so that doesn’t bother me.

There's not much I can't do if I put my mind to it. It's a case of having to when you live alone. I'm not as swift as I once was and the getup and go is now indecisive, but at least I don't suffer aches and pains like many others, with backs and legs.
Although I have osteo in my thumb joints I've still got a grip of steel. At near 80 I'm not complaining

I've got a gadget for opening things. It does wine bottles easily!!

Teetime

and a bottle of gin/wine.

Oh, nothing on earth will ever stop me opening a bottle of gin. I can find superhuman powers for that!

and a bottle of gin/wine.

Annoyingly I cant seem to open anything- jars, biscuits, doorknobs- anything except of course a large bar of chocolate.

I was about to write I can't bend and touch my toes but I just tried and did. I'll probably suffer for it later. Apart from physical ailments this is a lovely stage of life.
Boodymun67 you've made me realise how lucky I am.