The Real Signs of Age

You know you’re getting old when...

There are a lot of clever, humorous, ironic or facetious answers out there (e.g. http://www.bangbangjokes.com/jokes_Ol... ).

To the middle-aged and elderly, some are very close to home and, like you, I’ve had a chuckle from most of them.

Just as real, but harder to make humour out of, are the small changes you notice in yourself, like beginning to go out of your way to avoid mundane annoyances or little repetitive activities that you once wouldn’t have given a second thought. Or when an accumulation of insignificant things start building to real stress. Then there’s shirking unnecessary effort, if bothering at all, and always taking the shortest way to the easiest point.

The final confirmation of reaching old age is feeling there’s hardly anything on TV, worth watching, that justifies finding where you left the remote.

Those small changes, as you age, convince you that you aren’t coping like you used to. You realise that you really are on the downward slope you’ve been denying.