The other side of seventy…

… is just a few months away.

When I was a kid, not yet a teen, I had figured out that I would be 48 just after the turn of the century.  I didn’t really think about anything past that point.  It was too far in the future.

Well, that turn-of-the-century point is soon to be 22 years in the past.  And, in just a few months, I’ll be on the other side of 70.

Time flies.

Well, not exactly.  The Y2K scare seems like ages ago. I retired 14 1/2 years ago and stopped contract work 3 3/4 years ago.

A lot of people didn’t make it this far.  Some didn’t even make it out of high school… others not to far past that.

I left to join the Navy only about 18 months after graduation and never really kept in touch with anyone.  Through social media and other online avenues, I’ve touched base with a few survivors and learned of a few others who have passed.  I’m sure there were others for all sort of reasons.  Many other people I’ve known, or their spouses, have gone along the way.

Too many, too young.

Life happens.

Until it doesn’t.

I guess I just vanished so far as any of my classmates knew.  One high school friend told me that she looked for my name on the Vietnam memorial but didn’t find it.  One classmate who supposedly was lost over there isn’t on the wall either.

I can’t say I was ever much of a risk taker.  Time has winnowed out some of those in my age group who were, I’m sure.

When I was considering the military, I just went to the Air Force and Navy recruiters.  With the war still in progress, becoming a marine or a soldier was just too risky.

So I ended up on a submarine and 15 1/2 months submerged over several deployments.

And working in nuclear power.

Being on a submarine was no more risky than any other type of ship, in my view.

Working in nuclear was as safe as any job – and much safer than many.

Sure, I have – and have had – my share of risk factors.  I was a smoker, but that was so long ago – it’ll be 40 years since I quit when I skip to the other side of 70 – that it has little or no bearing on my health today.  I had tried to quit multiple times for over a decade and then just quit cold turkey.

After I quit smoking, I gained weight and, except for a period in the first half of the 90s, have struggled with it since.  I take meds to deal with high blood pressure and pre-diabetes and had cataract surgery last summer.

Despite the weight, blood pressure, and pre-diabetes, I’m in fairly good shape compared to a lot of others my age. I try to keep active mentally – blogging, online researching, reading, etc. – and physically.  I averaged 3.8 miles a day walking in 2020.  This year I’m up to 4.3 miles a day.¹ I’ve also got some outside projects that require physical effort.

I think I’m positioned reasonably well for the journey on the other side of 70.  Karen follows a few months behind me.  She has some different issues than mine, but I’m not going to go into those.  She is mentally active with her blog and social media and she is also averaging several miles a day.

We know there will be issues to deal with.

Life happens.

1. After the gym closed in early March 2020, we bought a treadmill in June.  We’ve logged over 900 hours on the machine and over 2,150 miles, about the straight-line distance from San Francisco to Atlanta.