Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

Coots Lesson 18- Forget Use it or Lose it!

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Coots Lessons

Feb 232015

Which slow, out-of-shape, 100kg middle-aged gu...

Image by krow10 via Flickr

You are going to lose it eventually.

Maybe you still believe the old saw “use it or lose it”. If you do it means you are still a wet behind the ears spring chicken because when you get to be a Cantankerous OLD Coot you will know without any doubt that just using it is not enough. If you want to keep going like you always did just using it won’t work. You’ve got to use it like a madman just to stay where you are. And if you are trying to improve you will need to use it like two madmen. How crazy are you?

The old phrase is definitely a cliché.

You hear it so many times that it no longer carries much meaning day to day. Of course it is true up to a point. Lack of use will slow down almost anything: your brain, your muscles, your judgment, even your smile. Keep active. Keep moving. Don’t slow down. Don’t take it easy. Just keep on being active the way you always have and you will keep on going strong. That’s what they tell you but life is more complicated.

At least when you get past the young and foolish stage say about 50. Maybe you remember the days when everything worked and nothing hurt- we call those the good old days. Back then it was easy to tell yourself that nothing will change and that you will keep going just like you are now forever. Then one day, the cold, wet mackerel slaps you down. You haven’t changed anything but suddenly it is hard to do things that used to be easy. It’s probably different for everybody. For me it was getting up from a chair and climbing stairs. For no identifiable reason suddenly those things were hard, really hard.

I made excuses.

I went through all kinds of rationalizations about this. First I decided that it was just temporary. I had probably strained something and when it healed, I would be back to normal. After a few weeks with no progress, I abandoned that theory. I tried walking more but it didn’t help. I wasn’t improving. In fact, it was even harder getting myself our of a chair. At that point I was beginning to accept the inevitability of getting old, feeble and immobile. I was using it and still losing it. It felt really bad!

Sometimes the truth knocks on the door.

Purely by luck I was talking with a personal trainer at a social function and confessed my problem. He shrugged it off when I used age as an excuse.

“Core strength” he huffed. “You are losing core strength.

Then he really let me have it. “You are stooped over like an old man “ he told me “And you don’t have the muscle strength to lift your body any more. Give me six months and I can straighten it all out.”

Should I believe?

After that devastating conversation I dithered for a month or so but finally, in frustration, I gave in. I put myself into the hands of an expert. Here is what I learned.

Use it or loose it may be a good working philosophy when you are young. With a young healthy body, keeping active is enough to keep everything working right. When you get older, however, it it poor advice and sure to fail. When your body starts to decline, normal activity won’t keep it from declining further or even keep it where you are. Just to stay at your current state, you need to work like a madman.

These days, I’m working like a madman building core strength to get me back to normal abilities and it is helping. I’m better than I was six months ago but still a long way from ten years ago.

Core strength means crunches, push-ups and curls. And it means them every day. These days, I’m working like a madman building core strength to get me back to normal abilities and it is helping. I’m better than I was six months ago but still a long way from ten years ago.

So for all Cantankerous OLD Coots out there today’s lesson is for you. Don’t expect the normal level of activity to keep you from loosing it. When you start getting old, the equation changes. It is no longer ‘use it or lose it’. You have to get realistic and pick your battle carefully. You need to chose what is important to you and be prepared to use it like a madman in order to keep your abilities from further decline and like two madmen if you want to get back to where you used to be.

Getting old is not for the faint at heart.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Down with NASA – a 50 year shuttle to nowhere!

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Down with

Feb 232015

: Image via Wikipedia

Back when I was a kid in the 50’s, everybody thought for sure we would be in space by 2000. I mean really in space with at least a working space station and regular missions to the Moon if not a colony. Not the hokey, useless space station that we can’t get to anymore anyway.

When the Russians were first to launch a satellite (Sputnik will be forever etched in my brain), the US rushed to catch up. The Moon landing was a triumph and right on schedule but after that things went horrible wrong. The adventure was over. The bureaucrats took charge and we wasted the next 50 years going nowhere with the space shuttle – the biggest waste of government dollars since the Great Society.

The public didn’t know. The NASA mouthpieces had a good story – if you didn’t think about it. A reusable vehicle makes sense so long as it gets you where you need to go. Unfortunately people with lives to live don’t spend much time thinking about space. We didn’t know that the worthless space shuttle couldn’t reach the altitude necessary for space exploration or a station that could serve as a way station to the moon. The $174 billion cost of this program to nowhere may not seem so big compared to TARP but the dollar amount is only part of the cost. Since the program started in the 60’s the US space program has been heading in the wrong direction on a road to nowhere. Now that the space shuttle has been axed we are up the creek without a paddle. We can’t even go back to the Apollo program because we threw away all that technology. Thank you government bureaucrats!

Looking back, it is obvious that only fools would leave the future of the human race to a government program. We were naive in the 60’s. We still thought that we could do anything so long as we developed a government program for it. As we now know surveying the wreckage of the paradise that used to be California President Reagan was right when he said. ‘Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.’

Contrast the space shuttle debacle with the private space program which has so far accomplished far more than NASA in making space open to exploration. They have a reusable craft which doesn’t look anything like the clunky shuttle and they will be offering commercial flights into space soon. No astronauts. No space walks. Just real tourists seeing space up close and personal. You can book a flight right now. They also have vision. They are planning for a space station which will be a hotel as well as a transit point for trips to the Moon. We are finally going to get into space but not with the government driving

So lets kiss off the $450 billion or so that NASA has cost us to date off as a lesson and kill NASA. We don’t need to spend any more money letting them lead us further and further away from space. I see the future of space and it doesn’t have the government’s stamp on it. The future of space is in private hands.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Missing Starbucks: A Travel Rant

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Coot Travel, Problems and solutions, rants, Reflections

Feb 232015

Français : Un Starbucks à Paris (France) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Quelle Horreur

What I like about traveling is seeing new places, learning how people live in other countries and finding out a few things about myself along the way. At least that’s the way I tell the story. In truth what I like most is when I can visit an exotic place without adjusting at all. I prefer the comfortable over the new.

It’s that way most of the time. I remark about the abundance of McDonald’s, carefully avoiding any patronage. I have smeared at Starbucks. I laughed at how we never heard anything but American music in Belgium. But even the most opinionated of culture snobs is forced to confess that things can get too strange. And so, as we start our second week in France, I find myself asking, “Where are the Starbucks?” Continue reading »

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Coot’s Lesson 15- Don’t Suffer Fools!

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Coots Lessons

Feb 232015

: Image via Wikipedia

There are many things to complain about when you get older. Take my knees for example. They just don’t work as well as they used to. On top of that, there are pains that become routine. You learn to ignore them and keep going. That is a lesson for later but it sets up the dilemma a Coot faces growing older. It becomes harder and harder to keep doing everything you used to do and on top of that you finally start to accept that the end is in sight. You are in the home stretch. You don’t have all the time in the world to accomplish your goals. You have to cut out the shit!

One of the things your mother probably taught you was to respect people, particularly your elders. If you paid attention, then throughout your life, you listened respectfully to worthless advice and suggestions. Maybe you ignored the advice later or maybe you acted on it. Either way you invested time in hearing and considering what somebody else had to say. Most likely they were people without any evidence that they knew how to manage their own life – let alone yours but you remembered what your mother told you. Maybe you got a benefit from this. Maybe you enjoyed the respect from your elders. Maybe you took the advice and steered your way around life’s obstacles or more likely got stuck in a swamp. But maybe you ignored it, did what you damn well pleased and screwed up anyway. It doesn’t matter much now, does it?

So today’s Coot Lesson is: Don’t listen to advice from fools. Forget what your mother told you. Like most everything else she said, it doesn’t help you now. After all, at your age anybody older than you is surely senile. Nothing good will come from listening to them. And if they are younger, they are nothing but snot-nosed kids, still wet behind the ears and maybe their bottoms, not to mention being infused with entitlement thinking from our public schools. Stop wasting time and stop listening to fools. At this stage in your life, you don’t have time to play around. Life is nearly over. You can see the finish line. You don’t have time to waste and you particularly don’t have time to listen to advice from people who have nothing better to do than to give it to you.

From now on, if you insist on taking advice, then only take advice from yourself – the only fool you can trust. You got yourself this far didn’t you?

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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It’s Father’s Day!

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 rants

Feb 232015

Nothing important in wussified America

Father’s Dayi is the least hyped holiday of the year because America has written off fathers. Father’s get no respect. Father’s get no adulation! Father’s can’t win in today’s wimpified, testosterone hating culture smog. Fatherhood today is only good for a laugh.

No news report for this week.

I”m passing on the news this week for a rant about the degradation of fatherhood in today’s society. Why do we celebrate Father’s Day while father’s have become a joke and manhood a distant memory. Nobody respects men or fathers anymore and that’s the truth.

Fatherhood is marginalized, trivialized and mocked every way you look.

When Father mattered

It’s hard enough being a man these days because the deck is stacked against you. I’ve lived through the whole process because back in the 50’s when I grew up, father’s ruled. Dad was important whether you loved him or hated him. He supported the household,;he ruled the roost; he took care of mom; he protected the family. Back in those days, the culture was filled with strong, admirable and wise fathers. Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet were TV shows that featured a wise, confident and loving father figure. Kids watching those shows might recognize failings in their own fathers but they could see that the intent was there. Dad might not be Ward Cleaver but he kept the lights on, food on the table and the wolf from the door. He also did his best to make sure you didn’t do every foolish thing that seemed so important to you at the time.

Then the world went mad.

Then came the 60’s where the seeds were planted and the 70’s when the wheels came off the bus, culturally speaking. Woman’s lib and feminism went beyond opening careers and life options to women and invested in a campaign to destroy men. To feminists, men were the reason for the ‘oppressive’ state of women, stuck in the kitchen- barefoot and pregnant with no way to matter in life. To do this theny needed to destroy men and the family. They succeeded so well that we all believed it was progress.

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

The general idea was that the only reason that women stayed in the home was male oppression. Men and women were exactly the same- except for the plumbing. At least that is how it started but soon, the libbers discovered that women were actually superior because they didn’t have all that nasty testosterone. During the Vietnam War, you would always hear how men were the cause of every problem including war. It was easy to blame our involvement on the nasty male nature. If women were in charge, no such silliness would be tolerated. We would all just get along. The world would be perfect. Just neuter all the men.

Looking back it is easy to see what a silly lie it all was- and how devastatingly effective it was in wimpifying America. Many men got suckered into intense guilt about being in charge. They needed to show that they weren’t oppressors. They needed to be sensitive and show their sensitive side. And inside they were relieved to learn that they didn’t have to take responsibility for anything. It wasn’t their job to take care of a woman or a family. That was oppression. They could just relax, enjoy themselves and let the world go to hell in a hand basket. Women could fend for themselves. It was so liberating.

I recovered slowly

It took me years to get over this confusion and realize that although my wife was intelligent, had her own career and could take care of herself, we were both much better as a team then we were as individuals. In fact all the while the kids were at home, she was constantly prodding me to be the man. It was only with difficulty that I began to step up to my job.

These days with with so many children being raised by single mothers- with the glorification and financial backing of government, I wonder if it will be possible to restore the institution of fatherhood and the importance of men to a free society. Having lived through the devaluation and being a willing participant, I understand the siren call of irresponsibility and self-indulgence. But I also appreciate the satisfaction of having my kids tell me how much they respect me now that they are grown. Along the way I suffered. When my first born stopped talking to me in high school, it was hard to believe that I was doing the right thing. It wasn’t until after he moved out on his own that we gradually began to talk again. Fatherhood is no picnic but at this stage in my life, it’s the only thing I did that still has meaning. How ever valuable I may have believed myself to be at work, few people at my old workplaces know who I am or care. My son’s are my legacy.

So today on Father’s Day, I just want all fathers to enjoy the most important responsibility of their life- taking care of their families. Do what you think is right and don’t despair when it all seems to go terribly wrong. It does matter. Your wife needs you- whatever Gloria Steinem might say and your children, both sons and daughters need to know what a strong man is: a role model for sons and an inspiration for daughters when they seek a mate.

There is nothing wrong with strong women but there is definitely something wrong with weak men and that is the legacy of woman’s liberation. Don’t buy into it!

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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