Ops-Normal.org

I stumbled gingerly down the stairs this morning to a table full of birthday cards, sundry presents and a mystery parcel all of which told me that, unbelievably I, had made it to a grizzly 58 years old and the decidedly unroaring 20's in the cold and the UK rain.

The anonymous, mystery parcel was a poser as it was from somebody who clearly knew my proclivities and who had the measure of their man, as the T shirt, fitted my girth like the proverbial glove. After much checking and thinking I found the source of the present and it came from a well know poster on this site. So many thanks to him and a big smile at the message implicit on the T shirt. I am happy to inform him that the colour goes with my new underpants purchased for me at Christmas by my Obergruppenführer


It seems there was a bit of a theme to the presents as most people noted my growing cantankerous, not to say bibulous nature, and my ongoing diatribes and oft noted dreams about tropical islands and doing something different with what remains of my misbegotten life. Hence I was given books such as Herman Wouk's "Don't Stop the Carnival " and Jimmy Buffett's biography "A Pirate Looks at 50".

Perhaps I am a malcontent and all the hare-brained schemes about aircraft and the like are the wrong end of the male menopause... but hell if it was good enough for Jimmy Buffett, it should be good enough for me. If mean he had his plane, so what were a couple of bullets and a steel drum between him and friends...

What did ops-normaliser's do with their late 50's and was/is it (still) a lot of fun.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemisphere_Dancer

Apart from the booze, gambling and wanton women I suppose I wasted the rest of it.


Want that T shirt. Where from?. C’mon spill the beans.

Sisemen wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:31 pm

Apart from the booze, gambling and wanton women I suppose I wasted the rest of it.


Want that T shirt. Where from?. C’mon spill the beans.

Sounds like you are still having a ball Sisemen!

If my benefactor wishes to ruin his good name and social standing here by admitting that he knows me, then he is at liberty to mention it here if he is so minded...

Very late 50's I was planning retirement.

- well, people have survived more, actually (I've been told, that is!

probes wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:48 pm

- well, people have survived more, actually (I've been told, that is!

Thanks for the succour and hopeful words in my hour of middle aged mourning (but not morbidity, yet)) Probes!

Congratulations! I too want that t-shirt ...

You young kids are always complaining about something, when are you going to grow up and really start having a fling! Get out there and earn your own T-shirts.

I like the classical Chinese approach. After a working life of responsibility and complicity it was "accepted that older males would enter into a life of endearing eccentricity".

.

TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:28 pm

What did ops-normaliser's do with their late 50's and was/is it (still) a lot of fun.

Happy belated BD.

I took up sailing.....cost me about $2,000 for all the lessons..... A lot of the principles of sailing correlate to flying. I then bought a 34' sailboat which I put on leaseback at a sailing club---it generates a revenue stream sufficient to pay for the fees etc AND I get to sail when ever I choose. I also now go on "Flotilla" sails with the club. We rent 4 or 5 catamarans somewhere and there are about 6 of us with the right certs to be the Skipper, then people pay to sail with you....I just did Croatia for 7 days, me & SWeMBO and 3 other couples on our boat. SO far we have sailed, BVI, St. Lucia & the Grenadines, Tahiti & Bora Bora, Croatia, Ensenada...next is Thailand I think....

Oh, and I get to dress as a pirate....and make my crew do the same.....

G~Man wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:28 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:28 pm

What did ops-normaliser's do with their late 50's and was/is it (still) a lot of fun.

SM & I travelled a bit together. Previously my work caused me to travel a lot, and she only a little. She came to Cyprus with me. In civilian life I took her to Belgium, France and managed a trip to then USA.

We discovered and fell in love with Reunion, visited 5 times. Once to Mauritius, nice hotels but the rest of the island is boring.
Twice went to Spain, to see if it would suite us for retirement, decided no.
A couple of trips to UK, again to check on suitability for retirement. A big No!
A trip to NZ, to see BiL and we'd never been there. If we could get in we'd have loved to settle there, but they sensibly don't want old sods like us.
Did the local things, a trip on the Blue Train, visits to Durban, Cape Town, Vic Falls and Swaziland.

Now stagnating.
Eat out quite a lot and don't go anywhere before 10:00 or after 14:00.
We get up when we wake up, eat when we are hungry and sleep when we are tired.

"What did ops-normaliser's do with their late 50's and was/is it (still) a lot of fun."

I must be far to staid compared with others here.

I was WORKING!

Yes, working, trying to stash away enough dosh to retire when I reached mid 60's, which I achieved and retired at 65, (but still carried out some part time work for my last employer). Fortunately I usually enjoyed my work and it also enabled me to live and work in different countries and travel quite a bit at someone else's expense.

Recent retirement has allowed much more time to play golf and to take part in the running of the golf club. I will be Captain for this year which will take up most of my time.

Mrs S is usually pretty understanding but I will have to pay a price eventually! She wants to return to her native Cornwall to live in the next couple of years.

At your age I "retired" to concentrate on my hobby...which has turned into a most enjoyable full-time job for the last 15 years. Also did some teaching and contracting. Yesterday, I went to a former colleague's funeral, and have just been sent a photo of 8 of us, of whom I am the second oldest. That's dampened the day somewhat.

I retired and then got a new job but discovered cruising. By the time my state pension kicked in it was difficult finding time but we managed, some times 5 in a year. Not sure how I found the time to work as well.

Congratulations! I too want that t-shirt ...

Likewise!

Gave away airline flying as a bad joke. Took up destructing. Started off with training a bunch of cadets.


Doing LOFTs now mainly as the cadet pool has dried up.

Thanks to all for their good wishes and late 50's histories. It all gives me hope despite the fact that I will probably have to bop until I drop or hit my mid 60's, whichever comes first!

Hydromet wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 10:09 pm

That's dampened the day somewhat.

I hadn't met my classmates for quite some years when one of them told two of us had been dead for a almost a decade - one in a car crash, the other of a medical condition in their twenties - which was a chilly discovery. Then she said - you didn't know, meaning for you they were alive all the time?
Even weirder.

I retired at 49. That did not mean sitting around doing nothing, like many posting here it meant doing what I wanted to do. I was replaced at work (a staff member) by a long-term contractor for whom my employer paid almost twice what they had been paying me. Idiots.

OFSO wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 17, 2020 8:30 am

... for whom my employer paid almost twice what they had been paying me. Idiots.

- isn't it interesting. That's happened to more than a couple of people I know. Especially highly professional ones. I suspect the apparent 'ease' of how things got done gave the bosses and impression it is very easy.

I was 'offered' early retirement at 55, with the hint that it would be compulsory in about 2 years, so I took the deal and went 'contracting', for silly money.

Stopped working full at 58 or so, wound down to not working at all, now I wonder how I ever found time to work.