it really is 2026.

[lloyd3]

I had something of a realization the other day, we are now well past the point where anything I ever read or thought about (concerning the future) has come to pass.  Since I'm clearly a 20th century man (born in '58) I guess it alright to find myself here but...I'm strangely affected by it all tonight.  Mine is a slow intelligence, so I have to sit with things for a while before I understand their significance. Perhaps it's because I'm getting older but things seem to really be chaotic these days, at least to me. It almost seems deliberate, I swear, so I'm done paying so-much attention to it.

Part of it is the prevalence of the internet and the constant (24/7)stream of news, between my cell phone, my laptop and the TV, it's almost bewildering. I've taken to reading in the evenings just before bed to wind things down a bit.  Wintertime makes it harder to get away outside (a calming influence) although it's been very mild here so-far, almost like no winter here to this point.

Our old cars are a nice connection to simpler times, as is hunting and even fishing, but during the darker months I'm mostly inside now. I wrecked my ankle 2-years ago on the ice here and I'm not much interested in wrecking anything else. I do walk our dog everyday to get outside but...that's not quite enough to fill my days. Our son is in his last semester at school and will soon be headed back east for a job in Pennsylvania, so we really will be "empty-nesters".

I either need another hobby, a girlfriend, or another job to keep myself occupied it seems.

[Kern Dog]

I've asked a few people my age and older if they have had this experience that I have felt the past couple of years:
I think of a song, a vacation, a home repair I've done, a car I owned.....And in my conscious mind, it seems like any/all of them were just a year or so ago and it surprises me to be reminded that it was 5 years, maybe even 10 years ago.
Yeah, this is common.
Friends of mine in their 70s seem to do this even more than I do. See, I think of a song that I like and it boggles my mind to think the song was 40 years old. Heck...I don't feel 60 years old but that is the truth.
I look at my cars out back and know that they are classics but my '70 Chargers are 56 model years old? Really?
I've heard some say that as we age, it seems like time moves even faster. That sure seems to be true.

[doctor4766]

Who would have thought that we, our much younger selves would have made it this far into the future?
It's only a few years ago we graduated and took on jobs to begin preparing for children and all that that would bring into our lives.
We bought our first cars and built our homes and raised our families.
Now we ache when we pick up the grandkids, but it's ok. we knew it was coming

[Kern Dog]

Well, I have no grandkids and I don't usually ache but I understand the sentiment.
It is interesting to think that as kids, the year 2000 sounded SO futuristic but here we are 26 years past it and STILL no flying cars.
I didn't give much thought of what year I'd live to. I hear dates mentioned for deadlines of laws, mandates and other stuff and it always seems foreign....just odd to me. 2030 ? It sounds WAY out there but it is just 4 years from now.

[John_Kunkel]

We live in amazing times.

[lloyd3]

Mr. Kunkel is right, these are amazing times (comfort-wise and even medically) and in so-many other ways,  but these are also challenging times when you consider the erosion of the social construct for so many of us.  The world I grew up in is sadly....no more. People seldom work for one company anymore and then retire from it, and many people don't (or can't) count on an extended family for emotional (& other) support in their retirement years.  This is largely because of the non-traditional nature of so-many of following generations after the 1960s. A very high percentage of marriages fracture, many folks no-longer attend church, etc, etc.

Mind you, it's not all bad, but it is different. Maybe in smaller towns this isn't quite so true but in the modern, more-urban world it seems to be the case and I need to figure out how to adapt to it all. I used to work because I had to, now I'm discovering (since a formal retirement in the Spring of 2024) that I'm a little bit lost.  A man needs a mission I'm afraid, or at least I do. 

I've hunted and fished and travelled and worked on my home and on my car and my marriage but...there's still something missing for me and I guess I need to figure out what exactly that is.

[Kern Dog]

Sort of related:
I love the concept of time travel. Movies, short stories, TV shows about it interest me.
In the past few years, I have developed the opinion that I in NO way would want to travel to the future. To me, it seems like it would be bleak, sad, too different in all the wrong ways and depressing.
The past? The drawbacks I see are few. Mostly, it would be less convenient in terms of communication and the access to entertainment. Dollar for dollar, it sure seems like we got by with far less money, we were happy with simpler pleasures.
Regarding retirement....yeah, I'm one that needs a mission, an obligation of some kind to spur motivation. It becomes too easy to tell yourself I'll just do it tomorrow but then say that same thing day after day until there are no more tomorrows.