How Old Are You?

Today I got the worst complement / insult a guy can get. I was doing my workout in the gym this morning and my workout partner says, “You know, you’re in pretty good shape, ” (here it comes), “for a guy your age.”

I stopped and glared into his twenty something face. “How old do you think I am?”,  I asked. I think it was then he realized I was a little peeved.

Now I don’t normally ask that stupid question. I hate it when people do it to me.  If someone really young asks that question I feel like I have to add five years to their age because they obviously want to be older. And if someone older says that I feel obliged to knock off five to ten years just to cover my ass.

“Oh I don’t know”, he fumbled, “How old are you?”

“I’m going to be fifty in a few months,” I replied.

“Wow!”, he said; meaning I was older than he at first thought.

I guess I’m getting touchy about the subject lately because I’m noticing it more and more.  I get junk mail from AARP now. I don’t even know how I got on their mailing list. I’m looking at the age requirements for the senior menus every time I go to a restaurant and I have to wear reading glasses.

They say, whoever “they” are, that fifty is the new forty, or something close to that bullshit. That’s just crap to make the Boomers feel better about themselves. It isn’t true. Fifty is still fifty.

And speaking of the Boomers. I get really pissed at always being lumped into that category. Whoever makes those decisions about what generation a person was born into KEEPS MOVING THE DATELINE! When I was a kid I don’t remember being included into the Boomer generation. My folks were kids during WWII they didn’t fight in the war. I had nothing to do with the 50′s and the 60′s as a teenager. I hated the Hippies and the whole 60′s mystique. I think it’s a total lode. AND, when I was in my prime as a teenager I was listening to Punk Rock and New Wave. To say that anyone in their youthful prime during the Reagan administration is a Baby Boomer is ridiculous.

Why people try and pigeon hole everyone is crazy in the first place. Advertising does it all the time. We are the ones with the money yet we aren’t considered a market. I get discriminated against in my field because of my age, but I’m the one with all of the experience and know how. Technology fields are brutal because the HR departments and hiring managers mistakenly think that the young guys are the ones that are up on all of the latest tech and cheaper to employ. Even if that were true, which it isn’t, the majority of businesses are still running legacy computer systems some of which are almost twenty years old. Banks and DOD companies are notorious for that.

If you doubt it then why are all the computer training schools still teaching XP for certification? XP came out in 2001. XP isn’t even supported by Microsoft anymore.  It’s because most businesses still use it as their networking system. To change over to Seven you need new computers and servers and software and people and a whole mess of other crap.

Yeah this is a touchy subject for me. But, I will enjoy the discounts when I’m old enough to get them. I usually like what’s on the Senior’s menu better anyway.

And I am looking forward to the day when I’ll be that cranky old man that screams, “GET OFF MY LAWN YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!” , and turns the sprinklers on them.