Up to now and not really counting,
I don't think old age sucks all that much, although I have an elbow that would sometimes gainsay that when the weather turns nasty unless I exercise consistently. I wouldn't want to have to redo entire prior phases of my working life (even if having liked selected stretches a whole lot). There are things I might do physically now if I still could, like still use firewood for my preferred heating mode. But it's too much for me and I don't miss the work of the stacking and splitting and so forth. So I guess I'm easing into laziness and more than half-enjoying it. I do have to work out to make up for some lowered exercise values during winter when I don't walk much outdoors any more.
Anyway for me right now seems like a fine time on balance. Sure I'd like to have physical agility of a 30-yo but I was never particularly active then and I probably work out more now than I did even when I was in my mid 40s and started paying more attention to fitness and wellness checks and so forth. It's easier to keep that stuff from getting shoved off my calendar in retirement, that's for sure.
Still my liking for my how my life works for me now could change in the blink of an eye at my age. And that should be really be considered normal as we get older. So it's good not to leave stuff that matters like wills and proxy instructions and so forth to some mythical "tomorrow" that never does arrive.
I find it shocking that guys who are in their 40s with a wife and kids may not have wills... so that goes double and triple for anyone of any age or marital status who's in their 70s or 80s.
Living forever and in great shape is a nice idea. So far it seems to work out best in science fiction.
The only day on which we get to do something is the day we're in, plans or no. It makes people in family and circles of friends nervous if we keep postponing making decisions that they do hope we'll make for ourselves, or that they need us to have taken care of while we can manage to do those tasks properly.
About the only thing I really dislike so far about advancing age is that I'm less good about getting to bed on time than I used to be. I think it's pure self-indulgence. I'm no more capable of organized thought or behavior after 11pm or so than I ever was, and I think I do need at least seven hours of sleep. Still it bothers me less that I won't be a brilliant thinker the next morning if I go to bed late and still wake up with the light.
Must say though that I'm fortunate in not experiencing insomnia. When I head upstairs, I'm about 45 seconds past useful second thoughts about whether it's really bedtime... and not more than five or ten minutes from being out cold. At least I quit drinking coffee past mid afternoon. I did discover that caffeine affects me more than it used to do.
