OTb Where have all the baggers gone?

Last week I was trying to get rid of a wad of ones and miscounted. The cashier handed two of them back saying 'Thanks but we can't accept tips.'

I've got a vague memory of when a high school kid took your bags out to the car you might tip him. It's vague because if it ever happened it was

I haven't been asked if I needed help out with the groceries. I've got to work on my frail old man act.

I've been asked a couple of times and except for one time, declined. On this particular day I did not have all that much, but the bagger looked at me and he looked like he just wanted a break and needed an excuse to get out. I accommodated him.

I have noticed that when they can't get my stuff all in the same cart, but have to fill two carts, then they help me out. I never remember anyone ever tipping them.

I can help with that. Repeat after me whilst shaking your fist at the heavens:

YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN! Is sparky still in the Navy? Is Teddy still president? I have a lawn? I hate it when this happens to me!

You will be convincing with time.

Never at the grocery store. OTOH, I usually do my own bagging. It's a crapshoot whether they'll have a bagger on duty, and they always put the canned goods on top of the lettuce anyway.

I always get asked at TSC if I need help with the 50-pound sack of cracked corn. IIRC I had to request help the last time I bought concrete at Home Depot. In both cases I can get it down off the shelf and onto the flatbed, but if my back is acting up I need help hoisting it into the back of my SUV.

I've noticed in the past few years that more and more people treat me as if I'm an old man. I'm no less capable of standing on a bus or subway car, or carrying full grocery bags in both hands 300 -500 feet out to my car than I was 10 years ago. My hair was just as white then and I was the same weight. I do my own housecleaning, intentionally sprint up the

Good for you. Not everyone wants to go up five flights of stairs at 78. More important, many of us cannot.

According to the World Health Organization, aging is commonly measured by chronological age. As a convention, a person over age 65 is often referred to as elderly.

It finally dawned on me I was really, really mature when a little girl insisted on holding a door open for me. Her mom wasn't all that impressed. I thought it was funny.

I realized I was getting old when I slung a sack of sunflower seeds on my shoulder and almost fell over. No problem carrying it but I'm about 30 pounds down from my fighting weight and don't have the ass to counterbalance.

A Torrance area Kroger warehouse brand had a live band playing in the parking lot on Saturday night in October. Free security, and upsale potential. LA must be swimming in musicians. I bought an unplanned Heineken 4 pack which I bagged myself with my purchase that a pleasant cashier rang up.

I'm sort of the reverse of you. I'm about to be 77 and for a year now I have trouble standing or walking more than 10 minutes in a row, though sitting for less than a minute makes me good for 5 or 10 more minutes.

OTOH, I still have a full head of brown hair with no grey that I can see**. It's thinner, when I was about 70 found loads of hair on my keyboard, but that stopped after a while. But no bald spots.

I gave up most housecleaning long before it was painful to do it. Now I can still do everything except picking things off the floor

I did that, 4 flights, until I was 36, but then moved to a 2 story house. I still have little trouble doing one or two flights, but walking 200 feet can leave me breathless.

Even as a child, I thought that 49 was still young. Later I needed an age limit for old, and I do think that 65 is the start of old age. For me "elderly" seems to be a decription of the person, whereas old is an objective look at his age.

I got my first career job when I was about 26 and I came home the first day and looked in the mirror and at the upper corners of my forehead, my hair was receding, and I thought, Oh my gosh, one day of working and i'm going bald! But the line never moved after that and eventually I realized even young people have a curve in their hairline there. I'd never noticed it before.

The breathing problem starte 20 months ago, but in the month before that, while sightseeing I had climbed 400 feet one place and iirc 800 feet in the other. The second place I had a choice of the rocky path I'd gone down, or a road. There was a sign saying not to use the road but I thought they just didn't want people on a road with no sidewalks. And it looked easier. 2/3 of the way up there was a big rockslide that covered the whole road to the cliff on the right. I had to climb over the slide, 65 feet across, checking each rock to decide if the slide was about to start again, dragging me over the cliff. But it was all stable.

It took 2 hours and I ran out of water, but my back didn't hurt then.

There's an independent supermarket operation in my area (3 or 4 stores), in which they not only still have "baggers", but they still offer free paper bags, as well.

So -- at least in some places -- the "traditional way" still holds true.

I always figured that old age starts at 60, middle old age at 70 and old, old age at 80. You can join AARP at 50.

You never know - you may feel totally different about it in 2 years

- or even 6 months. At our (and your) stage in life things can go down the crapper REALLY FAST!!!!

My beta blocker (one in a number of my anti-hypertension meds) precludes a HR anywhere close to that. Probably a good thing! I believe I've compensated by increasing my muscle strength, cardiac stroke volume and pulmonary oxygen carrying capacity as a consequence of diligent physical conditioning.

Does your being a blowhard help at all?

Does your habit of making ad hominem insults help you at all?

Stopped at the Acme this am to get a few items. It is senior day with

Also take my own bags which are old Acme heavy plastic bags. We went through a period where the thin disposable ones were banned so they went to heavy plastic reusable bags which are now banned,