Jay Honeck wrote:

For those of you farther down life's trail than I, what have you done to
maintain your edge? Any tips on staving off old man winter as long as
possible?

I'll be 56 in a few weeks. I switched from drinking beer to drinking wine to try to
keep the weight down. I had to stop patronizing Dunkin' Doughnuts about 10 years ago.
I stopped eating breakfast when I hit 40; recently I went back to eating breakfast
but no longer eat lunch. As far as diet goes, I would recommend a diet balanced
between meat and veggies like peas and broccoli, avoiding potatoes and white rice.
Since my wife is of Russian heritage, she's big on potatoes and other starches, but
I'm slowly convincing her to cook veggies instead (I gained 25 pounds the year after
we got married).

I had to go to graduated lenses about 10 years ago, but many people don't like them.
I hate them for reading, but fortunately, I can read without glasses. Don't know what
to tell you about floaters. I developed them early from using welding/cutting torches
with no eye protection. They cause a lot of "false alarms" when scanning for traffic,
but I think you'll just get used to them.

On my doctor's advice, I've abstained from caffeine for the last 4 years (except on
very rare occasions when I need to be on top form). This has had the extra benefit of
giving me a bladder endurance nearly as great as my aircraft.

I'm now doing odd jobs to eke out my savings while I continue to look for a software
position and take a few courses. As you've discovered, the regular exercise has been
good for my back, though I'm not doing weights. My cholesterol is still an issue.
There's a med called Zetia that helps, but it's expensive.

Short-term memory will become a problem for you, if it hasn't already. People's names
seem to be the first items you'll have trouble with. Develop a shorthand and start
carrying a note pad in your flight case for dealing with unfamiliar fields. When I'm
dealing with clearance delivery at a controlled field, if I put the transponder code
in as the controller speaks, I'm certain to forget the departure frequency or other
necessary info by the time I'm done. Get used to just writing everything down and
setting things later.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.