You Know You Are Old When

[Oaktree]

True Story. I run my families General Contracting business. Get a phone call Monday of Holy Week. Caller "Do you do replacement windows?" I tell him "Yes we do." Caller asks, "Do you have sample you could bring over and show me?" I reply that yes, we do have samples and I would be happy to bring them to his home. He then says, "Friday is Good Friday, I have the day off, I will be home all day." I said "So will I." He then asks "What?" So I replied " You said Friday was Good Friday and that you had the day off and will be home all day. And I said "So will I." He then seemed confused and asked "So you are not coming on Friday?" I said "No." He then asked "Then, when can you come and bring the samples?" I told him I could come to his house Monday any time after 8AM. He said "Monday? I will be at work." I said "So will I."

If a contractor copped an attitude like that towards me, I'd look for another contractor. Part of being in business is being available when it's convenient for your (potential) customers.

Where do you live that good Friday is considered a holiday?

 

[Oaktree]

I see this in several areas…

The big one is when one becomes a homeowner and dependent on trades for everything…

My grandmother and mom had no problems lighting a pilot light, building a fire or plunging a toilet.

Another area is automotive… they could put on chains with the best of them and checking the oil, radiator and tire pressure easy peasy.

But those people have always existed. While my parents were also very DIY, many of their friends were not. Growing up rural teaches you to be at least somewhat self-sufficient, and it's easy to take for granted that everyone else is that way too.

 

[Oaktree]

Heard from a Reformed pastor, and later confirmed by a Rabbi, "most Jews are atheists". Their argument was that many congregants are more concerned with tradition and process, than religious belief.

Probably true of most religions.

 

[Oaktree]

TRUTH!
To many parents are trying to be "friends" with their children rather than parents, and that is now becoming second generation.
My parents and grandparents (RIP) spent a lot of their time with me training me instead of trying to be buddies. And that involved a lot of guidance and correction, and I was a "first born" child.
I tried to do the same, and once I was satisfied they "knew" the essentials of a task, be it shoveling snow, changing the oil on a car, or calculus they were good to go. I tended to give them some slack to learn by minor mistakes, but be ready to recue them from major mistakes.
Sort of a difference between "helicopter parenting" and "standoff battleship parenting".
Being "friends" with your children is much easier when they are adults.

I don't have any kids (that I know of), so I'm reluctant to criticize parenting techniques. I will admit that I don't understand the whole "gotta be my kid's friend" mentality either, but I wonder if it's an over-reaction to overly strict parenting. I have a good friend who was by his own admission a very permissive parent and justified it by not wanting to be like his parents (who compared to mine were kind of softies themselves). Several other of my contemporaries (fellow boomers) have expressed the same sentiments.
Another factor is we boomers were the first generation for whom being a single parent (divorced or otherwise) was not stigmatized. During my 30s/40s many of the women I dated were single mothers, who I think were trying to compensate for their kids' father not being involved on a day to day basis (or at all). Then again, having to do the job of both, plus earn a living maybe they were just too tired to fight battles with a teenager. I sure wouldn't have wanted to be in their shoes.

Some lucked out with parents who were able to hit that happy medium, others didn't.

 

[Oaktree]

But today's software just doesn't run well with that old architecture and only 1mb of RAM.

Surprised they run at all. I'd read that when Apple went with their current architecture (OS-10?) basically any pre-existing software would not run on the new OS.

9 minutes to boot up is probably not a physical hard drive issue, but a well-fragmented, no free-space, no contiguous free space, messed up swap file kinda thing.

Or a LOT of startup stuff. Seems like every program likes to put itself in the startup menu, whether it needs to be running all the time or not. Not to mention programs (like antivirus, etc.) that check in with the mothership for updates and do them immediately, also slowing down the machine.
When I replaced the mechanical HD in my laptop with a SSD, it booted in maybe 60% of the time.

 

[jjeff]

Here's a old fashioned hack Im trying to pass on to the kids in my life anyways. Once my kids were old enough to somewhat understand the value of money and want something materialistic they saved up for have them pay in cash in person with you in close proximity monitoring the transaction with the money they earned. have them calculate the price with 6% sales tax in my state that's .06 on the dollar extra they need to have, does a few things teaches them to take care and appreciate something they bought a lot more, monetary math, reiterates value of money, and responsibility of taking care of money in there possession knowing full well if moneys left out or misplaced for whatever reason I'll take repossession tbd if they get it back this is money earned doing safe little chores around the household and hobby farm. Not for doing chores most kids imo should do anyway. According to my wife id fit in with folks that lived long before my time and before child labor laws were enacted lol. The nickel and dime Chinese junk I was used to throwing out has greatly dissipated over the years since I implemented my draconian measures, but I'm still a work in progress as im guilty of caving to there wants occasionally.

 

[ultrarunner]

[/QUOTE]
You

But those people have always existed. While my parents were also very DIY, many of their friends were not. Growing up rural teaches you to be at least somewhat self-sufficient, and it's easy to take for granted that everyone else is that way too.

In high school all my friends except 2 had cars that were a work in progress...

We would do motor swaps, clutch and brakes... I painted a few plus all the regular repairs like water pumps, etc

I happened to be at the old high school last week and the student body cars almost across the board late model Honda, Toyota, etc... no pickups in sight...

Most of the guys dove pickups and plenty of them 20+ years old in my day.

 

[ultrarunner]

Both of our daughters can light pilot lights, build fires, plunge toilets, snake drains, check auto fluids and change tires. Debit card is plastic checkbook. Online banking keeps track of all of that nicely.

I'm thinking im just around some helpless people...

A lady up the street had no heat for several days... simple pilot light. We had fast to 100 mph in the Bay that night and PGE was out days for pilot relights.

I also see differences in MDs and Nurses from when I started.

We use to have lots of military docs and nurses were old school.

The new ones are very book smart but require a lot of support... don't know a better way to say it.

The military guys could handle anything and well versed say on every kind of anestesia machine... now they often only know one... say GE for example.

It's like what do you do when the electronic record keeping goes down?

Military Docs and Nurses I've work with have a higher problem solving skill set and do well under pressure.

 

[stuckmotor]

You know you're getting old when you go to a restaurant and are served by third generation members of families who's young grandparents once served you.

 

[Pixguy]

And what is that? That schools don't teach mostly outmoded skills? Every cash register made in the last 50 years has the cashier enter the amount tendered, and then it calculates change.

I don't care what mode they use as long as they teach basic math so the "youts" don't need a calculator or register to figure change. Our schools are graduation HS kids with third grade level of math. Real good.