I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago. It didn't hurt at all.

I guess I'm fairly lucky, since I was made redundant by <spits>MegaCorpUSA</spits> I work from home. Billing time is a PITA, and I probably definitely work more hours than I bill for, I get to see the kids every day. And it is good.

The worst thing about getting back on a bike after a while is the numbness that you get in your bum. But I've found it's great for my knee recovery. Yesterday I did 27km (ca. 17 of your miles) and it hardly killed be at all. I do want a new bike though :(

there is no 'meaning of life' - we are just another animal trying to get by

I intend to retire in 2 years and 19 days. The ability to draw my pension at 60 is a legacy of my previous employment as a civil servant and European TUPE legislation. I suffer from arthritis, a fully non-functioning thyroid that gives me poor focus and memory and, um, more arthritis. Obviously I look younger than Manthorp in spite of it all, but yes, I have been known to wonder what it's all about.

I don't believe you. I refuse to believe that we humans are the result of luck and things that would require astronomical odds to just produce an environment and atmosphere suitable to sustain life. If I were to believe that when I'm dead I'm just gone, like someone turning out the lights I'd hate to think how I would decide to live.

You mean ethically?

The trouble with astronomical odds is that, in an effectively infinite universe, they're pretty much a dead cert.

Yeah.  I've always said I'd never want to live to be old, old people just seem miserable and I'm enough of that.  I'm not a mean person at all, but I suspect not giving a fuck would change how I treated people.

I dunno about all that, and my mind has a hard time grasping complex things like that.  It just seems that there were far too many things that had to go exactly right for us to be here.

but, when all those things do 'go right' we pretty much /have/ to be here - life is here because this is the exact right situation for life to be in - on this planet there is life in the frozen wastelands and the almost boiling waters near underwater volcanoes, from the very depths of the oceans to the highest part of the atmosphere

think of an orange, left for quite a while, until the surface is covered in mould, all green and fuzzy

now, look at the earth again - no real difference

life is definitely an accident, my concern is whether our progress has been manipulated along the way 

This is exactly what I believe.

I am very comfortable that when I die I will be gone, dead, non-existent. In fact this is exactly what I want.

I'm just another living being, one of 107 billion that have been on this earth. At no point do I believe I'm special being part of the 107 billion.

I've had this discussion with a few people, and whilst I definitely don't want to die tomorrow it doesn't worry me that I might. I'm very comfortable with my mortality.

Also, when it comes to dying I've decided I want a Sky Burial. Hopefully after my organs have been harvested for donation or some form of medical research has been done on my dead body. I doubt this will happen, but I would like to be some use after I die. Feed me to the lions at the zoo or something like that.

Things they dig out of La Breya Tar Pit look younger than I do...

La Breya is in Hollywood.

You guys sure know how to cheer someone up!   :-P

Hence all those badly preserved creatures of indeterminable age, presumably.

Carbon dating is your friend.

OMG I should start a website!

Enjoy it. I had mine (big 50, that is) last month.

Late congratulations!

 

Belated thank you!

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

 >-|