How can you tell when you're getting old? I just found one way.

[M1A4ME]

So, I was working on an old tiller (late 60's Sears-big ornery thing that can be tough to use till you get the hang of it).  Got it (mostly) done/running and came in the house for supper.

So, I'm standing at the sink in the bathroom washing my hands.  I get them all lathered up with Dawn dishwashing liquid and scrub around and then rinse them off in the warm water. 

Darn, still got some greasy/dirty spots on the back of my hands.  Squirt some more dawn on them and scrub, rinse them off, the spots are still there.  So I grabbed a 3M green pad, squirted some Dawn on it and started to scrub.  Rinsed it off.  Still there.  I get to looking closer and the darn brown spots are old age spots.  They ain't washing off.

Funny, never paid much attention to them and I know they didn't just appear over night.

[adrian]

     Hiya and thx for the thread. Just need to get more sun, they won't get darker along the way, using a bronzer will keep the skin soft as well. Be well.

[Ron M.]

Just watch those spots. I've learned the hard way they can be actinic keratosis, precancerous or basil cell cancer. I've had several removed from my face hands and neck. Too many years of outdoors time and not using sun screen. Growing up hunting, fishing and surfing in the 60's and 70's nobody thought about the damage tanning or even sunburns caused.

[ssqman]

They didn't have horse drawn tillers in the 60's?   

[M1A4ME]

I have two of the big 8 hp models.  One was dad's (bought in 1971) and one belonged to an uncle (late 60's).

The late 60's actually has the little metal clip thing on the head used to ground out the spark plug to shut it off.  You push it down/over against the spark plug tip (metal on the end of the wire is exposed as is the metal on the end of the spark plug) and it kills the spark on the "firing" end of the spark plug in the head.

Found out the hard way one day (when I was a kid) how not to shut it off.  Dad was running it in the garden, he put it in neutral and left if running to walk over to the fence where he had a glass of iced tea sitting on a fence post.  Then mom hollered at him from the house that he had a phone call.  He turned around and told me to shut the tiller off (my job was to walk along behind him, pick up rocks and toss them into the creek).  I hollered (over the sound of the idling 8 hp engine) to ask how to shut it off.  He yelled back, "Just push that metal clip over against the spark plug."  Sure enough, I reached down to push the clip over and it did kill the engine and also just about made me jump out of my shoes when that voltage went through me into the damp dirt of the garden. 

Dad saw me jump and laughed and said, "Use a stick, or the sole of your shoe next time."

Dad's was a few years newer and it would shut off with the throttle.

I don't get either one of them out of the shed and fire them up without thinking about dad and those gardens.  Those two tillers have torn up a lot of dirt over the years.  My uncle's tiller was bought down here in Highland Springs, VA and used for several years by my uncle.  He took it home when he retired and moved back to WV.  I brought it back to VA (about 25 miles from Highland Springs) a few years ago.  Then got dad's old tiller a couple years later. 

Never found anything gun related while running them but arrow heads have been found a few times in those old gardens.

[CrazyDave]

I don't worry about the brown spots, it's high toilet water that scares me now. 

[radagast]

Last year I Reconditioned my old Troybilt Horse Tiller and turned it over to my son in law when I figured I couldn't outrun it in reverse anymore !  I realized how sharp he is when he grabbed a grinder and deepened the notch on the neutral detent !

And YES the water seems higher and colder in new-fangled toilets !!!

[boatdoc]

Just watch those spots. I've learned the hard way they can be actinic keratosis, precancerous or basil cell cancer. I've had several removed from my face hands and neck. Too many years of outdoors time and not using sun screen. Growing up hunting, fishing and surfing in the 60's and 70's nobody thought about the damage tanning or even sunburns caused.

the real killers are very tiny and  black. they can eventually have roughened edges, bleed   have odd shapes and turn to malignant melanoma.

go to the derm md  every so often( especially after 50 y/o). get a check up and remove the  troublesome  spots.. skin cancer can be  cured this way

[Practical Shooter]

Just watch those spots. I've learned the hard way they can be actinic keratosis, precancerous or basil cell cancer. I've had several removed from my face hands and neck. Too many years of outdoors time and not using sun screen. Growing up hunting, fishing and surfing in the 60's and 70's nobody thought about the damage tanning or even sunburns caused.

go to the derm md  every so often( especially after 50 y/o). get a check up and remove the  troublesome  spots.. skin cancer can be  cured this way

The last time I went there my face was covered with bandaids. Darn MD's get paid by the nick  and none of them were cancer.

[mtang45]

Every morning when I get up, I look around take in a deep breath and determine, Yep I'm still getting older!   

[painter]

So, I was working on an old tiller (late 60's Sears-big ornery thing that can be tough to use till you get the hang of it).  Got it (mostly) done/running and came in the house for supper.

So, I'm standing at the sink in the bathroom washing my hands.  I get them all lathered up with Dawn dishwashing liquid and scrub around and then rinse them off in the warm water. 

Darn, still got some greasy/dirty spots on the back of my hands.  Squirt some more dawn on them and scrub, rinse them off, the spots are still there.  So I grabbed a 3M green pad, squirted some Dawn on it and started to scrub.  Rinsed it off.  Still there.  I get to looking closer and the darn brown spots are old age spots.  They ain't washing off.

Funny, never paid much attention to them and I know they didn't just appear over night.

I have spots.

I also have pain. I can feel the pain much better than I can see the spots. Isn't it odd which faculties fade sooner.

I judge how old I'm getting by whether or not I have to take Ibuprofen during a days work.

Lately...it's just after.

It'll be fine.

[Practical Shooter]

As they say "Growing old is not for sissies", I guess I am a big one, and it's only the beginning.
With my health and bad luck, I'm gonna live to 100 years old. Life sucks.

[Blackwatch]

I heard my mother in-law refer to liver (age) spots as cemetary flowers when my daughter asked her what the brown blemishes were on her hands. I thought that rather quaint! 

[CrazyDave]

Somehow this seems relevant......I borrowed a old tiller decades ago.  It was blue, huge, and would do a good burn out. I called the wife out to witness a rototiller doing a 10' burnout dragging me down the driveway. Giggling like a school girl at my new found "skill", I accidentally let it go.  After chasing it 200' or so I managed to tackle it and shut it down before I had to buy my neighbor a new fence.  Pretty sure my shoulder still hurts from planting a garden with that thing.  Lesson.  Rear tine tiller good.  Over powered front tine tiller and alcohol bad.

[Practical Shooter]

Over powered front tine tiller and alcohol bad.

I work for a pretty large country hospital, and last week, one of the ER nurse told me "it's the beginning of ER season", and me to ask "Why?", and she said "You should see the number of guys during summer that say "hold my beer and let me show you ..." ER will be full of them soon.