this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Larry. he runs the local comic shop and has been running every competitor out of business for forty years.

his business strategy? sit on the couch and chill.

he has an ungodly amount of stories, knows people from every walk of life and a great memory and the charisma to tell those stories that he experienced or was just told about.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

in his shop, on the couch.

I don't want to dox him (did I use that right?) but if you're ever in West Texas, send me a message.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It’s been a few years, but at my old job, there was this woman who came to do a training for us at our job. When all was said and done, I went to thank her personally for coming to do the training for us.

Can’t remember how, but we found out that she was 92 years old!! Not lying, she looked early 60’s at most! Me and the few people who stuck around were shocked and amazed and asked her questions.

She told us that she was currently retired but she still loved the field so she would do trainings for a little pay here and there. She told us that she was a nurse in World War II. She didn’t go into too much detail but that was really awesome to meet someone in person who could say that. Not every day you meet someone from that time period or directly experienced the war, especially as an adult, no less.

I asked her her “secret” to getting to her incredible age. She said she hadn’t had an alcoholic drink since she was 22 years old.

I’ll never forget that woman. I always think of her when I see alcohol and contemplate my life, to be truthful.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Really our normalization of drinking needs to be re-examined.

I remember thinking all the anti smoking stuff wouldn't change anything. I was wrong. We really can change.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I agree. I have a drink here and there on the weekends sometimes, but the normalization of getting hammered, blackout drunk is unhealthy. I’ve always thought it was “funny”, for lack of a better term, when online dating and seeing people who have a problem with people who do drugs, even marijuana or smoking cigarettes but their own profile is filled of pics of them with booze and their profile is jokes about getting drunk and alcohol being their personality.

A little examination on this would benefit society.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

for me it was my realization that some of my drinking was a mental illness (I was never an alcoholic but I was self medicating with alcohol)

I feel so much better now I have one or two beers every few weeks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's amazing. I once had a patient who was 93 and very angry to be admitted to hospital because he still had a part time janitorial job he didn't want to miss. The Dutch are very long lived. Your lady must have been Dutch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I wish I would have asked! We’re in the United States but she didn’t have a noticeable accent.

Crazy how people at that age still want to work!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Most of my friends are kind of interesting and unique. I don't really hang out with people who are NPCs or boring. What would I have to talk about with them?

A more thought provoking question for me would be which boring people I know. Some stereotypical 'beer, BBQ and cars' guys come to mind. I couldn't live my life only doing work and those boring-ass hobbies. They're not even real cooks or car mechanics, they just like to grill cheap meat drenched in marinade and own an expensive car and talk about it!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Totally agree that is boring.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I met a scientist researching rust and the rust process. It was a little over my head but if you find new tools being sold that don't rust, I'm sure it will be her doing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Rust actually sounds like a very interesting topic if you think about it a bit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact, did you know that you are rusting, right now? Breathing is rusting, specifically it's oxidisation of iron in your blood. It's how your blood carries oxygen around your body.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I did not! But I definitely feel rusty come to think of it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I know how you feel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No one, and I get it. Get interest if you are interesting or minimally valid. If you don't have a job, a family and your interests is just stay here... well, you're fucked, I am and now I can only accept it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thank you, on the internet i have always been successful, maybe because here you must not prove anything

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

„because here you must not prove anything“

Do you have a source for that?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I used to work with this old guy named Mel in my early twenties at a graveyard job in a cold storage warehouse doing freight handling. He would bike to work 20 km down a dark highway to get to our shift at 1 am, he owned a car just preferred to bike, which I respect. This guy was in his 70s, consumed nothing but a cheese sandwich for lunch, coffee, and smoked heavily. Despite this he was in seemingly great shape and was fastest, hardest worker in the whole place. At Christmas time we would unload 20 lbs boxes of mandarin oranges from 53 foot trailers packed top to bottom, front to back onto pallets, this guy would go faster by himself than two people. He always said it's just about the technique and how you position your body.

I knew him in my early twenties before going back to school and he was the only person at that job with a brain so we talked a lot about space and technology and all that. I moved away for school so it's been like 13 years since I last saw him so I wouldn't be surprised if he's dead given his age and how much he smoked but I always wondered what happened to him and if he's still kicking around. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this guy made it to 100.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

He does sound very interesting!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Would it be cheating if I said a relative?