If you look up the definition of "geezer" it will say something like this: "An old person, especially an eccentric old man." (American Heritage Dictionary)

I'd say "geezer" pretty much describes me: I'm getting old and I'm eccentric. 

My Geezer Chronicles are a new 'food for thought' column here at Jeff's Place for us older blokes, and even some younger blokes who think they might benefit from the seasoned thoughts of an old geezer.  

Of course, this column will have some of my geezer thoughts about Hi-Fi and music, as well as healthy aging, and just simply learning to be engaged and happy with the hand you've been dealt in life. 

Life in the slow lane!

For quite a few of us, retirement sneaks up on us, and voilà, one day we're retired! 

Life as a child, as a young person, and the working life, zooms past fast & furious, and then keeps accelerating with every year lived - it's shocking to experience. 

Here's my theory: the speed at which life seems to flow by depends on fractions. When one is ten years old a year stretches on for what seems like forever. A year is a long time with respect to one's life time - 10% of it. Each year that goes by becomes an ever smaller fraction of your lived experience, which makes it seem like life is speeding by faster the older you get. At age 20 a year is 5% of our lived life, at 30 a year is 3.3%, at 50 a year is 2%, at 70 a year 1.4%, and if you are fortunate enough to make it to 100, a year is 1% of your lived life. As a result of our time becoming an ever smaller fractional amount of our lived life, life just feels like it is speeding by faster as you get older. 

Now here we are, retired, and we're living 'life in the slow lane'.

Ha-ha, 'life in slow lane', that's a myth - life is speeding by! 

If anything, many of us geezers are busier in retirement than we were when working for a living, and hopefully busy with the things we enjoy in life for as long as we can manage it. 

One thing about life is that it's unpredictable. If you do have a plan, you'll find out life doesn't always go according to the plan. That's just reality rearing its ugly head. Stuff happens. 

When I was a young lad I was a motocross athlete, and it formed much of my early views about life. Most of us motocross guys cycled or ran for cardio, lifted weights for strength training, did some sort of flexibility training like stretching or yoga to stay supple, and practiced the riding skills needed to go fast on a motocross race bike.

We needed the cardio & strength training to hang onto a 225 pound motocross bike bouncing around on a rough racetrack for an entire race while our heart rate was pegged at maximum, and the flexibility to help with reducing injury for when we inevitably hit the ground at speed.

When it came to going as fast as we were capable of while bouncing around a racetrack, we adopted a 'controlled out-of-control' riding style, and lived by the famous motocross saying, "When in doubt gas it!"

To go fast in a race one is necessarily at their limits, and sometimes beyond them, into the realm beyond one's control.

The race bike is bouncing through the rough stuff, flying off jumps, and sliding around the corners, and we weren't always in full control of the bike. As long as we were guiding the race bike in the general direction of the racetrack in a sort of speedy controlled out-of-control fashion, all was good. 

However, eventually something outside of our control would happen, and then we would go flipping through the air until we hit the ground. That's when life gets real, fast.  

Life in general is kind of like that. Some things in life we can learn to mostly control with practice, like our thoughts, our impulses, our emotions, and our desires. Pretty much most anything that is going on in our own head we can learn to train to serve us better.   

Other things in life - most of the things we encounter - are not under our complete control, like the behavior of other people, what happens with our bodies as we age, our property & possessions as they age, the weather, wildfire smoke (the bane of my existence lately), politics, climate change, or basically almost anything that is not of our own doing.

We have to toughen up ourselves mentally for those kinds of things, and recognize that things will only sometimes go our way.

I think it helps to think about life like a project manager thinks about a project, where one plans for scope, cost, schedule, risk, and contingency, for example. 

When it comes to scope, if one focuses on what one can mostly control - what goes on in one's own head - that helps for being happier as we age. Train the brain. 

Those things that we can't control - most things - require more risk and contingency planning, and while we can mitigate risk, we can never eliminate it. Those out of our control 'crashes' will still occur in life. Expect it, even plan for it. 

At least part of being a geezer is staying as healthy as possible as we age. Healthy in body, and healthy in mind.

The reality for us geezers is that death is a lot closer on the horizon than it used to be. One has to be mindful that death is stalking us like a predator, and we should live accordingly. 

Some of my favorite things, like Hi-Fi for music enjoyment, or audio-visual for enjoying films, are couch potato activities, so I need to be mindful about that and make sure I make good judgements about my other life choices.

For healthy aging here's the basics: while our genetics are not under our control, other things like exercise, a healthy diet, getting regular health checkups, getting enough sleep, avoiding viruses, and taking care of our mental health, are things we can do to help live a healthier life as we age. 

Avoid the killers as best you can. An increased risk of cancer is associated with cigarette smoking, being overweight, drinking alcohol, eating red & processed meat, not eating enough fruit & vegetables, too much UV exposure, not getting enough exercise, and exposure to viruses. 

Do get proper nutrition, regular exercise, have social connections, use sunscreen, avoid viruses, wear hearing protection as needed, get enough sleep, get regular health checkups, and manage your mental health, for healthier aging.      

These days, I'm moving more towards a mind set of moderation, albeit I still have a lot to learn on that front, particularly with my hobbies.

I'll ask myself, "Is this wise?", or maybe, "Is this extreme?" For example, cigarette smoking is not wise, so I don't smoke. Too much alcohol consumption is not wise, so I'll drink in moderation. Have a drink, but don't be a drunk. Moderation. You get the idea. 

It's never too late to embrace a healthier lifestyle.  

What About Hi-Fi and A-V? 

There's misfortunes that happen to many of us as we get older: we tend to lose muscular strength, our eyes can get worse, our ability to hear high-frequencies can diminish, we might have tinnitus, arthritis can set in, we might not be as quick-witted as we once were, and while it's not necessarily a misfortune, we may need to downsize our living arrangements to make life a little easier for us.  

Hi-Fi and A-V can easily turn into extreme hobbies, and I've let my desires run amok in that regard. Not wise behavior, definitely excessive, but it certainly has been fun. 

My living space isn't huge, but it is big enough to have multiple audio or A-V systems set up. 

From a practical perspective, as living space shrinks, a single system that accommodates both Hi-Fi and A-V duties is a more reasonable choice. 

If you are transitioning to a smaller living space where it is not practical to have loudspeakers positioned out into a room in audiophile fashion, consider setting up loudspeakers in room boundary positions (room corners). 

I have both kinds of systems, and both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks.

If I were to start all over again in my audio and A-V pursuits, and I had to choose just one approach, I would go for a system optimized for room boundary positioning.

A room boundary system frees up living space, tends to be smaller in size, and generally performs better over a broad range of low-fidelity to high-fidelity music and/or film sources. 

As my strength has declined with age, it's been getting to the point where my jumbo sized loudspeakers collection is getting harder to handle. 

Lugging around 300 pound loudspeakers is not as fun as it used to be. Ditto for big heavy amplifiers and turntables.

Something to think about as you age is smaller & lighter loudspeakers, amplifiers, turntables, and so forth.

Smaller & lighter audio components don't necessarily mean a compromise in performance. Bigger isn't always better. A smaller SET amp with a smaller set of say ... field-coil loudspeakers, would make for an amazing audio and/or A-V system. 

Teaser: Peter Qvortrup asked me if I'd like to give his new Audio Note (UK) field-coil loudspeakers a listen, which are smaller in size than my current loudspeakers.

Close-up of the prototype Audio Note (UK) field-coil loudspeakers shown at the Munich HiFi show.

Normally, I don't write about loudspeakers any more, as it's getting too hard to move my big heavy loudspeakers around, and I don't really have anywhere easy to store them between moves. 

Of course I said "Yes!" to giving the new Audio Note (UK) field-coil loudspeakers a listen. From everything I've heard about them, they're amazing, so I'm looking forward to hearing them in person.

Ok, that's it for my first stream of consciousness geezer installment, but I'll be back for more - I hope!  

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!