I don't know how those old guys do it.

[Tobin S.]

I originally posted this in the lounge tonight. One of my friends there thought I should cross post it here, it being relevant to the current debate about raising the retirement age.

I get up at 4 every morning and go into work at 5. Then I run around Indiana all day picking up loads of scrap metal and bringing them back to the yard. I have to swap containers and tarp loads. I usually clock out between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. It's all I can do to stay up until 8 most nights.

But I do have the weekends off, and it's a better job than doing that long haul stuff and being away from my sweetie most of the time.

Still, I'm 39 years old and this job wears me out. We have 30 drivers where I work and all but two are older than me. Several of those guys are in their 60s and I think one is 70. Granted, most of them don't have to work like I do because of their seniority and better pay, but those old guys still have to get out there and tarp and climb on top of containers and trailers out in the weather just like I do.

I just got a new printer and I was going to set it up tonight and print out the first copy of the manuscript of my first book. That's what I'd planned on telling you guys I was doing right about now, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. All I want to do right now is soak up a few beers and kick my feet up.

Maybe I'll make a living selling books. I don't want to find out if I can still do this job when I'm in my 60s.

[ashling]

1. Unfortunately, "bookseller" will be obsolete long before you are in your 60s

Either because reading has gone online completely

or because we don't reinforce reading as a skill

either way, better check out a different profession ...

[joshcryer]

2. Best wishes Tobin. Please consider going with Kindle, Nook, etc.

You can sign up with Kindle Publishing for free, and they take 'only' 30% of your revenue.

Have a good rest tonight.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. I second that advice n/t

[MineralMan]

3. Old guys have learned how to do things in the most efficient

way possible. Guys in their 60s can do way more than you think they can. I'm 66, and I can still do everything I could do when I was 40. It's just a matter of keeping doing it. And, you do get more efficient with things...by necessity.

[PoiBoy]

4. Good Luck to you Tobin...

..both in your day job and your budding writing career...

[Brickbat]

5. There are a lot of guys like that on the railroad. There are personalities that don't know how to

stop working, or even want to. Some people just always have to be doing something, and get into jobs where they can.

On the RR, too, the work often became its own social club. Because the schedule is so bizarre, you end up having to be friends with your co-workers just to get some social time in. Liking who you work with, working hard and well, and earning the good pay and benefits your union has bargained for you would be, I think, a great way to make work feel easy.

[NorthCarolina]

7. Thay talk of raising retirement age to 70, well how many

will still be faring well in the coal mines at 65-70 years of age? Or maybe in the warehouse environment in your latter 60's, or even the scrap yard as you do. Lets face it, these politicians have NO COMPREHENSION whatsoever of what a demanding job is. Most have never had the opportunity to really WORK for a living, and are completely clueless as to real world.