Age and Endurance

I'm tired. Actually, I'm exhausted. Today was Day 10 of trial, and we will possibly go at least through next week.

Three weeks ago I spent the entire week going through my 4-Box file and confirming witnesses. Between that and court appearances (this case and others) I only worked around 80 hours that week. The last 2 weeks have been a bit busier. For 14 days straight, I've been pulling 20 hour workdays. Up at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m., out the door by around 6:30 for a 2+ hour 70 mile trip through heavy traffic and traffic jams, followed by a day of trial, the same commute back home, and then staying up till 11:30 or midnight writing trial notes and prepping for the next day. Weekends are for prep and writing motions and proposed instructions - about 16 hours a day. We had a short day today, and I just got back about an hour ago and I'm dead tired. :blushing:

My longest trial was a murder case a bit over 20 years ago. Trial lasted 8 1/2 weeks, and I had tons of energy averaging 2 - 3 hours of sleep a night. So what's happened in 23 short years?

Without a doubt, age affects endurance.

Now I'm looking back to the 20 mile sprints over mountains and the long open ocean swims as ancient history. :innocent:

I guess my point is, age, even middle-age, affects endurance. Something else I've gotta' consider in all of my plans.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ken

I guess my point is, age, even middle-age, affects endurance. Something else I've gotta' consider in all of my plans.

---

Reminds me of the great line in "On Golden Pond" when Mr Fonda says, We are not middle aged, people don't live to 154".:):):)

Hey Counselor. I have the honor of receiving a Jury Summons for next week.:hang:

You probably won't get selected. For this trial, jury selection took 2 days and we went through about 130 prospective jurors before we finally seated a 16 person jury.

Thats why you make the BIG bucks :innocent: Relax a little, Drink a Cold Beer ! or, or 3 ,,,,, ,,,,,,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ken

Without a doubt, age affects endurance.

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umhEoIdKYm8

You need to do physical, grunt work. Dig a ditch, split firewood. It'll help you unwind and lay off any extra caffeine or booze. Make a new man out of you.

I think it is not so much endurance but rather recovery.

I can't tell the difference yet except that I don't sleep well and have a shorter fuse. (definitely a harbinger of old fartdom)
Oh, and there's more guilt about taking it easy--always feel as though I should be doing something productive when I'm not. (thanks, mom!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Justin Case

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umhEoIdKYm8

---

:sneaky2: I said I was dead tired. I didn't say I was dead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobertRogers

I think it is not so much endurance but rather recovery.

---

LOL, you said it...................One of my favorite sayings, "The difference between young and old is recovery time!

It's also helps to have a lot of the same stuff, spead out, as it also gets harder to remember where stuff is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ole WV Coot

You need to do physical, grunt work. Dig a ditch, split firewood. It'll help you unwind and lay off any extra caffeine or booze. Make a new man out of you.

---

Coot, I do physical grunt work. Not lots of it, but usually one full day every week or two - more so in warmer weather. Booze has never been an issue. Maybe two beers in the last two weeks, and they were "paired" with my meals. :blushing:

But coffee? I may as well just set up an IV. Still have lots of good veins. :innocent:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobertRogers

I think it is not so much endurance but rather recovery.

---

Good point, RR.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hunter63

It's also helps to have a lot of the same stuff, spead out, as it also gets harder to remember where stuff is.

---

Like my watch? The one I wasn't able to find for over a week until this morning?

Last Saturday, I had to go to Wally World to buy a cheap Timex because I couldn't find my Seiko. Never, ever, wear a watch more expensive than a Seiko if you're in a jury trial. :innocent:

I read that the body needs very little rest, it is your mind that needs the rest. Transendental meditation may help. It's not a religion just a relaxation technique. It sounds as if you may be to caught up in your work too. I make sure that I just do my job as best I can and try not to care about it. It can be as stressful as you let it be. On my long days I take short 15 minute naps where I don't really sleep but just closing my eyes and laying back few minutes renews me for the road again. As I got too old to do construction I concentrated on driving truck since it was the closest thing to a sit down job an uneducated guy like me could get but it is by far the most fatiqueing thing I have ever done.

Ken when things wrap up let me know the beer and coffee are on me.

OK so your saying if I need a trial lawyer get a younger one?

I know I'm feeling my age at 44. It could just be that I'm out of shape but I clearly remember 24 mile hikes on and off trail, even navigating all night and then going to work construction the next day. I am no longer capable of what I did when I was 20 that's for sure. A big part of not being able to do what I did at 20 is called wisdom in some cultures. It is funny that as men we never quite get away from having to prove things to ourselves.

I remember climbing Pico da Bandeira here in Brazil when I was 28, its about a 10 K hike up a long rocky trail, 7,000 something feet not exactly Everest. I did it with my wife (24) and my father-in-law (54). The whole time he was way up ahead bounding up the trail like a goat. I remember thinking, what's the point in being 28 when this geezer is showing me up the whole time.

The next day I found out what the difference was. I wanted to go out and do another peak and he couldn't get out of bed. In ten years I'm going to be 54, time to get moving.

Mac

I'm pretty sure the expression "Work smarter, not harder" was coined by somebody around my age.

Recovery is exactly right.At 46,I can still work with the young kids step for step in just about anything,but it takes me 2 days to their one to recover from it lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pict

OK so your saying if I need a trial lawyer get a younger one?

---

Only if you want your lawyer to run circles around someone else OUTSIDE of the courtroom. :innocent:

Da dada da !

http://www.ndla.ru/img/SuperLawyer.jpg

http://whatdidyoubringme.homestead.c...tGuilty692.gif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VVk0IThd2g

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ken

http://whatdidyoubringme.homestead.c...tGuilty692.gif

---

I'm a "Libra" too,

http://www.norulak.com/Libra.gif

Yes guys Ken does wear that tie into the court house.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Yes guys Ken does wear that tie into the court house.

---

But Not The tee shirt ? :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Yes guys Ken does wear that tie into the court house.

---

Is it about 8" wide?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Camp10

Is it about 8" wide?

---

http://10yes.org/blog/wp-content/upl.../08/clown2.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Yes guys Ken does wear that tie into the court house.

---

Notice the words "NOT GUILTY" on the lines all the way down the tie? :innocent:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ken

Notice the words "NOT GUILTY" on the lines all the way down the tie? :innocent:

---

I thought it said "who's Guilty" :innocent:

I think you got it wrong...or right in a different sense. Age does affect endurance. The older you get, the more endurance you have. The other day I was doing a service project with the scouts. We were putting in new topsoil and had to shovel it out of a truck into buckets and then haul the buckets to get dumped on location. Anyways, I was up shoveling into a bucket with a spry 16 year old. I out shoveled him because I knew how to conserve energy and maintain a steady pace. Try digging a hole with a teenager. You will notice they get tired faster. Why? because they don't know how to apply the energy they have.

Just got back from jury duty. Actually sat on a case about witness retaliation and harassment. The ADA that tried the case was completely incompetent; followed in close second was the Public Defender. Resulted in one of those "Not Guilty" verdicts (not innocent). The ADA did not prove several elements for both charges. Several jurors wondered which side the attorneys were on. Each seem to prove the other's case.

For those facing jury duty, I voiced a concern with the District Judge that the prospective jurors were addressed by name in front of the accused (and probably had more personal info on the resumes we filled out). Had we found him guilty, that puts the sitting jury members at risk. Also, during breaks during selection and the trial, we sat in the hall and found out the others sitting in the hallway among us were witnesses and other parties to the case. Not Good; although we didn't discuss the case, we talked incessantly about other things. The District Judge said he would look into it.

Things were certainly different since my first and only summons (forty years ago), during which I sat for 30 days without being selected.

My mother-in law and father-in-law are in their late 70s and run around like kids trying to make everyone feel guilty for not working hard enough. then a couple of years back they took two or three popular pain meds off the market. Suddenly the old folks were stove up so bad they could barely walk to the kitchen, taking naps. and avoiding my truck like the plague because it was too hard to climb into.

They were not frisky, they were just getting the good meds from their Mexican Dr.

At 60 I have already had my three surgeries for stress induced degenerative disk disease, two stress related heart attacks and I now have to deal with the blood preasure on a regular basis.

After the first heart attack, I looked at all the wires and tubes and little beeping boxes. Asked the nurse what one of them was. She told me it was the external pacemaker that was keeping me alive. I had crashed and my heart did not work on its own for three days.

I was dead! I had worked myself to death.

Fear not, It will not happen again!

No car, no house, no boat, no career, is worth your early death. And that is what 20 hour days will do to a 40-50 year old.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kyratshooter

No car, no house, no boat, no career, is worth your early death. And that is what 20 hour days will do to a 40-50 year old.

---

Never truer works have been spoken. I retired 4 years ago at age 62 and have never looked back.

FWIW Retirement is everything it is cracked up to be. :sailor: :art: :m107:

I think it all goes back to balance. I was swinging a pick ax yesterday in the Atlanta heat. I paced myself, drank plenty of water and did this for many hours.

Later a young project manager came onsight and decided to sling the pick. He started out swinging like there was no tomm., and soon tuckered out. He is in very good shape, much better than I am. He is younger, plays full court basketball, does alot more pushups than I, yet this kicked his butt. I could have done it all day.

The answer to age is balance. You don't have to be in super duper shape, just in good enough shape with the knowledge to pace and when to push it and stop for a minute.

Ahhh....Grasshopper.

You explained it better than I did FVR.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FVR

I think it all goes back to balance. I was swinging a pick ax yesterday in the Atlanta heat. I paced myself, drank plenty of water and did this for many hours.

Later a young project manager came onsight and decided to sling the pick. He started out swinging like there was no tomm., and soon tuckered out. He is in very good shape, much better than I am. He is younger, plays full court basketball, does alot more pushups than I, yet this kicked his butt. I could have done it all day.

The answer to age is balance. You don't have to be in super duper shape, just in good enough shape with the knowledge to pace and when to push it and stop for a minute.

Ahhh....Grasshopper.

---

All true. I'd still rather be 18, though.
Not a popular thing to admit, what with age comes wisdom, etc, etc, but there I said it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BENESSE

All true. I'd still rather be 18, though.
Not a popular thing to admit, what with age comes wisdom, etc, etc, but there I said it.

---

Me too Bee! I was 2" taller 40lbs lighter and I worked hard all day.:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BENESSE

All true. I'd still rather be 18, though.
Not a popular thing to admit, what with age comes wisdom, etc, etc, but there I said it.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Winnie

Me too Bee! I was 2" taller 40lbs lighter and I worked hard all day.:)

---

This song, pretty much sums it up.:innocent: LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0EIFDfRyFM

Quote:

---

"I ain't as good as I once was
But I'm as good once as I ever was"

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Winnie

Me too Bee! I was 2" taller 40lbs lighter and I worked hard all day.:)

---

What I liked about being 18 is the pure unadulterated certainty that I could do anything. The innocence of not knowing or caring to find out. Sometimes I just don't want to know all I know. I crave blissful ignorance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BENESSE

What I liked about being 18 is the pure unadulterated certainty that I could do anything. The innocence of not knowing or caring to find out. Sometimes I just don't want to know all I know. I crave blissful ignorance.

---

Ya see, y'all.......she wants me.:blushing: LOL