I have a question for the "Seasoned" humans that wish to chime in.

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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Aug 8, 2013
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First Officer 6PC

I’ve spent the last few days bouncing between houses owned by people in their mid-70s to mid-80s, and I’ve noticed a consistent theme: darkness and heat.
Lights off. Thermostat set to “surface of the sun.”

Three different houses were lit exclusively by night lights and kept somewhere in the high-70s. This week’s highs are in the 80s, so it’s not like we’re fighting a cold snap.
I’d flip on a light and immediately MIL chimes in, “Do we need that light?” Yes. Yes we do. None of our vision is not improving with age.

I asked my mom if we could turn the temp down and she said, “Oh, is it hot?”

For reference: my house is 69 in the winter, 71 in the summer, and if I’m in a room, every available lumen is used.
What kills me is these are all fall-risk humans with dogs running around in near-darkness, living at temperatures normally reserved for proofing bread.

Is this a Texas thing, or does aging just turn people into heat-seeking nocturnal creatures?

What say you elder members of POA? Of which I am very close to becoming.
I am not picking on old people. I am very close to being an old person. I will gladly answer this question when I am using echo-location to get around my house, trying not to slip in my younger family members' sweat puddles.
For now, I don't understand it.


seinfeld-elaine.gif
 
I don’t know about the light thing, but I notice the heat thing.

But for someone that’s sedentary, getting up to turn on lights as it gets towards evening might be a case of darkness sneaking up on them and they don’t realize it.
 
every generation has their thing. my parents were the same way.....save every penny by turning all lights off, and now when it's 89 in florida that's cold to my parents. I think old folk get colder easier (I just made that up but it's equally likely to be true) and they've always been of the mindset of save every penny any way you can. just be thankful their furniture wasn't covered by that clear, heavy plastic wrap type stuff my grandparents used.
 
For the record I did ask my mom and she said "I don't know maybe we have poor circulation as we age so we are colder or something"
My takeaway is "they" are not hot. This may be why people evolve into Floridians as they approach the golden years.
 
eman1200 said:
every generation has their thing. my parents were the same way.....save every penny by turning all lights off, and now when it's 89 in florida that's cold to my parents. I think old folk get colder easier (I just made that up but it's equally likely to be true) and they've always been of the mindset of save every penny any way you can. just be thankful their furniture wasn't covered by that clear, heavy plastic wrap type stuff my grandparents used.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had the gift of great grand parents and plastic covered couches were a thing for them.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:

I’ve spent the last few days bouncing between houses owned by people in their mid-70s to mid-80s, and I’ve noticed a consistent theme: darkness and heat.
Lights off. Thermostat set to “surface of the sun.”

Three different houses were lit exclusively by night lights and kept somewhere in the high-70s. This week’s highs are in the 80s, so it’s not like we’re fighting a cold snap.
I’d flip on a light and immediately MIL chimes in, “Do we need that light?” Yes. Yes we do. None of our vision is not improving with age.

I asked my mom if we could turn the temp down and she said, “Oh, is it hot?”
Click to expand...

Welcome to my hell for the last five days. FiL is 87, which seems to match the thermostat setting. And yes, the rule seems to be no more than one lightbulb can be on at any given time. It’s a sauna cave!

I’ve learned to wear shorts and t-shirts under my seeats and ditch the sweats after I arrive.

It’s bad enough that we now book a nearby hotel and go there in the evenings so that we may sleep comfortably.
 
He wanted to watch the chiefs donkeys game tonight but doesn’t have prime. So, I went to plug my laptop into the TV via HDMI but it was ao dark behind the TV I couldn’t see a thing. My wife held an iPhone in each hand and that was finally enough light to plug the sucker in!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Yeah, I had the gift of great grand parents and plastic covered couches were a thing for them.
Click to expand...
I'll match that with plastic runners on the carpet. Better to protect the carpet from slipper traffic than to take action to avoid a trip and fall.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Yeah, I had the gift of great grand parents and plastic covered couches were a thing for them.
Click to expand...

kyleb said:
I'll match that with plastic runners on the carpet. Better to protect the carpet from slipper traffic than to take action to avoid a trip and fall.
Click to expand...

Man, that brings back memories as a kid visiting my great aunts in Missouri in the summertime. Hot and humid as hell, no A/C, and my parents are making us sit still on those clear plastic covered couches. I’m sweating just THINKING about it.
 
My FIL was a stickler about turning off lights. I suspect that came from living through the Great Depression and other hard times over the years. Frugality becomes deeply ingrained.

The temperature thing is just a result of how many people age.
 
eman1200 said:
I think old folk get colder easier
Click to expand...

If that is true, I'm in deep trouble. Not even 40 years of age yet and I keep the house at 76 summer and winter. Anything colder than that, I get cold. We're having a "heat wave" in Texas right now, high 70s, low 80s - still wearing long sleeves. It's not 90s or 100s so not true summer short sleeves weather. If I get cold even easier once I hit 60 or something, I may have to move into a sauna.
 
Other signs you're dealing with a much older mindset:

There's a piano. But nobody plays.
China Cabinet. With China. Unused for decades.
Formal Dining Room. Also never used. Sometimes temporarily repurposed as Amazon holding area.
Formal Living Room. Only used for special occasions. Which are special enough the room hasn't been used in 3 years. Often features an unused piano.
Silver set(s).
Antiques. <Extremely valuable until you decide to sell them. Then you realize antiques require a buyer who wants a specific antique or the antique is just something unwanted and old.>
 
My MIL falls all the time. I swear we are 1 more fall away from having to figure out in-home health care or finding a facility.
Every light I turn on, she turns off and she trips over everything. For reference, mid 70s but had parents that probably drilled that in to her as they were depression generation.

Rabbit hole:
Kind of weird to think about. I had my great grand father until I was 20.
I recall pantry in his house floor to ceiling front to back with canned goods. Never spent a penny that he didn't have to.
My kids' reality is significantly more wasteful by comparison.

Also his job was something they probably will never even realize was a thing. I didn't understand it until I started flying.
He made magnetos that started the fires that burned off the waste gases on offshore drilling rigs.

He always had enough components to electrify a random crap around his house / shop. He loved shocking us.
His nickname was "Maggie" because apparently he used those magneto parts to shock his co-workers as well.
 
I’ve noticed the same things. Here are my guessed explanations. I’ll come back soon enough with firsthand knowledge.

They get cold easily. And bright light is for reading. Are you reading? No? What do you want to spend money on bright lights for? Furthermore, if you have cataracts, bright lights make flares that you can’t see through.
 
When Mom lived at home the house was a bright icebox. At age 88 she moved to assisted living. Now, 2 years later, her room is a hot dark cave. She does not seem to notice the difference. :dunno:
 
After about 40 minutes your eyes adjust to the darkness, my grandfather hated anything over a frosted glass red shaded 20 watt bulb..”you loose your night sight”. Temperature wise, the same, if you don’t over control the conditions you spend your time in daily and adapt to it as seasons change it’s not uncomfortable.
 
kyleb said:
Other signs you're dealing with a much older mindset:

There's a piano. But nobody plays.
China Cabinet. With China. Unused for decades.
Formal Dining Room. Also never used. Sometimes temporarily repurposed as Amazon holding area.
Formal Living Room. Only used for special occasions. Which are special enough the room hasn't been used in 3 years. Often features an unused piano.
Silver set(s).
Antiques. <Extremely valuable until you decide to sell them. Then you realize antiques require a buyer who wants a specific antique or the antique is just something unwanted and old.>
Click to expand...

My house is a 100% match for that list.
 
Yes, overall that's an old people thing. I always heard the circulation getting worse with age being the cause, but I'm sure some medications play in. Also a lot of older people don't exercise much for various reasons, and I think that plays in some as well. The lights seem to come down to that depression era mentality they were raised with about not being wasteful. Of course, with LED lights now you can keep every light in the house for practically less power than it took to run an incandescent nightlight back when we were kids, but that part hasn't gotten into the equation for them yet.

My mother is in assisted living, so utilities are included in the monthly fees. I visit her multiple times a week at different times of day, and without fail she's sitting with basically no lights on, maybe one, even though she can't read unless she has good lighting. She always turns all the lights off before leaving if any of them are on. She keeps the thermostat cooler than she really wants it to be (same part about being wasteful), and then complains about being cold. She also complains about everyone else there keeping their thermostats too hot (every apartment has its own) but they don't complain about being cold. They also have all their lights off. Her old apartment in NYC had centralized heating for the entire building, so you had no control. It would be 80 degrees in there in the winter and I'd have to have windows open wearing a t-shirt to keep from overheating, but she was comfortable with that.

SixPapaCharlie said:
My MIL falls all the time. I swear we are 1 more fall away from having to figure out in-home health care or finding a facility.
Click to expand...

My advice, if you think this is coming, start looking now and figure out what the right path is going to be for her and you. I knew that day was coming and started the search for my mother towards the beginning of last autumn (I was going to say "last fall" but that would be confusing). About a week into the search she had "the fall" (like your MIL, she'd had many) that was the forcing function. We were very fortunate that the facility I'd decided was going to be the best had openings. The transition went as smoothly as such things can go. Waiting lists can be very long.

Happy to share my thoughts and what I learned if it helps you.
 
Not everybody gets more cold intolerant in old age, but it is a common issue. Bright lights bother older eyes for a variety of reasons, and are only used for reading. Saving money is also a strong motivator, really old people do not usually have COL adjusted income.

Riding home from the family Christmas gathering, our 60 year old son asked how cold his Mom's bedroom was in the Missouri winter, since the kitchen coal cook stove was the only heat. Very cold. Freezing? I do not know. Did the chamber pot freeze? Never used it on a cold night.

My early years were similar at my grandparents. No matter how cold it was, a trip to the outhouse was better than using the chamber pot in the middle of the night, as the covers lost all the warmth while you were out of bed.

Today at 86 and 91, we keep the thermostat between 64 and 67 year round I am a little cold, my wife a little warm.

Lights, mostly brightly lit and reading, unless watching TV, then half as bright.

At night when we get up, the night light in the bathroom is sufficient, and that door is kept nearly closed to keep the bedroom dark.

We currently live in a retirement community, all utilities included, like Ted's Mom's
 
Ed Haywood said:
My house is a 100% match for that list.
Click to expand...
I'm living about 60% of it too.

We really need to figure how to unburden ourselves from a formal dining room and all of the furniture, china, and silver that goes with it. All inherited, BTW. But it is "too good, too sentimental, too..." to unload.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:

I’ve spent the last few days bouncing between houses owned by people in their mid-70s to mid-80s, and I’ve noticed a consistent theme: darkness and heat.
Lights off. Thermostat set to “surface of the sun.”
Click to expand...
Mid 70's here. 69 degrees winter and 75 degrees summer. We dress warm in the winter and might go to 70 degrees winter before long. I don't like living in a cave. Curtains are wide open during the day. Rooms we are in are well-lit when dark. No dogs or other pets. Upstairs is for guests and we live primarily on the first floor. Could stay entirely on first floor if it becomes necessary. No steps between garage and house. We put groceries in a cart and wheel them directly into living quarters. We proof bread with a space heater in the utility room. I think we will make it. ;)
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I’ve spent the last few days bouncing between houses owned by people in their mid-70s to mid-80s, and I’ve noticed a consistent theme: darkness and heat.
Lights off. Thermostat set to “surface of the sun.”
Click to expand...
As for the heat... DUH!!! I'm pretty sure as you get older your circulation is not as good, so those folks in their 70's & 80's are probably COLD! :D (Whether they realize it or not.)

No clue on the light, but I don't like sitting around visiting or watching TV with the lights all the way up. It's one thing if you're reading, but as far as sitting around, I'll have the dimmers down a bit. But then most to the restaurants and bars I go to have dimmer lights too.
 
Not super old yet, but have had a problem regulating my body temp for many years. No blood thinners, but a week in the hospital with massive amounts of drugs fighting an infection and I started being cold at 70F. I now sleep year 'round with an electric blanket, as the wife and kids start panting that it's too hot with the house at 72F. I'm pretty much in at least a sweatshirt and jeans from October to May.....forget shorts unless it's over 90F. Doesn't help for me that I work essentially outside year 'round, in all weather. Funny thing is when I got married, we were living in the Chicago area, I could go stand in the ice and snow, wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and talk with the delivery guy or the mail guy for 20 minutes and never feel cold.

On the lighting, I think it's multiple things. The wife has eye problems when she has a migraine, both boys are on the computer lots of the day. Oldest sleeps in a hospital bed in the den, since he can't get to the bedrooms in his wheelchair. We've got 90% sun block screens on all the windows to help with reducing heat build up in the house. I've converted much of the house lighting to led's with 5000K bulbs, as I can't stand the 3-4000K range. That's probably because I'm outside all the time due to work, again. The garage has 6500K bulbs and still feels like a cave with just the two 4', 10,000+ lumen shop lights.
 
When the temperature drops below your age, it's time to move South.
 
I just turned 68 so I'm not ancient but with all my metal parts I do like it a bit warmer in the winter months. Typically 72 during the day and bump it up a degree or two in the evening. I have a friend that bundles up in the winter and keeps their heat in the low 60's. That's crazy! I worked my whole life and I'll be damned if I am going to be cold in my house. Likewise in the summer, I want to feel cool and even cooler at night. My bride and I have a mattress pad heater and in the winter I'll use the minimum temp setting to help the bones and metal sleep in comfort.

As for lights, I rather it not as bright. I don't want to have to find my way but I don't want it like high noon either.

FORANE said:
When the temperature drops below your age, it's time to move South.
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Heading south on new years day....hope to find a winter home to purchase. We love our home and the beach here in Ocean City, MD but it's just not warm enough in the winter. ;)
 
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My house is set to 72 in the winter. 70 at night. 72-74 while I'm at work so the dog doesn't get cold in her crate.

In the summer it's 66-68 at night. 70-72 during the day.

Gotta make sure the dog is comfortable.
 
The last time I visited my grandparents (in their late 80s and early 90s) at their house before they passed away was in the spring or summertime '23. My grandmother asked, "Oh, is it too hot in here for you?" I literally had paper towels wiping sweat from my face while sitting at their kitchen table chatting. I glanced at their combo thermometer/barometer on the wall and it read 86* F. :nonod:

Their house (in Arkansas) didn't originally have central air, but they had it installed while in their 70s. They definitely took advantage of it, but they had no idea how uncomfortable it was in their house. They also fit the stereotypes of being raised in the depression era. Their frugality frustrated my mother and her siblings in the later years bc they really didn't keep up with maintenance and basic things in and around their house. And heaven forbid you ask them about moving to a retirement community.
 
Many older people do get cold easily. I don't know how "old" I am other than the number which is 66, but I keep my thermostat around 70... and have no AC, so the house will be hot in the summer, I just dress appropriately and take it easy.

The dim lights aren't a depression thing, it's the 1970s energy crisis when everybody was told to turn off the lights. Also many people with ADHD or similar find bright lights overstimulating so prefer a darker room; I don't like bright lights myself except for task lighting.

People have lived for thousands of years with cold houses (unless you're in front of the open fireplace) and dim light (ever trying doing close work by candlelight?). Our modern brightly lit and consistently heated homes is a very recent thing in history, and (armchair psychology here) I think humans do better, brains more stimulated, with varying conditions. And there is something primally pleasant about coming in from the cold, or even the cold end of the house, and then standing in front of the fire for a few minutes to warm up before going back to what you were doing.
 
schmookeeg said:
Gawd, this one. It's like an entire generation of households were afraid of being visited by the Queen and being caught unprepared.
Click to expand...

No china cabinets, silverware, or formal dining room set - but we have our own peculiarities that will baffle the next generation. In my case, it will be: Why are there all these strange tools still in their original Harbor Freight packaging? Who in their right mind buys a car tire–changing machine? Why are these cabinets full of pilot supplies that look like they were never used? And why are these aviation books still in their shrink-wrap?
 
kyleb said:
Other signs you're dealing with a much older mindset:

There's a piano. But nobody plays.
China Cabinet. With China. Unused for decades.
Formal Dining Room. Also never used. Sometimes temporarily repurposed as Amazon holding area.
Formal Living Room. Only used for special occasions. Which are special enough the room hasn't been used in 3 years. Often features an unused piano.
Silver set(s).
Antiques. <Extremely valuable until you decide to sell them. Then you realize antiques require a buyer who wants a specific antique or the antique is just something unwanted and old.>
Click to expand...

Who let you in my house???
 
schmookeeg said:
Gawd, this one. It's like an entire generation of households were afraid of being visited by the Queen and being caught unprepared.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
Three sets of china. (The fourth was gifted to @SkyChaser and @2-Bit Speed .) And that’s not counting the two sets of Christmas dishes. Plus the silver (two sets) that’s never used.
 
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