EP: 630 – What my 90-Year-Old Dad Can Teach Us About Longevity, Staying Active & Living Well

What if living a long, healthy life has less to do with expensive treatments and more to do with staying active, staying connected, and continuing to find reasons to enjoy your life?

In this episode of the Health Fix Podcast, Jannine sits down with a very special guest: her 90-year-old dad.

From building decks and working in the garden to racing cars, restoring old trucks, going to the local bar to catch up with friends, and simply staying busy, Jannine’s dad has built a life around movement, purpose, curiosity, and community.

Together, they talk about what it’s really like to grow older, the lessons he learned throughout his life, and the habits and mindset that have helped him stay remarkably mobile and active at 90.

He also shares stories about growing up during World War II, working in construction and excavation, racing motorcycles and cars, learning through experience, losing his wife, and finding ways to keep moving forward.

It’s a funny, honest, and heartfelt conversation about aging well and making the most of the life you have.

A Few of His Longevity Lessons

You don’t need an expensive routine to live well.

Get outside. Stay active. Have something to work toward. Spend time with people. Learn from others. Find things you enjoy. And when life gets difficult, keep going.

At 90, Jannine’s dad is still gardening, working on projects, staying connected with friends, and finding ways to keep his body moving.

His philosophy is simple:

“If you want a longer life, don’t give up.”

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Connect with Dr. Jannine Krause

Check out Dr. Krause’s Website for more resources and subscribe for more conversations on functional medicine, longevity, brain health, hormones, nutrition, and natural strategies to optimize your health.

Be sure to Like, Subscribe, and Share this episode with someone who wants to protect their brain and age with vitality.

This episode of Health Fix Podcast is sponsored by Chemical Free Body – home of Dr. Krause’s favorite green juice – Organic Energy Juice – enter “thehealthfix” for 15% off your 1st order. 

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Podcast Transcript

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and setting the scene in the childhood bedroom
01:28 Building decks and the importance of muscle memory
7083:18:08 Thoughts on living to 90 and family health history
9138:51:28 Dad’s racing stories and adrenaline moments
14277:44:52 Gymnastics and mobility in youth and old age
20083:18:19 Gardening, outdoor life, and staying active
28027:45:12 Diet, rationing, and food habits of the past
36111:05:34 Restoration of vintage trucks and hobbies
46138:52:31 The social aspect of bar culture and community
561388:52:58 Dealing with aging, health challenges, and attitude
641666:39:45 Reflections on life, love, and staying engaged
704722:13:09 Closing thoughts and gratitude

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Jannine Krause (00:00.76)
Hey Health Junkies, welcome to another episode of the Health Fix Podcast. I brought my dad on and we are hanging out live in my childhood bedroom, which used to be your office. That’s correct. And now I’ve taken it over as my office when I hang out in his house. Whether he likes it or not, here we are. But I got him to agree to do a podcast, so we’re gonna dive right into it. We’re talking about my dad’s life. We’re gonna talk a little bit about how he has managed to make it to 90.

And all the fun he’s had getting there. So here we are. Yeah. Hanging out in in my childhood bedroom and your office. And did you ever think you’d be sitting here doing a podcast with me in your office? No. No. I could have said something else if I didn’t. What? What did you think you’d be doing in here with yelling at me because I was a bad child?

I don’t talk like that. Right, right. So he wonders what the F we’re doing in here, but here we are. So he doesn’t talk like that. So Dad, you have been you you and I just built a deck. Technically you built the deck. I stood there and watched over the last week of you building three decks actually, ’cause we sprung one on you because you only thought we were gonna do one deck. That’s correct.

But two more of them. So we had Decapalooza and you managed to to knock it out and we did a video and folks were impressed with your skills. Now you don’t think much of your skills, that’s just you doing jobs. Well, ’cause that’s what I did most of my life. So it’s something you learn and it’s everyday thing you know. So you learn it, it’s everyday thing. Do you think it’s muscle memory? Do you think that you go on autopilot, like how you were crawling over

the different joists and and just nailing like you know, it was no big thing? No, ’cause that’s what you did, you know, and you get up on top and you lean over and dry the nails and sometimes you hit your thumb and sometimes you don’t. Well, you probably watched me do some of that and it looked awkward as heck, didn’t it? I I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. Well, it’s ’cause it takes time.

Jannine Krause (02:26.989)
To learn how to use a hammer. And you can’t use the short end of it, you gotta put your hand to the

And you can’t gotta whap it. You can’t just tap it. Right. And a lot of us just tap, tap, tap. You’re like you gotta hit and it’s in the wrist, isn’t it? You gotta be like gentle on it. Correct. And we had a deal in the old days, three taps to put an eight penny nail all the way home. You start it with a little tap and then pam, bam, bam. And that saves your wrists, probably. Well, no, it’s just part of

I don’t know. You weren’t thinking about mobility or thinking about getting a job done as fast as you can. I mean you know.

Jannine Krause (03:18.035)
And right now, like lot of people have those air nailers. And we didn’t do any of that because you’re like, mm, I don’t Well I what was your thought? I’m used to the old way.

It’s hard but the I’ve got one of those power nails, but it’s so heavy it’s hard to manipulate and it’s easier for me to reach in my pouch and grab a sixteen penny nail. And and just nail it in versus try to Well I found those things are heavy too. And then the cord like the the pneumatic cord and the air compressor. That and the new ones, you don’t have any cords. It’s either battery powered or

Gas powered. right, right. So even t I’m even behind the times. Right. Well, I’m getting older. That’s true. Yeah, right. I know. gosh. So such a young baby. So at I’m 48, right? And at 48, did you think that you would make it to 90? No. How old did you think you were gonna make it to?

Maybe forty three or four ’cause that’s when my dad died and my brother died at thirty-five. And we’ve had heart problems in our family. The man male male side. And here you are at ninety. Did you do you think that thinking you were gonna pass by forties, did you feel like you had to get in a certain amount of life in that time frame? No. No? No.

Just go through life as it’s dealt to you. You know, trying to make the best of what you got and enjoy your life while you’re here. Well you don’t think about things like that. I mean you it’s in your mind now and then but Sure, sure. Well and and I guess, you know, I think about it in terms of like all the cool stuff you’ve done.

Jannine Krause (05:19.947)
You know, the motorcycle racing, the sprint car racing, the midget racing. Did you any of that were you just like I’m just going for it just because I might not live long, so I better do do good while I’m here? and I thought like that. I I loved racing. I loved working with cars. It’s part of my life. So

And was it the tinkering on the cars or was it the adrenaline when you got to, you know, hit the gas and go around people and a little bit of all that. I know sometimes when you’d go down a straightaway you’d hold your breath.

We were all holding our breath while you were going through the straightaways when there’s lots of people and all kinds of cars making all their moves. When they drop that green, do you hold your breath too? No. No, that’s you breathe through you go for it. Yeah, and try and pass as many cars as you can. Hopefully you make the right moves. Yeah.

Yeah, I always wanted to race but you and Mom said no. We wanted you around, you weren’t no accidents. Mom especially. But you had accidents, it’s part of racing. That’s correct, but you don’t push it off on somebody else. I mean I guess I don’t know what the answer to that is. Well, you Well we didn’t want you to have an accident.

did is not what you’re gonna do. Right. Right. Just because I did this doesn’t mean that you have to do this. What about career? ‘Cause we’ve talked about me working for you as an excav you know, when we worked in excavating together and all of that. I would have liked to have seen you take over for me or when I got ’cause

Jannine Krause (07:25.387)
you were able to go up and work with guys that I had working for me, cutting down trees and moving brush and and even them times when you got on the dozer and was pushing dirt and you never gotten in the back home but that’s a little another story. There there’s a lot going on there. Yeah, right. So but I thought maybe you could continue but see.

That’s not your part of life. You wanna do something different then, you know. So And you let me. Yes, correct. We there wasn’t a need we we didn’t push me to be an excavator. Although I think it would have been fun. I do. It could have been. It could have been fun. I think it’s just a little bit rougher of a crowd than than in the industry than I was willing to put up with. You had a fun friend who I had to duck a lot when we were working with him. Yes, he was a little wild. You had to be careful.

had to stand back because we’re not chainsaws going you want to make sure you’re not close. This guy was wielding the chainsaw like I had never seen anyone do that before. And yeah my speaking of adrenaline and you were worried about me racing. I worked with that guy. Yeah L here we are here we are so obviously folks I’ve told folks a little bit about you and gymnastics.

and starting out, you know, some of your mobility because I think being in gymnastics myself as a kid, I kinda learned, you know, some of the techniques and some of the fun stuff. But my dad, you guys, he would walk on his hands all the time when I was a kid. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I still can’t walk on my hands. But but he I think I think some of what set you up for being able to move so well was the gymnastics. Well when I was in high school and

doing somersaults over handstands and jumping up and swinging up and being able to put my legs over the button of the bars and doing like tumults from one end to the other. It was different. Yeah. You were good you were good at the somersaults. Well, I even remember in your forties when I was a kid, like we would do things. Like we’d be somersaulting and you would play with me and do all kinds of gymnastics y kind of things.

Jannine Krause (09:52.406)
It’s easy to do for me. I’m small and limber. Head then limber anyhow. I would say you still are, ’cause you made me look like when I was doing the I mean, even my husband and I were like, my god, he moves like just so well where Joel and my husband and I were feeling kinda clunky and looking like we had no idea what we were doing, which is true ’cause I I

You’ve taught me a lot. Like you know we learned how to put a roof on, we’ve we’ve learned now how to put decks on, but I am not as finesse. I I just enjoy watching the finesse. You don’t learn overnight. That’s not like anything. Use it or lose it. And that is something that we need to talk about, the use it or lose it. So you have a routine.

Each morning by nine AM you’re out the door. You gotta get out there and do something. Yeah. Even if it’s not right. Well I don’t know. That’s a saying. As long as it’s sunny out and I can get out and

Yeah, but if it’s raining, I’m cooped up. Although there’s a lot of inside work that I could do. But it’s not on my agenda. It’s not as fun. No. You like to be outside. Correct. Yeah. Have you always liked being outside? Pretty much. Even when it’s negative twelve hours? Well. You have to if you’re working a in excavating or in a construction business,

You’re really pretty good till about eight below or so, and then you have to stop and get warmed up now and then.

Jannine Krause (11:34.794)
Yeah. Yeah, we’d work in our snow pants. Well he you had like overalls and correct. Yeah. Car heart stuff. Yeah, right. Exactly. I wore my snowboard pants. But I liked the two part suits instead of one ’cause when you get hot you can always take the upper part off. Which to me was what I like. Other people wear full car hard suit in the women.

Makes it real hard to go to the bathroom in a full suit. As a woman anyway. Probably really died too, you know. Yeah. I like I like the I like I’m like you. I like that too. What about what about, you know, getting outside and and gardening? ‘Cause mom right now and grandma would be like impressed with your gardening skills because you didn’t even garden. So what?

I was like in your seventies, right? Maybe. Well, I really don’t remember. I grandma got in all the time. She had a chair, she’d sit out there and watch things grow, so to speak. Grandma might She might have been a little lazy.

But she would sit out there. I mean she liked being outdoors too. But you you’re out there and you’re you’re I mean, every time I talk to you it’s you’re getting the beans, you’re weeding, you’re and even now everything’s pretty much gone and you’re out there weeding. Well, I we had so many mosquitoes and rain this year that they drove me out of the garden and the weeds took over. And now that the season’s ending is ended, pretty much.

I don’t like all of the weeds that have gotten into the garden so I gotta pull them so I don’t plow under at the end of this fall. Which is next Tuesday, by the way. There you go. Now now we know. Fall. Gotta close up the garden, folks. Yeah. So with the garden, obviously mosquitoes suck. Obviously when it rains a lot it sucks. But you you like it. you like getting out there. What’s your favorite part?

Jannine Krause (13:45.582)
My favorite part about beans. No. I plant too many beans and they took over. I thought you used to do it once a week, but it got to the point where just about every four days you’d gotta go out there and and pick the beans.

Jannine Krause (14:07.559)
You but you did something, you have an adaptation to help to get on your knees. You got your knee pads.

Jannine Krause (14:16.813)
A lot times it’s too muddy and your toes drag the mud along as you’re trying to cut the beans and the knee pads get full of mud. And you even this year because it was so wet, you had your your wet gear on from when we used to do excavating in the rain. It would have been hot. That was for keeping mosquitoes away. Not rain gear for keeping mosquitoes away. That’s a bad that’s a that’s awful.

I couldn’t have done it. I would have been sweating so bad. Either that or you have to spray that deep woods off all over you. And you don’t like that stuff on you. No. See? He’s like me, doesn’t want the you don’t like really s strong smells either. No. You and I are very sensitive to smell. You especially. I know. I’m terrible. Put that car with aroma things in the car and she wants me to throw out.

Yeah, those tree little trees in the car. Those are toxic. Those things are nasty. Mm. I don’t know. Kenton gives them to me. He buys more than he needs and And Kenton’s your best friend more or less. He is. And he’s ninety one. Yes. And you guys grew up together. From fourth grade on. And we’ve been friends ever since. I was his best man at his wedding. Yeah. We’re old friends. Yeah. And my ex partner, Danny Cheater, was

I shouldn’t yeah, he was we’ve all met at fourth grade, so we were to continually Buddies. Yeah. Buddies since then. And you guys would go play together. Now you weren’t in any sports other than gymnastics, right? You didn’t play baseball, you didn’t play football. I don’t know how you would have played football. You would have Well, as a kid, you know, in the neighborhood teams we used to get together

softball and football. My brother cracked me in the head with a hell with a bat one day. Just he sometimes can get a little mean. But but you also played you were wrest in wrestling though. yeah. Even though lately yeah I did I intramural and then I went into high school wrestling in a ninety seven pound class.

Jannine Krause (16:31.277)
I had to chew some chewing gum sometimes to keep my weight down when he went from school to school so I can make made the weight limit. my god. You couldn’t eat and you had to chew gum. Yeah, well I mean spit out the moisture, you know, the spit, you know. You sound like Joel where he used to wear garbage bags and he’d go sit in a sauna to try to drop weight. Really? To make weight clutch. I never knew that. You didn’t do that, did you? No.

Wrestlers are a whole different breed. Which brings me to the food thing. Do you think wrestling, like them trying to cut weight on you for wrestling, caused you to not wanna be, you know, with the food overeating? Or do you feel like you were always like that? Or do you feel like the ring baloney did it as a kid? Remember the ring baloney? yeah, we had when I was growing up it was just my brother and dad and lived alone.

We used all we’d had our menu. And cook it and it blow up and that was part of our sandwiches and the meat for the day, whatever. Mashed potatoes was always one. And did you make oatmeal or something or cream of wheat in the morning? yeah. That was my job to make the

Morning meals for me and my brother. Yeah. And to this day you don’t like cooking much. I like to cook. That was more than that. that was mom’s job. That was her job, yeah. And you’re n you know, we had talked about needing to push away from the table and those kind of things where you’re just like, food people are too too interested in food these days, you think? you can just look around and watch people going down the street. When I was young

you didn’t see heavy people because we didn’t have the money and the food and what you went to the table, whatever you took, you ate it. You didn’t leave the table until you finished it. And you never took more than you can eat. And you never took the biggest piece of meat or whatever was out there ’cause then it made you look like you was a hog. Mm so we were taught never to take the biggest peatest piece of

Jannine Krause (18:53.099)
Whatever’s out there. Hm. That’s just that’s the way it was back in the day. Yeah, ’cause you were born in thirty six and then kind of coming out of the depression by then. And then World War Two and there was no sugar available, we had coupons if we run

Meat, y if you didn’t have a coupon you couldn’t get it. And I think a lot of the meat we ate was horse meat.

meat’s got a little different color, sort of a yellowish color to it. And sometimes our meat it looked a little yellowish. We don’t know for certain, but sometimes we thought we was getting horse meat instead of beef. But the soldiers got all the beef, all the sugar, all of the main things to keep the soldiers going, they got and we had to make do with what was available to us.

Sometimes we’d have rice for cereal in the morning. And instead of having sugar, there was no sugar available, they had the

Sweetener, sweeten, sweetener. It comes into a bottle and you pour it out. And that was how we sweetened the rice. Do you think it was corn? Like corn syrup, maybe? No, it wasn’t corn syrup. It was some kind of a artificial sweetener. They make it today. like sweet and low or something like that? Those packets, like the blue and the pink packets, the fake. Well this was a liquid, usually come in bottle. and you just pour it in a spoon or whatever.

Jannine Krause (20:31.327)
Huh. Anything else that you did then that was that that they don’t do now? Well, obviously not now because we haven’t had rations in a long time. We didn’t well in the winter my stepfather and mother had a monolay coupe and it had a rumble seat in the back. And we would have to ride in the rumble seat even though it was cold out.

And they’d rub the windshield with salt and you had a little fan on the dashboard and it’d blow on that and keep the the windshield closed. Well we still have that in your thirty five Ford truck you got the wind the fan in there. That little fan. Or did you take it out? No, I didn’t I don’t believe it’s in there no I feel like it was there when you got it. Well you know what it could be. I haven’t looked at the dashboard lately.

I remember being there at some point. But anyway, that besides the point, speaking of which he has a thirty you have a thirty-five Ford that you restored. Pickup truck, yeah, put a lay-mo Ford three two Ford motor on auto.

Jannine Krause (21:50.122)
I still got the one old thirty nine forty Ford pickup truck that’s got the original flathead motor in it and that I made a hot rod motor on it. It’s got a three quarter cam, aluminum heads, dual carburetors.

Sixty yellow bore, yeah.

So not only does he tinker this is winter projects, tinkering with the trucks and the motorcycles and well one of the coolest ones he had but sold is but this is a great story, guys, you gotta hear this. He sold his nineteen thirties Oshbash dump truck to this fella that’s like about my age. And the guy takes my dad, picks my dad up and takes him to car shows with it. And it won like some award of like an antique truck award in Wisconsin or something. Yeah, dude.

The Madison old truckers took a picture of that truck and used the emblem made an emblem out of it for their hats two years ago. And that’s sort of cool. That is cool. Yeah. All your hard work. I’m glad that somebody bought it that appreciates it, and it’s I’m really happy that.

Jannine Krause (23:06.775)
that it takes us to the steam shows out in Wisconsin and and he’s he really enjoys it. And this is one of my dad’s buddies from the bar. So bar, a lot of people think about going to the bar and drinking is not necessarily healthy, but really it’s more social for you. You’re not there to get plowed or anything. No, I like to talk to people and and listen to their stories and

Jannine Krause (23:36.302)
That’s what I like to do. Associate I can stay home and have beer in my refrigerator in the garage if I wanted, but it’s I I let talk to people. Well, most of my childhood the the garage was kind of like the bar. Yes. After work, everybody would come over and hang out with my dad in the garage. And that was kind like the hangout spot. Yeah.

send them for a six pack of beer they’d bring back their favorite brand and then I’d s switch brands and then I’d be drinking what they drink. And now apparently you are very pro Miller light on your favorite. That’s my beer, Miller Light. Miller, if you’re listening. just kidding. But you know, I I think it’s

Interesting because in Wisconsin there is a culture of going to the bar. And many of the patients I talk to up in Wisconsin where I’m practicing, they don’t drink there, they just go and see what’s going on in the in the neighborhood. And I’ve got some patients who own a bar, the family owns the bar, and they just go and see, you know, it’s just a gathering place. And I think we’ve kind of got away from this. We’ve we’ve made drinking such a bad thing. Now I’m not saying I’m not condoning getting plowed and all of those different things, you know, and and and wasted, but I’m talking

Talking about like just a socialization, having some form of socialization. And and if you’re not a drinker, that’s not, you know, that’s okay. It’s it’s finding somewhere where you can hang out with people. Right, and you don’t go to extremes. Mm-hmm. It’s just something you quench your thirst while you’re talking. It can get a little edgy, but yeah. Generally you I try and keep my drinking down.

I don’t want I want to be in control of my faculties. Well that and you have you have you know that if you drink too much you can’t function the rest of the day. So part of you is like, I’ve gotta go and I’ve gotta keep my motivation up. That’s correct. If I drink two beers, I can come home and work out real good in the garden or whatever I’m on, but when I get three

Jannine Krause (25:55.062)
It gets a little iffy and if I drink four I’m all done. You gotta know your limits, obviously. And and you know, the point here is not the you know, we’re not condoning that going and drinking is the best idea. It’s just more that it’s just a place that he’s found to to, you know, catch the scoop on folks and and and the neighborhood stuff. Yeah. You need to learn what’s going on in town too. Yeah, and it’s my life.

And it’s what I do, it’s not what everybody else do or what I it’s what I do, you know. They s everybody else has their own way of doing things and

Jannine Krause (26:37.471)
Mm. That’s my daily limit. I just set a limit and I try and abide by it. That’s all I can do. You do well. You do well. No, one of the things you’ve always taught me in life and something we’ve talked about a lot because of course I’ve had some issues with trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. And I don’t think I’m grown up yet. Are you grown up yet? Have you grown up?

Really? I thought you were gonna say no. But but what you always say to me is if you do something you have to you wanna love it. If it’s your job, you know, like that you have to love. And I think a lot of people get sick because they do things they don’t enjoy.

And you know, mental health is really important. And I think that’s something that you’ve always been pretty good on the mental health side of things. I’ve never seen you, you know, go too far out of the range of being generally happy go lucky kind of guy. Well, I’ve always thought and probably people would disagree with me, that if you’re gonna go work

you should like what you’re doing because you have to do it the rest of your life. If you have a certain thing you do, if you go to work every day and you hate to go to work, maybe you should find a different line of work. Mm-hmm. And because it it’s stressful, or at least I’ve been told I don’t have that problem, but people have told me that they just don’t want to go to work in the morning

that’s no way to go through life and you’re gonna do it your whole life, either that or you’re not gonna succeed.

Jannine Krause (28:28.523)
Yeah. And that’s been something that I know I’ve heard you talk to people about different things. My dad’s kinda like a counselor, guys. I I would say that if we looked if we looked at you and your relationship with all the folks at the bar, you’re kinda like their counselor in a way. I I he listens really well. He’s a good listener. This is why I wanted to bring him on because he doesn’t get to say a lot because you know, when someone listens to and gives you that space to to listen, they you know, a lot of people will take it, which it’s great. That’s that’s how you feel. Yeah, well.

I try not to talk over people and anymore on T V you see people talking and they’re talking over each other and you can’t I have a hearing problem so I can’t understand what they’re talking about and so it’s annoying. It does seem that people don’t let the other we we wanna get our point across super fast. Yeah. You you don’t let the one person finish their conversation and you’re interrupting them

‘Cause you know more about it or s you have your own thoughts on it and you want the other guy to listen to your thoughts instead of listening to theirs and and

It’s I like to hear other people’s thoughts.

It’s interesting, you learn a lot. I learn a lot. People tell me stories about what they’ve done in their lifetime and it’s a astounding just going through life, they might be a cop or a policeman and then they were over and

Jannine Krause (30:13.783)
did this and he did this and and they went through life. This guy was I was talking to who was born in Colorado and raised on a horse farm and to end up over here and do all these different things. It’s really interesting just just to listen to talk about what they’ve done through their life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s interesting to listen to stories too. That’s kinda why I do the podcast too, ’cause I like to ask questions and learn more about people. Yeah. And

And find out what what has them ticking. And a lot of people want to know what has you ticking. Well, well. That’s life to me, normal life. Did anyone did anyone in your life inspire you to wanna listen to folks more? Or do you feel like that just kinda came out of you? No, it was because of the way I

Jannine Krause (31:16.211)
It’s you have to listen to people and that’s how you learn. And if you can’t listen you’re not gonna learn. That’s what learn to be a carpenter, learn to do whatever. If you don’t pay attention you can’t be good at it. I mean, it slips by your mind where if you do something every day and try and do it as good as you can do it, and if you do screw up, which everybody makes mistakes

you gotta try to not make that mistake again. Sometimes you blast yourself because you make mistakes and you know better, but it it happens. Well, yeah. And then when you get older it happens more often. We’ll we’ll get into that. Memory recall is getting bad. it happens, it happens. I you know, the whole thing about listening and and

learning from the lessons I think is is something that we’ve kinda lost that art a little bit. I think a lot of folks want to do it their way. and and you really had some good mentors for construction and then excavating. Who taught you excavating? I didn’t even learn that one as to who taught you that or did you learn on the job? Well a little bit of both but Donnie Chader was

We bought this backhoe called a backhoe and we were person we fick it was broke and we fixed it. And the guy that he was gonna lease it to backed out on us and we were buying old houses down the lakefront and moving up and we started excavating our own basements and putting our own sewer and water lines in and it sort of just all developed over the need to do it instead of having somebody else do it.

Learn by experience. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. And patience with yourself. yeah. And now that you’re noticing that the mind isn’t what it was and having patience with yourself, I noticed a couple struggles while we were working on the deck. yeah. Well. He’s hard on us. I made mistakes.

Jannine Krause (33:33.239)
that I shouldn’t have made and I know better I but I’m I was out of out of t tune with recall. I my trying to recall things and and when you make mistakes and you know better it’s sort of hard on you.

We’re we wouldn’t have known any different, you know, we were just like, okay, great. Well, I gave you some bad information last week on the deck. So I’d take blame for it. And I always told people at work for me, If you make a mistake, don’t say I didn’t do that. Accept it. Then nobody’s gonna kill ya. I mean

Take the blame if you make a mistake. not try and say, I didn’t do that or I didn’t do that. If you did it, admit it. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. It’s part of life. I agree. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of getting older.

and different challenges with the body. Cause I think a lot of people, you know, you were saying, I don’t want to do this because I want people to think I’m showing off. And and the truth is is you’re not showing off. We want we want to learn from you.

You know, I I’m in the industry of all these folks spouting off longevity tips and they’re my age. What the hell do they know about longevity? I’m like, I don’t know anything. I don’t you know, all I know is what my body’s experiencing now. But I’m curious, you know, at ninety, you know, aches and pains, you know, we’ve just talked about recall, prostate also, heart stuff. Let’s talk about a little bit of that and and how that affects you and and you know, even the thyroid being taken out because of

Jannine Krause (35:24.527)
Biary cancer some years ago. Like how how do you feel about all that? Tell tell us a little bit about just watching the body age and things that we could learn from the different things that happen as the body gets older. Well, a lot of it has got to do with your attitude towards what you’re doing. For instance, when I mow the backyard with my hand mower, it’s it is self-propelled. But

sometimes when you get halfway through it you d wanna quit. But I won’t let myself quit. I’ll keep on until I get the job done, not just stop and say, Yeah, I’ll get in and take a rest. No, sometimes you gotta keep pushing yourself to get the job done and it’s better to do that. And you can be out of breath or not not so much out of breath as

as tired and you instead of giving up you just keep going. that’s that’s that’s even picking beans sometimes or working in the garden or and I’m a little out of breath and I’m I’m my

muscles give me problems, but I don’t let that stop me from working. I take a little stop rule of a couple of minutes through and keep going to get the job done. You gotta get the job done. So you sometimes I’ll come in the house and I don’t feel like doing one other thing, but I set a goal to do so many hours a day

And I try and do that and sometimes it’s hard to do but and then the rain when it rains you can’t work outside. So then you feel like, No, what am I gonna do? This is how I got him to do this, by the way guys. It’s pouring out well not at the moment, but it’s raining today, so I I got him. Otherwise you’d be itching to get outside. Yeah, well I would be. I have lots of stuff to do outside. If you own a home

Jannine Krause (37:38.901)
You can never say I’m bored because if you say that if a he owned a home o your own home, there’s always plenty to do, either moan or

pulling weeds, there’s just leaves to rake. There’s just so much to do. And you don’t have to be

Jannine Krause (38:04.929)
fixing the shingles or whatever but there’s plenty to do around the house. Mm-hmm. I feel like we create projects too sometimes. Yes. To to change up things and Well, if you think about everything sometimes you see little things you need to do and so you do it.

And so one of the biggest things you’ve always said is just keep moving, keep doing, keep going. That seems to be kind of the theme here. Like you’re setting yourself goals, you’re getting time, you know, limits. You make sure you have fun though, ’cause every day, what time do you go to the bar every day? Eleven thirty, I go to the bar for until one thirty, two o’clock, and then I can go and do some more hour work. Splitting logs, stocking or working in the garden or

Whatever as long as it’s not raining. And if you have aches or pains, we’ve kinda talked about it over the years ’cause you know, your witch doctor with her needles and stuff has taught you some acupressure points and things to release. The pain’s not always where you feel it. That’s correct. Sometimes you think it’s in between your legs, like the get these

attacks of somebody stabbing you with a knife or a needle or something and it’s really not there, what’s in your lower back or somewhere and you I’ve been taught by my daughter to look other places and need that. Take and push with your hands and need that and sometimes that makes the other pain go away, but you can’t just do it for a minute or two, you gotta stay with it for a little bit, you know.

Makes sense. It seems to work. Yeah, it does. Yeah. I I mean, I obviously love it that way because it would be my major part of my business. So I better not say I don’t like it. I would hope you’d share some of that with your dad. I shared a lot with you. You have. You have. Now you and I have been a pair since pretty much mom passed. And that’s been like twenty plus years now. Gosh. It’s like twenty four years, I think.

Jannine Krause (40:21.035)
Yeah, twenty four. Yeah. Time flies. Yeah. When even when you’re having fun. totally when you’re having a fun and fun it goes faster. Well I guess. Now a lot of people lose their partners, right? And and they either die soon after or they kinda feel lost or or they’re upset or sad and things of that nature. Well yeah, I guess it depends on your your mindset.

When mom passed, I never thought about going to have another or get another woman or whatever, even though she took care of everything, cooking, cleaning. I didn’t realize how much she did till after she passed. I didn’t know it was took that much work to run a vacuum cleaner. But she did the bookkeeping, the cooking, the washing just you know, my job was to bring the money and well she did too.

she was working when after you were able to go to school. She was a stay at home mom when you were little. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And once I was independent enough, she was back to nursing. That’s where I get probably some of my nursing or Probably not that I’m a nurse, but like the background in that department, but but the medical medical field. Well you were pretty active too, you know, with ice skating and swimming and diving and all those things. So

Mm. What was your reason for wanting to do all that? I wanted to stay busy, I think. I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean I I just I’m kinda like you. I guess I’m like you in that I like being busy and and trying new things and trying stuff out. I’d say I probably tried out a lot of different things more than mastered things. But I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with that. It’s nice to sit around with you for a change and

Since we’re together for a day and or two and it’s nice having somebody in the house for a while except that cat. So I bought my dad or not bought, I I was given a cat about three years ago and my dad had said he’d wanted a pet, but I guess that was more like a part time pet. And now that we have Sam in our world, Sam is terrorizing you in the morning and you’re not able to sleep so well. But

Jannine Krause (42:49.774)
Sam. Well, I’m hoping that eventually he’ll get older and he won’t bug you as much and maybe maybe the two of you can make amends. It’s taking him longer to get used to my routine. He’s wanting me to go by his routine. Well, I think that’s how cats work. They’re not quite like dogs. I th I think cats are like I saw a patient had a shirt that said like my cat’s servant or something. And I’m like

Sam Sam has an idea of his own. But it is nice to have a pet and some someone around in the house though, so it’s not You’re not convincing. You’re not convincing us. No, I know. It’s better to have me around than than Sam. Yes, definitely. You can make me a nice apple pie when we get through talking here. And now you guys know how this relationship works. Dinner, apple pies. well. We have fun though. We do.

Well, thanks dad for sitting down and sharing a little bit on yourself with us and and it letting me share a little bit of you with everyone else since we’ve got some questions and I think we got out pretty much most of the questions for that point. Yeah. I don’t know. Cause he was like, What does anybody want to know about an old guy? Yeah. Correct. Well you’ve seen that thing about old guys rule, right? Yeah.

I’m not one to be impressive or anything like that. I’m just having talk with Janine and

Jannine Krause (44:25.72)
What I do is what I do and what you do is what you do.

Jannine Krause (44:33.834)
If you want a longer life, don’t give up. K don’t sit around and do nothing waiting for the Grim Reaper, cause he’ll be here one day.

Then it’s time to give up. Well said, Dad. Well said. Yeah. Well, thanks for hanging out with me today. Thank you guys for watching another episode of the Hellfix podcast. We’ll catch you next time with gosh knows whatever else I’m gonna bring your way. And stay tuned to Instagram with for more of this guy and me showing you guys all kinds of fun ways to move. Take care.