There’s your birthday age and there’s your lifestyle age, according to the senior advocacy organization, the Association of Mature American Citizens. AMAC cites Ray Ruschel as proof that you are only as old as you feel. Not only did he go back to school at the age of 49, when he enrolled in the North Dakota State College of Science he signed up to play football to boot.  But the single father of two grown children who has served for 20 years in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and Jordan and the National Guard also works the overnight shift at the Minn-Dak Farmers’ Cooperative, one of the largest sugar beet producers in North Dakota and Minnesota, according to the Associated Press. The AP reports that he “fits in a couple of hours at the gym after he gets off at 8 a.m. each day … After a few hours of schoolwork online at his apartment near campus, Ruschel grabs some rest before afternoon practice, which runs until about 7 p.m.  Then it’s back to his apartment, where Ruschel showers and eats before lying down for whatever rest he can get before it all begins again with his overnight shift.”

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Doodle House

The Cambridge Dictionary defines doodling as idly drawing pictures while thinking about something else. But British artist Sam Cox, who calls himself Mr. Doodle, was obviously thinking about doodling when he embarked on the task of covering every square inch of the inside and outside surfaces of his U.K. mansion with doodles, says the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. It took Mr. Doodle two years, 240 gallons of paint, 401 cans of spray paint and 2,296 pens to complete the task. Apparently it was not just whim; Cox says he, his wife and his dog are going to go on living full time in their black and white Doodle House.

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How big is your jack-o’-lantern?

You know it’s almost Halloween when the road to the Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence, N.Y. is backed up with vehicles carrying big — very big — pumpkins. The Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] reports that Scott Andrusz of  Williamsville, NY has a leg up in the competition; his 2,554 pound gourd certainly makes it the biggest in the U.S. thus far. But it’s kind of a lightweight when compared to the 2,702 pound pumpkin an Italian farmer grew in 2021, winning the still standing Guinness World Record.

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