It's fun getting older

First, the obvious downside. I will die before most people younger than me (I am age 62), or so I hope.

By the way, I can be an ungrateful wretch, too. About three years ago I died in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cookeville, TN, and some well meaning people saved my life and my brain. Good on 'em. But now I have to go and die again, and I just hope the next time will be as quick and painless as the first time. Like I said, I can be an ungrateful wretch, too.

One thing that hurts my feelings is this. When young people ask me what was it like in the "old days", it is both an honest question and reflects my getting older. Even in the last few years I have lied about fighting a dinosaur raptor on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and the young children then challenged me around the fire. I used as a reference the movie " Jurassic Park", and they all said what is that. Now in fairness, they all knew about the movie the next year. But right then I knew my time had come and gone.

So good luck being a parent in your own right. After all, you will do it your own way. And listening to your own ancestors will help you, I think.

Last getting older comment. I presently live in an 100 old time place on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. My mission statement to myself was to make it a living museum for my descendents, and provide them an opportunity for them to live like fellow Americans lived even 100 years ago. I suspect most adults don't like it, though kids will thrive. After all, just being able to turn on the thermostat is a pretty good deal. Plan B is to put in wood into the wood stove, which is an imposition to most these days, since one has to maintain the wood stove heat overnight.

To put things in one's perspective, I personally have lived in a canvas tent with a dirt floor in Korea up near the DMZ (for months) when it never got above freezing for over a month. Hence I think where I presently live is at least better, like more comforting, than fellow Americans who live in Nebraska, or New England, for example.