Okay, I hope this isn't too grim for you.

I'm not falling apart. I only just turned 50. Yeah, I have more skeletal aches and pains than I did at 28, but I'm a lot better equipped to take care of myself, and I have a whole lot fewer problems of other kinds.

I also know that every single person I know over 75, intimately enough to have such a conversation with - including those who are now deceased whom I knew while I was an adult - every one with the sole exception of my mother, who, God bless her, could find something to enjoy in Hell - every one has told me, "Don't get old."

I'm at the age to think about taking that advice. It's a very serious component of my living will, medical POA, and current medical planning.