My forties were so much better than any previous decade, and the fifties, so far, have continued in that same general direction -- better and better. With an occasional roadbump. There's a bumpersticker that says, "Of all the things I miss, I miss my mind the most" -- and I really do find it VERY unsettling to have to accept a diminished memory capacity, increasing forgetfulness / absent-mindedness, generally feeling that I can't trust my own mental faculties, which used to be much stronger. Although I guess I've always had some tendency toward absent-mindedness.

On my 50th (July 1999) my husband and friends held a delightful picnic up at Chatauqua park, a beautiful park at the bas of the Flatirons here in Boulder. It was a wonderful day.