Getting older is as much fun or as traumatic as you decide it's going to be. I'm staring hard at 49 (a week from Monday) and, fortunately, it's not putting me through as many changes as I had feared. Perhaps that's because this past year has been so volatile (my wife died and my first cd was released just for starters). I'm ssomewhat more inclined to believe, however, that, no matter what life does to or for you, there aren't to many alternatives to just playing out the hand you've been dealt. More often than not you'll spend long periods of time bluffing like hell. You keep playing, though. Life is the only game in town.