Introduction

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How did I cook up the idea for this book? I was taking a shower after returning from a workout at the YMCA, and singing, very badly, a couple of James Taylor tunes about having a monkey on my back and how we wise guys can go home another way. I also wondered how I would spend the rest of my day. 

I was bothered by my inaction regarding what to do with the fifty or so short stories I had written in the last three years—none submitted for publication. I just kept grinding, making nit-picky changes, rearranging paragraphs, adding a sentence here and there, and starting a new story but never quite finishing the old. 

Soon, I found myself shampooing my hair, feeling good about my workout but out of sorts regarding the direction of the resting places of my writing. Then it struck me. Several of the tales were connected, and I had others in mind that focused on the same general topic: what it is like for me, and those I know and have read about, to age. My focus was on perceptions, observations, unexpected twists, weird stuff, and feelings. I was not interested in score-keeping with regard to simply reporting on experiences or creating a laundry list of maladies that have surfaced. I also knew that I wasn’t alone in my thoughts. There have to be many thousands, perhaps millions, of us who feel the same way. So why not string together these stories and write a short book? I liked the idea and was immediately energized.

This is not a how-to volume designed to tote big ideas forward for consideration. You can find that kind of advice in the popular press or in books and articles whose goal is to guide and advise us in our aging. Those works can be valuable, perhaps instructing us about what to do when we can no longer sleep through the night. I like following Anne Lamott’s column in The Washington Post, “A User’s Guide to Aging.” My collection of observations and feelings is different. It is more like a long riff that touches on many of the issues we face as we head toward the big sleep.
I have also attempted to add humor to some fairly serious situations. Getting a good laugh, or at least a faint smile, made some of the circumstances I describe much easier to deal with. Sometimes my attempt to make light of a serious development helped those around me as well. 

Here are my thoughts. I hope you laugh (or smile).