I’m confused.  My eyes appear to be losing their capabilities the older I get, but it seems like my eye site is great while highway driving.  Those little white signs on the side of the road that 25 years ago I swear were not there (or my eyes just couldn’t see) — are now everywhere and I’m seeing them quite clearly.  What signs?  Those signs that say “Speed Limit.”

Yes the speed limit signs.  My eyes must improve during highway driving because my car seems to hover right at the speed limit.

And I noticed an inverse relationship between age and being able to read those signs.  All around me the folks that seem to be my age or older seem to be able to read those signs better than those drivers half our age.  I witness this phenomenon daily while driving my 40+ miles on Arizona highways to work and back.  So I can only assume the older I get, the better my eye site gets while driving on the highway.

I think I’ll petition AARP for a grant to perform an official study of the relationship between higher age and improved vision during highway driving — at least the ability to read the speed limit signs.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

It happens more often than I wish it would.  I’m about to enter a favorite lunch restaurant – mine lately is Culver’s – when it happens.  Someone is about to exit and they hold the door for me.  I notice that they are probably as old as I am, but then they say it, “Here you go Sir, have a great day!”

Did he say “sir?”

Sir? Really!?  Why would he, being my age, refer to me as sir?  Then the dim lightbulb hovering above my head turns quite bright.  Could it be that he was being polite — to his elders!?  z-o-i-n-k-s!

Catching my reflection in the glass door — it hits me … the mind’s eye once again played a trick.  It told me the nice person holding the door was ‘about’ my age, but that reflection tells the truth.  Rick – look again – he was probably 10 or more years younger than you.  And that grey stuff laying close to your head — yes just above your ears — did you notice the polite man holding the door — his was not grey!

The first time this happened I was truly taken aback — to my wife I asked, “do I really look that old?”

Now I seem to be able to take it in stride and realize – hey, Rick, there are some nice people out there that have some polite manners — even if those manners help expose your true age.

By the way, “thanks for holding the door — that was really polite!”

Need help with this one?  Try reading this informative article.

Well there’s another technique — if only someone, some genius scientist somewhere, could figure out how to clone the hair that grows on an older man’s ears, eyebrows and nose — our problems would be over.

So, I find myself constantly amazed.  I’ve given up on growing hair on my head – instead I just lean over the tub every 8 days or so (yep, my back hurts after this) and simply grab my hair clippers with a #1 attachment (the one that cuts hair the closest to the scalp) and buzz away.  The benefits are truly amazing – no combs, no shampoo, no fussing with comb-overs on windy days, etc.  If you can just get used to your sans-hair dome you’ll be way ahead of the game.  Or you could be my brother Eddie – he has hair that grows all over his head with no coaxing.

Me on the other hand — my hair grows on my ears — and it requires some unique personal grooming techniques to maintain.  CAUTION – razors create a lot of blood on earlobes.

So I resort to a saying I once heard which I like to sometimes repeat.  “God made some heads perfect — the rest He covered with hair.”

As I approach the big Five-Oh I wanted to keep a countdown.  There’s something about turning 50 that is impacting me more than turning 30 and far more than turning 40.  What is it – I think it’s the idea that I have lived half a century — zoinks!

My brain still harbors juvenile thoughts — flashing scenes of days in the – distant – past.  Remember playing hockey at 15 years old and being knocked out as a result of a full body check — a full body check I attempted to inflict on an opponent.  I can still remember that – 35 years ago.  Then I happen by a mirror and see a stranger looking back – no wait, that’s me, only several years older.  Crazy stuff, but cool enough to write about.  Do you experience ‘meeting yourself’ in a mirror for the first time?  Anyway, I thought it would be nifty to know the countdown to becoming truly formerly49 — do you want to countdown to a particular date – get your countdown at http://mycountdown.org/