Getting old ain't that bad at the moment, just had my first son (born 9 days ago) at the age of 52, just rocking him to sleep right now as I'm writing this.

Enjoying feeding him and changing his nappies (except for when you think you've cleaned him up and about to put on the clean nappy ..................... and he pee's all over me! BOY! for a little fella, he can't half get some power behind it )

Ah well, off to put him down for a few hours and catch some sleep myself

Your first at 52!!! Congratulations!

I chose the early route... my granddaughter just graduated high school. I cannot imagine doing what you are doing now at our ages (although, if my granddaughter provides a little one any time soon, I guess I'll probably get the chance). The great thing about being a grandparent, over a parent, is that you can spoil them rotten and then give them back. Sort of a benevolent revenge thing...

And I am somewhere in between... at 52 my daughter is 15

But the hair is grey... we have 3 Megans in my church, and so when more than one of us is around in the same meeting, I refer to myself as 'the grey Megan' given that the other two are college students. The other folks try to be more polite, but get tangled up, so I shall probably get my way in the end...

The trick is to enjoy life, enjoy the folks around you, enjoy whatever it is you are doing.

I too need some improvement in the paycheck area, like I would like a job. Unemployment sucks, and job-hunting is a frustrating exercise in futility and wastes a heck of a lot of time.

Everything else is wonderful!

Am fortunate in the hair department... our Hiberno-Norse (West Cork) male roots bequeathed this mix of multiple shades going from blond to red to light brown to darker brown. As we age, the grey begins at the chin (prior to the greying, it was red) and goes upwards until it covers just north of the ears. The result is that greying on the sides that everyone seems to think looks "distinguished". This is how we depart the mortal coil- my Grandfather was 83 when he bowed out and that was what his hair looked like, and it is the way mine is now.

With regard to the paycheck thing; like everything else you do in life, a series of decisions, whether good or bad, brought you to where you are. At one point in my life (1999), I saw that the agency (advertising) where I was employed was just not going to last. The owner had made some unthinking and disastrous mistakes and put the business into real trouble. We could no longer trust the solvency of the organization- our paychecks began to bounce. I was talked into a State job which borrowed on a part of my military experience- I went to work in the prison system (womens maximum security, to be exact). I did this only as a "stop-gap" measure- until I could reinsert myself into the creative end of advertising. Well, frankly, I got lazy, did not keep abreast of changes in the field, blah, blah, blah, and 13 years later, here I remain. It is not a job I recommend- we have even surpassed dentists (formally at the top of the list) for suicides. On the other hand, and for some strange reason, I seem to be good at it (?) and it IS a paycheck, just not a very pleasant way of making a living. And I'm surrounded by those who are, basically, functionally illiterate. Frustrating.