The nice thing about writing for a blog is that you get to tinker with your work after you’ve published it. It was with the aim of tinkering, then, that I read over my most recent post. To my horror, I saw that I had misspelled two words, and I was ashamed. I have always thought of myself as a great speller, but I have always been smug about it, too. Now the chickens have come home to roost, and I find that I’m just like every other clucker.
I’ve known for some time that my spelling prowess was on the wane, but I can’t help but wonder here about other personal characteristics I thought were inviolate. I used to have shiny, bouncy hair, and now it’s dull. I used to be a good dancer, and now my feet hurt. I used to be a classy dresser, and now I try to see how long I can wear the same black pants without having to wash them. I used to adore animals, and now I have grown hostile towards cats. I have become a watcher of too much TV, an eater of already prepared foods, a fogy about women who use their phones in bathroom stalls, a grumbler about taxes.
It is startling to see that what I thought were solids are vapors.
ruminationville 
In British terms you’re suffering from the Victor Meldrew syndrome…grumpy old age gets the best of us in the end…I started to fall to bits the moment I hit 40.
I’m hoping there’s still time for me to head off the worst of the symptoms :). Leslie
I find myself ranting Victor Meldrew-style every now and again…at which point I’m usually shaking a fist at my mirror image and shout “I don’t believe it, I’m middle-aged!”
Ah, well, in those moments what can we do but look upon that mirror image with compassion? Leslie