I think it's the weather making me feel old. By February I've had it with winter. I used to feel 75 in February when I was still reading Dick and Jane. This year I guess February got sick of being only 28 days long and decided to take over March.

Things might still get better rather than worse. In his autobiography, When I Was Old, the French mystery writer Georges Simenon claimed that he felt old when he was fifty, but by the time he'd passed 65 he'd got over it.

Mind you, I am only relating what I remember. I read the book a long time ago and I'm over 50 and my memory might be going. But Simenon gives me hope.

Maybe age is like wading into cold water -- unpleasant as it begins to creep up your legs but once you get in over your...uh...waist the worst is over.

Also, no wonder Simenon felt old when he insisted on locking himself in hotel rooms to write entire novels nonstop in four days and then entertain three prostitutes at once. (I don't think he meant they were copyediting his manuscript either) Is it not the same for every man, he pointed out.

Who am I to contradict Georges Simenon?