I remember reading a book from the 1930s called "Life begins at 40"

And the basic premise of the book was:

"IF you have all your ducks in a row life begins at 40, otherwise your life is likely going to be hell."

And this is likely still true today. Which to me is funny because even in the 1930s most people didn't live past 60 or 70 if then and looked like people do at 100 to 110 now when they made it to 60 or 70 then too. So, the world has changed a lot but some things remain the same.

IF you have your finances and health in order and family in order then life can indeed begin at 40. But if not life can be just hell.

My life was difficult in some ways until I was about 50 but luckily enough things were in order so when I got a heart virus and was forced to retire at age 50 I could do it. I was amazed it was possible but still it happened. So, I now have been semi-retired since age 50. So, in some ways my life began at age 50. I have been happier in some ways since I retired than at any time in my life since age 18 or 21.

Because as you get older you tend to get happier because you start to figure things out often.

I remember being happy to be age 32 when my happiness first started in my life as an adult. Then I was okay until my father died at my age  37. Then I was sort of messed up myself until I almost died at 50. Then I was forced to retire and I have "Sort of been okay ever since" (even though I expected to die then by 60 or 65.

But, here I am now at age 70 and I still ski and snorkel and still own a motorcycle and hike and I'm thinking about getting my mountain bike out and having it re-tuned or buying a new one.

So, things are still working out for me (even though I had to have my yellow lab put to sleep this week. He had a tumor off his spleen like my last dog had but his burst so there really wasn't a useful way to treat him especially because I almost die the last month or two myself.

But, I sort of knew my dog was going to die when my daughter's corgi died a few months ago because he was already 11 to 13 years old and 12 is a lot for a yellow lab. But, it's hard to face the fact that my old friend is gone but at least he is out of his misery because he was in terrible pain at the last because the burst tumor was crowing out his organs before we paid 900 dollars to get this diagnosis through an ultrasound and other tests. He will be cremated and take his place on the book shelf of our other 3 dogs whose ashes we have kept now since around 2000 to 2003 one by one. The first attacked a raccoon around 2003 to 2005 when a baby sitter of my daughter forgot to bring her   a corgi-Jack russell terrier mix inside after dark where we live near the pacific ocean. The other two were a corgi (my daughter's dog we raised from a puppy for 15 years and my long haired german shepart-australian shepard mix who was the smartest dog I ever knew who made it to 15 1/2 years of age a couple of years ago now. My yellow lab we got when he was 8 from a rescue group for yellow labradors.