As I lurch into my Golden Ages, I still try to keep up with what’s new.

• I’ve got gadgets. Control my thermostat with my phone- yes please! Got a pan that tells me how to cook- I’ll take two.
• I’ve got hashtags! #firstworldproblems, #WednesdayWisdom.
•  I wear leisure athletic apparel everywhere.
• I read blogs. One morning, while sipping my cold brew coffee and reading a favorite blog, I came upon a term that I didn’t recognize, Aging in Place. Hmmm. Wait, I believe my book character Charli knows something about that. This is how she recounted a special moment of fine dining:

The end of the evening found us in a refrigerated room that contained a mammoth pile of pink salt blocks created from 250,000 year old Himalayan salt. Arranged on stainless steel shelves around the room were chunks of meat and steak cuts, filet, ribeye, sirloin. They were dark red and some were almost black in color. We touched a black one, it was hard and firm. This was the dry-aging room of the number-one steak house in Chicago.

I’m supposed to spend my sunset years as a dry-aged chunk of meat? I poured more coffee and read some more of the post.

“Aging in place is living in the home and community of your choice as you get older.” The blog provided helpful ideas for creating an Aging in Place bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. Here are the highlights, accompanied by my helpful comments, in bold.

• Living room- Lift chairs are a wonderful addition to any cozy living room Tell that to HGTV

• Remove caster wheels from furniture for obvious reasons Otherwise Hubs and I will play bumper cars with the rolling chairs

• Treat all fabrics with stain-resistant coating Red wine does stain!

• Bedroom- keep supportive slippers handy Orthopedic Uggs?!

• Clear pathway to bathroom! Finally, one I can agree with!

I finished that post on Aging in Place but I wasn’t brave enough to click on the next link: What to Expect in your 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. In dry-aged beef terms, I am somewhere between 28 days on the rack with the Himalayan salt and 40 days. I hope I make it to 55 days.

I don’t mean to make light of serious health and aging issues. Well, I guess I did, but I understand that it’s good to plan and and useful to be mindful of the possibilities. I have a hashtag for that, too- #thestruggleisreal