Old and Happy

     Uncle Jack just noticed that two weeks have passed since he last blogged.  "Time flies when you're having fun" it is said, and if a recent scientific study got it right this is especially true for older folks like himself.  According to the scientists there is strong evidence that once a person gets past 50 he tends to get happier with each passing year right up to the time he croaks---barring serious illness or some other idiosyncratic factor that might affect the psyche of any particular individual. He got this good news from an article in the New York Times this morning, a link to which he has provided below for anybody who would like to read the whole thing.  It's a pleasant change from reading about the oil spill catastrophe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/research/01happy.html?ref=todayspaper

    The scientists could shed no light on why people should get happier as they grow older but Uncle Jack can offer some purely anecdotal evidence that might help.  For one thing he doesn't have to go to work any more.  This has freed up a lot of time for him to do the things he really likes to do, like  reading, for example, and watching the Orioles on his 52 inch, high definition you-know-what, even  
though they are the worst team in baseball at the present time. Being in a position to do almost nothing that you don't want to do can contribute greatly to your sense of well-being.  A little red wine every day doesn't hurt either. Uncle Jack knows.
      Anyway he just wanted to let his dwindling cohort of readers know that he is in fine fettle and too busy doing nothing to sit down and write a blog very often, for which he apologizes.  His only begotten son Eric and family will be visiting all next week from Los Angeles which means at least a couple of trips to our nation's capital among other sightseeing.  There should be a blog in there somewhere so look for something in a couple of weeks if you are so inclined.

    This picture turned up on Facebook a couple of days ago.  Uncle Jack can really identify with that frog.