A sudden attack of Mortality (or am I just going soft?)

It seems that all of a sudden (in the past year or two) that I have started to feel "age". Not that I can feel myself aging, but maybe that I have been ignoring the passing of time. The the time was just going on and I was the proverbial grasshopper, and now I'm wondering how quickly winter will set in. It's not particularly one thing or anoher, rather a combination of things. Can I list a few? Sure:

- My hairline is receeding in the only way I can imagine I wouldn't like it to. (gosh, I'm so vain) That, and finding grey hairs, though those don't bother me as much as anticipating my future comb-over.

- I no longer have the metabolism of a 15-year-old. Eating cheetos, watching TV and sitting around has taken its toll. That, and my cardio-pulmonary capacity pretty much sucks. Getting on the bike to go on a club ride, sucking wind and getting dropped is a pretty clear indicator.

- Realizing that at the end of any 5-year plan, not matter what the plan is, I will be 37 years old. Not the end of the world, but you only get so many 5-year plans, eh? And the 5-year plan that starts then will be a plan that gets me through to 42... a not-so-spring-chicken age.

- Things just aren't coming to me as easily as they used to. There's more of a struggle. Either that, or maybe I've gotten too dumb, soft, fat, and lazy that when it gets tough I'm more of a pussy and don't kill myself to do whatever it is (since "whatever it takes, whatever the cost" used to be a part of my worldview. Maybe I was just a poser all that time.) Hell, that fact that I just used the phrase "all that time" referring to an unrecoverable past sure is telling...

- oh yeah, and the dude who just sat down next to me at the window in the cafe, during the "is this seat taken... nice weather we're having..." pro-forma smalltalk asked "are you a grad student or professor?". Fucking shit. I'm definitely an old fogey now. I could ignore the "sir" I get at restaurants, 'cause that's part of their job. But this... why did you have to be so cruel? Damn you... damn you all to hell.

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If only we could all live in Niceville... too bad it's so many miles away