Good GOLLY, Kids, You're in for a LONG Haul!

I never have given voice to the old saying, "I can sleep when I'm dead," because I appreciate a strategically placed nap.
By that I mean: a nap I place strategically during the day, in a strategically comfortable place. Or, if I can’t do THAT, I’ll just nod off anywhere, as long as I’m not on a ledge of the umpire state building. (No, that’s not a typo, but rather a genuflection to the fact that the umpiring in the various stages of the Fall Classic this season makes the boys in blue likely candidates to be, well, pushed off the Empire State Building.)
Still, lots of party animals and workaholics live by the phrase, allowing them to party hardy or work their fingers to the bone. Thus, they end up with bloodshot eyes and boney fingers.
And THAT reminds me of the old Hoyt Axton song, “Boney Fingers.” Come on, set a spell and sing along:

Kinda makes a guy need a nap, eh?
It'll be up to the boys and Amelia and the mystery grandchild to decide whether to be nappers or surrender to boney fingers. And even though they resist naps today (well, the extra-wombals [kind of like extraterrestirals] do, anyway), they'd better wise up, and soon, because they could be awake years, or even DECADES, longer than today's partyers and workers.
ForGET about the impact on Social Security, because that will be long gone by the time today’s babies reach 100, as more than HALF of the babies born today in rich countries will do, if present life-expectancy trends continue, according to a study in a recent issue of The Lancet medical journal.
The kids will rue the day they spurned Papa Mike’s exhortations to take a nap when they’re 97 or 98 and just dawg tired.
In the 20th century, most developed countries saw an increase of around 30 years in life expectancy, according to an AFP story on the report. In 1950, only 15 percent to 16 percent of 80-year-old women, and just 12 percent of octogenarian men, made it to the age of 90 in advanced economies.
In 2002, this had risen to 37 percent and 25 percent, respectively. In Japan , the survival rate from 80 to 90 is now more than 50 percent for women.
"If the pace of increase in life expectancy in developed countries over the past two centuries continues through the 21st century, most babies born since 2000 in France, Germany, Italy, the UK, the USA, Canada, Japan and other countries with long life expectancies will celebrate their 100th birthdays," AFP quoted the Lancet study as saying.
So, if I get to retire by, say, 85, I wonder when my grandkids will be able to (especially if I’m sleeping in their back bedrooms, assuming they don’t just slap me in a nursing home).
The researchers thought of that angle, too, saying that, instead of working for a long, intense spell and then retiring, "individuals could combine work, education, leisure, and child-rearing in varying amounts at different ages."
"The 20th century was a century of redistribution of income. The 21st century could be a century of redistribution of work," the study authors wrote.
In other words, kids, PACE yourselves, or your boney fingers won’t last as long as the rest of your bodies.
As for your faces, you might consider some exercises to banish the wrinkles:


But eventually you still could end up as wrinkled as an elephant’s trunk, singing Raymond Crooke’s Twilight Blues. I don’t know whoinhell Ray Crooke is, but I think his song’s got a nice beat and the message is morbidly humorous:


And I’ll close with this thought, kiddos: Have a good (and looonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng) life! But don’t eat too much of your Halloween candy at one setting. Speaking of, I don't have pictures of ALL the grandkids in their outfits, but that's OK, because I don't want to be like those totally obnoxious grandparents shoving pix down people's throats.
However, I do happen to have one of Amelia, the little bugger:



Not to be outdone, here's Patrick, a cute little Yoda is he, eh? Chowing down on a cookie at a Halloween party is he.