Instead of thinking about how some of our bodies ache at our age and how we've lost the energy of our youth, let's think about the advantages we have now.

No one asks us to help them move any more. That alone is a great gift to have.

And, we aren't expected to rough it the wild as some of us did in our younger days. No one makes fun of us for choosing a nice motel or hotel to stay in instead of the tent.

My body just doesn't want to sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag any more. It knows that I can't get up from the ground without help. I need a nice bed that I can just sit up in and then place my feet on the floor to stand up.

We can go to bed early or late, our choice, and we can even take naps during the day, and that is accepted by others.

Eating huge meals at any time is out, and especially those late at night. We seniors like the "early bird" specials that many restaurants offer and take home the leftovers to heat up later on. Restaurants no longer frown on the "doggie bags" people used to ask for and now gladly provide you with a plastic box to place your uneaten food in.

The latest fashions and trends are not a concern for us any more. We tend to wear the things that are comfortable no matter how many years old they are. Some seniors do tackle the new gadgets that come out, but most of us just stick with the old ones that we have had and used for years.

To tell you the truth, I don't really

Senior birthdays are a lot less stress than they used to be. You may go out for breakfast, lunch or dinner with friends and maybe all three, but if you don't, that's no big deal either. You're not brokenhearted if you don't have a hot date to take you out and wine and dine you, then spend the rest of the night on the dance floor getting blisters on your feet.

Nope, you're happy to be home in your favorite easy chair watching TV knowing that you'll wake up in the morning with just your normal aches and pains and clear-headed. That's instead of a body that is crying in pain from overexertion and a head that feels like it will explode any moment from too many cocktails.

I love it when my friends come over to have birthday cake with ice cream with me. Most of them don't bring a big gift, for they know that you already have just about everything you need.

A small joke gift is just fine, but mainly I love the cards I get. I also love to share the cards with my friends and we just laugh and laugh over some of them. It's amazing how funny the cards get as you reach the senior years, some of them can be quite racy.

The funniest, and of course most memorable one, was the one that said, "Were you like sad when the dinosaurs died?" That still cracks me up and I'd love to find it and buy a bunch to give to each of my older friends.

A native of Minnesota, Carol Olson grew up in South Dakota and Walnut Creek and now lives in Pittsburg. Contact her at carolleeolson@aol.com.