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Aging Gracefully55917Aging GracefullyLynn and I have always thrived at working on large, long-term projects. Any venture that lasted a year or more was just fine with us. But for a while now, we hadn%u2019t had a big project. Besides routine chores, there was still plenty to do. For example, in the summer of 2025, I replaced some of the joists supporting our outdoor deck, and Lynn fitted and leveled several hundred paver bricks to make the steps down our hill easier to navigate. I also repainted the spiral stair that connects our upper and lower decks to the ground, and seal-coated our driveway. But these were projects that took days, not months.Because we were now in our mid-70s, we knew we needed slower, less-complicated days. Living on Social Security checks, we didn%u2019t have to earn a living, and we left home to run errands in town only occasionally. By now, Lynn didn%u2019t have much room for new additions to her ethnic-doll collection, but she occasionally found that one of her dolls needed some mending or repair work. And our postcard and philately collections were at a stage where we only rarely found something new to add. So more and more of our time was spent reading %u2014 always nonfiction, for pleasure, and to learn something new. When we were younger, before her sensitivities developed, Lynn and I nearly always read the same books. Often, after one of us finished a particular title, the other would choose to read it next. So when I began reading aloud when we were in our thirties, we continued to select books that appealed to us both. Reading together has become a gratifying pastime for each of us, and we often discuss a current book between reading sessions.