It's Just A Number.

"It's just a number" - the official philosophy of age for anybody over 40. But it also happens to be true.

Take the 81-year-old mother of 8, grandmother of countless grand and great-grandkids, who had a younger woman say to her not long ago "You can read that?" as the octogenarian, without benefit of glasses, read a passage from her most recent book.

Then there's the man who renewed his driver's license and bought himself a brand new Cadillac on his 99th birthday and went out to celebrate with his 78-year-young tenderoni.

And let's not forget the 61-year-young sister who's finishing her bachelor's degree in 3 weeks, just in time to embark on her new journey to earn a master's degree in Public Administration.

And how about the 60-year-young grandmother who was carded at the local drugstore where the sign posted says "ID checks are required for the sale of alcohol if you look 35 or younger." Even her grown son couldn't burst her exuberance when he said "Ma, they card everybody."

OK, we do know that spandex is not everybody's friend, but other pleasures do present themselves with the marvelous passage of time. And all that time is wonderful.

Age is nothing but a number - but it's a great number to be, especially when those Senior Discounts ring up.