McKINNEY, Texas — I know you’ve heard it said that “Growing old ain’t for the faint-hearted.”

To which I say, “Phooey!”

It’s not bad at all if you’re in reasonably good health and you have plenty of adventures awaiting you along some still-unknown path. It also provides you with small — but still pleasant — surprises along the way.

My wife and I had a hankerin’ for a taco. So, we pulled into a fast-food taco joint in this bustling North Texas community. We ordered our food.

Then the young man quoted us a price for our order, then blurted out a second price, which was less than the first price. “Didn’t you say it was another amount,” I asked, “and then you’re charging me less?” “Yep,” he said. “What’s with the discount?” I inquired.

“Because I think you’re just a cool dude,” he said.

Hah, hah, hah.

I got the ticket and then looked at it. “Senior discount” was typed next to a $1.19 substraction from our taco order.

My first thought was to tell the young man that he could have replaced “cool” with “old” in front of “dude” and I wouldn’t have taken a lick of offense at it. I let it go.

I just wanted to post this little blog item to proclaim that growing older isn’t a bad thing at all, given that we are still able to enjoy many of the fruits of advancing age.

Surprises like this are just part of the deal.

Pretty cool.