I have seen a glimpse of the future

I love Rapid Rise! The best thing they did, that got canned. Ah well.

We ride.  This does keep us a small bit younger than those that always sit inactive.

I have found that it is rarely good to be an early adopter, let them iron out the bugs a bit.  Especially with Shimano.  Thank goodness I never plumped for Rapid Rise or the flappy brake levers for flat bars.

I went for Rohloff for my latest bike, which for me is simplicity itself.  Just a twist to go slower or faster.  Little more off the power when going down the gears, especially between 8 and 7.  The cleaning process is as close to easy as it could be.  No jockey or cassette to collect filth.  Single cog front and rear is easy to wipe.  Have to add a bit of tension to the chain every so often.

I Nokoned the cables early, so I'm sticking with mechanical shifting for a while, but much less tension adjustment needed than with derailers.  I must clean the beads in a bit and slather them with ACF50 to protect them from the salt and winter.

Well there's the thing. How can we make the best of the time? I think it's relatively easy to maximise what we do and what we have -
-don't waste time on social media
-bolox to shopping, unless it's bike bits
-don't procrastinate or prevaricate
-take more holidays (and hire bikes)
-appreciate simple things more
-always make time for reading the paper over coffee and toast
-do not use supermarket self service tills

Live long, and prosper.
Spock out.

Sorry to hear about you MiL, but it really depends how old she is and how old you are. There is a generational and cultural shift in fitness levels between the 'Boomers' and younger. Some of them are fit active [rich] pensioners with jetskis, but many were raised in post-war poverty, living off dripping sandwiches and fryups. My Grandmother would fry stuff in lard whilst chainsmoking. My Father smoked until he was forced to pretend to give up in the early eighties (i.e. he just carried on outside and started eating copious amounts of mints.) None of them exercised. 

I sit in my office surrounded by younger people (one lass is 17!) and they can't quite believe I am 43. I talk to customers from places like Glasgow and wonder 'what have you been doing to yourself'? They are in their 40/50s and sound near death. I have just decided not to age. No one is telling me to get older or stop being interested in new music, or culture. I realised I was getting fatter and I said, okay this is my top weight, I am never going over this, and started to loose weight. Just think how young you are and it is only 20 years  since The Matrix came out and 20 years is a very short amount of time in history. You will be around way longer than just another 20 years. 2066 will be the 100th anniversary of the World Cup and 2067 will be 100 years of Sgt. Pepper, why wouldn't you be around for that if Paul McCartney is only 125 and the Queen will be 141?

That was a similar thought process when I bought my bike with Di2. There was also the consideration that I was too curious about it to end up not buying it eventually.

Enjoy doing stuff while you still can as one day you might not be able to do it anymore.

Welcome to middle age.

" I realised that in 20 years time that might be me."

It might be less than 20 years. It might be 2 years, something might happen next week...

It's incredibly easy to take so many things for granted. Regardless of whether if it's splashing out on Di2, making a long dreamed-of road trip or just a walk through the woods, adding something memorable to and valuing each day is very worthwhile.

Enjoy your Di2, ignore any detractors and you've got a great excuse to go for lots more rides.