The excitement of so many milestones, both crossed and envisaged, ended up overpowering me this morning. All of a sudden, I experienced fear of death upon waking. What if I die before the next two milestones? Here I have in mind both the fortieth yearbook with its magnificent Roman numeral and the three-million words mark. It took some effort to calm myself down. As ever, the best remedy was clear from the start: get out of bed, go to the desktop in the study, and write yet another postscriptum. Phew!

Addendum (June 9, 2016)

Only a couple of years later, I just caught myself worrying about the next two milestones one more time. At present I have in mind both the fiftieth yearbook with its mindblowing Roman numeral and the four-million words mark. In my mind, both of them are a bit less than a decade ahead. Will I still be around, though? To my joy, fear of death is nowhere around at this stage of my life. There is not a trace of it, as a matter of fact. Only a slight concern about the next two precious milestones…