After reading cowpuc's thread about the Golden Years I sent Don my memebership fee and decided to submit an experience of a friend.
Last August he was on his way home from Canton riding his 1998 RSTD on one of our county roads. He had at the time over 140K on it and never had an incident other than a few close calls and a few words that my keyboard won't type.
As luck would have it, a groundhog ran out of the ditch and into his path. It's still unclear what happened next that caused him to veer to the right and into the ditch and being thrown from the bike. He didn't have a helmet on, he has never worn one when we were riding together but he didn't sustain and head injuries in this incident. However, he did break a couple ribs, his clavicle, ruptured his spleen and brused some internal organs.
Here's the article from the newspaper http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140829/NEWS/140829135/1994/NEWS
That was about 8 months ago - in that 8 months he has been home about 6 weeks, the rest of the time he was either in the hospital or a nursing home. Right now he's back in a nursing home getting diallyisis 3 times a week. It seems that one thing led to another and another etc. Bill's accident seems to be the end of an era for another rider.
Puc is absolutely right about enjoying everything you can while you can before you aren't able to.