Ever feel like you can't possibly manage to walk across the room because you're so tired? Can't remember where you set your glasses down or why you are standing in the bathroom and what you are doing there? You are not alone—and you don't have to be a dottery elder to feel that way.

I live in the mountains of Colorado. It's still wilderness here-dirt roads, few services, isolation-and only a handful of us stick it out through the winter. Sometimes winter comes in September and leaves in June, the winds blow a steady 30-50 mph and the snow piles up to six feet or more.