This quote from a book I'm currently reading really sums up the State of My Flyers Fandom (35+ years, up to the current status) pretty accurately:
"The devastating scale and frequency of my disappointment ('I am down, but not yet defeated,' Gauguin snivel-boasted) was proof of how much I still expected and wanted from the world, of what high hopes I still had in it. When I am no longer capable of disappointment the romance will be gone: I may as well be dead."
- Geoff Dyer, Where? What? Where?