A bit of writers block this morning. It’s been one of those couple of days when I feel like I’m doing too much. Additionally, today I begin the last year of my 30s. I don’t really like the idea of getting old, but I think it likely beats the alternative. My mom didn’t make it to 44, which back when I was younger I thought was old. Maybe old is what your parents are. When my mom turned 39 she was teaching me how to drive.
16 thoughts on “Is This Thing On?”
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“Maybe old is what your parents are.”
Uh-oh. Mine are dead!
But I still feel old.
But, buck up! You are where I was in 1985, and back then I was only beginning to learn reality!
Well that kind of makes it harder to say “happy birthday”, but still, “happy birthday!”
Thanks. Didn’t mean to be a downer, but after 21 there’s not much else to look forward to with every advancing birthday. Except cake. There is always cake!
Retirement.
That’s pretty depressing for some of us.
“Only forty years till retirement! Well, forty to sixty… maybe, if they don’t seize my generation’s 401Ks and send us to the spice mines.”
And you know the cake will be damned good, too.
And bourbon!
After the grandparents and then the parents are all gone you move into the oldest generation slot.
My mother had just been buried when my kids started talking about my demise.
It recently occurred to me that when my father’s brother (aged 92) dies, I will become the “patriarch” of the family. All earlier generations will be completely gone, and I am the oldest of my generation.
“When my mom turned 39 she was teaching me how to drive”
Heh, when my mom turned 39 she was baking a cake for me with one candle on it. :P
I look at pictures of me with my mom at a year old, and my mom looks like a kid to me.
Take care of yourself. We’ll need you for a while yet. And happy birthday!
“After 21 there’s not much else to look forward to with every advancing birthday.” How about LIFE? Reflect on the wisdom of the ages: This is not a rehearsal! Forget about birthdays until they start making you think “Wow. Who knew I would get this far?” I’m giving you some credit for sarcasm in the “likely it beats the alternative” remark; but I think that behind that is a mood that deserves a kick in the pants. Consider the starkness of “the alternative”, young whippersnapper, and seize the damned day.(In my 60’s, and so full of sympathy I could weep. I like your blog, but your friends should have told you this stuff before you posted that.)
I like life. It’s getting old I’m not looking forward to. 30 was easy, because I didn’t feel diminished capability at 30. Pushing 40, I suddenly find I can’t deal with heights (like really, can’t even get up a ladder). I get tired and sore more readily with exertion. I’m not quite as productive as I used to be. A lot of that is that I’ve put on weight. I need to fix that. But a lot of it, I think, is just getting old.
Look on the bright side…
Next year, Bitter has to buy you a firearm chambered in 40 S&W.
Four years after that, she’d got to buy you a 44 Magnum revolver.
And I guess you can go .50 Casull in another 10. ;-)
Did a relationship and a career just happen along? Don’t you have to give some thought and energy to keeping them up? Do the same for your body. You can maintain a lot of ability if you work intelligently and consistently at it.Start small, but do a little extra every day; don’t just say “I have to fix that.” I’ll bet you could take about ten years off, in effect, without a crash program. (Dammit, don’t make me drive my horse and buggy up there!)