#163 — Mile Marker Forty-Five
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I’ve seen a disturbing number of significant family birthdays and anniversaries this year. My youngest son turned eighteen, my oldest son turned twenty-one, and I turned old. My wife, annoyingly, has remained as youthful and beautiful as ever. She claims this to be the result of clean living, a good attitude and just a tiny bit of help from her personal assistants Miss Clairol and Mary Kay. I’m thinking of checking the attic for a portrait. On the other hand, maybe I won’t. When I’m eighty and she still looks twenty-five, I’ll be the envy of the rest of the nursing home.
I am reminded, that birthdays and anniversaries are the mile markers of life.
My own birthday doesn’t bother me. Through years of careful inattention I have developed the ability to deny that I’m getting older even though I had to stop checking the “35-44″ box on surveys last year. As far as aging is concerned, I’ve moved into the state of denial and haven’t left a forwarding address. Except, when my children have birthdays, I do the math and realize I must be older than I thought.
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Like this excerpt? Want the whole story? Listen to the audio version by clicking the ‘Play’ button at the top of this post. If you’d rather read it, you can find the full text at http://myfavoriteshortcomings.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/mile-marker-forty-five/
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Notes:
- Thanks again to the Heiler family for linking off to this site in the blog. I really appreciate it.
- A big “Hello” to my new Twitter friends @Sam55510 and @Meike_Schneider
- Congratulations to Alex at the New Forest Podcast for hitting episode 50!
- And, finally, I’d like to encourage you once again to join me as a listener (and, if possible, supporter) of Decoder Ring Theater.
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On my first aniversary, I did a crazy amount of research on what the traditional aniversary gift would be every year. I went as far as writing a blog post about it: http://tinyurl.com/n272dm
Now I just buy what I know she will like. Jewelry is always a great fall back gift. I still look at the post to give me a good starting point, but I don’t stick to it most years.
I really enjoy your podcast. It seems you have been through a lot of the experiences that I am facing right now or have experienced in the last few years. I relate strongly to most of your topics. Keep up the great work.
Thanks for the kind words, Robert. I’m glad to to know that you and I are living parallel lives!