When I’m 59

I turned 59 last Friday - 2 days before daughter Karen reached that milestone age of 30. If one Googles “59 years old” one finds stories about a 59-year-old playing college football or of a 59-year-old woman giving birth to twins.

I was born in 1948, a leap year, on the election day, Nov 2nd,where Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey and Strom Thurmond.

Some famous people also born in 1948 are, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Ozbourne, James Taylor, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Al Gore, Jerry Mathers, Richard Simmons, Gary Trudeau, Olivia Newton-John, Cat Stevens, Peggy Flemming, Phil Hartman, Howard Dean, John Ritter, Bryant Gumbel, Samuel L. Jackson and Maurizio Gucci. 3 of this group are already dead!

Born on Nov 2nd like me-
James K Polke, Daniel Boone, Marie Antoinette, Warren G Harding, Burt Lancaster, K D Lang and rapper Nelly.

The fact that 2 presidents were born on Nov 2nd is used quite often as an example of the high probability of finding 2 people with the same birthday in a group of 30 random people.

I spent a good portion of my birthday at Jacksonville Beach watching the rehearsal for the air show to be held on the 3rd. It was a terrible day for an air show. Strong constant cold wind, overcast skies and 5-7 ft surf. I had to wear a hooded sweatshirt to keep warm. I had to wipe my glasses every half-hour because they were fogged with salt spray.

Fortunately the overcast was high enough for the small propeller planes to do their complete show. I haven’t watched an air show in quite a while and it was fun to see. The pilots were high-caliber. Knowing something from my formal education about flight mechanics, propulsion, aerodynamics and human factors I could more fully appreciate what I was seeing. It looked so easy but you know it isn’t. The Blue Angels ended the rehearsal with their low-altitude performance which was nice but not as impressive as their full show.

Karen and Tim treated me to a birthday dinner at Hamms. I had fish tacos. Sophi was an angel through the whole experience. Thanks Tim and Karen for the birthday meal.

We spent the weekend in Jacksonville. The air show was one reason, Karen and Christy’s birthdays the other. We offered to watch Sophia so Karen and Tim could have a night out by themselves. It worked out well . Karen wrote about it http://daysleeperkaren.blogspot.com/2007/11/thirty.html in her blog about turning 30.

Sunday Tim surprised Karen with a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s. It was a nice party. There were 3 babies with the group and it was interesting watching the parents try to be part of the conversation or simply eat in between taking care of the babies. It reminded me a little of the plate balancers on the Ed Sullivan show. Just when you think all is well one of those babies gets restless and needs to be tended to like the wobbly suspended plate. Then when that’s taken care of another one would act up. Oh the memories!

We also unloaded a trunk full of stuff that we had accumulated for Christy and Christian. Our original plan for the weekend had us spending Saturday with Karen for her birthday and Sunday with Christy for hers. The surprise party on Sunday threw that plan out so we didn’t celebrate Christy’s birthday properly. We feel bad about that. I know Christy understands but I’m still disappointed.
On Monday we went over to Kerry’s to drop off stuff we had for my sister Kathy to sell at Egmont Key. It is always fun to visit Kerry.

Since November 1st I’ve been spending my writing time working on my 50,000 word novel. So far – Nov 6th – I have written 2,600 words. That’s where I should have been on day #2. I may start using my writing as my blog with some updates about what is happening included.

Kitty Update – The cat feeder did its job. All 5 of our regular customers were eating out there today. I can now pet Velcro, Meredith, and Buzz a little. Tonight it will drop into the 30’s so the kitties may get a little chilly.