Week 380 Update

Here it is my 57th birthday, and I weighed in at 206.5 pounds at 5:20 AM. I logged on to the message board early to check my messages, and I was greeted by a very nice Happy Birthday message from Tammy, my dear friend, and Dotti's "bestest" friend. She reminded me that she was the "baby of our group" and she is right. When I first met her, it was about this time of the year, and she was still a teenager, while I was turning 27. Can it be that 30 years have really passed since that summer in 1978? Thank you Tammy for the very nice birthday greeting, and for focusing on your youth rather than my advancing years.

The Weight Commander also wished me a happy birthday, and asked me what I thought I would weigh one year from today. I told it that I was expecting to weigh 185 pounds on my next birtday. We'll see how close I can come.

I have had other wonderful birthday greetings (my son Glenn sent me a nice one yesterday) and cards (a very special one arrived yesterday from our dear Becca and Alistair, our adopted kids, and it was so much appreciated) and it is softening the blow of getting so close to 60. This birthday is not all that traumatic, and I can still laugh about this click in the one-way ratchet of years. I don't dwell on the end of this process much, because there is too much to do, and too much to enjoy still. I will try to keep that going as long as I can.

When I entered my 50s I was still moving pretty well and able to play sports nearly up to a level I was satisfied with, albeit I had to pace myself and heal up afterwards. Now, I have had to completely give up things like racquetball, because neither of my rotator cuffs will tolerate the strain any longer, and all my joints are quicker to injure and slower to heal. Since the 50s have had such a negative impact on my body, I am not at all looking forward to what the 60s have in store for me. But, for now, I won't dwell on that.

And I have so much to be thankful for! Not only do I have friends like Jim and Tammy, who have enriched my life for over 30 years, but I have the most wonderful woman any man ever had for a wife, with each year incredibly surpassing the one before in romance and joy with my Dotti. She is a jewel beyond price, and she loves me—such a wonderful gift is for the gods, not mortal man.

So, it is a happy birthday for me, having just shared a great time with both of my sons, and my grandson, and reliving one of our old family pastimes of playing basketball together, as well as having so many fun and special moments again. Life is too short they often say, and that is true, but life is good too, when friends and family are there to fill it up with wonderful things that only they can bring to your table. I am one lucky man, and I know it. I hope that those who so enrich my life know how much I appreciate what they have done, and are doing for me.