I had an interesting conversation with my
water therapist on Wednesday. He was
asking questions while I was engaged in the brutal exercises he had so happily
designed for me. When he got to the “How
old are you?” one, I told him, “I’ll be 62 on Friday.” And the young whippersnapper quipped, “I
wouldn’t have pegged you for being that old.”
Of course I had to ask, “So how old do you think I look?” And without hesitation he came out with, “Oh,
55 tops.” Thanks so much, Kid. I’ll take those seven extra years and keep em
in my back pocket. Another old fellow (old like me, not like
the kid-therapist) in the dressing room found out my birthday was coming up and
asked the same question. When I told
him, he followed up by asking if I was going to retire early now that I
could. Just a matter of perspective, I guess. But … retire?
Wonder if that will ever happen?
He did get me to thinking about what I was
doing seven years ago. After all, that
would officially still be pre-Ike by about a month. And pre-Ike means pre-blog, so I really have
no idea what I was doing or thinking back then.
I’m pretty sure I was just a happy-go-lucky youngster without a care in
the world. Actually I know it was a
whole different set of stressors than I have today, but a guy can dream,
right? Don’t we all romanticize the
past, anyway? OK, so that was a bit of a
challenge to myself. I went back in my
blog history to the earliest birthday entry, August 14th, 2009. Almost one year after Hurricane Ike. What were we doing? Was I so different back then? Ok.
Just for fun, then. Here’s part
of the entry for that day: August 14, 2009:
This morning when Chris and I were talking she said she planned to
cook a meatloaf tonight for supper – one of my favorites. She asked what I wanted to do. Well, in the back of my mind I remembered
that yesterday she said that the only thing she wanted was for the house
painting to be finished. Actually she
may have meant the whole house thing in general, but I was painting at the
time. So I answered, “I want to paint
the trim.” Of course, I couldn’t begin
right away, because the house became a mini-construction zone today. It’s been a long time, but I remembered the
feeling well. The contractor’s guys got
here around 8:00, but they weren’t sure what to do, so they waited for the
contractor. The painters got here about thirty
minutes later, about the same time the contractor arrived. Suddenly, they were all at work, touching up
paint and hanging closet doors, and sanding stuff, and installing closet door
tracks. Chris and I finally went out in
the backyard and installed some new screen in the eaves vents.
The crews all broke for lunch, but by the time they came back I
decided to start painting, even if I was in their way. I started in the back, because it was
afternoon and Chris would probably have made me stay indoors if I had tried to
start in the sun. It was hot, but the
Galveston breeze was back. At some point
in the day Nathan and Cailyn came over.
He decided to stick around and help with the painting. It’s always good to have one of my boys
around helping me do stuff. We talked a
little – after all, we are guys, and guys never talk a lot. I think we got a lot done, though. He worked longer than I did. Around four he told me I had to go inside and
see my grandkids. By that time Jachin
and Micah had arrived for their sleepover with Nana and DadDad. One of the most fun segments of the day was
when Cailyn and I chased the boys around and around the house and we all got
yelled at by Nana for running inside.
Some things never change. It’s
just fun to run in the house when a little kid is squealing and laughing the
whole time. Multiply that by three and
you have pure fun. We ended up not even
having meatloaf. We had some leftover
pizza out of our freezer. It was not
the birthday I imagined. But memorable,
nevertheless.
Here’s the same Scripture
verse I used back then as well:
Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to him
who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to
his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
And the same
prayer. Even though Mom isn’t physically
here, it still proclaims what is in my heart:
Father, thank you for my
human being birthday gifts this year – my wife, my Mom, my sons, my daughters
(in law), my grandkids, my Facebook well-wishers. Amen.
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