Seven Four

 

by Pa Rock

Old Fart

Today I begin my 75th trip around the sun.  Appropriately, I am reading a science fiction novel called "The Hail Mary Project" by a fellow named Andy Weir.  It is about an extremely bright junior high science teacher who awakens from an induced coma to discover that he is alone on a spacecraft that is approaching a different sun.  I am enjoying the book, which I found through a recommendation from American oligarch Bill Gates, immensely - and Gates liked it, too!

This birthday is one that I could well have forgotten, but a couple of strangers wished me an early "happy birthday" on Twitter yesterday.  After a little exploring I learned that Twitter profiles routinely contain birthdays.  I never look at my Twitter profile and was surprised when I saw it there.  Today I checked it again - that's the OCD clicking in, I check everything multiple times - and when I looked today I found that Twitter had put up a "happy birthday" message with balloons floating upward across the profile.  Woo-hoo!

I also received a very sweet email message from a young lady in Japan whom I do know.   Mineko was a foreign exchange student who lived with our family during her senior year of high school back in the early 1980's.  Today she lives near Tokyo where she works as a translator.  Mineko, whose primary language is Japanese, is also fluent in English and French.  She wrote to wish me a very happy 69th birthday - and shaving five years off of my actual age made me very happy indeed!

One birthday that I am remembering today was my "Will you still need me, will you still feed me?" 64th birthday of ten years ago.  Several friends and I celebrated in the bowling alley at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa.  I hadn't been bowling in years, and it showed - all night long!  Somebody brought a cake, probably Valerie, and we all had a very nice time - despite my awful bowling.  (Not surprisingly, I haven't bowled since!)

I have received a few cards over the past couple of days and expect to hear from at least some of my busy offspring today.  I have one steady-eddy old friend who phones in congratulations every year, and it is always fun to hear from her.  Also, I am getting a cake!  My oldest son makes a wonderful pineapple upside-down cake that he bakes in a cast iron skillet!

All of that, and I am finished with the blog for the day!