Older Than Dirt, Younger Than The Hills

Many, many years ago–never mind exactly how many. It is sufficient to say that there are probably fewer days ahead than there are behind. An old guy gets older.

As I sipped coffee this morning I reflected on the various places I have spent my birthday.

• twice on deployment in Japan
• once floating on an amphibious assault ship in the Mediterranean
• there was the birthday I was medevaced to the hospital after getting the bends (decompression sickness) and the sympathy from the emergency room nurses. Slightly better than the compression chamber sessions that followed.
• in college my birthday fell on finals week of fall quarter–spent many birthdays writing essays in Blue Books
• graduation week of Officer Candidate School, ran physical fitness test (PFT) for final score. Ran my fastest time for the 3 mile run. When I started dry heaving at the end of the run, the drill instructor warned me not to “puke on his parade ground.”
• replacing the starter on my college car in the snow, stuck in Coeur d’ Alene trying to get to my grandparents house in Spokane
• stuck in Portland during an ice storm trying to fly home for Christmas vacation

Just Another Birthday

So this is just another birthday in a long line of birthday. No stranger than any other but pretty special nonetheless. I spent the day at Yellow Bike. We were the hosts for this month’s FrankenBike, which is a monthly bicycle swap meet.

As part of the activities we did a kids bike giveaway and sold a couple bicycles and a bunch of parts.

The kids bike donations were well worth the time. Karma. Good vibes.