Sixty Two!

After a all day rain, the ground is saturated once again, putting a delay into any scrimmages that might be scheduled.  Looks like today and tomorrow will dry things off, but more rain of Friday, cooler, but sunny for the weekend.  Next week looks like a typical March...some rain, some sun, some cool, and some above normal temperatures...like I said, typical March.

The Big 6-2

One thing about Birthdays, at least in my case, I've really never thought much about them.  I know my wife asked if I wanted a Cheese Cake or something else fixed, and what I wanted for the day....I declined, I've spent the past 18 months watching my weight, and lost 25 pounds...the past few months, the scale has turned 3 or 4 pounds upwards.  I suspect the Stout Beer is keeping me from the continued drop, carb and calorie wise, it is far less weight friendly than my old stand-by, Miller Lite.  So from a low of 185...I've have been slowly creeping up towards the 190 mark.  Sure, that is nothing compared to the 225 a few years ago, or the 214 when I was dicovered to have high blood pressure and a touch of pre-diabetes 2...but I still planned on droping down to 180, and now, instead of 5 pounds more to drop, I'm closer to 10...so OK...No Cake for me!

62 has really some significance except that I can cash in on my Social Security, if I choose to do so at a reduced early age...I choose, I choose.  You never know how long it's going to be around, before the Government under Obama, bankrupts the system?  Besides....studies show, you usually don't live long enough, on average, to make the difference up.  So I applied, and should recieve my first check by mid May.  Since I worked much of my adult life under the PERS(Public Employees Retirement System), the SS Checks won't be much...but should be enough for a vehicle upgrade for Patricia, and enough left over to pay the utilities and the extra insurance bill for the car.

62?  When you are young, you think this age is really, really, old.  And truth is, it really is...but I don't feel that way...sure I can't run and jump like I did at 30, can't stay out late, or do the other things I did, or at least not as well...but for 62, I do pretty good.  I can still officiate 250 games on the high school baseball, basketball, and football level per year.  Still down a few beers, and still get up when the weather is favorable, and walk around the town of Celina for an hour each morning when I choose.  I can still lift weights when I want, although I certainly cannot bench press 250 pound in reps of 15...the joints and bones just don't all for that anymore, but I can do pretty much everything I did at 30, just not as much of those things.
 
The first birthday I can remember was back in Scott, Ohio....1953, my 4th birthday to be exact.  My Uncle, Forrest(Housie) Houseworth took me the 9 miles to Van Wert, and bought me a toy truck of some sort...I think it was a red fire truck, but not sure, I do know it was a truck.  The next birthday, which I have a photo of some sort, was turning 16....I know I spent part of the day back in Scott, at Grandma Houseworth's.  Where I have a photo of me, youngest sister Kelly, and my great uncle Joe Waldron.  16 was not a big deal to me, I choose to not get my driver's license until I was 17...I wanted a car first, before I got the license.

Back in the day, when you turned 18, you could drink beer in Ohio, at least 3.2 low alcohol brew...I probably had a few before turning 18, but I remember on my 18th birthday, I sipped my first legal beer at the Bowling Alley in Celina.   Before that Rick Pearson and I would put a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon long necks in the trunk of my car, and drive around the county during the winter cold(to keep the beer cold), stopping on occasion to pop the cap on one...nobody said we were overly bright.

I turned 21 in Vietnam....at Tan Son Nhut to be exact.  I had just, or was in the process of changing from Security on the base outposts to working overnights on "Blue Patrol".   The flight where our crew of Security Police would guard the inner workings of the massive base, protecting the buildings and what the contained from thieves, whether they be civilian or military...actually pretty sweet duty for a 21 year old Buck Sergent.

I was living back in Celina when I hit 25 in 1974...running The Red Door, and raising Hell.  At 30, Patricia and I had moved to the Wausau, Wisconsin, area.   I was working at the Wausau Lanes Bowling Alley and for the Marathon County Parks Department, both part-time while I was finishing up broadcast school. 30 seemed pretty damn old at that time, and I remember wondering where the time had went?   I was a father by that time, Anissa had been born a month before I turned 30.

The rest of the 20th Century flew by, and the birthdays with them....I remember a few and what I did...but they came and went as life moved on.  In 1999 I turned 50 as the century was coming to an end.  I spent the evening with Patricia at the Lake Front Racquet Club....we had went out to dinner, then stopped by the Club for a few drinks with the old gang of usual suspects.  The next 12 years have went by with many changes.  Retiring from the Health Department and Environmental Health work, driving RVs around the country and Canada for 5 years after that retirment...then adding basketball and football to my baseball umpiring license...retirement or not, I have stayed active.

The years since we moved to our current place in town(1995) have seen the kids finish school, with Hal, the youngest, getting his Bachelor and Masters Degrees from Wright State, then getting married last month.  Sam, the older son, is getting ready to enter his Senior year at Ohio State University in Columbus...he, like me, will finish up at 30 years old...I felt old when I finished up the various schools I attended,  the final one was the Trans American Broadcasting School in Wausau, at 29...Thirty doesn't seem that old these days, but it did back then.

So, here I am...62....the nest, for the most part, is empty, but Sam, Anissa, and even Hal, on occasion, stop by and stay in their old rooms.  Patricia still has a few more years teaching, so I have plenty of time on my hands.  Well we really never know how much time we have.  But, I certanily plan on making the most and enjoying what time I do have....like they say, don't look back to often, something might be gaining on you.

Happy Birthday, to me!

back later>>>>

Photos-top/left today turning 62...and the others a look through the years.