As I prepare to enter my seventh decade on this planet we call Earth, silently orbiting the star called Sol, I find myself … ah, screw it. I’m 69. I never thought I’d live this long.
I pretty much feel about birthdays the same way I feel about New Year’s Eve and Day: One second it’s one year, the next it’s another, it happens that fast. You don’t feel it the instant it happens, although lately I’ve been feeling my age a bit more, like maybe the warranties on my knees and hips are about to expire. I’m still walking though, one foot in front of the other, usually twice each day. My goal is five miles per day, or my next five-mile marker, if I want to cheat a little, like if I’m at 27.5, I may just walk 2.5 to get to 30, bit it definitely has to end with 0 or 5; I will walk around my apartment at 11:00PM to make that happen. Oh, and I still believe nap is one of the sexiest three-letter words in the English language.
2024 has not been very good to me so far. As I write this, two nice gentlemen have just left my apartment with parts of my bathroom wall and ceiling and left behind two large and very noisy dehumidifiers in my bathtub to dry out the exposed space, due to a leak from the apartment above me. My car was flooded in January and is gone forever; no doubt by now it was sold at auction and some dealer is foisting it onto someone else, saying it has “Low mileage! (Minor flood damage.)” As a friend recently put it on Instagram, “Water has it out for you this year.” I should be careful I don’t walk into the bay on my daily walks.
Life goes on. Sometimes it’s boring, sometimes exciting. No travel this year for me. I really love being at home—broken bathroom and all. I’m looking forward to a warm-up this week and some quality balcony time on my brand new furniture. I may even take that pretty teal-colored umbrella out for a spin. We’ll see. The sun is in short supply as we phase from May Gray to June Gloom. They don’t tell you about that when you move here. It’s a secret.
Happy Birthday to me.
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