Thursday, October 26, 2006

Birthdays--Ho Hum!

Why is it when a person reaches a certain age, birthdays start to lose their appeal? We'd just as soon forget them. Pretend there's no such thing.

Now, I'm not admitting to anything--get that straight right from the start. Torture will never work on me; I'm way too stubborn. I remember when my . . . well, never mind.

Back to the birthday thingie.

Can any of you remember the l-o-n-g-i-n-g (dragged out longing) that, as a child, you felt when you wanted to be old enough to go to school? You thought your birthdays couldn't come fast enough. (Now you hold up both hands and proclaim as loudly as you can, "Whoa! What's the hurry?) Remember when you wanted to be SIXTEEN (the magical number to date--or am I dating myself here?) so that we could be allowed to date as a couple and not a group?

Then shortly after reaching that milestone age, we changed our minds. Nothing would do (we couldn't push time fast enough) until we reached twenty-one. (If only, only I could be twenty-one. With the sappy, innocent look of longing on our face.)

But, of course, that wasn't enough. (It never is to us never-satisfied-humans.) Then we wanted to reach twenty-five, thirty. BUT, wait up here. Somewhere in that time frame, something happened. Attitudes changed. Our outlook changed. Our bodies changed. Something did anyway. What was it?

I think it's Experience. Age. Wisdom. That Knowledge that hey, we're not kids any longer. (Hubby and I are always chanting that to each other. He mentioned this morning about sledding down this monster hill at his brother's home--this winter. I looked at him like he was crazy and admonished him with those words of wisdom, "You're not a kid any longer.")

Suddenly, we get it. Life is a vapor. We'd better do our best to enjoy every single moment of it. And quit the grousing around. I challenged myself several years back to do that. Enjoy life. Sure, that doesn't change the problems, the hard places, the burdens. But so what if we don't get everything we want? How about loving, appreciating what we do have? I'll have to confess, I don't always succeed. Sometimes I grouse. But I'm working on it. How about joining me?

And I just might take a ride on that sled, down that monster hill, with hubby! Brave me!


I noticed when I read yesterday's blog that I called yesterday (Wednesday) Thursday. So . . . ooops! Today is Thursday, yesterday Wednesday. Oh, well.

After a church function long-time friends Bob and Sis took us out for ice cream for my birthday. Great to be with them. At home we listened to the answering machine. One voice came through wishing me a happy birthday--he didn't identify himself, but with a little bit of detecting, I realized it was my brother from OK. We ended up playing phone tag, then connected. It was great to talk with him, probably bored him with all my writerish talk, but I loved him for calling to wish me a H.B.

The second message was from a family of friends who sang H.B. to me (with extra parts). I laughed and listened to it three times. Friends are such wonderful things.

Hints for you today:
These are handy hints for you or hubby to try:

* For fresh stains on your driveway or garage cement floor, use baking soda or cat litter (ground to a finer texture with a brick), place on stain and leave overnight. In the morning simply sweep up.

* For a retractable tape measure: stretch out to its full length, wipe clean, then apply car wax. Make sure to wipe all wax off. This only takes a few minutes and will lengthen the life of it, cause it to roll easier, and cut down on erosion and rust.

* For a quickie measure: Use a dollar bill: length--6 1/4; folded--3 1/8; width--2 5/8; folded--1 1/4


An interesting quote:
If your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. --Cathy Leckner

To all who have October birthdays, blessings.

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