I am very happy to report that as of this past Saturday, I’ve successfully advanced my streak for not dying to 38 years. Thank you to all the birthday well wishes from the Facebook crew.

One of the downfalls of being on Facebook is that your birthday doesn’t slip quietly into the night. I spent this one as I have many of my birthdays–no, not inspecting the toilet at the 109 Club–but at a baseball game.

With a July birthday there is a very good chance you’ll either be playing or watching baseball and that’s fine with me. This year it was a little league all-star game and since I forgot to look busy, I ended up in the crow’s nest keeping book and running the scoreboard. It was a real test as I generally don’t like to pay that much attention for that long of time, but I managed.

Throughout my 30’s my son Jackson, whose birthday is the day before mine, has been numerically tied. When he turned 3, I turned 3+0, when he turned 4, turned 3+1, when he turned…well, I hope you get the picture by now.

So, this numerical linkage will continue until I hit 40 and start that slippery slide into what every 40-year-olds slip into. Orthopedic shoes, polyester pants, hospital gowns, a steady spiral of self-pity… and so forth and so on.

At that same time Jackson will start his slippery slide into his teenage years. Seeing how my daughter is 14 I have seen what teenagers slide into and I also keenly recollect what teenagers slide into as I myself was a teenager at one time or another in my life. Teenagers are weird and seem to hang great importance on trivial matters while being oblivious to what really matters. Of course, the parental view of what matters and what doesn’t is skewed by many years of having to pony up the cash for the trivial. Those shirts, shoes, video games, and what not that-were-to-die-for lay in a heap of materialistic items destined for the back of the closet and the underside of the bed.

I never wasted my parent’s financial resources when I was a lad. That “Fart Spray” was a life changing purchase and those acid washed jeans made me who I am today. Actually, those pants were so tight the only thing they made was my voice an octave higher and my feet swell. A single Canadian dime was the largest denomination of currency you could fit in those pockets.

The advancement of one’s age does create changes in the way birthdays are celebrated. My wife and daughter were out of town for a softball tournament so without the ladies to hold us back, us birthday boys celebrated in style. We lay in the hammock, each with our preferred beverage, and chit chatted about this and that while gazing at the stars above.

The perfect ending and beginning to another trip around the sun.