59th Birthday

I rode 59 miles on the Silver Comet Trail to celebrate my 59th birthday, averaging 16.1 miles per hour.   When I started this tradition at 34 years old, it seemed like a good idea.  My retired colleague Harry Guckert, seeing me at the Publix store after, said, "Your 90th birthday will kill you!" I said, "Well, that's kinda the plan."

[Photo: Me after a rain storm mid-way in my 59 miles]

Mom gave me a nice check and a coaster with the motto, "Martinis -- they're not just for breakfast anymore."  Perfect!

On the 15th, I read Amos in church, and we had a great sermon about the true meaning of church as expressed in Ephesians.  At the home, they lost Mom.  Somehow, she eluded the security systems and got lost in the garden of the "Evergreen" section of the home, reserved for hardcore memory cases.  She laughed and laughed!  I enjoyed seeing seven or eight blue-clad officials of the home searching everywhere for her.

Todd and his wife Alice came to visit.  I read some poetry by Linda Pastan. The CBC's Jazz91 brought out an archived interview between gracious pianist Marian MacPartland and supreme vocalist/pianist Carmen McRae, two musicians I've loved since the late 1970s. Mia decided she wanted to sit on my lap.  [Photo]

 Then I enjoyed making pizza with Susan, listening to the CBC's jazz  station.

Fine 59th.