Today is another birthday, another in a long string of birthdays. I’ve now reached the age where I wonder how many more I’ll have before the Big Black, and also the age where there’s not many of the people I grew up with left.
Fortunately there are still a few, and there’s others who were well met along the way. This birthday would have passed by with little notice from me were it not for friends calling on the phone and emailing me, and surprising hell out of me by doing so, truthfully. I’d no idea so many had kept track of my birth day, and now I realise that I’ve no idea at all what theirs are.
So there’s one I need to get going on, finding out their birthdays. I never was much for remembering birthdays and anniversaries, mostly because my time sense is so peculiar. I can set my mental clock to wake up at virtually any specific minute during the night, and do so unerringly. But when it comes to knowing which day of the week it is, I need reminders so I don’t skip a day taking my statin pill.
I spent so much time living in remote wilderness that I told time by the season, and the years passed pretty much the way leaves fall from trees. It was a good life, when I was doing that, and I learned a lot about people simply by not being around them much. Got along with them better, too. 
But the time came to move on, which was the same time I discovered what the value of my 40 acres of redwoods had risen to.
Two of my old Navy buddies from 52 years ago emailed birthday greetings to me and some friends I left behind in Washington when I moved here, called on the phone, one 2 days ago and the other this morning, and my best friend called on Friday as well. The best gift of all is friends who care.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU MY FRIEND !
Wish ya lived closer, you could have come over, or me and Natalie would have came to your place,
I’m glad to know ya and i’m glad to have you as my friend, your a man of great life experiance.
I…
I need to share something personal about me, concerning you:
Along these last 5 years, but mainly in 2012…
You CHANGED my self-steem for even better — in a deep, strong, radical level.
When you told me “it would be great to meet you.” — I finally could see myself at the mirror as a greater person; because I got aproved by the Mankind Elite.
Words cannot express how deeply you changed my point of view on myself.
And that’s the most difficult deed possible, considering I’m not easy to change my mind.
So, congratulations, my hero.
You got it.
I try not to pay attention to my birthdays anymore. I am too damn old to care about celebrating my own birthday. But Mrs. AOW always insists that we do something special to mark the day.
Happy birthday, Black Sheep!
Paladin, my feelings exactly. Now when are you moving within driving distance so we can visit? I ain’t gonna be around forever, you know.
Ernesto, I’m not used to being anyone’s hero, so I don’t know quite how to respond to that. If anything I have done or said has made your life better, though, I’m highly grateful to hear it. Good self esteem is vital to happiness, and being happy is everyone’s goal.
Mr. AOW, many of my birthdays have passed with little notice, but this one seems to have caught the attention of my friends for some reason, which is why I ended up posting on it. It is good to be remembered, though, isn’t it?
I see that Mr. AOW got here before I did. After my visit to my neurologist yesterday, I was not in the mood to blog.
Anyway, belated Happy Birthday.