My birthday card arrived today. I was a bit confused by the Mass. postmark, because I knew I'd already gotten one from my sister who lives there. Then I saw the enclosed Calif. postcard and got more confused. After a while, some of the names sounded familiar and the mystery was solved.
I guess if you are going to turn 69 you might as well have a nice surprise. Most people think of that many birthdays as the pits, but my first thought when I woke up was that the last time my age read the same when turned upside-down, I was 11.

Actually, there are some +'s to being that far over the hill. I get senior discounts, usually about 10%, and most of the time I don't even have to ask for them. People seem to understand when I forget something, and if I say the wrong thing, they just smile. I've gotten used to being called "sir" by attractive young ladies, but it was a shock the first time it happened. I was about 40.

You can't believe how great it is to get up in the morning without even looking at the clock, and then not having to go to work.

Grand kids are a lot more fun than kids, but I'm not sure why.

I got one of my birthday presents early. My son came over and wired the lights on my scooter trailer. I'm a terrible electrician, but the biggest problem was getting down on the concrete and crawling underneath. He saved me a lot of pain.

I am also grateful to all the people who didn't give me a necktie, and especially to my wife and daughter-in-law who didn't make me a cake. That's because I'm dieting down in preparation for a two-week cruise through the Panama Canal.

I'm also grateful to a bunch of mostly-unseen friends, who took time out from having a rip roaring good time so they could prepare me a birthday greeting. When it came, my wife was in Knoxville and I was here by myself, so no one will ever know if it brought a tear to my eye.
Thanks,
Howard