Please join me in wishing my eldest daughter a very happy 30th birthday, today. I'm not sure how that happened; I am nowhere near old enough to have 30-year-old children. . .
In all seriousness, I could hardly be prouder of her. She spent much of her 20s dealing with a lot of, um, stuff in her life. And as I sit here now, she has done a remarkable job of getting her life back on track. Well done, Sweetheart. . .
God is good. . .
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On a different (although not totally unrelated) note, today is also the 38th anniversary of the life of the Christian community of which I have spent virtually my entire adult life being a member (and again, the idea that, 38 years ago, I was nominally an adult, just doesn't seem right. . .) Nevertheless. . .
"Behold, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren dwell together in unity." (Psalm 133:1)
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On a somewhat less 'cosmic' level, as of the end of May, I have 584 miles on my bike so far this season, which is nearly 200 more (ie, half again) than I've ever had at that point. The warm winter goes a long way, but not all of it, toward accounting for that total. We'll see where it all ends up (and what it might mean - or not - for my general overall state of health and well-being). . .
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(add 5 June)
Since we've been discussing 'celestial events' around these parts just lately, I thought I'd flag for any of my readers who might be interested that this evening, for seven hours starting at 6:09 PM EDT (that's where I live), Venus will be making a transit across the face of the sun. Sorta like a mini-solar-eclipse, except that Venus is way too far away to actually block out the sun, or even dim its light appreciably. But if you look carefully (with proper eye protection), you'll see a small black dot (that would be Venus) making its way across the face of the sun. I've got my #14 welding shade at the ready (although they tell me that, since it will still be happening through sunset (at least locally, here in Michigan), it'll be no less safe than watching any sunset, and might even be that much cooler).
Transits of Venus are pretty rare, occurring in 8-year pairs every 110-120 years or so. So if you happened to miss the one in 2004, this is your last chance 'til 2117, and good luck with that.
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well happy birthday to your daughter. i'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around having a kid old enough to drink legally.
ReplyDeleteTime certainly does fly by. Happy Birthday to your eldest!!!
ReplyDeleteLime - Yeah, it took me awhile to get used to that one, too. On his 21st, 3M didn't want me to buy him a beer; he wanted to buy me one. . .
ReplyDeleteBijoux - And the older you get, the faster it flies. . . It's borderline bizarre to me that I have clear memories of things that happened 50 years ago. . .
well happy happy to the daughter and parents, that's cool.
ReplyDeleteLime, both our daughters are now officially drink-legal .... strange days, huh?
Xavier - So far, we are being very good, and not pestering them to get married and start the grandchildren coming. . .
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that it felt a little strange, the first time I was mixing G&Ts for Jen and me, and one of the girls asked, "Could you make one for me, too?"
Belated Happy Birthday to F1!
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I asked my eldest to pick up a bottle of wine for me. Very odd.
Time does fly. The daughter is now coxing the "masters" boat for the crew team for which my husband rows. [brag: his boat won a medal this past weekend!]
It's very cool that you 50+ guys are staying fit. The wives appreciate it, I can assure you!
Happy 30th, Eldest Daughter! Your father is OLD!
ReplyDeleteHowever, for an old guy, he sure has put a lot of miles on the bike this year. Not bad at all.
Schweeney - Well, I have to give credit where it's due and say that Jen worked awfully hard for me to get healthy; she's the one who cooks the 'special diet' that helped me lose a bunch of weight, back around the time I turned 50, and helps me mostly keep it off today. Which is even better, as far as I'm concerned - she really actually WANTS to keep me around. . .
ReplyDelete;)
Suldog - Older than you, at any rate. . . whippersnapper!
I'm starting to notice that the ol' bod just doesn't wanna go quite as fast as it used to, and not quite so far, without taking a break.
But thanks. . . If I can accumulate another thousand before the end of the year, I'll still set a new PR for miles, even if it's just a bit slower than it used to be. . .
I had someone call the store inquiring about a book with special glasses to view the Venus eclipse today, and I had to inform them we didn't have such a thing...and now I feel badly that they won't get another chance to see this kind of event!
ReplyDelete:)
Happy belated to your daughter!
Rain, clouds, no chance whatsoever to see it. Bummer, since I like to notice Venus in the sky anyway, nevermind in transit across the Sun. Oh, well. Maybe I can live to see the next one. What will I be? 1,096? Yeah, I can do that. If I don't have a softball game that night, I'll be right on top of it.
ReplyDeletefaDKoG - I'm skeptical of what kind of 'eclipse-watching glasses' would be included in a book.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm suddenly wondering if some of my early-40s-type blog-friends might be closer to my daughter's age than mine. . .
;)
Suldog - Aw, heck, you'll only be 160. . . You might be down to only catching one game a night by then, tho. . .
I was bumming, just a bit, since it was pretty cloudy yesterday afternoon in the city where I work. By the time I got home, tho, it was beautifully clear, so I wandered down to the park at the end of our street, which has very open sightlines, and whipped out my handy-dandy welder's glass.
It took me a minute to get my aging eyes to focus, and then another little bit to decide that that little black dot in the upper-right quadrant of the sun's disk was really Venus, and not just some dust on the glass, or my eyeball. Not quite as spectacular as an eclipse (or heck, even some of the brighter night-time Venus-sightings); but, like you say, it's Venus - another planet in our solar system - in a really unique presentation.
xavier, VERY strange days!
ReplyDelete