another orbit completed

My father always refers to birthdays as celebrations of completing another orbit around the sun. As of 8:15 or something tonight, I will have completed another one. That makes half a century plus half a decade for me.
I have never been one of those people who goes nuts about turning the big whatever-oh. And this one is not particularly troublesome. What usually gets me is when I start thinking "Geez, in ten years, I will be ______. That's OLD!"

I guess I go by the old cliche of "You're only as old as you feel". And when you are up past the half-century mark, sure, you've been around, but as the Baby Boomers age, 50 is the new 35, 55 the new 40. And so forth.

My advice to those of us who want to continue to consider ourselves as young and vital - is to hang around younger people, and observe their ways. We used to enjoy hanging around our kids' friends (in moderation). And then I've been teaching a high school Sunday School class for quite a few years. This keeps me "hep" to the "jive" of our young people. (OK, they don't talk like that. It's like "word, dudes". No, they don't say that , either.) Try to be somewhat familiar with the youth culture, too. At least superficially. This helps one to be conversant with these young people. If you really get into the culture, though, you are likely to become somewhat disoriented and possibly nauseous. But maybe at least know how to rattle off names of bands (do they still have bands, or is it all rappers now?), or actors younger than Tom Hanks. I know Johnny Depp was all that just a while ago, but I fear he has aged enough to be borderline geezer. Now it would be Shia LaBoeuf or whatever that faux French name of his is. Thumb through a "People" or an "Us" the next time you are in a checkout line. That should get you up to speed enough on pop culture.

Evidently, to feel young at heart, you should NOT watch the network news. Every ad paying the bills for Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric or Brian Williams is about someone with some body part falling off or malfunctioning, then some brightly colored pill that will replace or repair the body part. It is downright depressing when it finally dawns on you that the actors in the ad look ... about your age. Then we find ourselves watching "Wheel of Fortune" and/or "Jeopardy". Not an envious demographic to find yourself in. Geez, if Lawrence Welk came on, would we stay tuned for that???

I don't know where this is going, which is another sign of advanced age, rambling on without structure, content, or point. So I will quit this and append some pictures of two events in my actual birthday activities. First, I really like walking on paths in woods, and we found one in a county metropark about a half hour away, on massive acreage that was once going to be a nuclear power plant but never came to fruition (or to fusion, or fission, for that matter). Not a lot of wildlife, but we saw a snakeskin and a few fall weed flowers. And the dog drank water that I poured onto Linda's hands from her water bottle. She (the dog, that is) was thirsty.

Second, I have had a tradition for well over 45 years - my requested birthday dinner always, ALWAYS consists of hamburger, mashed potatoes and peas. It is not my favorite dinner, but it is TRADITION and there is no stopping it. My sister used to order something a bit more, let's say, sophisticated, like shrimp scampi. Not me; I was all about the meat and potatoes (and peas).

That's it. Another year, another 360 degree turn around the sun, some new faces in the Sunday School class (they brought in birthday donuts, bless their hearts), another burger down the hatch (grilled to perfection on the new grill). Oh, and since I divulged my age, I will just note that I am my sister's OLDER brother. On to orbit #56...