A month away. In just a month we will be partying it up in New Orleans, and I’ll be dealing with turning 50. Not that I haven’t been dealing with it for a while now. Turning 50 in New Orleans is pretty cool, though, but it ended up being just a coincidence. We decided to go on the trip over Spring Break and then realized that it was the week of my birthday – and then it dawned on us that it was my 50th. Of course, I’m going to take the ball and run with it. I get lucky sometimes with my birthday falling in April. A few years ago we went to the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot on my birthday, we once climbed to the Statue of Liberty’s crown on my birthday, and we have been to Busch Gardens many times for the occasion. This time it’s beads and beignets and hurricanes and music. Food and voodoo and bourbon and history. It’s going to be epic, and only a month away.
A month away. That means I only have a month left of my 40’s. Pretty jarring. A lot has happened in the past decade and I guess I’m ready for my 50’s, but it’s still jarring. At the very least, I’ve made it this far. There are many who haven’t. I brought up in a previous blog about all the change taking place this year. Getting older isn’t really a change, it’s happening all the time, but moving into a new decade is, so I can add another one to the list. So many things on the horizon – my kid’s college, retirement, growing old, all the unknown. Winter is coming? Maybe it will be a spring?
Adding even more to the year of change are some not so weighty items:
When I went to see the doctor the other day, she told me that she is leaving the practice and moving to a smaller one in Norfolk. I will have to decide to move with her, or choose a different doctor at the current practice. My wife and I go to the same doctor, so she will be in the same boat. How do I decide on a new doctor? How do you know if they are any good? Should I move? It’s all the way downtown and might not have an onsite lab and an urgent care. One way or another things will change.
We are big ODU sports fans and have season tickets to basketball and football and this year is a reseating year for both. Both! We will most likely have new seats in the upcoming seasons that will be our new home for the next 3-4 years. New seats, new neighbors, and new views. And they may be worse seats. It’s all up in the air. We need to wait to see what’s available when our turn comes up to choose. We’ve had premium sideline seats the past three years in football and aisle seats for basketball and I’m worried about losing them. Reseating for football is late May and for basketball late August. Of course, the push is on – Send us more money to make your chances better for reseating! The more you give the more points you earn and the earlier you can choose! Money, money, money! We already give as much as we are able, so the chips have fallen.
Speaking of change, it obviously happens to everybody. There is this house in our neighborhood that is different from all the rest. Our neighborhood use to be a horse farm and this house is the original farm house. Last week I saw the older man who lives there sitting on a chair on the sidewalk next to his house, wrapped up in a blanket just watching the world go by. He looked sad and ill. We don’t know them, but they have lived there the whole time we have lived in the neighborhood. I’m sure they have been there a long time. Well, a few days later there was a For Sale sign in the yard. Sadness.
More change…
dave's word 