Well, pilgrims, today I am officially 4 shy of 60...Back in the day when I was jumping off garage roofs with bedsheet parachutes [ not recommended - kids don't try that at home ] and hunkering down in front of the 6 inch screen Dumont to watch Howdy Doody in glorious Black and White, I never thought I would make it this far..I had hopes of going out in a blaze of glory, machine gun in each hand, defending the world from tyranny while piling up the enemy body count exponentially... much later I would come to realize I would more likely die of blood poisoning from a thousand paper cuts in military service before receiving the " Best Dressed " soldier Medal from Her Majesty - posthumously - than go out in a cinematic demise worthy of John Wayne..throwing the grenade that would end evil tyrants' dreams of world conquest as I expired to the sounds of a symphonic overture and the tears of countless maidens...

Well, anyway... I ended up doing all sorts of ordinary things instead.. wound up here..lurking the internet, which even Star Trek never prepared me for...and watching my kids grow into responsible adults, my wife grow more beautiful each day and my grandkids cluster on my lap believing everything I tell them about the Dreaded General Consternation and his evil henchman, Major Catastrophe, and how I managed to stop them from destroying whole rainforests in an attempt to bury the world in paperwork...

Life isn't great [ no one's ever is - well, maybe Bill Gates' ] but it is Good...

I guess I can handle that...time to have the nurse turn up the drip on the Single Malt IV and go have a slice of low cal, low carb, sugar free diet cake and head off into the sunset for a few days...

back at you [ the Great Deity willing ] come Tuesday...I'm retreating to my Fortress of Solitude for a bit of R&R with the Good Padre to relive my misspent youth in an attempt to fight the curse of 20/05 and the march of Time...

Shalom, Aloha and all that....

beautiful speech lad,... brings tears to my eyes.

You younger people had it easy. Okay, I'm only a year older but I can remember listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio and listening to the clip clop of horses as they delivered milk in the morning.

Enjoy.

Rocketeer...Happy B-Day! Enjoy the R&R, and pinch the good Padre on the butt for me!

Yup,what they all said.....except for pinching the Padre's butt.....must be a Marine joke.

You outta see his 'Padre'!
(they have brought 'Fraternization' to a whole new level)