Countdown To Fifty

As a product of the 70’s and 80’s, like many folks, I did my fair share of partying.

And, not unlike many of my peers, my memory of these events is, well, cloudy.

And then came Facebook.

Maybe Facebook  is the great flashback machine.

After all, I have connected with more people I have known from those wacky days in the last 6 months than in the last 25 years.

In conversation with many of them I am reminded of events that have long been tucked away, and forgotten, in the deepest recesses of the brain.

Just last week I got a call out of the blue from a ‘friend’ circa 1974-1978. We had not spoken, or communicated in any form, in 30 years.

As we stumbled down memory lane I had some genuine flashbacks of people, places and things way long forgotten.

Perhaps, as I approach 50 with full blown CRS (can’t remember shit), I should be glad that Facebook stands ready to deliver to my computer and telephone long forgotten events.

Maybe.

In February I had to write the ode to our old girl Tessa.

Now we have lost our second and last “child”, Annie. She died on October 11th.

Annie was the boss of the house. It was her world and my wife and I simply lived in it. She brought us 14 years and 4 months of pure happiness.

She was playful, loving, kind, gentle, fussy, messy, hysterical, neurotic, insecure, shy, possessive, wacky, fun and fabulous.

In the period of 5 days she went from happy and mobile (albeit crotchety) to paralyzed. She died at home on the bed she slept in for her entire life – our bed.

We miss her deeply and painfully each and every day.

There are ghosts of her that still inhabit our home.

The silence of no dogs in the house is deafening.

Over the last 2 months I have had the chance to reconnect with two old friends. One I have known since I was 15 years old and the other I have known since I was 19. The reasons we lost touch were attributed to simply loosing track of contact information.

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Menopause Manopause aka andropause.

Apparently this a very real affliction that strikes men as they cruise through 40 on their way to 50. I thought my better half was just jerking [Read more →]

The debut of the blog and podcast combo “Countdown To Fifty” is almost here!

The goal of this work will be to follow a 47 year old guy as he crosses that wacky life demarcation point in life – THE BIG FIVE OH, er O.

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