Birthday Boy!

TOP: Kyle gives me my bday card with his hard earned 50 pennies. He gets one for every waking minute that he doesn't speak...this was the accumulation over his 8 years! Note Tom in the back pretending to be an Italian tablecloth

2nd: You need a "50 hat" so that everyone knows who the birthday boy is

3rd: Jan (my OVER 50 FRIEND) had put significant work into providing me with an over 50 birthday kit...reading glasses, geritol, hair dye (how she knew even what that was is beyond me) and a toilet lift assist to name a few of the goodies

BOTTOM: The coup de grate, a birthday cake made entirely out of adult diapers. They actually work surprisingly good after a bottle of wine!

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Well, I finally got to my 50th birthday today. Unlike a lot of people, I'm actually kinda proud that I made it this far; I was voted least likely to make 30 in grammer school! 50 is an interesting age...you can see retirement on the horizon, you're typically in your prime earning years, and your health typically starts to noticeably deteriorate. I've been pretty lucky thus far on all 3 fronts. This past year off-grid has given me a chance to get my health back in shape, it's re-energized me, and short of the recent wall street collapse, didn't hurt me too bad financially. On the negative side, your family is starting to die off (5 close friends mothers, including mine and Kathy's this summer alone), your friends are having health issues (cancers, heart problems, joint replacements...), and the kids-in-college drain is in full swing for those that went that route.

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I feel quite lucky for all that I've had the chance to try and accomplish, be it athletics, tourism, marriage, or work, and I don't feel too bad about the things I've missed; kids, my doctorate (always a dream of mine), climbing Alpe d' Huez, being thin...

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But now, time to head back to work somewhere, probably for another 5-10 years or so. I'm going to look into both the health care, alternative energy (wind and solar), and life sciences fields this time around. Health I know pretty well; alternative energy and life sciences is where the money is going to be made in the next decade I believe. We'll see how it all plays out over the next few months. I've really learned a lot this past few years about work-life balance, and what really matters as you kick on over into the 2nd half of your life. Hopefully, I'll be able to play out those lessons in the forthcoming years.

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"Today is not a good day to die" 50 year old Lumpy out