...and I don't know when it happened, well, not really.
It just seemed to happen fast.
The clues have been there for awhile, but now there's no doubt. I'm an old dude.
Two years ago I was driving back from Bar Harbor with two co-workers. It was December 8th. For those of you over 40, I probably don't have to tell you the signifigance of that day. For those of you under 40.....read on.
Watching the Wheels by John Lennon comes on. (The lyrics are very appropriate for the theme of this post by the way).
So I announce to the car, "Hey do you know what day it is?"
....crickets
I say, "Something big happened 30 years ago today."
...no clue.
"December 8th, 1980...." I say in a leading sort of way. The way they used to say "cuuup" for the clue on Password when the answer was "cake."
Silence.
Me..."This was the day John Lennon was killed. Thirty years ago today. How do you not know that?" Me, to my co-worker in the back of the car, "Tom, how old were you when Lennon was shot?"
Tom, "I was negative six years old."
So it goes.
I went to a retirement party this week for a friend that had worked for the same company for 31 years. 31 years for the same company and now she was retiring, albeit at early age, as far as retirement ages go. That's impressive. 31 years.
Until I realized I've worked there for 32 .
I'm at the point where I need to start smelling the roses...where my company should be naming things after me in my honor (like the Pompatus of Pete cafeteria)...where I should be taking long weekends and working shorter hours. Unfortunately I don't see that in my immediate future.
I'm closer to retirement age than I am to the age when I graduated from high school. I know this because I have my 30th high school reunion coming up this year. God knows, if I'm still working 30 years from today, then something has gone horribly wrong.
What do you even do at a 30th reunion?....at the 10th you drink beer and act stupid...at the 20th you drink wine and show pictures of your kids...at the 25th it's mixed drinks and bragging about your successes...and the 30th, I'm guessing protein drinks and lot's of talking about surgeries.
Probably not for me.
Now if the venue gets changed to somewhere in the woods off of Stillman Street, and they hand you a solo cup when you get there, and the only beverage served is beer from a keg...
....then I might reconsider.
I might be getting old...but that doesn't keep me from acting juvenile.
As Pete Townshend (who also shares my birthday, but has me beat by about twenty years) wrote in the famous Who song..
I don't want to cause no fuss, but can I buy your magic bus?
(not the one you thought, was it?)
Now go take a nap.
