Fractions of Dan: Road to Fifty

So I've decided to add a section about the "Road to 50."  So here goes...

As of today-ish, I am 49.25 years old.  I am far past being able to say "I'm this many".

So often we hear "age is just a number."  To which I say "Bullshit."  Almost everything we do is tied to a number.  We celebrate (or hope to forget to celebrate) birthdays.  I had a cake almost every year.  I had my one and only real birthday party at Five.  And even though I had only the one party, there was always a celebration of the day.

For me, one of the biggies was 16.  I had wanted to drive way earlier.  And on a rare occasion I did.  At thirteen, I did 2 weeks of work in Tobacco.  I hated it.  But I drove the tractor.  Then for the next two summers I worked all summer long in Tobacco.  And for the most part I drove the tractor.  One year we pulled a two story harvester behind the tractor.  I could turn that sucker around on a dime.  Or at least a quarter.  So, hating working in the fields, as I approached 16 I began to look for a job "in town" where there were no Tobacco fields.  And then I drove a lot.

Other numbers include 18 (voting age), 21 (legal age for alcohol), 25 (cheaper car insurance) and so on.  When you're 20-something you couldn't care how old you are as long as you're not "THAT" old.  However old that is.  And then when you're 30-something (I was 20 something when 30 something was on TV), you remember the things you did in your 20s because that was like yesterday.

Then comes 40.  The age most men (and lots of women) go a little coo-coo.  The grass is always greener somewhere else.  I moved from Florida to California when I was 37.  So my 40s were already in greener pastures, sorta.  Now comes the advent of 50.  And that brings lots of thoughts which I intend to share along the way.

I do accounting for a living but yesterday my brain was on vacation.  Not from work, but from logic.  I saw a post by my high school English teacher on facebook and began to think "If I'm going to be 50 soon, how old is she?"  This is where my brain went haywire.  At first I thought I should send her a copy of my idea for a new blog post and see if she will tell me her age.  Then I began to do the math.  If she was maybe 30 or so, then my god, she will be 80 this year.  She doesn't seem that old.  Maybe she was in her late 20s when she was my teacher.  She did tell us about ECU (my alma mater too) and the fun times they had there.  Wow, could she really be THAT old.  My mom is 76.  I didn't think they were close to the same age.  BTW, my mom's not old.  And so the thought process went.  I kept thinking Mrs. A's THAT old.  So of course I logged onto f/b and looked at her profile.

And that's when my error was acutely apparent.  She might have been 30 or so, but I was 15-18.  NOT zero.  If Mrs A was 30 when I was 15, then she's 15 years older than I am.  Then I thought oh jeepers, I'm glad I didn't ask her if she was indeed turning 80 this year.

So see, I am right in a way.  Numbers do matter.  I suspect when the hangover wears off on the morning I am 50, I won't feel significantly different, but I bet I will be keenly aware that a new number, and new decade, a new portion of my life has arrived.

So here's to the "Road To 50".  May it be FABULOUS!  (Arms waving and flapping!)