77-7

If that looks a bit mysterious, it’s not.   I’m 77 today on the 7th of March.   (OK, it’s now the 8th because I forgot to post this earlier.  DUH.)   A notable birthday not because of the numbers, but because my mother died at age 77, and last year I realized I was getting twitchy about this year’s birthday.

I feel much better about it now, despite that it was a mostly-cloudy day considerably colder than recently, and woke me up with a high wind and heavy (but very brief) rain sometime after midnight last night.

Not a good day for a birthday ride, but tomorrow may be.  The blustery wind for most of the day had the horses skittish and me uncomfortable…some trees are already putting out pollen and there’s dust as well to make my eyes sting.   I miss the combined birthday party that I used to share with friends whose birthdays were the same week as mine…people coming here, and we’d walk on the land and have barbecue, and so on.  But I’ve enjoyed the peaceful rides out with Rags, and none of us wants to make anyone else sick.

(And then I STILL didn’t manage to hit PUBLISH.  It’s now a cold, cloudy, dreary March 8.   But it was a good birthday anyway!)

14 thoughts on “77-7

  1. Happy slightly belated birthday. I have long enjoyed your stories about your work on the 80 acres and now am enjoying reading about your rides with Rags.

  2. A belated Happy Birthday. The weather outside never matters as long as you focus on the sunny conditions inside. Next year I turn a young 64 and my plans are to listen to a Beatles song a lot about turning 64. I love that song. So here is to wishing you sunny days and wonderful horse rides in the coming year.

  3. A belated happy birthday!

    I’ve a couple of years before I hit sixty-four, the age at which my mother died, I don’t feel twitchy about it yet, just aware it is approaching, but that may change. On the other hand I get regular mamograms, so late discovery of breast cancer is unlikely, and my blood pressure, cholesterol etc. are also checked regulary, so the stroke that actually killed her before the metastised cancer could is equally unlikely. Medicine has improved a lot in the forty-one years since my mother’s death.

    I hope that wind settles down soon so you are both in the mood for a ride again.

  4. Hi – happy birthday. It is tough when you approach the age of your parent’s demise. And I joined the 77 club also in January.

    Enjoy the family and the horses.

    Jonathan up here in slowing warming New Hampshire

    1. I’m sure it will ding me again in the fall near the actual date of her death…it usually does. The body knows the angle of light if the mind forgets the reason for the feeling.

  5. Congratulations on completing another trip around the Sun. Best wishes for many more.
    I remember my dad remarking on his 70th birthday that he had lived longer than his dad. My age “landmarks” are 84 (mother) and 96 (father).

    1. Thanks for the good wishes. I don’t expect to reach my father’s “landmark” of 101, almost 102, but then we were not close at all. He lived much longer than his father (killed in a trolley-pedestrian accident when my father was a boy, if I remember the story correctly. My mother outlived both her parents–her mother when my mother was 14, her father when I was four and she was 36-37. Her first step-mother died when she was 32 or just 33, I think (I was a baby.) I don’t remember Iola at all, but I do remember my mother’s father, and being told he had died, though not the exact date.

  6. Happy birthday! Glad it was a good day, and hope the year to come is even better! I’m also glad to hear the brain fog continues to lift; fingers crossed there will come a day sometime soon where you don’t notice the effects of the concussion anymore. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I hope you do not feel any pressure from your readers to produce any new writing. I enjoy your current bulletins from the front and will read them as long as you care to post them. Moreover, you have a large corpus of published work which I enjoy reading and re-reading. If someday you are able to finish a new novel to the standards you desire, that will simply be a lagniappe. But my birthday wish for you is to be completely healthy and happy, whatever that means at this time of life! Mazel tov!

  7. I’m delighted to hear that you had a good birthday, and enjoy and am encouraged by your ride reports. I agree with Jeanine’s comments, and hope that the writing impulsion and story threading return to you, for the satisfaction they bring you above all else.

    My “as old as my mother” milestone will arrive in two years, “as old as my father” in another three. The support and encouragement of friends helps. Thank you again for that, 25+ years ago. Here’s hoping that covid cases will continue to fall and the virus weaken, making visits from friends less fraught.

  8. Happy birthday (belated). Thank you for sharing your stories of the 80 acres and the boys. May this trip around the sun bring you more pleasant rides, good food, and hopefully visits with your friends.

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