You have a birthday this year. It may already have happened or it may yet to be, but we all have one this year. Of course when you are young the big birthday is either this year, as that birthday approaches, or next year as you think of becoming older and wiser and whatever else your young heart is desiring.

As you get older the next birthday somehow gets a little less exciting. In a mathematical sense the importance of birthdays seems to become as the inverse of your age. In other words the importance fades as your age grows.

In fact it rather changes as the decades change. I would call this the “Big O” problem, Some will remember the ditty “Lordy Lordy Joe is now forty”. At some point in time we begin to think in ten year increments instead of one year. I don’t remember my 36th birthday but I do remember my fortieth and so on.. That is not senility; it is just the way it is.

By the time of the big Three O I had already lost in a local county election. However, in my county I did get more votes that Mr. Goldwater. The big Five O birthday is a memorable one. I became an official member of the OFC. That is the old f..ts Club. By that time I had left the executive suite and had returned to my main love and became one of those meticulous engineers.

By the time of my big Six O I was in Texas and wondering why I hadn’t moved South sooner. I was also becoming somewhat surprised that I had made it that far in life. In my more rebellious youth, I was certain I wouldn’t live long so I thought it was necessary to live fast. That was somewhat of a mistaken assumption. It is more fun to stop and smell the roses and the coffee.

Then I actually passed the big Seven O and was semi-retired. It was semi because the workaholic tendencies of my youth faded much slower than my youth had faded. Sadly, it was in that seventh decade that many of my earlier choices to not live the healthy exercised life began to catch up. Many of my friends died. The aches and pains began to multiply. They were trying to match up with my decades.

Now as I approach, or by the time you read this, pass the big Eight O it has become time to reflect on decades past. The future ones are a little too scary to think about.

The net of it all the reflection is that I have lived a most interesting life, lived in many interesting places, met and had most amazing friends. I can actually say that I have explored a most exciting world. This makes me ask what else could I have wanted. And my answer is I wouldn’t have changed this life a bit. I wish the same for you.