5-0 without the Hawaii

The big 5-0.
Yep, another hurdle reached in the mile markers
of the interstate highways of life and yet I feel
great!

Why so?
Let us start with a recent clean bill of health (except extra weight, which I was told that considering the rest of my health isn't an issue other than some joint stress) and move on to what was a terrific birthday weekend.

Moving on to my birthday, where I was snookered into thinking that it was going to be a small party involving Cherie, the kids and my mother in law, Beverly and upon arrival, discovering that most of my good friends had been invited and were waiting for me at Ryan's home.
It was such a wonderful surprise and the gift of their appearance, considering how some of them passed on other places to see and things to do meant the world to me.
Thanks to all of you for the gifts, time and the great time.

I wanted to give a special thanks to all of you for pulling this off without suspicion on my part.
Apparently, this was planned for months and yet all of the participants managed to listen to me and not tip anything off.
More thanks to Cherie and Rachel for the planning and to Ryan and Courtney for allowing us to use their home for the event.

I also have a special thanks to someone that hardly knows me.
Janet works at the grocery store that we go to and she was kind enough to give me a birthday card with a special gift- a fifty cent piece from 1968 (which is the reason the coin is pictured above) that she received from her grandfather.
Janet was kind enough to pass this along to me along with a wonderful note inside the card and I was quite touched by her gift.
I wish that I could contact her right away, but unless she is reading this, I'll have to wait until next week- Thank you so much

I don't feel a lot different from 50 than 49 or 40 or even 30.
Immaturity will do that for a person-Ha Ha.
I've never been a numbers person that things like this bother me.
30 or 40 never bothered me and 50 hasn't either.
Sure, middle age has its issues, but I'm not feeling bad about it-I have a long way to go,

Honestly, what has bothered me more than anything of late has been the recent one-year "anniversary" of the loss of Big Ed.
I don't think I'll ever look at 4th of July the same way again after 2017 and it bothered me enough that I didn't even want to write about it.
The big guy is missed by all of us...

I'll be back to normal now with more posts soon.