80.0
Today is my 80th birthday. It comes on the darkest day of the year but for me it’s not. I still think I look like the picture on the left while others see the one on the right.
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Perhaps it’s telling that the first is black and white. Aches and illnesses take longer to heal but they still do. And the latter picture hides a fun-loving interior. My daughter praised my sense of humor in words that warmed the cockles of my heart.
“Cockles of the heart”? Certainly not “cockles and muscles, all alive o”. Turns out the origin is controversial. After wasting a lot of time in research, the most logical explanation is that the cockles of your heart are the ventricles and thus, by extension, the innermost depths of one’s heart or emotions. The word comes from the Latin phrase cochleae cordis, meaning “ventricles of the heart”.
Yes, you could care less, but this is the kind of thing that octogenarian minds feast on, if they eat at all.
(Interruption here – my smartphone timer went off signalling it’s time to punch down the dough for the loaf of bread I’m baking. This birthday is full of excitement!)
I’m not the only one born on the darkest day of the year. The list of notables includes Joseph Stalin (appropriate), Jane Fonda, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evert and Ray Romano. I didn’t make the list again this year.
As both of you who read this blog know, this year included construction of a detached workshop. After the torture trench laid me low, the weather has turned wet and cold so refinement of the inside will languish until Spring. Instead, more time is being devoted to writing. I’ve completed a memoir, not because imminent death is sensed, but rather that a friend wants to pass bits of it to an author writing books about Boeing plane development programs. Probably precious few bits will make the grade. Anyway, if one final reading of a proof copy suggests publication is worthwhile, I will release it in January.
A more important venture is now re-vitalized; namely the “From Revolution Born” novel. Re-reading the first half after a long hiatus has inspired me to get back into it again. So, there is much to look forward to in the coming year, along with the joys of everyday living. I hope you can say the same and follow up a fun-filled holiday with a wonderful new year.
