Sunday – 30 October 2022
Fifty-two trips around the sun, while simultaneously avoiding The Dark Lady’s embrace.

When it’s your 52nd birthday and you have a Ray Lewis #52 jersey, you wear the jersey!

I’d like to start off by thanking everyone who took time to wish me well on my birthday. It may seem like a small gesture, but I truly appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Oh… and let’s take care of the comic elephant in the room: DC used “The New 52” as their banner for their umpteenth reboot universe. And… it wasn’t… great. Different? Sure. Were there some decent things that came out of it? I’ll grant that, too. But, on the whole? Meh. But, using “The New 52” as a starting point for the next year? Brilliant. So, I’m liberating it in the name of the people! Sorry, Jim Lee. #sorrynotsorry

It’s been a good birthday extended weekend; I took Wednesday through Friday off. I mean, it’s one thing to take your middle-of-the-week birthday off, but who wants to turn right back around to go to work for two days and then get a weekend? Besides, that’s what vacation days are for, right? I also received two of THE BEST gifts ever from Team Diva: Vanessa painted a Green Lantern and Diana made a piece of embroidery

The most productive thing I did with most of the time was get back into something of a gym routine.

Three straight days in – and my usual Saturday morning two mile walk with Evie. It was good. And painful. And a little humbling – I can see what I used to be able to do in the gym; it’s going to take some work to get back there. The biggest hurdle is going to be figuring out how to fit gym time into the rest of my day. The nominally “best” thing I’ve come up with so far is to start my days about an hour earlier and hit the gym first thing in the morning. We’ll see how that shakes out.

Friday, Sara and I had 1-on-1 night with the ladies. This week was my time with Vanessa. She wanted to go bowling. So, I broke out my bowling bag and off we went. We bowled 2.8 games before our time was up. More importantly: We both had fun.

Saturday saw us getting a jump on weekend chores, errands, and other housework things. We also had friends and family over for cake, ice cream, and conversation. It was a great way to spend the evening.

Sunday, we headed to The Kinlands to pick pumpkins. Despite being the day before Hallowe’en, they had a great assortment of pumpkins and gourds from which we were able to select.

Back home for football… and installing a new porch light… and then, off to the in-laws’ for dinner and cookie decorating! And, next, home again, home again, jiggety-jig for pumpkin-carving and setting up a few decorations in the yard.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind… but I had a fantastic weekend, with just the right kind and amount of recharge to power through the next few weeks.

I look forward to seeing what the coming year brings.