Loyal readers already know that today is my actual birthday, but one day is frankly not enough for anyone. While Bill HD claims that no one older 8 ought to be allowed to have such a perversion as a “birthday week,” I am of the opinion that it is exactly the opposite: the older you get, the longer you should be allowed to celebrate. Ultimately, most retirees are simply celebrating their birthdays year-round.
In any event, there were a few family snags with my usual birthday plans I won’t go into now, but all in all, a good time. I have received many fine wishes on Facebook, some family cards, I’ve had some cake (albeit a low-fat/low-calorie one), I’ve been able to goof off a little, I’ve enjoyed my new iPod Touch quite a bit, etc.
One kind of weird thing over the weekend though. This is a picture of the birthday card (and its contents) I received from my parents:
The black parts are my sloppy ways of blocking out address and other info; the problem here is that the envelope and enclosed card had about the bottom third of it sheared off. The whole thing came in a plastic bag from the post office that basically said “we’re really sorry, but this was damaged.” It does make you wonder why this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often– this is the first piece of mail I’ve ever received that was damaged like this– and my bank still cashed the check, so all is well.
ok…so then you need to post a table showing how one’s birthday observances scale with age
1) You realize, of course, that it took me ten seconds to look up your address online. (Admittedly, I theoretically had the advantage of knowing the right one when I saw it, but in this case I only got one hit.)
2) The postal system really is amazing. At any given time, there are BILLIONS of pieces of mail in the mail stream, yet it’s cheap and relatively effective. And only rarely do postal employees blow a head gasket and kill their co-workers.
To Chris:
1) Well, you’ve been to my house, too.
2) This is very true, and like I said, it was the first piece of mail I have ever received that was damaged like that– not bad considering I’ve received more than a few pieces of mail in the last 40-some-odd years. Still, had I not been able to cash this check, I would have been pissed.