Birthdays

​Well it happened again.  My birthday was not a public holiday.  To do something once is ignorance.  To do it twice is negligence.  I do not think there is a word for doing it 63 times.  Still, I’ve learned to live with it.  So have others apparently.
Birthdays are the weirdest thing.  I mean, celebrating getting older?  When I turned 60 someone gave me two cards.  They were congratulations on turning 30 cards.  I needed two.  Once upon a time I needed only one.  There was a time when 30 seemed ancient.  Now it seems young.
There are advantages in birthdays.  Presents.  I waited in vain for the semi’s to arrive with my presents from you all.  Making room in the car port was a waste of time.  I can only image though that you are all kicking yourself right now, and wondering what to do with the money you saved up for getting me stuff.  Well I have good news for you.  There is always next year!  Put aside some now each week and it all adds up.  Forgo putting food on your table.
Another thing about birthdays is everyone who know about it goes out of their way to treat the birthday person nice.  I am living in hope that it was one of this year’s resolutions about me.  Even those who don’t know, as soon as they do, their expression changes.  I was ordering Subway and the attendant did the banter thing.  “Anything planned for the day?”  At that point I told her a dinner was happening and then I uttered the key words.  “It’s my birthday.”  Well the other side of the counter was full of well wishes.  They still charged me though.  Bit rough.
I got some things I can really use for my birthday.  As I have been into stamps over the break, I received a light that also has a flap that when opened is a magnifying glass.  I also got a camera that attaches to the computer to aim at a stamp and have the image appear on the computer.  It even takes a photo if I want.  I also got a digital microscope that will enlarge an image 600 times.  That will be handy for watermarks.  The more I get into stamps the more I discover to get into.  Many stamps have watermarks on the back that are virtually invisible to the naked eye.
Some stamps are worth heaps (so I have heard anyway).  One is a black swan printed upside down.  Merril saw an upside-down swan.  She thought we were rich but discovered I had put the stamp upside down.
My eyes ain’t what they used to be.  Once upon a time I could look across a room and see a fly on a clock and tell if it had one gammy leg.  Well maybe not, but they were better than they are now.  I knew things were changing when I had to read asset numbers.  It used to be that mostly the asset numbers were in the most obscure places.  All sorts of contortions would be needed.  I would do that and then discover the number was too small to read.  I needed to magnify it.  It seems weird, but the numbers got smaller and smaller.  To me anyway.
What I do love about birthdays is the excuse it provides for having a get together.  Mostly it takes the form of a dinner.  The food is generally good but secondary.  I love the company.  I want it to go on forever.