How old?

This past Wednesday was my 55th birthday.

Damn.

My drivers license picture was taken on September 11th, 2001. In the 10 years since, I've gone from weighing 175 pounds and having brown hair with a touch of gray to 195 and a touch of brown in the dull gray.  Obviously, I'll be getting a new picture this year.  At least it'll match my carry permit picture.

Such birthdays tend to have you turn a bit in introspective, and so I've started writing up  a kind of profit and loss sheet on where I am in my life.  That being said, there's not a chance in hell of me allowing anyone to ever see that particular document. Such things are, while inevitable, something that should be only for the writer and maybe their therapist.  If you're honest in such a document it'd be an exercise in sadism to allow anyone to read it.  Maybe there's someone on this planet that are 100% satisfied with the decisions and random chance that has brought them to where they are in life, but I've never known them. On top of that, this sort of balance sheet is by definition the author's opinion, which may or may not have that much connection with reality.

I'll finish this post by saying that while birthdays are a good time to review where you've been, make sure that it's equally a good time to review where you're going. The time to admit that you are finally old and should pack it in is when only the past holds your interest, and the future is just something to endure.