Thanksgiving 2013

I actually think it's kinda creepy that the Google homepage assaulted me with a special birthday doodle.

I wonder what was on everyone else's computers today? I would hate to have missed learning about the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Fourier Transform or something.

I also received cheerful BD emails from a boatload of vendors who really shouldn't know about my birthday. On the plus side, I got a bunch of emails saying a zillion people had written greetings on my Facebook wall. (I logged on to Facebook, but couldn't find any of them, and have no idea how to acknowledge the comments. I don't know why Facebook baffles me so completely, but I really just don't get it. Anyway, thanks to all the friends who wished me a happy birthday!)

And if that weren't enough, I also received a bunch of food. Desmond, Lisa, and Stephanie all brought food to swim practices, and Erin delivered my Thanksgiving catering order of burritos, chocolate-chip peanut butter cookies, and chocolate mint marshmallows. They are amazing!

Everything was delicious! But seriously, you should check out http://divatasticgladiator.com/ and order some of those marshmallows. (I don't know if she's already booked with orders for Christmas catering, but no matter what sort of food you like, chances are good she can impress you with her versatile culinary skills.)

Anyway, I'll share more about my birthday in a moment. But first I need to catch up on some pre-Thanksgiving events. Here's a photo I took while in Wichita:



I bet that could inspire an entire Stephen King novel. But it's actually nothing weird at all; it's just my dad watching my brother change a flat tire in his driveway.

Hey, I actually helped! While it's true that my brother got all of the handyman genes available to our family, I can still do simple things like turn a lug wrench.

My dad had just turned 94. He still gets around pretty well, though he no can no longer reliably articulate the difference between a Gorn and an Archon. But he can still eat pizza with plenty of gusto, and still wants to be useful and involved. Fortunately, we were able to talk him out of helping with the tire...though my sister ended up getting stuck with taking it to the station for the repair.

Dad also helped us sort through some memorabilia he wanted us to take and preserve. Unfortunately, many of the papers and photos had succumbed to entropy, but I did end up with quite a few family pictures that I'll be scanning and archiving over the next several months. I'm hoping that some of the information hidden in those old crates will help me fill in some gaps in our family's genealogy.

This portrait is my great grandfather, Asa Osias Gere, in his Union Army uniform from his service in the Civil War. He looks like he's about 12 years old -- I'll let you know if I find out exactly how old he actually was in the photo.

As for the rest of us, here's a current family photo:



Anyway, after I returned to Denver, I was surprised to receive a package from UPS. I hadn't ordered anything at that point -- after all, it wasn't even Black Friday yet. I didn't recognize the shipping label. And when I opened the package, it appeared to be a children's book.

? ? ? ? ?

Then I actually looked at the cover and saw the author's name. OK, I thought, this might actually be intended for me after all.



The source was still a mystery. But the autograph on the title page confirmed that this was indeed a birthday present:



A few pages into the book, the mystery was resolved. There was a picture of my college roommate and best friend with my number one musical and literary hero:



Wow! What a great birthday present! I can't remember ever getting anything that made me smile any wider than this. I immediately wrote an email to Mickey to thank him. It turns out that Al was in Tulsa to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the filming of the movie UHF, and Mickey stood in line for a couple of hours to get this book signed for me. That is a true friend. (And you gotta give credit to Al for knowing how to pose for book signing photos. Class act all the way.)

It was a great birthday. And I'm looking forward to the next year. I've started making plans for doing some special things during my 60th orbit on this planet. Of course, the National Championship triathlon is a big part of those plans. And I'm trying to take my training seriously.

I have learned, though, that "seriously" is not necessarily the same as "smart." I had decided that I needed to do some cross-fit style plyometric training to increase my power and agility...so I attempted to do one of Erin's calisthenic workouts on Thanksgiving morning. It didn't sound that hard; just four sets of jumping, tossing medicine balls, and running in place.

I had plans to run a lot over the weekend, but I was SO sore from that Thanksgiving "jumping around" workout that I could barely walk, much less crank out any running mileage. (Sigh.) But the good news is that after a 6000-yard swim practice on Sunday morning, I finally started to loosen up. I should be able to return to my scheduled activities this week (though of course, the change in the weather and the fact that I have proposals due at work might have an impact.) We'll see.

As for Thanksgiving and my birthday, well, I'd just like to thank you all for being my friends...and for being kind enough to drop by my blog page. I do appreciate it. I'm looking forward to a great year-end and a fantastic 2014. I hope you are, too. Thanks for everything, and have a great day!