36

Today's my birthday and I am 36 years old today. As my mother's student put it, I'm old enough to be her dad.

Here's what I'm thinking:

• I love my wife and am getting tired of being apart.
• My father turned 30 the year I was born. Mom was 26. I'm 6 and 10 years older and only just got married and no sign of children any time soon. Times have changed.
• I wonder what it would be like to float in a container of water that was exactly my body temperature?
• Renee made me two loaves of cherry bread for my happy day. She did an especially good job on it, as it is moist without being wet. It is superb. Now, the hard part is to not eat it all before lunch!
• Dad sent me a card with a check for $75. Little does he know, he is now paying for fingerprints and a security check from the California and US governments!
• If I turn 36 today, that means in 11 days someone else is turning 36. And I'm bald and he's got gray hair. We're both married now. He has a child through his marriage. Times are changing there, too.
• I have been on some medication and dealing with the liver disease and the rheumatoid arthritis since 1995. That's 12 years of daily medications, at minimum quarterly blood draws, near constant pain and discomfort, headaches, weight fluctuations, constant doctor's visits, dealing with insurance companies, and mental stress.
• On a list M sent me of 239 movies, I had for sure watched 175 of them, had viewed parts of around 10 more (on TV, but never sat and watched the whole thing), and had 2 more at home from Netflix (one of which I watched last night). The list said that 89 or higher indicated "No Life." What is more than double no life?
• During the first Gulf war, which occurred as I was graduating High School, gas went from $.89 a gallon to a whopping $1.39 a gallon. Now, I barely bat an eyelash at paying $3.39 a gallon. The processes for refining gas (and, therefore, the costs of it) have not significantly changed or increased since then. And the crude cost has only doubled. So, the gas companies could be making a significant, world-leading profit margin selling gas at somewhere around $2.25-2.50 per gallon. The remaining nearly $1 is all profit and greed.
• I am very much looking forward to DnD tonight. May be the last session we play for some time.