Your “Freeform Reflections on Aging” Thursday Night Open Thread

^{Banner Photo Credit: Olivia Dickson Design}

Yesterday marked my birthday.  As one of my old former bosses used to say, it was a double click on the odometer. Can’t say that anything clicked in terms of some great epiphany or other profundity though. I did keep thinking about my dad’s 40th birthday, though.

I have a very vivid memory of the party favors from that milestone birthday. Everything was gags about age and death, either a shitload of “over the hill” references on balloons, paper plates, etc and/or actual visual depictions of the grim reaper. And yet here we are, 34 years later and not only is my dad still alive, but he obviously was very young on that gloomy, doom looming birthday.

As I myself have crossed that date on the rubicalendar, I ask you–where is this damn hill? Are my best days supposedly behind me?  Because physically, that’s almost certainly true but mentally and emotionally I sure as shit hope not. It’s almost entirely cliche to say 40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40, 60 is the new 50, so on and so forth. And yet I’m not unaffected by the shift. I mean, literally nothing has changed except the decade to which I belong, and I’m not gonna go buy a ferrari, get an ear pierced, and look for a 25 year old to date (RIP tWBS) or anything, but I am stopping to think at least a little about if I’m going to keep repeating the same damn mistakes in the past or change for a change. Which is a battle of my own stubbornness, a force only somewhat less unstoppable than the forward march of time.

I started this open thread draft first thing this am, expecting the open window to provide me with some sort of canvas to drop brain sketches and reflections. Instead I ended up dealing with the contractors in our house (not as bad as Horatio’s but still), meeting a friend for lunch, and then fittingly, the seconds, minutes, and hours tick tick ticked away until I only had about a half an hour to get any of these thoughts whatsoever into publishable form. That’s apt, too, I suppose, that the deadline is the only thing that scared me into working, just as a….let’s call it a life or deathline like a heart attack or near miss car accident is what it takes to force healthier eating or a new joie de vivre.  All I know is that the number my age starts with is a notch higher than at the beginning of the week, and I don’t feel a whole lot different.

Uplifting, I know, but as a friend of mine once (often?) said, life is the sexuality transmitted disease with the highest mortality rate–100%.

Oh, and speaking of highest, happy 4/20 to those who celebrate/partake.  Not my bag but I don’t quibble with the appeal.

Now look, this isn’t a “woe is me” or “send help” post, I’m actually doing pretty well, all things considered. It’s only natural to take stock on the march of time when we pause to celebrate a birthday, and what I’m left with is that I’m not that old but I’m definitely older, and it’s up to me to decide how much to do things differently before/until/unless a major precipitating event forces change upon me. After all, time’s arrow ain’t stopping or going back on my account either.

What’s on TV Tonight?

Baseball

Yes.  It’s 162 game slog, man, and I don’t understand which games are regionally broadcast, nationally broadcast, on ESPN+ or AppleTV live or post-hoc.  It’s a big scary world and life is constantly changing.  So no, I shan’t be watching the Dodgers vs the Cubs tonight. Check your local listings.

If you really want to get wild, there’s college baseball and softball on tonight, the latter on ESPN2 at 6 and 8PM DFO Time (FSU vs Va Tech and Oklahoma State vs Texas, respectively) and the former on ESPNU at 6:30PM DFO Time (Gators v Cocks).

NBA Playoffs

Series-leading Sixers vs Nets, 6:30PM DFO Time on TNT
Draymond-less Warriors vs the 2-0 leading Kings, 9PM DFO Time on TNT
Suns vs Clippers (series tied 1-1), 9:30PM DFO Time on NBATV

NHL Playoffs

Lightning at Leafs, 6pm DFO Time on ESPN (Tampa leads 1-0)
Rangers at Devils, 6:30PM DFO Time on TBS (New Yawk leads 1-0)
Kraken at Avalanche, 8:30PM DFO Time on ESPN (Seattle leads 1-0)
Jets at Knights, 9PM DFO Time on TBS (Winnipeg leads 1-0)

I leave it to the Canucks among us to make the Maple Leaving jokes. And let’s celebrate Mike Lindell being added to the list of charlatans and fraudsters being ordered to pay up. Hoorah! To the comments!