The back nine and the golden moment

I’m going to tell you about my weekend, but I want to tell you a recollection first.

Some years ago, Rush Limbaugh talked about doing a book called The Back Nine. As I recall, it was going to be about the lessons he’d learned and some of the things he wanted to accomplish in the second half of his life. As it turned out he instead decided to pour his writing energy into children’s books and that Back Nine project presumably will stay on the back burner if it’s even still on the stove.

Well, this morning I begin my back nine. Some of you who read this were privy to the clubhouse celebration on Saturday, and you also know a lot more than me about how it came about. One of my friends let me in to the fact there was a secret Facebook group to plan all this, sponsored by my social media maven of a fiance. (Heck, she has more Facebook friends than I do, although not by a whole lot.)

On Friday morning, though, I planned out my weekend of writing. The Weekend of Local Rock segment I posted yesterday was originally supposed to be Saturday’s piece and something else would have gone on Sunday – I would have figured that out. But Friday afternoon I was shocked to see my parents’ van in the driveway – yes, my Depression-era parents came up from Florida to celebrate my half-century.

A few hours later, as we were playing cards, I got a call from my daughter, to whom I jokingly said, you could join the party in 10 hours if you drove down from Ohio. Her and my son-in-law walked in 10 minutes later.

I soon figured out that all the chairs in the garage weren’t spare junk Kim’s relatives were getting rid of and figured we would be hosting many of them the next day. On that count I was correct but there were quite a few others who came by as well – to all I say thanks for sharing the day, even if it was two days early. That’s why Saturday’s post was so brief and cryptic. I was a little preoccupied during the day but I didn’t want to go completely dark.

So today, the actual birthday, is almost anticlimactic. Yes, I will have a blizzard of Facebook notices, but it will otherwise be a day where I run a number of errands. (I am skipping the WCRC meeting tonight, though.)

But turning 50 creates a change in one’s mindset. Not that I could really help it, but I have never liked having a birthday which is regularly the first day of fall because I am a summer person and can’t stand winter. But at least in this locale it’s normally in the midst of a weather period where the days are still summerlike yet the nights are cool and clear, the start of what we call “second season.” Time for the locals to enjoy the beach again.

By that token, perhaps I am getting into my own “second season.” Admittedly, I’m not in the best of shape but hopefully I’m not too far gone to fix it up. I still have a couple decades of work to give, yet have plenty of experience behind me to know how to do things right. In just a few years Kim and I hopefully will have an empty nest, with that young lady successfully making her own way.

So there’s a lot to look forward to. I even get a birthday Google. (I know, so does everyone else, but it is fun.)

Birthday 2014

I have to admit that for the most part my forties were a stormy decade with a great number of challenges and doubts. I’m not out of the woods quite yet, but I figure someone has a plan for me and things will turn out for the best. After all, how many people have a fiance who would go out of her way to the extent she did to plan this event?

So I look forward to my fifties and the start of my back nine. Yes, there are a few hazards I will have to deal with but I figure there’s a reason the 50th anniversary is the golden one.

Fore!