Papa, Why Don’t You Celebrate Your Half-Birthday?

Today is my half-birthday on The Road to 70. The question came from my 6.5 year old granddaughter on her 6.5 half-birthday. My initial response was totally adult, something about not celebrating half-birthdays the older you get. But the more I pondered the question the more the real answer should have been why not? So for the first time in a very long time I am celebrating my half-birthday today. No party, no cake, no presents. I’m simply basking in having created the life I wanted and still being around to write about it.

I don’t feel old. I know I’m old. I felt old a few years back when this happened:

And unlike some of my relatives, I grew up.

I knew I grew up when I stopped buying/collecting guitars. I finally cured myself of the proper number of guitars equation.

(I think this one is still in a guitar bag somewhere in the house, forgotten until I saw this picture.)

Two I released into the wild that somehow ended up in Owasso Oklahoma.

After a four year hiatus due to The Great Pandemic I rejoined the Y and got back to some serious resistance training. It didn’t take long to discover various muscle groups of mine that had stopped working. Absolutely no surprises here since I sit on my butt for hours on end, working, writing, reading. So to commemorate my half-birthday and to prevent other muscle groups from withering away I started a new age-friendly exercise. Rucking.

There’s no denying rucking is an efficient workout. The added weight on your back strengthens your legs and trunk, while simultaneously giving you a low-impact cardio session. These benefits increase when you add hills to the mix. Heading uphill with a pack pushes your VO2 max, while going downhill challenges your stability and eccentric muscle control, according to longevity expert Peter Attita.

I Rucked Every Day for a Month—Here’s What I Learned — https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/30-days-of-rucking/

It was a short ruck, with maybe 15 pounds in my backpack and my calves are telling me I need to do this more often.

My half-birthday happened to fall on the last day of the NBA regular season. Although I wrote “no presents” it would be awfully wonderful if the Thunder finished the season with the number one seed going into the playoffs.

If any of my relatives in Oklahoma happen to read this post you can tell Tiny Human #1 I celebrated my half-birthday this year. And for the curious who would like to see a current snap of the 6.5 year old, here you go.