Friday, July 5, 2019

Eighty-five, Man Alive!

Can that be true?  Is it possible that I have lived 85 years?
It is; it is!

 Here is the intersection of 85 with 85:  As a lad I lived in Colorado Springs through which the major north-south highway was US 85/87. Up and down that road untold numbers of times on bicycle, by automobile, and even short portions of it on foot.  When I left those environs at the age of 18 I am sure it never occurred to me that I would live 85 years.  Or maybe I hoped I might, who knows? 

Fyi, US 85 runs from the Mexican border in El Paso to the Canadian border in North Dakota. It is sometimes called the CanAm Highway.  As a boy I traversed this road many times with the parents, or that is the section between Pueblo and Denver.  I believe the farthest point south we achieved was Albuquerque.  When I left the Springs in favor of the PNW I took 85 north into Wyoming as far as US 30.

I have taken many roads since then, speaking not only geographically but in all areas of my life.  Some of those roads were smooth, straight and easy sailing.  But not all of them.



5 comments:

Grace said...

Happy Birthday 🎉 🎂🎂🎉

Jim Grey said...

Congratulations on making it to 85 with all this energy and imagination!

Secondary Roads said...

Sakes alive! He's eighty-five. Brad Pitt wrote in "A Letter to Me," words to the effect that at 18 it's hard to think past Friday night. I know at that age I thought anyone that had reached 50 was "over the hill." Now they seem so young.

Enjoy the anniversary of your birth with all due pomp and circumstance.

vanilla said...

Grace, sincere thanks!

Jim, "energy." A relative term, for sure. Thank the Lord I still have the energy requisite to getting out of bed in the morning!

Chuck, at 18 we are immortal, or so we think. One becomes disabused of the notion over time. Thanks for the good wishes, I did enjoy it and with a minimal expenditure of energy-- no party, no foofaraw.

Lin said...

You make it look easy! Congrats on the milestone and wishes for many more ahead!