Looking Back, Looking Forward

Like many Americans, I have been adrift of late trying to figure out what country I am living in.  As most of you know, my dear readers, I was in favor of the other candidate who was running for president in the recent election.  The night before the election, President Obama recorded a message for the American people, saying that, regardless of what happened, the sun would come up in the morning. After hearing that message, and seeing the results, I was reminded of the scene above.

I don't know what the next four years will bring, but in the morning, the sun will rise and who knows that the tide will bring? Today is Brave Astronaut Day - for it is the anniversary of my birth.  I have reached the precipice - next year is the Big "L". As you may know Mrs. BA hit the number earlier this year - but we are looking forward to many more years together, at least I know I am!

My birthday, falling on a Tuesday, is not all that spectacular but I made the best of it.  I had a great lunch with friends.  Both LBA and SoBA had basketball practice so a big family dinner wasn't in the cards.  But the boys are out of school tomorrow at noon and they are going to be spending the few days leading up to Christmas at their cousin's house so Mrs. BA and I may have a date night on Thursday.

Then we will have Christmas at the launchpad, followed by a few days with my sister before we all travel to NY for a Brave Astronaut family Christmas, where we will celebrate SoBA's birthday on Friday the 30th.  You will note that this blog has been missing the "12 posts of Christmas" this year, some of that is due to my feelings noted above, and some of it is just because that as the subtitle of this blog notes, I have a very full life, "with room for improvement, and little time to do it."

Thank you for sticking around with me on this blogging journey, which is more than 1400 posts long and more than ten years old!  I promise to come here a little more often in 2017 and offer a few more thoughts and posts other than the weekly recipe. I am very blessed to have a wonderful wife who loves me, two boys who seem to like me as well, a great family, my father, brother, sisters, nieces and nephews and all my in-laws.

Of course, dear reader, you know how much I love numbers, so I would be remiss if I didn't end this post with some statistics.  As of this posting my birthday garnered the following:

• Approximately 195 posts on my Facebook wall, many of which were commented on on top of that.
• 11 Promo emails (offering me a deal for my birthday)
• 10 distinct birthday posts (on which multiple people commented) on Facebook
• 9 in person birthday wishes
• 3 birthday emails
• 3 texts
• 2 phone calls (my father and sister)
• 1 birthday lunch with 3 people
• 1 Facebook Messenger message (though it was not necessarily birthday related)
• 1 holiday lighting contest in town - not sure if I got an advantage or not.
• 1 blog post (this one)

The first birthday wishes came from (again this year) Kim Ayres, who has the advantage of being across the pond and it turns into my birthday over there before it does here.  If you're not reading his blog (or buying his photography) - you most certainly should be.