Forty-Five

I don't feel like it. But that's what the calendar tells me I am today.

I was telling someone a story the other day about something that happened on my cruise into the Panama Canal. It seems like that trip was just a couple years ago...but that is where I celebrated my thirtieth birthday. How on Earth can that be fifteen years ago? It certainly doesn't seem like that much time has passed.

I remember when forty-five seemed so old. Now, it seems young! I was tickled pink when a couple days ago, the folks sang Happy Birthday to Michelle Obama...Happy forty-fifth Birthday! Today, I'm the age of the First Lady! Can you believe it?! The folks running our country are my age! I'm their age! And we're so young!

Forty-five is a good number. Back when I was a kid, it was the number that produced music. We played our 45's all night long in my friends' basements. We danced and sang and laughed. In astronomy, M45 is the Pleiades - the Seven Sisters. You probably look at them every night in the winter and don't even know it. Jimmy Buffett writes about the Pleiades in Where Is Joe Merchant. The Japanese call the Pleiades "Subaru". If you drive one - or next time you're in a parking lot - look at the logo on the car then look in the night sky. You'll see the Seven Sisters dancing as they tease Orion by staying just out of his reach.

Yep - forty-five is a good number and this is a grand week. The Eagles. The President. My birthday. Definitely a week to celebrate!