"Get a Life"

Recently I was advised to "get a life". I thought that I would post it today, which is my birthday. I made the appropriate update to reflect my ancient age of 59.

It is annoying for some pup to tell me to get a life. Here's why:

In my lifetime there have been:

11 U.S. Presidents and 6 Popes.
26 military conflicts involving the Unted States.
15 Summer Olympic games, 58 World Series and all 39 Super Bowls.
134 countries were added to the world map.
The Nuremberg Trials were finished and the Berlin Wall was erected and torn down.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was settled and WW III was avoided. (As a first grader in 1952 we were taught to get under our desks in case of a nuclear attack. We should have been learning our ABC's.)
Sputnik as launched and man set foot on the moon.
TV and the Internet were invented.
Churchill, Stalin and Elvis died.
Rock and Roll was born.
Small pox was eliminated, Polio all but erased and Aids has become the new epidemic.

I have survived cancer, 3 marriages and 2 divorces.

I was a single parent.

I have 2 biological sons, 2 adopted daughters, 3 stepdaughters and more than 12 grandchildren.

My country thanks me for my service as a Cold War and Vietnam-era veteran of the Army.

I have attended 3 colleges and have earned 2 degrees.

I have celebrated 59 Christmases, New Years, 4th's of July and birthdays.

I have buried both mother and father.

I was even briefly homeless.

I own a computer because I couldn't reach my oldest son (the Ranger) on the morning of 9/11. I knew that he would be deployed before the second plane hit the Trade Center and I had no way to e-mail him. I bought a copy of Blackhawk Down only because it involved Rangers. I would play it more often if not for a 3 year old grandson. He is often waiting for me when I get home from my job with Homeland Security (which I took to do my part in the war on terror). He prefers to play on the Game Cube for 4-5 hours at a time for 4-5 days a week.

If it wasn't for little Johnny, I might play online even more.

It seems to me that I have earned the right to do whatever I want. Whenever I want. Wherever I want. Even to the annoyance of some kid who has no idea of what anything I have said is all about.

"Get a life", he said. O.K.