Walker's birthday

Tomorrow is Walker's birthday. 7 years old. I am not sure what is going on here. He is almost as old as me now. I don't even think Mandy and I have been married that long have we? WHAT? Ten years this May????

Walker is now old enough that I can easily think back to when I was his age. I can easily collect dozens of detailed memories from that age. I remember hours slowly ticked by, days were giant chasms of time. Weeks were unbearable to endure when looking forward to new events and Months fell nearly as infrequently as when the earth would shift on it's axis and lob itself and it's inhabitants out into the dark recesses of deep space.

Last Saturday we went to the Brigham City Peach Days Parade. At one point a car drove by advertising a local funeral home. After it slowly idled by, I saw someone chasing the funeral home car. It was the funeral home director. He had been handing out candy but had run out of candy and needed a refill. People started clapping for him. He smiled, waved, pointed to his car and said "It's all down hill from here!" The thought occurred to me at how great of a slogan that would be for a funeral home. "At Ernesto's funeral home and tattoo parlor we understand... because, It's all down hill from here!"

Now that I have ratcheted down the track a few miles I notice the scenery is getting more blurry, not only because my vision is probably degrading but things go by quicker. The wind is picking up and low hanging branches come at me a lot faster than I remember them.

I was getting excited to get out there and enjoy my summer this year. I ran and grabbed my beach towel and my sandals, realized I was out of sun block so I ran to the store real quick. I was immediately confronted by racks of back to school items. After I waded through the clothes I saw end caps full of Halloween candy. I was a little upset that they were breaking out the Halloween stuff so early, but when I saw the Christmas stuff on the way to the checkout stand I was irate. I thought about submitting a complaint to the store manager or at least giving him a leery look. But when I stepped outside I discovered summer was over, and most of the fall too. I stood there shivering in the brisk autumn weather next to the Salvation Army Volunteer slowly ringing a bell (Each ping of the bell seemed to mark the passing of another hour of my life) wondering what just happened... and where the Hell did I park?