Turning 50

I waited until the newsletter deadline passed to write this. I wanted to see if climbing to the other side of 50 years would change me or my outlook. The morning of my fiftieth birthday I gave blood and of course the date and my birthdate were above each other and I had to hear shouted "Hey cool, today's your big five oh".

At that moment I knew I was not going quietly into 50.

The day after my birthday I downloaded part of Mayor Guillani's State of the City speech for inclusion in the newsletter. He mentioned the jump in cyclist and pedestrian deaths and vowed to do something about it. This would mark the first time I have ever said anything nice about the Mayor. Does this mean I'm becoming a conservative?

I fear this may only be the tip of the iceberg. I started using a new dandruff shampoo that is actually working. This marks the first time in over 30 years that dandruff is not an issue for me. Is my scalp changing or did I finally stumble on a usable product? One of the weirder experiences is noticing that I started eating salad for lunch. Is this a response to being overweight or is my colon screaming for attention? All of a sudden, all I see on TV, are ads for laser vision correction. Did a switch get turned in my head demanding that I notice this ad?

My knees started hurting, which is really strange because one of them is a replacement lacking most of the nerve endings. Could this be all in my mind? I went into our neighborhood bagel store for a tea and the 17 year old behind the counter handed me a napkin and told me to wipe my nose. Did I become 50 or 100, how embarrassing?

My brain is shouting "Quick, look back at last year before senility sets in". Picked best bike store by the NY Daily News, rode well over 2000 miles, had lots of fun, met most of my adult responsibilities, raised my kids through another year, picked a Trek top 100 dealer, watched my older boy get high honors in high school, watched my younger guy take an absolute delight in life, wasted way too much time on the web. Overall, if 50 is as good as 49, I'll be happy, but I think it will be better in no small part to all of you. Thank you for bicycling with Habitat.