Yesterday was my birthday.  My body welcomed me to another year with an aching back and a silent promise that things will continue to get worse.  These last several months have been a bizarre mixture of getting depressed about how I feel physically and then getting upset with myself for that and trying to push it aside and concentrate on how much I love my life since I am so very happy with my wife and dogs and have better friends than I could ever wish for.  

 

My birthday was another reminder of this cycle.  I woke up with my lower back in bad shape, then lurched to the 2nd bedroom so I could do my back exercises and my physical therapy for my partially torn rotator cuff.  Feeling down, I went to kiss my wife goodbye and head into the office - at which time she directed me to the guest bedroom where I was surprised to find the room wonderfully decorated for my birthday and filled with lots of goodies.  My dogs followed me in and we played amongst the tissue paper and decorations and, once again, my wife and little girls brightened my day immeasurably.

 

Onto the office I went and the rest of the day was filled with emails/calls/visits from people wishing me a happy birthday.  Among these was one of the sweetest emails ever from a great friend in Houston, calls from nearly all my family members, a cake from my new work group and great cupcakes from a favorite coworker from my past group.  Even ended the day with hilarious news about a past boss getting sued by the company.  

 

At home the day continued with calls from loved ones.  (Sorry to those that went to the answering machine - but Dollhouse was on! )  

 

Anyway, what I really wanted to say was thanks.  To all my friends and family who have helped so much to make these last couple of months great when I am feeling anything but great about my future - thank you very, very much.  I appreciate it far more than you know, and sadly, certainly more than I show.  

 

In other news, just got back from Jimmy and Courtney’s wedding in LA.  Fantastic time and really, really fun.  I’ll post a few pics soon.  Looks like it will take several hours to upload the 400+ photos to Snapfish...