40 years of fun

Fifteen days ago I turned 40. I used to flippantly tell people that I probably wouldn't live to be 3o and here I am 10 years past my self imposed due date. I used to think that 40 would feel different. I am not sure if I expected to wake up on July 2, 2010 and be a different person, or if at the exact time of my birth my back would star aching. Neither happened. It is kind of like to first time I left the United States (not counting trips to Canada and Mexico) for vacation in England. I somehow expected that once we landed at Gatwick airport I would feel like a different person-a world traveller. I did not. Even after visiting multiple countries I didn't feel like a different person, just the same person who had travelled more (in one five year stretch my birthday in five different countries - 97 Jamaica, 98 Guyana, 99 United States, 00 Russia and 01 Dominican Republic). Likewise I don't feel any older or wiser at forty than I did at 39. However, I have learned a few things in the past year about aging.
1. Bifocals-I have been wearing glasses since I was 15 and up until a couple of years ago they were good for reading at any distance. Lately I have to do the old guy tilt. You know when you're trying to read something close up and you either read it as you always have, or you have to tilt your head back and read it under the lenses of your glasses. Very soon I will need to get down on my knees and thank Ben Franklin for having the idea of bi-focals so guys like me can tilt our head back a little less for reading purposes.
2. stray hair- I used to have an impressive hairline. I still do compared to some men. However, lately I have been finding stray hairs about 1/4 to 1/2 inch lower than the rest of the hairline. (It is almost as if the rest of the hairs have decided, for some strange hair reason that humans can't fathom, that they no longer want to hang out with the stray hair) Now, I don't think that my hairline has receeding so I am not sure if the hair is finding new places to sprout, or I am in denial about my hairline. If the former I consider myself lucky, if the latter then I need to seriously consider #3...
3. Losing weight- because fat guys don't look cool bald. There I said it. Maybe some big guys can pull it off, but most (not you of course) just look like they have done it out of necessity not out of coolness like skinny guys do. Maybe this is the over 40 guys body image issue de jour. Ladies have Barbie to blame, and we have skinny bald guys.

I am sure there are more but I need to go and move furniture so our new carpet and linoleum can be installed next week.

XOXOXOXO,