Although it just seems  like yesterday it was actually 23,733 days ago that another screaming kid came in to this world. The birth notice in the Calgary Herald said that a girl named Patricia Ann was born to Fred and Kathleen Vanstone  on April 2, 1945, a slip-up my father thankfully corrected the very next day.

So far, it seems to have been a fast and furious life. I remember my first kiss, my paper route, my first crush, there were many of those, my first job, getting my driver’s license-now that was a big day. A marriage, 3 kids, another marriage followed by two more kids. And a blur of people, places and events in between them all.

I now have 8 great kids. Four I fathered and the four they chose.  Two grand kids, maybe  3 by the time you read this, and a wife of almost 30 years.  I have the whole package, including (and this is a big one too)  my health.I’m fairly fortunate in the lifestyle department too. We get to bump around North America sharing the odd tall tale with neat people we meet. We stay where we want, travel when we want and when we get tired of all that we go back and visit our awsome family.

I understand they are planning a surprise party for me tomorrow. We’ve hurried back 3,000 miles from Mexico to be in Toronto April 3 at noon for apparently “no particular reason.”

I’ve heard “What do you want for your birthday?” more than once in the last while. I’m always good with another hug. If you don’t feel that’s enough (even though I do) 20 more good years would be excellent, 30 more would be even better. There is a lot of things I haven’t got done yet and quite frankly, everything else, ….that’s all just stuff.

Did I mention my friends? I have many. Unlike Facebook I’ve never counted, but I certainly have more than I deserve. And if there really is a big guy up there looking after us all I especially owe him a great big thankyou. I admit, he’s been through a lot with me. I haven’t been easy to look after, but I think even he has to admit that when I finally dogrow up I’m going to turn out “all right”.

What a ride it’s been. And I just can’t wait to see the rest.

Tags: Family, Health

This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.