Saturday, march 22, 2008 Hillside Farm, Meigs County
It occurred me as I sit here in the kitchen this morning with my wife and daughter that I will be sixty eight years old this year. When my Dad was this age, he had already been retired for eight years and for me, life just keeps taking me on a journey that just keeps getting more and more interesting. My son Zach spent a week of his Spring Break with us and I was able to spend a lot of time with him. I can’t really remember what it was like to be ten years old but he seems happier than I think I was. When I took him back last Wednesday to his Mom in Pennsylvania we drove through an unbelievable storm that shrouded the end of Winter. We drove and talked and talked and drove and when I said goodbye to him in Somerset he gave me one of those hugs that just warms your place in the universe.
Night was falling as I headed west on I-70 and the storm line washed over me as I headed back to Ohio. I was listening to the satellite radio, Outlaw Truckers channel or something like that and there were a lot of those ‘…road goes on forever, prisoner of the highway’ tunes. There was a time when that would have been the sound track of my life. I was more at home on the road than anywhere else… the road was my home. That was in another yesterday. Today I had just dropped off my son and I was heading home to my wife and daughter. I had a real home to go to.
Now in another time I would be a Grandfather but in this one I am one of the growing populations of Geezer Dads. What a concept! On this night the old man was driving through a heck of a storm to get home. When I got to Ohio there was flooding everywhere and I had to take quite the circuitous route to get back to Hillside Farm but once there, I found my girls safe and sound and asleep.
I think I have adjusted to the fact that I am not a young man and that there are truly many things I am not able to do anymore. As my Dad used to say, getting older is a series of successful adaptations and I try to hold that thought. I’m doing OK for an old coot, I really am.
I’ll be hanging with Izze today while Nessa goes shopping and then I hope I’ll have time for a little motorcycle ride. I have lots of work to do preparing for two recording projects and my life is filled with things I thought would disappear if I ever got as old as I am. Yow. Well, all I have to say is that sixty seven is nothing more or less than the new sixty seven and don’t try to tell me anything different. Furthermore, that’s OK. I don’t think I could stand it any other way.
Outside here at Hillside Farm, peepers are peeping and the multifloral rose is already greening out. Great! That means that other more desirable vegetation is right around the corner. I love this little piece of land. I feel at home here with my family. The air smells sweet and there is still a feeling of freedom. Well, I’m going to hang with Izze until Nessa gets back and we shall see what we shall see. What shall I do with this surplus of blessings? I’m sure more will be revealed.