Tempus Fugit: Thinking About the Tyranny of Forced ‘Joint’ Birthday ‘Celebrations’


Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s Tuesday, March 7, 2023 – two days after my 60th birthday and three days before my older half-sister Vicky’s 73rd. In the last decade of my mother’s life (2005-2015), this would have been the “compromise” date on which we’d celebrate both occasions. I say “compromise” because Vicky, for reasons thatContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: Thinking About the Tyranny of Forced ‘Joint’ Birthday ‘Celebrations’”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Hazy, Fragmented Memories of Birthdays in Colombia


If you’re a regular visitor of this space, you know that both my older half-sister Vicky and I celebrate – or observe, or endure – our respective birthdays just five days apart in early March. Vicky was born on March 10, 1950, while I came along nearly 13 years after on March 5, 1963. IContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Hazy, Fragmented Memories of Birthdays in Colombia”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Where Did the Time Go?


The Relentless Flight of Time Oh, my. Where did the time go? I swear. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were ushering in 2023, and…poof! Suddenly it’s February 28, the last day of the second month. And, on Sunday, March 5, I will go from being 59 years old to 60 yearsContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Where Did the Time Go?”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Late Winter 1973 – Waiting, with Bated Breath, for the Big One-Oh


Things I Remember: February 1973 With just a bit over two weeks till my 60th birthday – date-wise it’s 15 days, but today is half-over – and with no clue as to what will happen on that day (I nixed a trip to a Disney park due to concerns about exposure to COVID-19), my thoughtsContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Late Winter 1973 – Waiting, with Bated Breath, for the Big One-Oh”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973


Well, Dear Reader, with less than 17 days until my 60th birthday, it’s time for (yet) another Tempus Fugit piece related to this landmark birthday. On this day in 1973, which fell on a Friday, I was at Tropical Elementary – more likely than not – in Mrs. Chambers’ Special Education class in Room 29.Continue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): A (School) Day in the Life, February 1973”

Tempus Fugit: For The Love of Movies (1973 Edition)


50 years ago, in February of 1973, I was nine going on 10 and lived in a house in Westchester – an unincorporated suburb of Miami, Florida – with my widowed mother and my older half-sister Victoria, aka Vicky. I attended Tropical Elementary, a public school that even though it was in the same zoneContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: For The Love of Movies (1973 Edition)”

Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Then (1973) & Now (2023) Revisited


“We don’t really grow up. Our toys change with time.” ― Nitya Prakash In February of 1973 – around the same time that Sam Ervin, a Democratic Senator from South Carolina, was named Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark became the first Christian organization to officially accept gay marriageContinue reading “Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Then (1973) & Now (2023) Revisited”

Tempus Fugit: Then (1973) & Now (2023) – Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition


With the “Big Six-Oh” creeping ever closer – it is, as I write this, only 27 days away – I decided to do a comparison between Then (1973, the year I turned 10) and Now (2023, the year I turn 60). Without further ado (I’m fresh out of it), let’s begin! President of the UnitedContinue reading “Tempus Fugit: Then (1973) & Now (2023) – Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition”

Tempus Fugit: Monday, February 5, 1973 – The Big One-Oh is Only Four Weeks Away (50 Years On)


Countdown to the Big Six-Oh As I write this in the late morning of Sunday, February 5, 2023, there are less than 28 days (four weeks!) until I leave my 50s – which, sadly, have not been as happy or fulfilling as I’d hoped – and turn 60. I am hoping that when March 5Continue reading “Tempus Fugit: Monday, February 5, 1973 – The Big One-Oh is Only Four Weeks Away (50 Years On)”

Musings & Thoughts for Monday, January 30, 2023, or: Insomnia Strikes Again, the Clock Ticks as My 60th Birthday Comes Nigh, and Other Concerns


Hi, there, Dear Reader.  It’s late morning here in Lithia on Monday, January 30, 2023, and as far as I can tell, it’s a nice – if a bit humid – Florida winter day. (Of course, by the time I publish this, it will be early afternoon; I’m a mostly accurate typist, but not aContinue reading “Musings & Thoughts for Monday, January 30, 2023, or: Insomnia Strikes Again, the Clock Ticks as My 60th Birthday Comes Nigh, and Other Concerns”