As convergences go, it was a modest showing. But it was enough to feel celebratory on the occasion of my double-respect birthday, so I was grateful for the opportunity to lead this stellar pack of pax on this crisp Saturday morn.

We did a bunch of exercises and ran a couple of miles. All of the exercises were 60 reps (as far as you know). Well, at least we did 60 bear squats and that’s certainly more than enough of those!

For some reason, the pax got stuck on the number 7 during my 8-count, wide-stance, full-nipple-alignment super-slow merkins. In fact, they got stuck on 7 for just about every exercise. I was on the verge of getting upset but then I remembered that Jesus said to forgive your brother until seventy times seven. Fortunately, they were only on number 489 when we finally made it to “recover recover.”

Special thanks to Possum for the birthday card signed by all present, and also for promoting the third-F community-service project, which was a huge success. You are a prince among men, sir!

And now to the poetry portion of the backblast:

I wrote a poem called “What 30 Is” exactly 30 years ago and I’ve updated it for today:

What 60 Is

Sixty is a number,
It is not a closing door.
Am I a decade older than I was an hour before?

Sixty is a number,
Not a milestone or a peak.
Then why is it a number that so many fear to speak?

Sixty is a number,
And all the others, too,
Just numbers, nothing more (that is, except to you).

          – Bruce Hurley

And tonight, as I contemplated 60 years around the sun, I wrote another one just for fun:

Aging

Some people curse their wrinkles,
And bemoan their silver hair,
They lament their fading memory,
And the dowdy clothes they wear.

They grumble over aching joints,
And grouse about their kids,
They pine for days without malaise,
And hard-to-open lids.

But truth be told, I like getting old,
(In number, not in age),
I’d surely fail to enjoy the tale,
If I ceased to turn the page.

It would be a lie to even try,
To stay young like Peter Pan,
Instead I’ll say, in a youthful way:
”Getting old is my long-term plan!”

          – Bruce Hurley