20,455…

That’s a big number.

So is 295,000,000.

And 2,200,000,000 is so huge that it is almost unfathomable.

And yet, as of tomorrow, April 4, 2009, those numbers are mine.

April 4th, 2009 is the day that I turn 56 years old. That means, when I wake up tomorrow, I will be witnessing my 20,455th morning on this earth. I will have drawn in excess of 295,000,000 breaths, and my heart will have beaten at least 2,200,000,000 times! (NO WONDER I’m so damned tired all the time!)

I grew up in the Leave It To Beaver times of the fifties and early sixties.

My mom stayed home and cooked, cleaned house and raised the kids.

My dad went to work every morning at seven and came home every afternoon at four.

We had one car, one TV and one phone.

I spent 95 percent of my childhood riding bicycles and climbing trees.

Our car had a three-speed, manual transmission with a shift on the column. It was made out of metal, and it had white-wall tires.

We had a burning barrel in our backyard, and it my was chore every day after supper to get rid of all of the household garbage by burning it. (Aerosol cans were always so much fun! They went off like sky-rockets!)

We used to have Civil Defense drills in school.

It was a different world back then.

No wonder most of the references that I make about people and things in my youth are lost on my young friends these days! (You see, I am blessed with being able to hang out with a varied group of friends, aging from folks in their middle twenties to folks in their seventies and eighties…and I enjoy every single one of them. However, when I mention people like Red Skelton or Jack Benny to the younger crowd at The Main Street Cafe, they usually stare at me blankly, smile at one another, and buy me another pint of porter.)

Those numbers at the beginning of this post give me pause. They are big, but they aren't nearly big enough yet! I truly hope to at least DOUBLE each and every one of them before I say good-bye.

I have done a lot in my life thus far.

I’ve homesteaded in Maine, where I raised seventy-five percent of my own food, including meat, grains, fruits and vegetables.

I taught English and literature in school.

I own my own business now.

I’ve travelled the world. I ski. I scuba dive. I sail. I ride horses.

I’ve been married and divorced and remarried. (The second time was the charm!)

I own three homes; one in CT, one on the coast of Maine, and one in central Florida, each of which affords me a different and exciting life to lead!

I am deliriously happy being married to the most incredible woman in the world, and I continue to bring her a single rose every week, just like I’ve done from the first week that I met her.

Today I live on a horse farm in rural Connecticut. (Yes. There actually is a rural Connecticut!)

I have four kids with whom I have fantastic relationships, and I have three beautiful grand daughters, all of whom live close by.

I write plays and short stories and magazine articles and novels (Some of which have been published. One of my plays is presently being seriously considered for production by one theater group, while second one is scheduled for a staged dramatic reading at different theater.)

I act in and direct stage plays (I am currently cast in a production of George Orwell’s 1984, in which I play the arch-villain O’Brien.)

I work out every day with aerobic exercise and weights.

I do 100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups every morning.

I meditate every day.

I watch my carbohydrate intake daily, and I religiously monitor my blood pressure. (130/63 with a pulse of 64 yesterday.)

My PSA reading was 1.1 a month ago.

I am five-foot-eleven inches tall, and, as of this morning, I weigh 181 lbs.

The dark brown hair of my youth has now turned gray, and, for some reason or other,it seems to be running up my scalp, away from my eye brows.

I am on three daily prescriptions for my heart, my blood sugar and my sinuses.

I am up-and-at- ‘em at five-thirty every morning, and I’m usually sawing wood in bed by 10 p.m. most evenings.

I love.

I laugh.

Almost every Sunday evening you can catch me at The Main Street Café in Willimantic, CT, holding court with about 8 to 10 “theater” friends.

I thoroughly enjoy my life, and I am SO GRATEFUL for the good things that fill it! (My wife Mary Ellen is at the very TOP of that “good things” list.)

. . . And tomorrow, I turn fifty-freaking-six years old.

I have NO IDEA where all that time went!

But enough about me…