Birthday, Take 2

So in my post from this morning, I highlighted the lack of visits from Mr. Postman re: birthday number 40. Yeah, well, I should have waited a little longer.

Thanks, Tom and Janet, and Harold, Tracy, Cameron, Katie, Scrappy (the mega-awesome Super Corgi Dog) and the fishes. It means a lot.

Oh, but no thanks to the lovely letters that we received with regard to other segments of life (think: foreclosure).

And thanks to everyone who reached out today (and yesterday). Among the many highlights was the Huey Lewis interview video from "Late Night with David Letterman" in 1984, when "Sports" was the number one album in the land (such a under appreciated masterpiece). Jon sent that along.

Sean gave me a digital picture frame. That should be fun to play with. Mom, Laura, Steph, Jake, Meaghan, Michael, Conor, and Meg's friend Erin (hope I spelled that correctly) rounded out our troop. One of the more cool things was when they went around the table and talked about their favorite memories of me. Each one touched a different place, with Sean's memory being of our trip to Six Flags, riding the Log Flume and the Runaway Train.

Once again, more flags. More fun!

And please! What could be better to finish out a birthday on a freezing day (22 degrees) than ice cream at Ben and Jerry's?

There's still some hurt and melancholy, so I shall now invoke the always-popular "Rule 55." I did a search on YouTube for "40", and came up with the brilliance of the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing "40 Days" in Berlin in 1966. There's the obvious piano playing of Brubeck and the silky-smooth mastery of Paul Desmond on the alto sax, but don't ignore the rhythm section of Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums. Quite a legendary act here. Consider not only their gorgeous arrangements, but further think about the makeup of this group in very different social times.

Brubeck is about to turn 88 and still performs. Amazing.