Happy birthday to me

I'm 58 years old today and I don't feel a day over 57. We're going to celebrate my birthday tomorrow so it's pretty quiet around the house today. Except that last night, our dog Charlie who recently had a birthday himself, decided to get into the garbage and recycling last night. So, the first thing I did this morning, after telling my wife I love her as I do every morning, was to clean up the mess.

I noticed an interesting item on the This Day in History site. On this day in 1915, Arthur Conan Doyle published the Sherlock Holmes story The Valley of Fear in novel form. I don't think it was his first Holmes novel (there had certainly been earlier stories that appeared serialized in magazine format) but what got my attention was that as the article expands to include Arthur Conan Doyle's history in general, they state, "Conan Doyle created Holmes while practicing medicine in London, where his shortage of patients left him ample free time to write." If he'd been a more successful doctor, we might not have the Sherlock Holmes character. This is another case of someone making the best of a bad situation. It also reminds me of the series of stories that were featured on This American Life earlier this month. They were collectively titled, "Plan B" and were all about people who started off with a plan A for their life but for one reason or another ended up living out their plan B. Some were better off and some were worse off. But it doesn't always have to be bad.

I got to thinking about my own life. In one sense, I am living my plan A: I'm married, I have kids, I own a house (sort of - we will own it once the mortgage is paid). But as far as work goes, since high school I had planned on being an oceanographer of some sort. I got to do that for 10 years. But then I realized that going to sea all the time wasn't what I thought it would be. It wasn't the excitement of the Jacques Cousteau stories after all. I've now been at my present job for 21 years and I'm much happier. Going to sea for months at a time and visiting different cities, states and countries was exciting. I learned a lot and it gave me some good stories to tell but it wasn't the right life for me. The life I have now is the best I could possibly imagine. Thank you Lord. Thank you Cindy. Thank you Evan and thank you Emma. Today is the happiest day of my life - so far.