Thank you for the first 75 years

This week, I complete my first 75 years on this earth. It’s been good, however, I want the next 75 years to go better.

I’ve had a lot of fun, and people treat me differently, now that my hair has turned white.

I have accumulated things like a sailboat that takes me out on the high seas, and a house in Mexico, that I don’t own, but is a good place to crash when I get tired.

I get tired more often now. The moving parts in my body don’t move as well, and I have replaced some of them like my knee. Metal knees just aren’t quite the same.

I can’t eat or drink like I used to. The food sticks and the drink dulls my brain, which hardly works when it comes to remembering names.

I’d like to turn in more of my parts for new ones during the next 75 years. For instance, my serve on the tennis court is so slow, the ball almost meets me on the way to the net.

Running on the city’s jogging path is out. That went with the old knee.

I’m called “Sir” by a lot more people nowadays, not that I deserve it. I’m the same old me and I still feel young when I see the young ladies walk by.

The change is in what I do about it. Now it is like looking at a menu which I can never order from.

My brain plays tricks. It has a ton of stuff stored in file cabinets, but I forget which ones and have lost the keys to many.

I tell people that it is like being in a hotel elevator and I am on the sixth floor, while what I am looking to remember is on the 9th floor. In time, the elevator will get there, but it may be the middle of the night.

I don’t sleep well and then again, I sleep when I shouldn’t. My brain wants to work at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. in the morning and at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the afternoon it wants to take a siesta.

The next 75 years, I want to be better looking and taller. I want to sing on key and play the guitar. I want to finish sailing around the world, and finish writing the books which I have started.

I don’t think I should have to worry about making a living in my next 75 years. One lifetime of work should be enough for any man.

I don’t want to go through the trauma of dating in my next 75 years. I have found the right woman, just need to figure out how to keep her for another 75 years.

I want to spend more time with my children in the next 75 years. I missed so much of their growing up. I was too busy trying to survive in business. Before I knew it, they had grown, moved away and had their own families.

In the next 75 years, I want to have another profession. Maybe I could teach or go into politics. Who ever heard of a 75 year old running for office or going back to school to become a teacher? They give 60-year-old teachers the golden handshake.

There are so many things I haven’t done in life. I’d like to make a bucket list and try them. I have never been on unemployment or received government assistance.

Even now I feel Social Security should be a catch net but not a retirement program.

I hate to go to doctors and shun hospitals. While they are needed, I do everything in my power to stay away from them. I want to see a “Keep Well Insurance” replace the get sick insurance in my next 75 years.

I want to volunteer more in the next 75 years. There are lots of people and organizations that need help. Maybe I’ll go on one of those Rotary trips to help eradicate polio or hunger.

I might become a vagabond and travel the rails. There is so much country to see. I might have to have laser surgery for my eyes in the next 75 years. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be and I already use two different pairs of glasses.

Most of all, I need to make some new friends. Most of mine or getting too old. Some are damn near ancient. In fact there are a lot of folks in the 80s. They need to roll their age over like me. Then they could tell folks they are only 5 years old in their second go around.