Growing Old, Not Growing Up

Forty-five? Yikes. How the hell did that happen? Oh great, I’m now in the target demographic for the low testosterone commercials that have been shown on the television all through the Tour de France.

I’ve already had two birthday surprises today. My mother called at 6am to sing Happy Birthday. Luckily for me I am an early riser and I was also too lazy to get out of be to make it in to work for the start of today’s Tour de France coverage. Then, on my drive in to work I saw ITP-Reader Betsy and Sarah running through East Atlanta Village. Note: I was pleased that I was driving and not running. 😉

I’d Thought I’d Made A Big Mistake
When the violent storms rushed through the top end of the perimeter yesterday afternoon I questioned my decision to ride my bike to work yesterday. Luckily I was able to wait it out and ride home in a steam bath, with the roads becoming bone dry at some point during the ride. When I made it to the corner of North and Highland I decided to reward myself by stopping and buying honeydew grape popsicle from the King of Pops. The popsicle was delicious, though very hard to eat cleanly while pedaling my bicycle.

I arrived home around 7:30pm and made the decision that by the time I’d cooled down, showered, and drove back up to George’s, most of the people I’d be going up there to see would be headed out the door. Instead, I decided to plop my last-night-as-a-forty-four-year-old-ass on the couch and take in episodes of Mad Men and Top Chef before crashing for the evening.

ITP Flickr Pic
Cameraphone self-portrait of a marginally-photogenic, highly self-critical, and self-deprecating subject.
At 45
Tour de France is on in the background as proof of my love for the sport.

Happy Birthday To Me
And to David Spade, Willem Dafoe, and Alex Trebek.

Tonight I’ll be joining some others for the Taste of East Atlanta which is happening from 5-9pm tonight. If you have my cell number and want to join in please holler at me later as I don’t know exactly when and where we are going to start the journey.

Tonight may be the first time this year I’ve made it to the East Atlanta Farmers Market. I’m frustrated that I can’t make it to the market more often, and that it is now being held in the parking lot of the former Village Hardware which went out of business a few weeks ago.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – old
Current Music – listening to today’s Tour de France stage
Website Of The Day – With a website called Happy Happy Birthday To Me how could I not link to Athens Georgia’s Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records today?
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – cycling, 33.4 miles
Morning Weigh-In – couldn’t check, the batteries were dead
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~12 miles, Wheel Mileage – 165.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 21
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 1

July Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month (still waiting to accomplish this)
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 150 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application
– Completely plan out my August/September Colorado trip

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 pounds]
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Sharpened Stone.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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29 Responses to Growing Old, Not Growing Up

  1. Stacy Fox says:

    Well then. If you’re going to disable your wall on Facebook, I guess I’m gonna have to do this here: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAULIE!!! 🙂 Hope you have a really great day. Hopefully I’ll see you more sooner than later this birth year!

  2. I’ve disabled my wall on Facebook? Huh, I wonder how I did that?

    Thanks Stacy. I hope that I will get to see you some time soon.

  3. romanlily says:

    I hope your birthday today is really happy. If it’s not really happy, then I hope it’s reasonably productive. If it’s not reasonably productive, then I hope it’s a decent day where you get to laugh a little and enjoy seeing how many people are glad you came into the world those 45 years ago. Happy birthday!

  4. Barb says:

    Happy Birthday! You are now as old as me again! Glad you didn’t get rained on, I was thinking about you last night on my drive home when I got soaked leaving the office.

  5. Terri (SW) says:

    Happy birthday, Paulie! Hoooooraaaayyyy!!!

    I’m going to try to meet up with you guys at Taste of EAV…I have to go to my trainer at 5:00, but I should be done around 6:15. We’re doing water aerobics, so I’ll look a little like a drowned rat. Is that okay ;)?

    And yeah…you’ve disabled wall posts on FB ;)!

  6. Thanks all!

    Of course it’s okay to have you looking like a drowned rat, Terri.

    Barb, things looked so bad I even considered taking my bike on MARTA and making the ride from Candler Park to home. I was glad that I got to ride, though was scared a couple of times yesterday as a few people decided to drive as if they didn’t want me to make it to my birthday.

  7. Michelle says:

    Happy Birthday Paulie!

  8. I am getting far too much joy out of finding out today that I’ve disabled comments on my facebook wall. For someone who prides himself as “technically savvy” nothing makes me feel more like a clueless old man like not knowing how I disabled comments, or how to turn them back on.

  9. Rats, I knew I was forgetting something today….

    I really need to have someone with good cycling shoe knowledge adjust my cleats. Although I’m feeling *okay* today (dammit, I’m starting to feel that inner-knee pain I’ve had the past few years) there were points last night where my knees were none-to-happy with me and considering I’ve not experienced much knee pain this year I can only attribute that to the new shoes.

  10. Martha says:

    Happy Birthday!!!

    According to Facebook you also share your birthday with Nick, of Nick’s Food To Go. He’s in great company.

    I never saw any rain yesterday, could have used it. It was making a lot of noise around 6 when I was leaving for yoga but nada, nothing!

    I spoke with Sharon last night, I’m going to try and make it out for a bit tonight. The kink in my plans, my trainer didn’t show up this morning, so I’m going to try to leave here in time for the 5 pm class, if I do the 6 pm class, I won’t make it out. I owe you a beer!

  11. Barb says:

    Allan can help you with the cleats – he knows a little about that find of thing.

  12. I should also add my Uncle John to the birthday shout outs, as well as my coworker Lee (who was born on the same exact day), the brother of my ex Jeannie, and one of the young women, Jen, whom I dated briefly and who dumped me before we could enjoy same-day birthday sex (sorry if this conjures a displeasing mental image).

    It rained like hell up here, but by Bookhaven things were dry.

    Hope to see you out tonight Martha, but understand if you can’t make it.

    Barb, next time we ride with Allan I’ll bring the new shoes. The discomfort I’m feeling right now scares the shit out of me because it’s the same discomfort which has haunted me for the past few years.

  13. Hehehe. It’s not a spoiler so I’ll mention what just happened in the Tour. A small herd of sheep just ran in front of the leader group; no one was impacted, but it was funny and surreal to see.

  14. Barb says:

    for the cleats – in the mean time – just slide them around (move them back if they are forward, or vice versa).

    I only share my birthday with Barf Bag that I know of – and no “good” celebrities.

  15. bob says:

    Happy birthday!

    I must have done something right, I heard of 3 people getting soaked yesterday and I stayed dry on my ride home.

  16. Since my knees have been good this year I’ll probably go back to using my old shoes until I can have Allan look at the new ones.

    Bob, I figured you would get the worst of it since it looked like the rain was heading in that direction.

  17. Martha says:

    That reminds me, I need to tighten up my cleats before I ride again…I thought for sure I was going to lose one last time.

    The day I was born was the same day that Muammar al-Gaddafi took over Libya and 30 years earlier was the start of WWII…so I’ve got that going for me.

  18. Well Martha, at least you have historical significance on your side. I just went to This Day In History and the best thing they could scrounge up is:

    “Jul 22, 2003: Jessica Lynch gets hero’s welcome”

    I keep waiting to see what happens in the Mad Men world when they get to 1965.

  19. Barb says:

    okay- well at least Disneyland opened in 1955 on my birthday. I feel better now.

  20. I just bought a ticket to hear/see Chatham County Line at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur Saturday night at 8pm. The band is supposedly playing a set at Decatur CD that afternoon too, so depending on when I return from the photowalk I could envision myself heading to Decatur for a Farm Burger dinner and a drink at The Marlay.

    Interested? Holler at me on Saturday late afternoon.

  21. RanLiCoop says:

    Let me just add my voice to the thunderous din:

    Happy Birthday Paulie!!!!

    And have fun on Saturday. CCL always puts on a good show, so that shouldn’t be too hard to do 🙂

  22. Stacy Fox says:

    Hey Paulie – you know where you can see me soon? Pinelake, August 7th! 😀

  23. debbie says:

    Happiest of birthdays Paulie!! I’ll attain 44 in September which is my favorite number, so I’m hoping it’s my favorite year.

  24. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Are you haring that day? Isn’t that a campout weekend?

  25. Jenka says:

    Happy birthday, Paulie! I’ll be out at Taste of EAV with a group, hopefully see you there!

  26. Stacy Fox says:

    It’s a campout weekend in Southern Georgia, yes. But I’m also haring that day, yes. Didn’t know it at the time I signed up, but that’s OK. Not everyone will go camping in the Deep South in the Dog Days of Summer. Maybe some will get enough heat at a 2-hour hash instead. 😉

  27. Barb says:

    now I’m confused – there is a hash campout that weekend in S. GA, or a campout that has nothing to do with hashing? And yes- camping in S. GA in August could be brutal – and the gnats will out in full force.

  28. Stacy Fox says:

    Campout is Hog Mountain’s, somewhere south of here.

    Hash is Pinelake. And will start in Marietta. 🙂

  29. Barb says:

    hey – the King of Pops was talked about on the channel 46 morning show this morning. thought that it was a weird coincidence.

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