lost in a haze of soft middle age

A couple years ago, a university student of mine ventured that middle age starts at 35 to which I strongly rebuffed. At forty now, I can gracefully accept the reality of its onset. My body tells me how it has aged daily, but my face and attitude still deny the fact.

I want to thank all for the great messages, gifts and well wishes. Yeon-mi prepared an outstanding meal and party for me on Sunday. We had a dozen or so who ate and drank well.
On Monday, I returned to find mom and sister -in -law and nephew, cleaning the house and preparing a surprise dinner party. Again we ate well and joked hard.


On the day proper , we ended up working very long and hard. It wasn't meant to be that way but this is what we produced:

The Kids Liebe kindergarten owner has been our patron for while now, we made quite a few things ( major pieces) for her home and she approached us to overhaul this play place and main floor room.

The job included a major reno of the room behind the tree wall ( which I bid really high as to not do it) and so a reduction of the play fort. I started on Monday rebuilding the fort, and we started on the stairs, tree, animals etc a week ahead. We thought we would install after my b-day , but the momentum was there, and we pressed on to the 26 th and through the day. I didn't check the clock very much but it was suddenly 6pm and we were actually pretty much done. We left there at 7 and spent nearly an hour in the shop catching up on calls and messages ignored all day.

So it was very intense ( as the owner called my working style) but now it's finished. I had loaded my mp3 device with all- time favorites and I sustained the energy which Toots and the Maytals gave me in the morning. Yeonmi told the owner that my 40th will always be memorable for the beautiful decoration we made for the kids. All for the children- I can hear Whitney Houston singing now....

The job was accelerated by the proximity of the shop to the Kindergarten and only making one trip to rip pieces of various sizes to match the existing play structure ( which is no doubt from an imported European kit- the wood sizes and pieces were all irregular from available wood supply). My stock of lumber is quite extensive and it really makes things progress smoothly.

In the end, I refused a third dinner party from fatigue, knowing full well the extent of the leftovers at home. Lots of great gifts were received and I feel blessed by my family, friends and extended entourage. I am confident and comfortable moving into my fifth decade. Actually, having put it that way , it's not such an attractive proposition.