The "09-09-09" Story

It was an ordinary day. Wednesday. Not doing anything special. Didn't matter that it was a special day for me. We're headed to the Chesapeake on Saturday for a birthday celebration for me. Just Carol and me. I've had so many of these celebrations that, even though I enjoy reaching them, I also don't enjoy all the hoopla that tend to come with them. A quiet day in one of my favorite restaurants along the C & D Canal in Maryland is more then enough celebration for me. And ... you never tell anyone that it is your birthday when you head out to eat or you'll get, "How old are you?" I usually tell them, "Age is a number, and mine is unlisted." I have been looking forward to this particular birthday because of the numbers that are associated with it. "09-09-09." I assume you get what that means. You can only have a celebration with numbers like this if you were born in one of the first 12 days of the month, and then only if you are lucky enough to be living at the beginning of a century. December 12th, 2012 will be the last time a celebration like this can occur until we reach the year 3001. I think I'm right on that! But then again, does that nonsense mean anything special? Our daughter was 4 years old on July fourth and got her picture in the paper with a birthday cake my wife had baked for her. This only happened because I knew the photographer at the newspaper and told him it would be a neat idea. Would have been neater if she was 4 on the 4th in 2004. Didn't happen that way though. I often thought we should have planned the birth of our children so all three would have been born on one of the first 12 days of the month, so they would have had a special day like me. And for me, it would have been better if I had been 9 years old on 09-09-09. I'm sure I would have had my photo in the paper. But then again, "my number is unlisted!" It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - The meal was great!