This page contains a single entry from the blog All I Know².
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door,
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.
You'll be older too,
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you.
I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride,
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.
Every summer we can rent a cottage,
In the isle of wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera chuck & dave
Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.
When i'm sixty-four
It's that day again. My birthday (1/6/1944). Which means I've reached the magical 64 = 8*8, or 100 in octal. Very strange, considering.
The Beatles song was released in 1967, when I was 23. Looking ahead another 41 years seemed like two lifetimes. Now, it's here. Very strange.
We were planning to celebrate this weekend in a cabin on the coast some 100 miles north of San Francisco, but we never made it out the door. We were packed and ready to leave Friday morning until we heard that the San Rafael bridge was closed and there were major accidents all the way up route 101 due to the severe storm that bounced in from the Arctic. Then the rental agent up in Gualala called to say that the power was out and probably wouldn't come back til late that night or the following day. That's when we gave in and cancelled. A few minutes later the power at our house in Oakland went out and stayed out for 4 hours as it got colder and darker.
Bummed, we shuffled around in the darkness looking for candles and trying to stay warm. But just as were getting into the idea of living by candlelight the power came back. Still, we had to consider "Now what?".
It was quite a storm. Other places had it a lot worse than our 'hood. But the idea of negotiating up highway 1 in such a storm started to seem like an exceptionally bad idea. Most likely the road would be closed due to a fallen tree, boulder, or blown cow.
Which is the story of my birthdays since childhood, when I lived on Long Island (NY). Not only is it bad timing to have a birthday party so soon after Xmas, New Years, Hanukkah, but East Coast winters meant no one would be able to get their cars out of the driveway or down the streets to our house. So after around my tenth birthday when we waited for my friends to appear, table set, ice cream in the freezer and chocolate cake on the table only to have everyone's parents call to cancel, my mom said "That's it! No more January parties!". And from that point on I barely celebrated with my parents and brother, a big fat candle stuck into a Hostess cupcake. Later, we forgot about the whole thing.
Ever since I've been wary of birthdays. A couple of attempts at gatherings or trips up north were scratched in the past. About ten years ago we barely made it home from a stay in Bodega Bay when all the roads were washed out.
January can be a cruel month.
So this time we gave in, and postponed our paid-for trip to Sea Ranch until February, whenit should be Spring. That leaves me with the next two days to spend at home, having already announced vacation days at work.
Oh well. It could be worse.
