Thanks to each of you for your kind wishes, comments and observations. I'm so glad I got to read them before the Alzheimers kicks in.

You're probably right, Hobbsie. I am a bit of a GRRRR-mudgeon and like the old rooster in the chicken yard, too tough and stringy to warrant killing off. As those who know from some of my past performances here and elsewhere, I can be quite pugnacious and overpowering in any debate or even a simple discussion. Those qualities, coupled with my professional life in the paralegal field, place me too close to being a lawyer for me to ever qualify for heaven. My personal codes of moral values and ethics don't stand me in good stead in the eyes of Lucifer, or as I like to call him, Bill Clinton's less evil twin. He also is aware that I would be a rabble-rouser among the condemned were I consigned to Hades. It's far better for him that I hang around here and delay his having to deal with me, so I am stuck here, despite dire warnings from medicos on a number of occasions that I should not count on seeing or reading sequels, prequels or get too involved in any television mini-series that will take more than a week to a conclusion.

Z-dr, I appreciate the wishes for a long term appearance contract. So long as you carry a gun and a badge, I HAVE to stick around to keep your thinking straight and your dander fully "up" and on edge.

Hope, you are two WHAT up on me? When you got here to add your post is unimportant. What is significant is that you did and I thank you. I know you migrated here when Secretary Sage-arooni and I combined forces. I am truly glad you did. This place can always use the bright and smiling face and presence of a good woman. Though we have never met and I have never even seen so much as a picture of you yet I know you have to be knockout beautiful for the thoughts I have seen you express here and elsewhere can only come from someone with a beautiful soul.

Deb's allusion to me being "grandpa" aside, We're glad she joined us too. Based on what Secretary Sage-arooni has told me about her, I cannot find it in me to be too offended by anything said by any woman whose résumé includes "38-C under "Qualifications" and whose experience contains allusions to impromptu table dancing.

As for my natal day anniversary being a good day, it truly was a special one for me. I awoke to a stack of cyber greetings in my various inboxes from many of you as well as some who do not visit here or only do so rarely. Thank you, each and everyone of you who sent them, for your remembrance and acknowledgement of my birthday and the kind things you said in them and here. Honey donned her leather bustiere and snapped her blacksnake whip above the heads of her male-boy-toy steamroller team to post here and send some extremely touching and good-memory-filled e-mails. My nephew once again proved with greetings and a personal call how graced I am to have him as a part of my life. It's hard to believe on two levels that he is now in his 20s because he has the class of one much older and wiser and because I still remember him as a young boy, bright-faced boy with a joy-bringing smile on a baseball field in a Central American lush and verdant garden spot. A distant cousin I only discovered existed recently also sent her birthday wishes and helped tie me even more closely to family roots that mean a lot more to me with each passing-at-breakneck-speed year.

This year's anniversary of a day that will truly live in infamy was very special for many reasons. For the first time in my entire life, someone bought me a gift and made it even more special by saying words I had never heard said about, or to, me in my life. When confronted between two choices of sound card systems for my computer to make my musical arranging and recording sound even better, I heard, "Get the best one. Don't settle for the lesser one." As a father and husband, it seems that my entire life has been spent accepting second best or lesser in everything. I never seemed to rate the best to others, or to myself it seemed. That was not the case this time and that meant a lot to me.

There were other gifts too, and they were each personal to me... again a new sensation for me to absorb. I could really get to like those feelings, you know?

At one point in the afternoon, I was graced by a delivery person at the door who presented me with a box filled with freshly cut flowers... on the verge of opening yellow roses and other brightly colored floral wonders. They came from Sage's daughters and their families... marking their acceptance of me as a welcomed part of their lives. The flowers were only the evidence of their real gift and I was moved by their message.

Then there was the cake. Somehow a cake personally made by someone is even more delicious than any that can be purchased in any bakery anywhere for it has that special ingredient missing in the store-bought variety. It included a generous portion of personal effort and emotion no commercial establishment can obtain from any supplier or vendor. There was the added personal statement of concern for my feelings that came with only having six candles atop that gorgeous temptation to prominent love-handles. She said it was because the fire marshall turned down her "huge burn" permit application, but I think she just said that to make me feel better.

Have a good day? Hell yes... I did! I will do all in my power to stave off Old Scratch and my failing heart muscle's demands for special attention so that I get to enjoy yet another such day with friends like you folks and feeling a little less alone next February 19^th. I am really looking forward to that now.

Thank you... each of you for your kindness and your special places in my life.

Laf