Up and Down el Rio Blanco: Birthdays

I love birthdays, or as my friend/boss Mitch wrote on my Facebook page, “Happy anniversary of your birth.” It’s not just my birthday I love, I love yours and everyone’s anniversaries of birth because they celebrate life and another day to live it.
I marked the 50th anniversary of my birth on June 20, 2011, and the celebration was the best one I have had in a half century. My wife, who I love more than birthdays, made arrangements to have all of our kids (Garrett, Haylee and Fallonn, and their significant others), grandkids (Cole, Brookelynn, Deegan and Braylon), my mom, one of my brothers, two nieces and a few special friends over for a barbecue last Saturday.
Before our friends arrived, we took some pictures. I like taking action shots, where you shoot what is happening, not trying to get five kids under the age of seven to sit still, look at the camera and smile, especially when four of them are boys, I was getting action shots. It was fun, and funny, to look at the pictures. My granddaughter, like her mother, has a “picture smile” she can turn on once she sees the camera. In most the pictures, the boys are looking other places, using their elbows to jockey for position, making faces (some smiling, some not), while Brookelynn is just sitting there with her cute little head tilted, smiling. Of course they all want to see them right after I take them and they all know how to take them. It amazes me how well kids, even as young as three, understand today’s technology, I’m very excited for them and their future.
Being as old as I am, it’s incredible to me how much technology has changed in my 50 years. I remember learning to type (on an IBM Selectric) in Mrs. Starbuck’s high school class, and consider it one of the best things I ever learned. We didn’t have computers back then, much less smart phones or iTunes. We listened to records, 8-track and cassette tapes. Remember? You remember.
I remember going to my friend’s house the day after Christmas to play the new “Pong” game he got from Santa. Remember Pong, the video game that started it all? How about Pac Man?
Lots of memories, lots of growth, not only in technology but personally. I’ve celebrated “big” before but nothing compared to the celebration my wife arranged for me last week, surrounded by family and friends.
Another anniversary of birth we are preparing for and looking forward to is the 235th anniversary of the birth of our country on July 4, 2011.
Crews in Rangely are working on several projects, a new facelift of Town Hall, a new waterfall at the camp park, new water and gas lines and new shelters and bathrooms at Elks Park.
Crews in Meeker have been cleaning and painting new lines on the streets, some sod was placed on the old elementary school lawn and a banner promoting the upcoming Range Call Celebration is hung across Market Street. It is so exciting. I love the fourth of July.
Happy anniversary of your birth America, may God bless us all!