I'm 37. I'm not old

I turned 37 this year. An inconsequential age on my timeline here. Or so I thought.

While walking along the boardwalk downtown my daughter said to me, “You’re old dad.”

To which I responded, “I’m 37. I’m not old.”
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My words went right over her head as she promptly got distracted needing to chase a pigeon off the pier. 

Meanwhile, that phrase transported me back 24 years to Las Vegas. Sitting in Nate and Matt Williams’ living room watching this:

Never did it cross my mind that I too would be 37 one day and I too wouldn’t think it was “old”. 

Tonight I trimmed my nose and ear hair before bed. As I put the trimmer into my ear a clear memory popped into view of my grandpa, asleep in his chair in the family room. My grandma walking up behind him with a trimmer. While he’s asleep she trimmed his ear and nose hair. 

I stared as she did this amazed at how:

1. He could fall asleep sitting up. 
2. Much hair he has in his ears and nose. 
3. He could stay asleep with a trimmer going in his ear.

Age, like time, is a strange thing. It is steady and consistent yet my brain does a fantastic job of freezing it in places that convince nothing has changed.

• My first thought of my youngest sister is her being 12. 
• My wife will forever be 28 because of other events that happened that same year.
• No one can convince me that Take Our Cars Now isn’t a timeless song.

Time traveling through these memories is a good reminder of the time I have left and the meaning I’m making without realizing it.