"What does it feel like to be 70 years old?" Yesterday was my fathers birthday, so I called to wish him well. "I'm still alive and kicking, all my faculties are still working. I can't complain about a whole lot of things. I guess I could complain, but I don't think anyone would care." For being 70 years old, my father is in pretty good shape. I hope I'm in that good of shape when I turn 70. I then asked him what he had been up to on his big day. He told me this. "I signed up for Ancestry.com, and I've been tracing the Astle family tree. The last American entry to the tree was your great, great, great, granddad. According to the census records back then, he was born in Indiana in the year 1810. That's as far as I can trace it back in America. I'm getting ready to research the English records. England kept a lot better records than America did back then."
I then asked him how my dog was doing. When I moved back to Las Vegas, I gave my dog to my dad and his wife to watch. He told me this. "I had to beat her the other day because she wasn't listening, but besides that she's doing pretty good." Animal lover's take a deep breath. He was only kidding.
My father is an excellent writer. As a matter of fact, I picked up a lot of my writing skills from him. Now, I'm always curious to know what people think about my blog, so I asked him what his thoughts were.."It's pretty good, I read the story about your friend Roxy calling you at 3 in the morning after she got in a fight with her boyfriend. You made the right decision by not going over when she called. Let me ask you this. Don't you think you might be sharing a little bit to much in your blog? I know the world has changed since I was young, but somethings should stay personal." He's not the first person to tell me that I give to much away in the blog, but I have a good reason for it.."This may sound strange to you Pops? The genre, affiliation, category, whatever you want to call it? It's referred to as 'reality writing', and that style of writing is turning into a burgeoning business in Las Vegas." I'm pretty sure he didn't get that statement, but if your into reality television? Which a lot of people are. You kind of get it? At least I think you kind of get it?
I like to end every post of mine with a thought I'm having..Call it the village idiot thought of the day.."I'm grateful that my dad had a happy and healthy 70th birthday. I'm grateful that my Uncle Ned is recovering from his recent cancer surgery. I'm grateful that my grandmother is still sharp as a tack at 98 years old. I'm grateful that I live in Las Vegas. I wish I had a fancier way to say it, but I'm just a grateful guy nowadays."
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