208 Days to Go

     When I was younger, the years appeared to crawl by. It took forever for July Fourth to arrive. And when it did, we would light sparklers and write our names in the dark.  Then I would have my birthday and would always receive a check from my Aunt Florence.  Of course, I would get toys and clothes.  How many sweaters can one kid wear?  After my birthday, there would be a lull until the cold set in.  And the first snow brought us all out to show off our hand-me down sleds and inner tubes. Back then, we had to pump up the inner tubes with a non-battery or electric powered air pump.  For those of you who are too young to remember the bicycle hand air pump, you would put your foot on a metal flap on the side of the pump on the ground and then lift and push a handle attached to a rod which disappeared into a larger diameter tube.  A hose was attached to one end of the tube and the other end had a hard to remove clamp which attached to the stem of the tire or tube and it took almost forever to pump anything up.  You have not lived until you pumped up a car tire, still on the car, with a bicycle hand pump!

     I would stay outside in the snow until I was soaked, cold or hungry.  But for some unknown reason, sledding and playing in the snow takes one's mind off hunger.  I could stay out for hours and not even have to go to the bathroom.  If I was thirsty, I would eat some snow.  I never ate yellow snow.  Yes, I know I should not have eaten snow.  But I was a kid and did not know any better.

     There are a lot of things I should not have done but I did them because I knew better than my parents.  All teenagers know more than their parents.  Teenagers are the know and do anything crowd. They can stare danger down and not even wink.

     But as I have gotten older, time has gotten shorter.  The years pass much faster now.  New Year's Eve arrives and then with a blink of the eye, I am in June, then September and suddenly the holidays have arrived. The holidays are so busy, that getting together with relatives or friends is next to impossible.  The year passes as though I am on a tobaggon going down a steep slope.  Each year takes a shorter time than the year before.

     If I stop celebrating birthdays, will the years slow down?  Can I not celebrate my birthday but still accept gifts?   I have almost everything I would ever want except for maybe a nice contract to write 10 books.   I don't think I'm asking for too much.  Imagine all the money my family and friends will save by not giving me a present for my birthday and perhaps Christmas.  I'm not dropping my Jewish religion.  It just seems that I get more gifts during Xmas than I get during Hanukkah.

      And when I  finally get the 12 book contract and the publisher says he wants a book a year, I will  probably get a bad case of writers block which will make the years drag by.