4s as Fs don’t really work, I’d say they look more like Hs. Like if I had an invite for birthday drinks and I put, join me for 4appy 4our to celebrate my forty fourth completion of a year on earth. That’s the weird thing about counting birthdays, the year you count is the year you finished if you figure that a baby’s first year on earth is completed at their 1st birthday.

It’s 7:44 in the morning. I’m sweating on a blanket on the couch to avoid sweating directly on the couch because the couch was expensive 6 years ago when we bought it. Do I even like this couch anymore? Do I have to keep it forever? Who buys a used couch? Could it possibly actually have any value other than avoiding the cost of a new couch?

We hit a cycle class at 6:15 at the Merritt on Fort Ave in Baltimore. It was packed because a tornado tore open the Canton location’s roof like a can of sardines. It looked to be some sort of sheet metal roof and it just slid that guy back. It was a confirmed EF-1 tornado that touched down, possibly clipped a corner of our neighborhood and broke north up through Baltimore and ending somewhere in Dundalk. I was in a Teams meeting for work when my phone’s Tornado Warning alarm started screaming on both phones telling me to seek shelter. It’s a short journey from the 2nd floor to the basement, so I continued to help analyze graphs for the customer, even if they could hear all alarms and the roaring outside my window.

The host working the front desk at the gym wished me a happy birthday and handed me a birthday card which contained a $5 gift card to Starbucks. I’m more of a local coffee shop guy but I’m not one for looking gift horses in the mouth because I have horrible teeth. Actually if I was a gift horse, a horse recipient would need to XRAY my face to see how jacked my teeth are, there is more metal and porcelain than bone or enamel. Actually, the gray hair would give away my mileage as the grey vs gray debate I would have out loud would my declining cognitive ability.

I like to think of myself as a gift horse. I probably don’t owe you anything but I’m nice enough to show up and be helpful. That might seem high falutin to some people but nobody gets rid of a valuable horse for free and there is no rhyme or reason why I show up.

I’ve been driving a convertible for a couple of months. An Audi A5, 2011, 90 thousand miles on it. I bought it because I was getting frustrated sharing a car for the past two years and I had a big enough windfall at work to pay off my other car and by a cheap one with no loan. Cheap to purchase but as my neighbor said to me “yeah because it will be crazy expensive to fix”.

The convertible, the grey hair, the group fitness classes, the running, the sailing, I’m dead on with midlife crisis memes. I’m not divorced but then, I’ve never been married, so there’s a lot of work to do their to fill that void. That or I could just be chill as fuck.

Birthday plans: stop sweating on this couch. Take a shower. Start some laundry. Do some office work. Clean the office. Clean the car. Eat some leftovers. Meet another couple for Korean BBQ at Steak N’ Bone in Canton which I guess the tornado spared because nobody called or emailed to cancel.

Surviving another year is something to be grateful for and I am. I have more than I need and less to do than I want. What more could anyone ask for other than a free cup of coffee to get you going.

4ell yeah, 4uck yeah.