It’s December 23 and tomorrow I celebrate my 64th birthday. Hard to believe is all I can say.

I have lots of memories running through my mind. Like the day I turned 40. We were in Ottawa. Wendy organized a lovely party with a number of friends and my parents were there too. It seems like just a couple of years ago.

I remember turning 23. Wendy organized a surprise for me in our little apartment in Mississauga. She sent me out to get something – or with someone – and when I got back there were a number of friends in our little place.

I remember turning 13. We were living in Scarborough and I don’t remember who was around or what we did, but I remember my Dad talking to me about the fact that from here on in, I was going to be entering into a new phase of life as a teenager and that every year I would be given a bit more freedom in preparation for a time when I would be out on my own.

This will be a quieter Christmas. It will be wonderful to celebrate it quietly with Wendy and we’ll talk to family, that’s for sure, but 64 – how could that be? And so a few things strike me that we’re on the last lap of our working lives or this version of working life. We are near eligibility for pensions, but would like to put that off a bit (did you know your CPP increases about 8% per year past 65?) to increase our cash flow in later years – assuming we have some. The life expectancy for a Canadian male right now is 80.

However, when I know that Harland Saunders didn’t open his first KFC restaurant until he was 65 or Hazel McCallion was starting as the mayor of Mississauga at 65 (she served 36 years) or that the President-elect of the United States is 78. Well, when I see that I look forward to the next chapter and what might be.

I don’t have very many videos that I’m in. But here’s my favourite – I didn’t even know I was recording and it’s just short, but Anthony and I are laughing. A great thing to record, laughing with a friend.