Forty and One. Both are milestones. Feels the same as 38 or 39 to me. I stopped counting years ago and at times found myself asking, “How old am I again?” I still feel the same feelings and think the same childish thoughts, I’m just better at managing it and acting like an adult, as I’m sure most everyone else.
This is also a big one for Max. Well, not for him so much as everyone else. He’s not going to remember any of it. So really, it’s for the adults.
November 2011 PDXLAN
My father flew out from Illinois for a week to celebrate the birthdays. He had asked me what I wanted for my birthday. At this point in my life, I really don’t need any more ‘stuff’. The ‘stuff’ I really want now, is expensive – I’ll buy that for myself. Thinking back, I can’t recall what I ‘received’ for my 35th birthday or for Christmas in 1989. What I can remember though is the 3 summers we went to GenCon, or the trip I took to Mexico, etc. So really I guess what I really want is memories. Just come out here and hang with me. And that’s what he did.
It just happened to coincide with the November 2011 PDXLAN which was taking place the weekend right after he flew in. So after his flight arrived late Thursday night (12 midnight sheesh!), we hung out Friday until PDXLAN started that evening.
Here we are gaming at the LAN next to each other.
Three days of adventure. I feel pretty lucky to be able to do this with my pops. I hope I am able to pass along and share this bond with my son.
Max turns one
Max had a blast devouring his carrot cakelet.
He also got this cool trike from grandma and grandpa. With the wagon and walker wagon, he’s quite the Radio Flyer groupie.
I was also impressed with the hand knit stacking blocks his great-grandmother made him. Very cool.
Soaking in WW2 stuff
I mentioned my passion for WW2 things before. It was great fun going to the Evergreen Aviation museum with my pops. We had three generations of Glos boys posing in front of the ME 262 they have on display.
They have a nice selection of tanks sitting out behind the museum. They are unmarked. There’s 2 T34’s, a T55, and a PT76. We’ve been playing T59’s in a game called World of Tanks so it was great to see some of these tanks up close.
One of the T34’s, with the old man for size reference.
The T55.
Not bad for armor for an air and space museum.
The ME 262 was a surprise.
The had quite a collection of WW2 aircraft which we both drooled over.
The classic P51 Mustang.
The Hellcat.
The Corsair.
The Spitfire.
The BF 109.
The P 38 Lightning.
The P-40 Warhawk.
They also had a B-17 which we were able to take a tour inside.
Amazing little factoid. The safest place in the plane? The belly ball turret (~5% casualty rate). The least safe? The waist gunners (~25% casualty rate).
Lots of other aircraft there as well. Looking forward to going back with my son so I can play… I mean, he can play in the waterpark.
It was sad to see my old man fly back home but it was a good memory I can look back on. We need to do this more often.
Subscribe