Today is my son Charlie’s 57th birthday – hard to believe! I know it is an “as usual” work day for him at the Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon in L.A. Maybe it’s even a more-than-as-usual day. Their season officially opens Saturday with The Taming of the Shrew and I think Charlie told me that he has a matinee school performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream this afternoon, a first reading of Merlin in the evening, and a writing session for his ‘day job’ later tonight – a long day, indeed! I hope there is some sort of birthday recognition for him along the way.
Meanwhile, here in Oysterville, a thousand-plus miles to the north, the day has dawned misty with bittersweet thoughts – of birthdays and opening nights that I’ve missed out on as the years have flown by. It’s one of those having your cake (birthday cake?) things. You raise your children to become independent, contributing adults. You hope that they will fly the nest at the appropriate time. And then you lament lost opportunities and the miles that have come between you. Go figure.
Plus, there’s the added annoyance of a fading memory. As I looked through old photographs trying to find the perfect one to illustrate this blog entry, I ran across one of Charlie and a big, stuffed bear. Charlie was less than two and the bear, brand new. They appear to be of similar size and Charlie is looking pretty tentative about the entire situation.
I have no memory of that occasion or of the bear, nor can I determine where the picture was taken. I console myself (in some weird and illogical way) that even could I appear magically at the Theatricum today, birthday bear in hand, and even if the occasion were documented with a photograph, it wouldn’t be remembered fifty-seven years hence, anyway.
And, besides… it may not even be possible to get this blog posted in a timely manner to commemorate Charlie’s Day. My bandwidth limit has been exceeded and my blog site is temporarily inaccessible. That, too, is a bittersweet bit of information. Apparently, the ominous sounding notification means that the bandwidth allowance my host provides on my current plan has all been used up this month – perhaps due to a lot of traffic. I can only hope that my readers don’t give up on me while Beachdog.com is correcting the situation.
Thank goodness for telephones and e-mail and Facebook and FedEx and all the other ways to stay connected these days.
Not sure what a bandwidth is but congratulations on having it filled with readers.
When they are little you think you have all the time in the world with children especially on nights when colic, illness and lack of sleep appear to spin out an eternity, but suddenly someone hits the fastforward button and you wish you could hit the rewind for a couple of years. Sigh. Think how families must have felt when their loved ones left the East Coast and trudged out across the country to make a new life without benefit of technology. Of course you’d know all about letters because your family has been so very good at it!
Memories of Charles Morgan Howell IV as I read the “blog”…the work(s) broadband could be translated in many ways if one was not of the technical use of the word. This reader is smiling as she remembers both mother and son. Happy Birthday to Charlie!