It's 2006.

It's the year I turn 50.

I remember, when I was a kid, figuring out how old I'd be in the year 2000. The year 2000 was a year that would never come, except in some futuristic science-fiction Jetson's world. And I'd be 44, which was unthinkably old. Even older than Mom and Dad!

Sometimes I think, I'm the age my dad was when I was ___. So now I'm almost 50; when my dad was 50, I was 21. I'm the age my dad was when I graduated from college. My mom threw an elaborate surprise party, and I came down from Syracuse. My sister Troy was living in Florida at the time, and she flew up as a surprise. My sister Brooke and I (did I pick her up in Albany? I can't remember) hid out at the neighbors' house while we waited for Mom and Dad to leave so we could go set up for the party.

Now I'm starting to think, I'm the age my dad was when he ___. I'm almost the age my dad was when he had his bypass surgery. Hell, I'm almost the age my dad was when he died.

It feels kind of morbid to think like this, but it really makes me feel young. How foolish I was, in the 1960s, to think how old I'd be in 2000! I'm still not old.