Seventy-one.....

 7:46 am - Saturday - October 3rd - Seal Rock, OR - 54° F, 100% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northeast......overcast, and a little foggy today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 1949 I was born.  I guess that makes me 71....WOW!

Baby Clarke circa 1949

Clarke Rucker, my namesake, and my father's best friend

As I sit here 71 years later looking back on my life, and how quickly those 71 trips around the sun have flown by I am struck by the extremely temporal nature of life.  When you are young the years seem to move glacially, and then as you near the sunset of your life things seem to speed up to near lightspeed.  It does not seem that long ago that I got my first brand new bike for Christmas......

Circa 1957

.....and suddenly I was a teenager living and growing up in Pasadena, CA with 4 siblings......

Circa 1964

....and then I was off to college, and then home for Spring Break......

Circa 1968

.....college seemed to go on forever, but then June of 1971 came, I graduated, and was married to TLE August 29th of that year, and life sped up dramatically......

Circa 1971

......fifteen years later we had five children, and wondered where the years had gone.....

Circa 1986

......before I knew it our kids were adults, and getting married......

Circa 2015

.....and the family Christmas pictures are getting bigger.....

Circa 2018

.....four of our children are married, we have 7 grand children, and 2 great grand children, and it all seems like a big blur.  As Ferris Bueller said....."Life moves pretty fast....you don't stop and look around once and a while you could miss it".....and that is so true.

Now we find ourselves almost 10 years into our full time adventure, trying to slow down the passage of time and cherish each moment remaining in our lives.....no one knows when their number will be up....I certainly don't, but I, along with TLE, have resolved to live each day as if it were my last.....no regrets.......

.....my life has been good, rich, fulfilling, and amazing, but it is still hard to believe it has been 71 years since my day of birth.....thanks for stopping by!

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