NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

Today is the 45th birthday of my oldest daughters, Ellen Clair Lamb and Kathleen Ann Lamb

Where has the time gone? When they were born I was a young lieutenant on a cruiser in the South China Sea and there was a war on. Communications were so poor that the telegram announcing their arrival was mailed and I didn't find out that I was the father of twins until a week later. Then I had to spend hours in the Royal Post Office in Hong Kong waiting for a telephone call home to get through.

Now those babies are beautiful mature ladies and mothers of adult children themselves. I tell my children that I am still 24, it is only my knees that are almost 70. But despite my attitude I am still a fat old man.

The world has changed around me. Now everyone has a two way radio in their pocket and when I don't answer my cell phone, my children panic. I'm retired and bored and there is a new war in a place I thought was so remote it would never affect the USA. My parents, my in-laws, many friends, older relations and friends and even my wife have passed away. The British Empire has shrunk to a few enclaves in remote areas and even Hong Kong is no longer British.

But the adventure continues. My family is what I accomplished and each of those daughters has a child who is planning on getting married next year. Soon I may be a great grandfather. Go figure.

So I think I'm going to run away to sea. But more about that later.