[note: Compiled Aug 2022, backdated to Aug 2020]
2020 was a big year as I was turning 50 (halfway there!) and becoming a father. Of course, my priority was taking wonderful care of my darling wife, especially when the “popular virus noted around the world” showed up raising concerns and adding logistical complications. Mostly meant from a practical standpoint, i couldn’t go to the various parenting workshops and medical appointments and so on.
Then came gloriously busy weeks with getting Mama and Baby home, doing his name registration in the city office, more medical check-ins, Grandma’s passing and the rituals and routines which follow.
Before all that, realized once the baby arrives, my creative time would be limited, so i continued on my usual tradition (if that’s what you call it) of doing some big creative project each year around my birthday. Note: a middle of August birthday means most people are “otherwise distracted” with the fun of summer, on vacation, off-line or otherwise tuned out as appropriate, as a kid this meant kind of lousy birthday parties (which I made up in later years with UW40 and UW42) and for my little creative projects, they sort of fall flat but that’s not really the point.
So, before the baby came, I put together a #DaveO50 “Personal archaeology” project in which I documented photos dated to each year of my life and related projects, ephemera, artifacts, museums… The project kind of got out of hand (like they usually do) but all posts were pre-scheduled and ready to go before the baby came aside from the family photo we took on “day of” as a final piece.
All this blah blah blah led up to August 16, 50th birthday. Of course, my present had already arrived on June 23 in the form of a remarkable lil dude. But still…
During the day I rode the bus to get a haircut, stopped by the post office and rode the bus home observing the houses on my street with the distinctive charcoal cypress siding and remember that “I live here and we’ll live here forever”. {recalling this was day before?}
Come evening time (after flopping out in bed with Ichi for a while), came a pleasant hang-out with my dear in-laws, wonderful wife, and my best pal Mac coming over from the Goat farm.
I had ordered up a bunch of citronella candles so sitting in the backyard with the inflatable pool was less infested with mosquitoes (details matter).
And with my family, we grilled some fancy sausages (source them from a specialty maker), ate fresh vegetables and drank flip-top-lid beers from one of the original craft breweries of Japan, nearby Doppo.
I received a special Inkan stamp, this is used for all my official documents (and probably shouldn’t be posting it here but well… what can I tell you?)
After cake! Mac and I went into the kura barn studio to listen to records late into the night. I meant to take cover snapshots, but I didn’t, as the theme was “my life history in music” to play the bands that have been significant impacts at various points of my life (DOA, Clash, REM, Specials, Mudhoney, Grateful Dead, Modest Mouse, Billy Bragg, Courtney Barnett… many others).
I know it all sounds very self-indulgent and i am grateful for it all. Thanks for your positive contributions to my life. Next up #DaveO60 right?
