Neil Young's Heart of Gold (original studio verson).
Time marches on and, for me, I got another year older on Wednesday.
I must admit, I don't feel any different.
Age is just a number until you find yourself in a wheelchair and, fortunately, that hasn't happened for me.
Yet.
I keep active.
I jog every day and, this time of year, three hours a day, always rocking some sort of a Temple T-Shirt.
Heck, I even ran into a young Temple assistant when he was jogging the other way one spring afternoon at Mondauk Commons in Upper Dublin Township.
That assistant was a guy named Matt Rhule.
We were two Temple football T-Shirts passing in the middle of the afternoon, a couple of days before I thought Bruce Francis was going to get drafted.
I don't think Matt does the Mondauk Commons trail anymore but, then again, neither do I.
He's come a long way since then.
I've just gotten older.
Sometimes, though, things happen that make you wonder if someone is trying to send you a message.
True story: Jogging Wednesday around 5:45 listening to 98.1 (WOGL) and, out of nowhere, the second song comes on by the Beatles (or was it Paul by himself?), "I hear it's your birthday."
Usually when you hear that song, it's preceded by an explanation about someone's birthday and why they are playing it but not this time.
No dedication.
No request.
No explanation.
Nothing.
Then the next song is Neil Young's Heart of Gold.
"Keep me searching and I'm growing old."
Now I'm figuring out that some sort of crazy Poltergeist got into my old AM/FM radio (I don't do the IPOD thing).
That had me REALLY down, but then I got home and read James Gandolfini died.
Not happy to hear that, but I had a better day than he did. RIP James, one of my favorite one-role actors of all time.
I'm sure Gandolfini would have been good in a number of roles, but he made Tony Soprano a cultural Icon in the same kind of way Jason Alexander made George Costanza, Carroll O'Connor for Archie Bunker and Henry Winkler for The Fonz.
So while birthdays now are far from my favorite days of the year, this one more than the last few taught me a good lesson in perspective.
That, and to stay away from eating too much rich Italian food.
Notes: As far as my Temple football birthday present, the Owls recruited their second consecutive lineman on June 19. ... Last year, Steve Addazio gave me Matt Barone, who I think will have a very good career at Temple, and, this year, the June 19th signing was Kenny Randall of Mainland Regional (N.J.). Randall is 6-3, 290 and comes to Temple with the reputation of being a lock-down run-stopper.
