Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, February 24, 2023.
Whew. I turn 50 tomorrow/Saturday. I… my brain just doesn’t know what to make of that. I guess a toast to more adventures!
Really, there’s no need to even have a team lose, you can just stop for ice cream.
50 is when I started counting down the number of summers I might have left.
@Soweli, wow, that does put in in perspective. A tad wistfully. 🙂
I started thinking about that well before I turned 50 last year, but only occasionally. It was in the context of retirement planning. (For my 50th birthday, we played board games and listened to record albums).
@Ada, Ah yeah. Retirement. That makes sense. 🙂 And that sounds a lovely way to spend it! I’ll go for a walk with my hiking buddy, Lynn. I just bought a couple slices of chocolate cake (the oven here doesn’t work). But once I return to the states, I’ll be asking everyone to pony up with celebratory fun whenever I see anyone for the next few months. 🙂
Around the age of 30 (4-ish years ago) I decided that “waking up and realizing time had passed” was never going to stop happening (while alive), eventually I’d wake up and suddenly I’m 80, and my main choice was simply how to metaphorically get the highest score on the inexorable speedrun.
On the other hand, we might get hit by a bus tomorrow. Nobody knows how many summers they have left. We can guess at a maximum, I suppose.
Tesfay is in a good place right now. Aitana might consider leaving him there, the man has eared it, yes?
Happy half-century day!
Thank you, @Rikard!
You’re still not even halfway through your years of story writing, though.
@Coyoty, interesting. Well, it depends what one means. For webcomics, I’ve been writing them since 1996, so 27 years, so yeah, MAYYYYBE I’ll still be writing at 77?
But I’ve been actively writing fiction since elementary school, comics since 6th grade. So, a bit slimmer chance I’ll still be writing in my 90s. Maybe more as a hobby that a regular thing.
On the flip side, if you consider my other work to be dailies, and Spacetrawler to be my first real stories, then I’ve only been at it 13 years, so still writing them at 63 is very likely.
Zorillas don’t lose. They raise a big stink and keep fighting.
Winners get cake!
And ice cream
Time for some black balloons. And a tombstone cake. And ice cream. Maybe combine the two! Ice cream cake! That looks like a tombstone.
@KQY61, hahahaha! Yeahhhhhh. Not to THAT point yet. 🙂
Happy birthday! I’m just leaving my 50s, it was a great decade. Hope yours is, too!
Hey! Happy birthday! Fifty is great! When I turned 50, a whole new life began. We sold our house in Oregon, bought a very (very!) cheap house we saw on Zillow in Illinois (before that was a thing), packed up the pets and a Uhaul, and just … moved. We spent the next 7 years fixing up that house ourselves (learning carpentry, roofing, plumbing, electrical work). We discovered we loved the adventure, and have now spent the past 18 years in a very slow motion version of your life. Since Illinois, we have lived in rural Florida, very rural Michigan, and rural upper Minnesota (where we live now, with its looonnnggg winters). Now, I admit that I have wanted a smaller home with each move (physical work gets harder), and I am no longer amused by houses without kitchens or functioning bathrooms, but I still look forward to adding experiences. So take heart, Christopher — your life will always be an adventure because you will always choose to make it one, and age will not be a barrier in any way other than a waning of strength and endurance. You know how to make friends and find beauty in the world, and that will make age meaningless.
Got it right on the first try Tesfay!
Happy birthday Christopher. Turning 62 in a couple of months here, and I’m officially retired come March 1st. 50 is indeed a mile marker of note. And they attain more notoriety upon each decade I can attest. I hope you enjoy many more.
I turn 62 in 4 days.
I turn 70 in 48 days? (Not counting today)
I. Really. Can’t believe it though. None of the other numbers bothered me.
Rule 1: don’t fall
Rule 2: don’t EVER fall.
Broke my back, tore up a knee, lost 10 yrs I really do think.
About moving and friends.. all mine treated me as dead, when I moved. Christopher doesn’t have my luck, but others beware.
Rule 3: NEVER put off to tomorrow what can be done today. Do. It. Now.
With love, and may all of you have many many more birthdays than you think you may have left.
Ice cream is for winners, Tesfay.
Happy Birthday! And thanks for the gift of Spacetrawler 🙂
fwiw, I just turned 55 last month and I’ll be hiking part of the Pacific Crest Trail this year. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years but let work etc side-track me. And I was never really in shape for it anyway. Then I got sick with COVID early in the pandemic, almost died, and spent 2 years so sick I could rarely leave the house. When I got better last July I thought “holy crap! I better do this thing” and started walking. I didn’t know whether at my age I could work up to something like this. But it turns out 55 isn’t that old, really. I start on the southern segment next week!
If you’ve got something you want to do, you can still do it. Don’t let an arbitrary number slow you down. My friend Arnie, who’s in his 80s, says, “I’m not old! I’m a young guy trapped in an aging body!”
Well… I gotta tell ya that the only thing different about being 50 is that suddenly the little things that used to take a day or two to heal … don’t.
Happy birthday, Christopher!
The comments made me realize that
a) webcomics are for “old” people and I’m not the outlier I tought I was (turned 50 last year)
or
b) people over 50 get more talkative in comment sections
Hard to tell which without more data.
I’ve been wondering the same thing in reading today’s comments (and to confirm the point, I’m 62). Oh, and happy birthday, Chris
Being grown up means you can read and buy all the comics you want. I have an entire garage wall full of graphic novels.
This alone makes adulthood worth it.
What?! You can’t be FIFTY! You’re that kid in his early 20s who writes an online comic about a curly-haired girl.
Wait…
Are you trying to tell me I’ve been reading your stuff for over a quarter of a century?
Shit.
I must be old now…
So what’s keeping the invader? The ship’s not THAT big.
Seems like the computer would warn them, even without being asked.
Happy Birthday!
I only wish I were 50 again. Spent that birthday in the NYC airport during the Great Blackout of 2003. Ran around the airport most of the night trying to arrange some kind of flight out to the West Coast for me, my family, and our school European Tour Group. This was after surviving Europe’s Great Heat Wave of 2003.
My cake was an airport hamburger with a french fry stuck in the top. Ketchup made the “candle flame.” It was actually kind of cool. Thank goodness we got in through customs and fed before the actual blackout. A lot of people spent the night in customs lines. The day before? I got birthday pizza in Rome.
We all got home okay.
I turned 81 just 10 days ago, and tomorrow I’m going to my ex-son-in-law’s 50th. This coming October, my son is 50. Time flies when you are having fun. This Winter weather is boxing me in, but I still manage to get out for groceries and important things like birthdays. The end of Winter is in sight, so I’ll soon be released from the box.
And now it is Saturday!
This is your Birthday Song!
It isn’t very long!
Happy Birthday, Chris! I turned 50 last year, and did a week-long bike trip to celebrate (making sure to get a slice of cake on my actual birthday – it was carrot cake).
The great thing about being a writer/creative is that no one can fire you for being old. Also, ideally your work gets better as you get older.
I remember my 50th birthday. We had a whole bunch of friends come over, drank, ate, and hung out until about 2am. My take on this whole age thing is “I” am still young, my body is just getting older. Let me know if you swing by Texas, I’ll make you something to eat! lol
The power finally came back after four days, so, Happy Birthday, Christopher!
The life you have lived to now is only the beginning to the life that follows. And now you’re so much better at it.
Pop a cork, have a cupcake, and enjoy the day, the sun, the sky, and all the world under it. We have them as long as we can enjoy them.