Happy 70th Keef (One Day Removed)

Missed another one.

Keith Richards turned 70 yesterday. I've always felt connected to Keith because his birthday is  exactly one week before Christmas and mine is exactly one week after Christmas.

However he is better looking and healthier than me; I will have to work on that.

I won't go into my usual defensive rant about how foolish people condemn him without knowing a damn thing about him, other than what they read in the papers and see in the news. I have a much more intimate understanding of the man, having spent many a night and day in his company.

Not true. Wish it were.

I'm looking at him a little differently this year because of the health pickle I find myself in.

You gotta respect a guy who gambles with his life. Not a lot of life coaches would have said to Keith in his twenties "Yeah, go ahead, drink all the booze you want, take every drug out there, ride a 10 year heroin addiction to nirvana and you will be all right. Nothing to worry about."

He felt he could handle it and he took the risk.

I checked my bloody blood pressure yesterday and it is still right where Dr. Feelgood does not want it to be. 164/96. I was and am bummed.

I have not taken the radical leap but I have modified my behavior. Eating broccoli and cauliflower for lunch instead of cold cut sandwiches, exercising as regularly as this damn job will allow, cut back on the booze.  Taking the medication.

No results.

Apparently the next step is to start wearing white silken robes, eating sunflower seeds, meditating and training for marathons.

When I got home from blood pressure central (Rite Aid) I shoveled snow furiously. I was pissed. Maybe I was trying to shovel myself to death like Jack Lemmon tried to exercise bike himself to death in that movie. No I cannot remember the name of it.

When I walked into the house I wanted a tumbler of whiskey. Got to thinking what is the goddamn point. I like the way whiskey tastes and I like what it does for me. Got to thinking that if I knew definitively that I would live 20 more years no matter what, I would stop exercising, increase whiskey consumption and live on a diet of cheese steak subs and thick juicy steaks.

I do not know that definitively and I don't have the guts to take the risk. Not right now, anyway.

I did not have the whiskey. I didn't drink anything at all yesterday until one glass of wine just before bed. And I rode the bike.

There are a lot more substantial reasons to respect Keith Richards and I dig them all. I dig the whole package.

I love the man.

Trivia: For you novices, his real name is Keith Richard. The "S" got added somewhere along the line.

Happy Birthday, Keith Richards. Glad to have you in my head.