I am in a leadership position where all of my employees are older than I am.  So what, right?  But there’s something about the 40 milestone that says, “sure, you’re seasoned and experienced, you are the leader.”  But, in your thirties…meh, not so much.

Speaking of leadership and my current employment, my lovely mother reminded me yesterday of my dad’s visions of my vocational aptitude when I was 16.  Of course, at 16 I was completely oblivious of the future and completely focused on girls and…ahem…extra-curricular chemical experiments.  Dear ol’ dad repeatedly said, “you’ll be working for a car wash the rest of your life.”  I know, odd way to motivate…but, in a sense it worked.  There is irony in this because I have actually worked for a car wash.   But, it was in an architectural capacity…designing the car wash for the owner.  Nonetheless, I was working for a car wash.  I had no idea dad was so prophetic.

Being reminded of 16…boy, whodda thunk I would have made it to 25 let alone 40?  That is another story for another time.  Maybe.

Here’s the obligatory list (albeit abbreviated) of what’s happened on this day in history…

• 1519 – Cortez lands in Mexico… an early form of illegal immigration (or emigration depending on your perspective)
• 1639 – Cambridge University changes its name to Harvard….thus providing Bostonians a proper yard in which to park their car.
• 1781 – Sir William Hershel discovers Uranus…umm, wow…I mean, it must have been really special for it to be written in history.
• 1852 – Uncle Sam’s caricature first appeared in the New York Lattern…sadly, women all over New York were left in wont over what they thought was a single, authoritative, statesman.
  
• 1887 – Ear muffs are patented…and rarely worn again.
• 1906 – Susan B. Anthony died…oddly enough, her coffin was the was fabricated to the exact dimensions of George Washington’s.
• 1933 – FDR gives his first radio “fireside chat”…little did the public know that he used the U.S. Constitution for kindling.
• 1934 – Donald Duck is born…unfortunately, later therapy was unsuccessful in curing his speech impediment that, to this day, keeps Daisy out of his league.
• 1950 – General Motors announces a world record corporate profit of $656,434,232…somebody should have put this in their piggy bank.
• 1955 – Maharajadhiraja Tribhuvana Bir Bikram Yung Bahadur Shum Shere dies…after finally getting the spelling of his name correct.
  
• 1969 – Apollo 9 returns to Earth…and thus I was delivered, not by stork, but by astronauts!
• 1973 – Pink Floyd releases The Dark Side of the Moon…beginning the Wizard of Oz conspiracy that lives on to this day.
• 1993 – A wick’d bliz’ahhd hits the Northeast…and I was in Tulsa, OK in a foosball tournament.
• 2002 – My future wife and I discover we like the same kind of cake…OMG!

…and now in the year 2009, I reach 40 years old…