Route 66

Yep, I made it. Born on December 11, I have now survived my 66th year on the planet. Eleven, of course, has always been my lucky number. If you, like me, subscribe to the concept of numerology -- a belief in the divine or mystical relationship between numbers and events -- then you probably have a lucky number, too.

As a youth, I always wore the number “11” on all of my baseball, football and basketball teams. Eleven is also a prime number, so integers divisible by 11 also tend to be significant. This “life-path” number is determined by your birth date and is probably the most influential numerological aspect to be considered.

For me, the multipliers of 11 also tend to be significant. At 22, I graduated from college. At 33, I was hired in my career job at Eugene Water & Electric Board and we welcomed our second child. At 44, I was promoted into management at EWEB. At 55, I retired from EWEB and turned to full time teaching at the University of Oregon.

Now, in my 66^th year, we celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary with a trip to Europe to visit our Italian cousins, helped move parental units from Oregon to Arizona, and witnessed the birth of our first grandchild back home in Eugene. Yep, as the old song goes, I was thankful to continue to “get my kicks on Route 66.”