Realization Due to Age

I joke around a bunch with my friends here in Waco that I'm getting old (especially around the "kids" I swing dance with at Baylor who are between 6 and 10 years younger than me). A couple days after I turned 28 (not necessarily old in and of itself), I was telling a friend about some of the gifts my family had given me for my birthday when it happened... I felt old (or just odd, they feel a lot alike).

One of the curses of having a full-time job and being single is that if I see something I want/need and it's reasonably priced, I'll buy it. This is bad because it makes the process of making a birthday and Christmas list for my family really hard because I tend to just buy things as I want them. Now, my birthday/Christmas list falls into three main categories: DVD's, tools, and stuff for my house.

My dad wasn't satisfied with the things I had on my list, so while we were talking on the phone shortly before my birthday, he asked me if there was anything else that I wanted to improve around my house. So I took a stroll around my bachelor pad thinking of things that I want to upgrade. A new chandelier (or some kind of light fixture) for my dining room, a new shower door for my master bathroom, redoing the inside of my workshop... all sorts of thrilling things like that. My parents ended up doing some research and giving me the money and contact information to replace the glass door on my shower stall. When I got excited about this and excited when telling others about it, I realized that I was getting old. I mean, what kid brags about getting a new shower door to his buddies?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the old door:


Here is my biggest pet peeve about the door (if you look closely, you can see segments of the hinge missing):


Here's how the new hinge/pivot looks (muuuuch cleaner):


Here's the door in its final state:


The change may be subtle to the untrained eye, but as someone who has looked at that door for the last 3.5 years, it's a world of difference. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!