As of the moment that this post will go live, I am now 31 years old. With leap years of 1980, 84, 88, 92, 96, 2000, 04 and 08, that is Eleven Thousand, Three Hundred Twenty-Three days in those 31 full trips around the sun. In that time, I have learned a great many things, gained and lost a great many things and people and importantly take from it a great many lessons. I guess I have my parents to thank here as well. I thank my dad for giving me a clear and concise portrait of how NOT to deal any children I should so happen to sire. I thank my mom for doing as best she could with what she was given. I thank the three of my grandparents who were alive to help raise me where pops just wouldn't, even when we were with him or when my moms just couldn't because of the hand we were dealt. I thank my late grandfather for the life lessons a man should impart on a growing boy, in the absence of the normally necessary father figure. I thank my moms especially for allowing us the chance t