Thirty-six

Lots of cool math stuff about the number 36.

I used some information linked there to write a message for you in base 36 ASCII:

2C 2W 2P 32 2Z 37 W 2U 33 36 W 36 2T 2P 2S 2X 32 2V W 31 3D W 2Q 30 33 2V W 34 33 37 38 1A


Born within a month of me were Xzibit, Jimmy Fallon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Joaquin Phoenix. Oskar Schindler and Ed Sullivan died a few days after I was born. According to Wikipedia, I share the same birthday as Rumi on the Gregorian calendar. I was supposed to be born on Pearl Harbor day, but I came quite a bit early.

When my parents were thirty-six, my brother was entering high-school (which started at 10th grade) and I was transitioning from elementary school to junior high. My father was working as an electrician, as he had pretty much since getting married at 17. My mother was approaching 5 years in the work force, first in laundry then secretarial and eventually (probably after 36) paralegal work.

When my grandparents were thirty-six:
My dad's parents had a toddler and two more boys in double-digit ages. Grandpa worked in various sales jobs, and grandma was busy raising boys.
My mom's parents had five kids including my mom, the youngest baby. Grandma was busy raising the kids while grandpa taught science.
My grandparents were all in Colorado Springs.

When my great-grandparents were thirty-six:
Walter and Vera had four girls and my grandpa who came quite a bit later and was still an infant. Walter worked in Zion country in Utah as a cowboy or wrangler.
Ernie and Viola had one daughter. Ernie had learned to be a shoe cobbler from his step-father George Snurr. They were in Colorado Springs.
Albert and Rachel were probably divorced, but had three children. According to his WWI draft card filled just a few years earlier, Albert worked as an Iron molder in Minneapolis, but had immigrated earlier from Sweden.
Joe and Nancy were in Colorado Springs with two daughters. Joe worked as a coal miner. Joe had immigrated more than two decades earlier from Austria.

I had a lot of nice messages from friends for my birthday. I got a card from a coworker's 4-year old daughter, and I had more than 50 nice messages on Facebook, as well as a phone call from my parents and from my brother. Very nice.