Pardon me, is this your elephant?

OK.

Let me just cut to the chase here.

Today is my 63rd birthday!

Elephants do not have anything,

specifically,

to do with my birthday;

but it seemed somehow fitting to me

to post this bronze sculpture

of a baby elephant

by which I was taken by surprise

in Mesa, Arizona, a couple of years ago,

on my birthday.

When I was 15 years old,

a high school friend and I

decided we should begin collecting something.

I honestly do not remember what my friend decided to collect.

I decided to collect elephants.

Over the next thirty years or so,

I acquired several hundred.

I do not even know how many.

But then I determined

to unburden myself

of the majority of them;

so, by means of yard sales, eBay,

giving them away, and simply tossing some of them,

I got the collection down

to about a dozen of my favorites.

Then, almost four years ago,

the house we lived in

burned to the ground,

and we lost everything.

Now I have a couple of elephants again...

This little guy is glass.

He is a blotter - back in the days of inkwells

one often had to 'blot' the ink to help it dry faster.

He is about four inches long.

One would attach a piece of blotting paper,

then gently roll the elephant back and forth over the wet ink.

This is wood and metal sculpture that stands about 10" high.

My sister-in-law gave it to me.

So,

there you have it!

Me and my elephants.