It's a special day for another reason too.

Norm is 90 today. Still on his feet, living at his home, coffee with his pals every morning, driving over to eat dinner with his wife every night -- she's home for a few days to help celebrate and maybe sing the birthday song. He gave up golf last year, sold the cart, and made it through a summer without. Helps with the garden, where years ago in retirement he and his wife broke the ground. Still likes to putter in the basement, gets creative in the kitchen with his breads and sauces and rubs. Enjoys the new smoker out in the garage, big enough to fill with a lot of meat. Watches the Vikings, Twins and golf on tv, but mature enough not to take games too seriously. Local hockey fan. Church every Sunday. I've heard him wake up praying in the morning, almost a chanting, with lots of repeated thank you, thank you, thank you's.

He's not a perfect man, if anyone is, and I'm not into hero worship, but I respect him immensely for setting a strong living example and making changes over the years. He's got great stories of growing up in St. Paul -- I especially like hearing about the racially integrated city high school he attended way back when and hearing about the differences between ethnic groups, in where and how they lived. He's a young man at heart and it shows in his great smile. One of his nieces even designed an elderly "doll" after him, that she sells through the Richard Simmons collection.

Love is a wonderful, wonderful thing, as the song goes...