My birthday looms, and as usual, I hate it.

Since I'm not overly fond of my birthday - not the getting older part, but being born on Independence Day sucks, and having a little sister born on the same made it worse - I tend to not make a big deal of it.

But I do have a few traditions. One of them was fulfilled today when I picked up a case of Mexican Coca-Cola. Always a special treat!

Because I will be turning 55, you can expect parody lyrics of a certain Sammy Hagar song. But the day itself is going to be low-key.

Give me back my flag drop!

Can y'all stand another whiny birthday post?

For a very long time, I had one must-do thing on my birthday. That was watching the Boston Pops Esplanade perform. It started when I was eight or nine, we were at a party at the house of some friends of my parents, and I was bored. . . except for the big beautiful parrot that took a liking to me. That was cool.

Anyway, in one room there was a group watching this concert on TV. I sat down to watch because music is always good. I had fun with the patriotic sing-along, then the orchestra started another piece, and the cameras kept cutting to Army howitzers with army guys around them. Now, this was something different!

I asked one of the grown-ups about the cannon, and he explains what the 1812 Overture was, and that near the end Tchaikovsky wrote in parts for cannon fire. Now I was hooked! The music was awesome, and they kept showing those cannons!

Then it happened. In the fury of the "Battle of Borodino" passage, the cannons started firing! As an army-mad kid, this was the BEST THING EVER!

Then, before my pulse rate has a chance to return to normal, the Pops go right into "The Stars and Stripes Forever." I might have heard Sousa before, but never like this! And the flag drop! If you have never seen the Pos perform this march, near the end, just before the finale, a giant US flag unfurls over the orchestra. Then fireworks!

I was hooked. Every year my one birthday demand was seeing the Boston Pops. Luckily, no one complained, and it was on PBS. (I think KQED carried it.) I watched it every year until I left for the Army. In a funny twist, I spent my 19th birthday marching in Columbus, Ga. to The Stars and Stripes Forever! If it's fun to watch, it's ten times more fun to match to with your M-16A1 at port arms.

But then things changed. The broadcast was moved, first to Bravo, then to one of the Networks. They began cutting it to pieces and putting chattering talking heads over the music. They never showed the whole 1812, which sucks because that piece tells a story. I finally gave up when I saw that they had cut the six-hour concert to a one-hour highlight reel.

This year, it's supposed to be streamed on Bloomberg. I need to sit with Kirsten to see if we can even get that on the TV. Because I want my tradition back!