35 years after having lived in St. Louis, Missouri, I can look back and see that I have increased "ten-fold". Not in terms of size, weight, finances or anything like that, though.

I grew up about half a block from old Route 66 in south St. Louis. In the summer – before there was air conditioning, of course – I could hear the big 18 wheelers grinding through their gears as they started up from a traffic light on Route 66.

Now I live in Mondorf, a part of the community of Niederkassel on the Rhine River. Along the route of the river there are markers to show tugboat captains how far they are from Basel, Switzerland. The Rhine is less than half a mile from my apartment, a straight shot right down to the river. And guess what? Mondorf is exactly 660 kilometers from Basel! So I’ve gone from "66" to "660". I am sure glad it is an exact ten-fold instead of me living at the "666" marker. That wouldn’t fit too well with my profession.