Hey There! It's 11:36 AM MST, 53°F, sunny
Yesterday was a very busy, unusual, and fun day, so a lot of little routines were broken up. As noted yesterday, it was my 74th birthday, and so it's impossible to write about the day without acknowledging that fact. I prefer keeping my birthday low-key. It was never something I let people know deliberately, and a piece of information I never revealed except in unusual circumstances. I don't even like mentioning it here, to be honest, but if this is to be a record of daily events in my life, it makes it difficult to talk about yesterday's events without recognizing that fact. So it goes.
After getting up in the morning, I broke my coffee ritual somewhat by going out to a local Dutch Brothers coffee stand to get a free birthday coffee drink. I chose something called a Maple Waffle Breve, which tasted nothing like maple or waffles, but as a morning drink was fun nonetheless. When I got home, DW said she would make be breakfast, but I told her I wanted to go to the local Dennys and get their free Grand Slam birthday breakfast. We were about to go when somehow DW contacted our children, and Son2 let it be known in no uncertain terms that he would not tolerate us going to Dennys for breakfast. He offered to pay for our breakfast out, and after a bit of discussion, we agreed. So we went to a place called The Bit. It was delicious, and far better than Dennys. We sat at the counter because the place was so crowded that we weren't going to get a table for a while, and I had an interview scheduled that I didn't want to feel pressure about. I had a nice chat with the guy next to me, and the owner/manager was behind the counter, and we had a nice chat with him, so a very sociable breakfast. I had something called the Cowboy Skillet, a mixture of eggs, breakfast meats, potatoes, and sour cream, while DW had some kind of sandwich I believe. Son2 Venmoed the money over when we were done. A good start.
When we got home I prepared for the interview I had scheduled with an artist whose work will be in the local university's art gallery for a few months. He was a very articulate interview and great to talk to. He was in Hawaii working on his next project, and he was quite happy that the local roosters seemed to know he had an interview and ceased crowing for the duration.
I really wanted to go riding on my bike as part of my day, but the weather was uncooperative. There were some very dark clouds hanging about, and it had rained a little in the morning, so I did not trust the weather to go out on dirt roads and potentially get stuck in the mud. As compensation, I drove down to the food coop and picked up a few new beverages to consume. There are drinks here I've never seen, and it's a small form of adventuring to buy a new drink you've never had and see what it tastes like. Cheap fun.
I passed the afternoon with a video or two and having a nice chat with Son1, and in the evening had my birthday dinner. We have had a tradition in the family for many years that on your birthday you get to choose whatever you'd like to eat for dinner. I usually find some kind of combination of surf and turf, and this year we had bought some prawns and a bone-in ribeye in anticipation of my requested dinner. DW, however, is never satisfied with simple preparation, and so I had what I'll call prawns alfredo with pasta, and my steak was reverse-seared to medium rare. It was a lot of food, and it was very, very good. There was a salad available but I was not able to fit that in. I cut off a few slices of my steak for DW to put in her salad for her meal, as she doesn't like beef all that much, and certainly not that much of it. I have to be honest - it was a lot of beef. I am not sure I can eat that much steak ever again.
The evening was spent watching a few more videos, and then I listened to a Freakonomics podcast featuring the story of Miami running back Ricky Williams, who was busted for pot 4 times by the NFL. I had something of a birthday pastry for dessert with chocolate filling and frosting. Daughter called me up just before bed. She was having a Galentine's Day out with her friends, and she got them all to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. Bedtime was 11:15 PM.
I spent the night digesting all that beef! It was a three-whiz night on top of that. I kept wondering if I was going to have "the big one" before morning. But I'm still here.
Notable deaths: Elroy Face, outstanding relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s and 60s, 97.
'Til We Meet Again!