A Day Later And A Year Older

It's kinda nice when a birthday falls on a weekend.  That way you get to start out the day on a positive note right away just by not having to get up with the alarm clock.

I finally turned 54 yesterday.  I say "finally" because off and on in recent history I kept thinking I was already 54.  I was telling Sue last night--It's like 53 and 54 are kind of boring and nondescript numbers and they don't just jump to the surface of my shallow memory.  A number that ends in zero or 1 or 5:  Much easier to remember.  Now watch--I'll probably start thinking I'm 53 instead of 54.  Whatever.

We planned on (but not too seriously) going to the Northwest FolkLife Festival in Seattle yesterday.  Although it's a music/culture event, we were mainly going for pictures.  The day started out dreary though.  It rained buckets and it was cold too.  Sarah came up to say happy birthday to me and presented me with a bag of goodies.  I like it when I get eats for my birthday.  It's the gift I never want or need to exchange.  After Sarah left we hopped into the car. Our first stop was going to be one of our local Big 5 stores to look at shoes for Suz.  We both ended up finding a good pair o' shoes for cheap!  I ended up with shoes I've never had before, for only 20 bucks:  Skate shoes.  These Hang Ten ones are way more comfortable than any Vans or any other brand I've ever tried on.  Good score.

We never made it to Seattle.  Instead we went to one of our local beach/pier spots called Redondo.  We wandered around taking pictures for a while.  Pigeons, seagulls, barnacle-encrusted timbers--All that sort of stuff.  There were other people there with the same idea.  We ended up taking pictures of people taking pictures too.  There was even a wedding party that drove up in their big, stretched-out Hummer limo to take pictures of themselves.  The Redondo pier looks like a good place to go and sit with my cane and feed pigeons when I get really old.  After a while, we moved on and ended up at Salt Water State Park for more of the same.  Finally our hunger took over and we headed off to eat.  Driven by our stomachs!  We ended up at our local Old Country Buffet restaurant to use a 2-for1 meal deal they gave me for my birthday.  Lots of variety in that place.  Quality:  Not so hot.  The good thing is, you can try all the things you want, and there is always going to be something there you like.  We both left there stuffed.

Right after we got home my parents showed up and we had a good visit.   They gave me (us!) a big steak for my birthday.  You can't go wrong with food for gifts!

I capped off the day with a nice, long soak in the hot tub with Suzie, counting shooting stars and satellites.