A Great Birthday

Thank you everybody for the many birthday wishes that arrived by e-mail, text message, blog comments, and on Facebook yesterday. You made this old fart’s heart feel good. I have no idea how I made it to 71, considering I still have the metal maturity of about a 12-year-old on a playground.

Terry went out of her way to make it a great birthday for me, starting with her delicious brown butter overnight yeasted waffles, my very favorite breakfast of all time. Until Terry showed me what good waffles taste like I never much cared for them, but then again you can’t expect much from something that you take from the refrigerator and throw into a toaster.

The day had its frustrations because I was working on the three-point hitch for my tractor, which seems to have managed to bend the adjusting arm beyond straightening for the second time in a matter of weeks. I’ll be calling Tuscaloosa Tractor this morning to order another one. Hopefully we’ve figured out what’s causing the problem and won’t have a repeat.

Terry was having her own frustrations, too. She was trying to make reservations for her parents to fly out from Phoenix to spend a week with us, and after quite a bit of time looking at different flights online to find a one that worked time wise, when she tried to book it her credit card was declined. Almost immediately she got a message from Chase fraud alert wanting to know if it was her making the reservation and telling her that they had declined it for security reasons. She replied that yes, it was her, and when she tried to book the flight again she got the same message. And again, a third time. Then we tried it with one of my credit cards and got the same results. And every time, when she went back to the website the price on the flight had gone up and seating options had been reduced. She finally had to call Chase and jump through some hoops before everything was resolved and the round-trip flight was booked.

I have really been looking forward to something else Terry did for me for my birthday. When we moved into our house, the sliding glass door in our bedroom had been sealed shut. This meant that early every morning when I had to take Alli out, as well as sometimes during the night, I had to get out of bed, put some clothes on, and walk through the house to let her out the back door by our office. Not a big chore, but usually enough to wake me up to where I had trouble getting back to sleep again.

Terry started out by taking the door out, which was no mean feat in itself because it’s dual pane and very heavy. I didn’t realize what she was up to until she already had it out, but she reminded me that she spent years working in the commercial glass business and this wasn’t her first rodeo. Of course, like a fool, I had to tell her that she was younger then. I need somebody around to tell me to shut up on a regular basis.

Once she had the door out, she spent some time cleaning silicone and gunk out of the track. Then she lubricated the wheels on the bottom of the drawer, adjusted them, and we put it back in its track.

Now it works fine, and I can get out of bed, let Alli out to do her morning business, and jump right back into bed and snuggle up to Terry. And as cold as it was yesterday and will be for much of this week, I’m looking forward to that!

Terry still wasn’t finished spoiling me for my birthday. Just like she made my favorite breakfast, she also made my favorite dinner, a huge and delicious fried chicken breast, along with a baked potato. I’ll start my diet next month. 😊

Congratulations Roy Edgerton, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of Tinder Street, the first book in my Tinder Street historical series starting just before World War I that will eventually end during the Vietnam War days. This first book in the saga that will take readers from rural farms to a major industrial city in the Midwest, across an ocean where German U-boats lurk waiting for a target to come within range of their deadly torpedoes, to the bloody trench warfare of France, and home again. And of how, back at home, the soldiers of a victorious army try to put their experiences behind them and pick up the pieces of the lives they once had, to look toward a future bright with promise. Lucas Wirtz was one of those soldiers, a simple farm boy who hated the thought of killing but did his duty. A duty that would haunt him long after the last shots were fired.

This is also the story of the simple working-class people who built America. Farmers, factory workers, streetcar conductors, midwives, and public servants. Their joys and sorrows, their wins and losses, and how these people who struggled together to build a better life for themselves and their children changed a place named Tinder Street to Tender Street, a reflection of one family’s devotion to their neighbors.

We had 106 entries this time around. Stray tuned, a new contest starts soon.  Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. No thanks. I’m not falling for that again!

Thought For The Day – Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.