Starting my 73rd year

We slept a bit longer than we expected. We were up and in Joey’s Pancake House for my free pancake breakfast. We took Doris with us and had a great time. I was talked into ordering something other than my bear shaped pancake but realized I was correct: the one was enough. The wait staff sang to me and another birthday woman there. We took Doris home, changed clothes and drove to the golf shop south of town. Unfortunately it was closed Mondays. Evelyn is determined to buy me a 3 wheeled golf push cart, so we will return another day. We went to the library for DVDs and went on to visit our friend Mitzi who is in the ICU recovering from a heart attack. We met Ray and Annette who had visited her too. We came home and the girls ate lunch. I was not hungry so I worked on the computer most of the afternoon while they watched “Alvin”. Evelyn then came to the bedroom to rest. I wanted to keep the kids busy and went outside to help them apply stain to the new wishing well. We painted the bottom black and the top gold—Purdue colors. It was close to dinner time, so we dressed and went to J. Arthur’s restaurant for my free birthday dinner. The girls shared a half order of lasagna, Evelyn had her own order, and I had an order of ribs. The girls are theirs, but Evelyn and I had to take most ours home with us. As a special treat, I enjoyed my 2nd “Happy birthday” song of the day. Actually I also received one from the Beelis and another from Stacy too. I thought the girls would want to play miniature golf in Maggie Valley, but they didn’t . We came home and Evelyn worked on baking a cake for both my birthday and the potluck tomorrow evening. It has been a blessed day and I have been waiting 72 years to enjoy it. I thank God for a wonderful wife and extended family that cares for me. The visiting girls made it special with some gifts they crocheted for me.