My Birthday 'Adventure'. (Timeline: March 2010)

My birthday was pretty nice. The weather was wonderful. Sunny but with some clouds, and warm enough that I shed my jacket pretty early (it's still out in the truck). My neighbor Julie (my 2nd best friend) and I headed out for Wal-Mart a bit after 10, after I had tucked the dog into the kennel (Samson cannot be trusted to not run out the gate into the sometimes busy street, so it is the easiest way for me to cope). We both picked up some necessities, explored the store thoroughly, but other than a new wallet, which I needed, I didn't see anything I really wanted. The in-store restaurant is a McDonalds, which didn't tempt us, so we decided to relocate to a nearby Target store.

At Target Julie immediately got lost in the ladies' apparel department. I should have expected that; it's happened before! So after a while being bored stiff, I took off exploring on my own. Hit the jackpot in the toy department; I was able to add several Schleich models to my modest collection, including a Samson look-alike. Then I found a new serving cart. My old one keeps loosing a wheel, and this last time the wheel simply won't stay on at all. Right now, until I get the new one out of the box and put together, the old one has a block under the one leg, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a wheeled cart. On the way back to look for Julie something else caught my eye. A digital picture keychain! I've been kinda wanting one for a while; all my pictures are on my 'puter, which makes it difficult to share with people who do not have e-mail. So I gave myself that for my birthday too. I found Julie exactly where I had left her <grin> The in-store restaurant was a Pizza Hut, so we each had a personal sized pepperoni pizza for lunch, after which we headed home.

When we got there, Samson started crying as always as soon as he saw me; he HATES being in the kennel, but this time he had to wait until Julie got her stuff out from the back of the truck. I let him out before I unloaded the scooter from the lift, also SOP, which made his majesty very happy. I left my stuff in the truck, to be retrieved later, except the serving cart which I had left in the basket of the scooter, rushed in to use the bathroom, then went into the bedroom to shed my street clothes. Then the phone rang, and I rushed in to answer it. It was MY BROTHER!!!! He NEVER calls for my birthday (and I don't call for his either), so I was totally surprised. I had expected it was Julie, who had left her package of TP in the back of my truck. I still hadn't gotten dressed in my house clothes, so I was COLD, but since he calls only maybe once a year I didn't want to chase him off. So he talked for about half an hour. Bjørn always talks a lot, about nothing at all, so I just let him rant on, getting a word of my own in here and there. All that time, and I never heard the words "Happy Birthday", but at least he DID call.

By this time I was pretty sore, in spite of the two Aleve I had taken in the morning. After a bit I went back outside, manhandled the box with the serving cart out of the scooter and in the back door, and went out to pick up the rest of my goodies from the back of the truck. I plugged the keychain into the 'puter to charge it (it takes 6 to 8 hours to fully charge), and proceeded to pick out some pics to load into it. The picture quality is actually pretty nice, considering the small size :-)

Later, I went out to feed the dog, locked the poor pooch in the kennel again while I took Julie's TP across the street and picked up my mail. This time he was in the kennel only a few minutes, but again, as soon as he had finished his food, he started whining, because he saw me across the street. What a cry baby he is!

That was pretty much it. It was nice to get out, even if it was only to go shopping. Other than necessities, I rarely go anywhere these days. In the past, I used to treat myself to a day-trip for my birthday, driving somewhere WAAAYYYY out in the country, stopping for lunch at a coffee shop and then heading back, usually via a different route. But these days my body won't let me drive very far; after only a short time sitting in the same position the pain sets in, so my solo day-trip days are OVER! This trip, while hardly a day-trip, was a nice substitute; at least a change of pace.

I had another birthday treat still in store. On Sunday my #1 best friend Garry took me out for a nice lunch. We went to Black Angus, and I had a large prime rib! Yum! I don't eat that much meat these days, but I LOVE prime rib; especially the way they do it at Black Angus.

Everybody, thanks for your good wishes for my birthday. They worked, because it was a good one!

Here are pics of my new Schleiches. They are smallish, the roan is about 0.3 hands (3 inches, stick measure to the top of the withers) and the others are pretty much to scale.