Thank you for your happy birthday wishes. I really had to brag about my big day. I still feel young, or at least the way I remember always feeling, nothing at all like I thought one would feel at 80. Some parts don't work as good as they used to, of course, but life is still interesting and fun.
Joyce and Solange came by with these fabulous flowers and balloons. Friends and family called, cards and gifts arrived, and Deborah and August, my sister and brother-in-law, called and sang the Happy Birthday song in their lovely voices. I felt alone and a bit sad at the beginning of the day, but as the day ended I felt loved.
And the day wasn't without a bit of drama and comedy.
The show was put on by Faith, who, as it turned out, did not like the balloons! Here I sit with the balloons and my phone at one end of the room, Faith peeks around the corner, growls, then
turns tail and hides behind the corner. This she repeats over and over again. Meanwhile Samson is calm as always and does a little photo bombing, just because he can.
He's become quite the photo bomber, my Samson.
I finally got tired of the drama and put the balloons outside, but this didn't stop her. She knew they were there and would have none of it. When I got really, really tired of her, I popped the balloons and was sorry to do it, but the weather was hot and I needed some peace.
The following day Jeanne and Jon came over and Jon worked on my Jeep. It had a problem with its battery and something about oxygen, which they understood and I did not. I'm grateful beyond words for their help. The Jeep seems fine now, I haven't taken it anywhere but around here, but I will. One of the highlights of my week is coming up -- a trip to the dump.
Earlier my niece and nephew-in-law gave me a huge contribution toward a new washing machine. This is what I bought, it's an LG, recommended by Consumer Reports. I like it a lot and I've never owned such a fancy one before!
Hanging laundry on my lines is still one of my favorite things to do here. It's so peaceful.
The other day, my phone beeped a warning message, the first one I've ever received regarding earthquakes. They have never been able to predict them, now they can with a very short window of time to warn people. It was for our county and said one was imminent, duck and take cover!
I'm worried about fires, not earthquakes. I looked around for a place to duck, but found none, so I just took the dogs outside. I knew if nothing happened immediately we would be OK. As it turned out, the quake was more than 100 miles away, a 5.8 magnitude. I didn't feel a thing.
But if the earthquake had happened right here I would have felt pretty stupid, still looking for a place to duck and take cover!
As I walked outside on my birthday, I found this critter on my wall. I took it as a good sign.
