Birthday Chronicle — # 50

Today’s post is a birthday chronicle — of my 50th birthday. I will be sharing events and ways that I celebrated the day, along with reminisces from the 50 years past.

Talking with mom yesterday, she noted that my 50th birthday was a Sunday, and that I was also born around 10 a.m. on a Sunday. Curious how both days occur on a Sunday.

Which makes me think of the child’s poem:

Monday’s child is fair of face,

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,S

aturday’s child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.

I was born on  Sunday morning, right before church. I remember being told the story of my birth being announced during morning worship. And when they got to my 10 pounds, 8.5 ounces, the women in the service supposedly let out a low groan.

It also snowed the day after I was born, and between that and the chores of running a dairy, dad almost didn’t make it to the hospital for visiting hours that day — he only made it there with a few minutes to spare.

Fast-forward 50 years, and I started the day out with a celebration with the mutt. Rocky and I went on our usual Sunday morning ride. Halfway through the run, almost at the furthest out point another male mutt decided to pay attention to Rocky.  He was maybe 45-50 pounds to Rocky’s 60. He had a collar but no visible tags. Both dogs did the sniffing thing, but eventually the other dog did enough to  get even Rocky to warn him to back off. I finally started us moving again, but the dog kept following us for a full miles and a half on the way back. Every time we would stop the sniffing would begin. And the other dog would keep trying to hump Rocky — and Rocky didn’t like it. I eventually pulled out the leash from his halter and tried whipping the other dog to get him to lead.  He didn’t get mean with me, but couldn’t get the idea to just leave.

Upon return fed breakfast to the dog, and then selected my own breakfast. Usually we have some sort of pastry, but this morning I took leftover crepes from yesterday’s breakfast, rolled a piece of sliced ham inside each, and had them for breakfast along with some Rooibos Vanilla tea.

That was followed by birthday wishes from the Seekers Sunday School Class, and being sung Happy Birthday by the Avondale UMC Cathedral choir.

After sermon and communion, we headed over to Worlds of Fun for the premier events of the 50th celebration. For the third time in four years, Nathan and I did rode the Rip Cord together. See the below featured video.

After that Betsy and I did the Worlds of Fun BBQ and Brew Festival. We really weren’t interested in the brew, though we took 3-4 samples and wet our lips before dumping each one in bitter disgust. What brought us to it were the items on the food menu — which were well worth the $20 apiece we paid — for those who liked beer it would be a real deal.  I might feature more on that in a later piece (not enough time to edit everything today).

After enjoying our $20 festival lunch, we took a romantic train ride, came home for a short nap, then Carly and I ran over to the park to pick up supper. Then it was a relaxing evening of editing the days video take, interspersed with a treat of cake.