Happy Birthday to Me

Well, I did manage to drum up a little bit of a patriotic attitude for my birthday. I dressed in red white and blue. 🙂 And even though I’d been thinking I might be alone on the Fourth, I ended up having some company, which brightened the day considerably.

The morning started with a trip to a nearby lake so I could spend some relaxing time listening to the waves and the people having fun. My son, Paul, took me to the beach, and we walked along the water’s edge for a short while before we sat in lounge chairs and just enjoyed the great outdoors.

Last year I spent my birthday in Lake City MI, with my sister and her family, my brother and his partner, and my good friend, Flo. I’d considered going again this year, to be part of The Greatest Fourth in the North, but travel was out of the question. Plus, the big events there were cancelled this year.

So, while I was at the lake here, I thought about all of them at the lake up there, and even channeled my mother by picking up a few stones. A trip to the lake was never complete without adding a few more stones to her collection, and my sister and I have a hard time resisting the urge to do the same.

Paul and I tried to get pictures of seagulls and egrets but those were not successful. In my photos, which are not even worth sharing, the birds look like black smudges against the blue sky.

However he did get a picture of this small plane that flew over the lake at one point. We wondered if it was perhaps headed to a nearby small airport. There are two airports nearby; Sherman Municipal Airport and North Texas Regional Airport.

After the fun at the lake, we came back to my house where one of my other sons, David, was going to cook hamburgers on the grill. His wife, Rebecca, came along, too, which was great. Often she works 6 or 7 days a week at a restaurant she manages, so she either can’t come for a gathering, or she has to leave after only an hour or so. Saturday, the restaurant was closed, so they were able to stay and spend a good part of the day with me and Paul. We had a good lunch, drank some good whiskey and enjoyed just sitting and chatting.

Rebecca helped me finish a jigsaw puzzle, I’d been working on, so I could then take that one up and start a new one which was in this beautifully-wrapped package from her and David.  The succulents are also a gift from them.

The other gift that day was this whiskey bottle filled with pretty blinking lights. It’s a gift from my daughter, Dany, and her husband, Matt. I had to smile because the bottle filled with whiskey had been a previous gift following a trip they’d taken to Kentucky to visit the distillery.

(Now you know my drink of choice after blackberry moonshine.)

So all in all it was a very good birthday.

The many good wishes from family members who could not be here with me, also made me smile, as did all of the birthday wishes I received on social media.

Sometimes social media can be a real-time suck, but it’s also a way for us to show our care and concern for others. Goodness knows we need to support each other, especially during this difficult time of this awful pandemic. I’m so pleased that my friends on Facebook and Twitter, and those who comment on my blog, are all people of good and generous hearts.

That’s all for me for today folks. Do stay safe. Wear a mask and practice social distancing. Heard some new information about the spread of COVID-19 on The Daily Podcast this morning, that is well worth listening to and paying attention to.