Birthday Watermelon, and an Unexpected Errand

I put photos from my 60th birthday celebration in another blog:

• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Hits the Big Six-Oh"
  (October 1, 2011)

Here's what I wrote:

The Big Six-Oh and a Birthday Watermelon

My family did a good job of seeming to have forgotten my birthday. I nearly lost track of the date, myself. Which would have been awkward, since I had a driver's license renewal coming due this year: and that's another topic. I passed the vision test, by the way, and the photo looks like me: which can't be helped, and that's yet another topic.

My wife and #3 daughter came in at noon, with balloons and presents in tow. That's the nicest surprise I've had in - can't remember. A long time. We've now got the complete Danger Mouse series to watch, thanks to my son's efforts. It's not Shakespeare or Lucas: but I think we'll like it. Danger Mouse, that is.

#3 daughter explained that they couldn't find any balloons with "60" on them, but I think the slogans they found were at least as appropriate. Those balloons have 'attitude,' of which this family has at least its share.

"It's not the age ... it's the attitude."

"Age is just a number. (A high one in your case - but just a number.)"

That evening they brought out the birthday watermelon. I'd wonder if they'd find a cake analog: being diabetic isn't as big a problem as it could be, but there are foods I definitely shouldn't eat. Not in any significant quantity, anyway.

Birthday Candles: on my birthday - - - watermelon.

Those curly candles? Nobody said "screwball," but I suspect that may have been an inspiration for the shape.

As my father used to say: "And a good time was had by all."

Time, Schedules, and Getting a Grip

Earlier this month, I finally changed my blogging schedule. Partly to free up time for projects that have been on the back burner for years. Make that decades, in some cases; partly because even in my 20s, there was only so much I could pack into each 24 hours. And I've been 20 three times now. More about that in yet another blog:

• "A Change in Schedule"
  (October 2, 2011)

Once a Dad, Always a Dad

#1 daughter was here over the weekend, with her cat. Twitches, the cat, was almost frantically fascinated by my wife putting plastic sheeting up on the window by my desk. She was outside, the cat was inside, trying to track every movement.

I got a call that evening, while my wife and #3 daughter were at Soo Bahk Do. It was #1 daughter. She'd gotten back to Alexandria just fine, been sitting down, stood up, passed out, and had taken book shelving with her on the way down.

Later, after talking with my wife, she called the emergency ward of Douglas County Hospital. They said she should come in to get checked out. We weren't going to have her driving under existing circumstances, so I drove the van up to Alex and took her in.

We arrived at the emergency ward at about 10:00 p.m., and we had a nice long chat about "random" topics, as she put it. An old-fashioned exam, and up-to-date lab work, showed the probable cause of her passing out: which had an easy fix.

I took #1 daughter back to her place, drove back to Sauk Centre, and got to bed well before dawn.

For some reason, though, I'm feeling a little tired today.

Visiting Old Neighborhoods

My wife, son, and #3 daughter, are at my father-in-law's place over on Main. I'm 'holding down the fort,' here on Ash: as usual on Wednesday mornings. So far, that's pretty much routine at the Gill household.

What's not so routine is that I'm borrowing my wife's laptop, doing a little online nosing around while letting cable programs wash over me. At the moment, that's a Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen nightmares rerun. The show's an occasionally-fascinating look at how smallish medium-to-high-end restaurants work. Also a reminder that I haven't plumbed the depths, when it comes to workplace conditions.

I decided to take a trip to the west coast: San Francisco downtown, to check out the places I lived there. I've just been on the 700 block of Bush Street, just off Powell, where I had a good-enough-for-a-bachelor set of rooms at the back of a building, a few floors above a French restaurant.

The restaurant is still there, although the swank place across the street is now another sort of business. Change is no surprise: I left that part of the world in the '70s.

The "Y" is still there, over the top of the hill north on Market, wrapped around the corner of Market and Sacramento. I had a room there, one floor over the lobby, overlooking an airwell/entry-level court. It's still called the YWCA. That neighborhood hasn't changed quite as much, although there's an acupuncture health center on one corner, and the British (style) pub is gone.

There's also a sign telling about a summer children's program in front of the Y, in English and Chinese. No surprises there. Although the 'tourist' Chinatown district is a couple blocks east, that part of San Francisco was part of the 'real' Chinatown when I lived there. My quarters weren't as nice as the Bush Street address, but I liked the neighborhood. I also noticed that folks there weren't as diffident as Euro-Americans tend to be, about using color on buildings. Especially red. And yellow.

I 'really ought to' get back to work now.

Sunday in Steubenville, Ohio

Yesterday, about 6:00 p.m., we stopped at a toll booth in Pennsylvania, a bit short of Pittsburgh. At that point, the alternator failed. Quickly and thoroughly.

We spent most of Saturday evening on an Interstate shoulder, got towed to a Pep Boys parking lot in Monroeville, and settled in for the night.

By about noon today the alternator was fixed, the RV's battery charged, and my son-in-law had found Denny's Tire Service, a business east, more or less, from Monroeville, Denny was the fellow who could swap out the RV's front tires. It cost quite a lot - and that's another topic.

I got to see some of the scenery we'd passed twice, going back past Monroeville, through Pittsburgh, and then down to Steubenville, Ohio. I think I got some photos - but I'm going to wait until I'm back home in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, before I take a close look at them.

It's after sunset now, I've washed some of the dishes in the RV, and have two of the more recalcitrant pans soaking. My son-in-law and #2 daughter are enjoying a movie here in Steubenville - and I'm getting caught up on posts.

More about the trade show and me:

• "Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind

Related posts:

• "Bad News: Or, Rather, Good News"
  (August 6, 2011)