“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” (Satchel Paige)
Happy birthday to me! Do you like having birthdays? I do. I may not like counting them up, but I do like having them. I didn’t have either of these desserts today, but as pretty as the top one is, I’d take the homemade chocolate pie any day. Can’t put candles on it, but the smoke detector would go off anyway if you tried to put a candle for my every year on a cake or pie. What about you? What is your favorite birthday dessert? Do you have to blow out candles? I guess I should have said do you I get to blow out candles. Kids think it’s fun anyway. You can check out Jim’s birthday story from last Sunday to prove that’s true.
Most of the birthday stories I’ve been getting tell about a party or a day that’s special. But Kathy sent in one that made me smile and remember. Here’s what she told me. “Definitely a memorable, not favorite, was the one when my
husband gave me an ironing board as a gift. ‘But you needed one’ was
his sad lament. ‘But I didn’t want one’ was my equally sad
response.”
I wrote back to Kathy and told her I totally understood. My husband gave me a floor polisher once. Not a cheap present but one I definitely “didn’t want” just like Kathy. Sometimes husbands are clueless even when they’re trying hard. Or maybe they aren’t trying too hard! LOL. My husband has brought in some winners in the present line, but he’s also come home with some questionable gifts. Like the aluminum can masher. Useful, but a birthday gift? Or the apparatus that was supposed to pick up litter. Puzzled look on that one. Or the set of dishes from the auction. Only a couple of the saucers had chips!
But then he also brought me in a Cockerspaniel puppy once. That made up for a lot of those more questionable gifts. Then he got a salvaged desk from an old office somewhere and had it beautifully refinished for me. I’ve written a lot of books using that desk. And he really did think I’d like that floor polisher. His mother told him it was a great gift. What difference did it make that, at that time, we lived in an old farmhouse where the pattern on the linoleum rug in the kitchen was worn down to the black backing in spots? It could also be very clean and polished. I used the thing – then. I still have it, but only as a souvenir these days. Oh yeah, and he insisted on buying me another floor cleaner last Christmas. Some guys never learn!
“I
don’t let old age bother me. There are
three signs of old age: Loss of memory …. I forget the other two.” – Red
Skelton