2007-07-16

My 64th birthday dawned sunny and lovely. After Morning Offering I enjoyed a leisurely morning, having agreed to offer myself the gift of a day off. Mick set out to mow. He had arranged his work so that he finished today’s lot by about 1:30.

Gary gave me a White Castle lunch for my birthday treat and I greatly enjoyed that! Belly burners are my favorite fast food.

One chorus of Greg Allman’s “I’m No Angel”!

He has also promised to detail Stanley Subaru, my faithful Outback – a delightful present, as Stanley is a hard-working vehicle often used by both Gary and Jim as well as myself for heavy chores. We all keep Stanley neat, but it is time he had a good, thorough cleaning. And Gary is a master detailer! After he did Jim’s truck last year, for Jim’s birthday, one of his older customers asked Mick if he had gotten a new truck! It is actually a 1990 model!

Jim took me consignment shopping in the afternoon. It is the only way I buy clothes, unless someone drags me to a mall and buys something for me. I had a great run of good luck and found some good garments to buy with Mom McCarty’s generous cash gift, plus some of Jim’s hard-earned cash. I shall be fit to fly in my new black jersey dress and ready to dine in sartorial dressiness at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, which requires dresses or suits for dinner.

I had such a good time! I even bought a beautiful hat on spec, as it fit me. Usually all hats are too large for my pea-sized head but this beauty was perfect and 80% off as well. Yum! Now I can begin looking for a navy suit to wear with it, and plan on that for next Easter’s outfit.

While Jim dozed after our outing, I spent some time with Gary firming up details of the Mackinac travel plans. We shall need to vacate the island on Sunday after our channeling session, which ends the gathering, and to spend our last night in Michigan at a small town on the mainland, as the ferries do not begin working early enough to get us to our very early flight home that Monday morning.

I understand there are only three reserved Grand Hotel rooms left now in the gathering’s block, with a fully booked hotel otherwise, so if you’re interested in taking in the weekend gathering there, be sure and let Bob Riedel (riedel.robert@yahoo.com) know post haste so he can reserve your space. It should be a good gathering for getting into the “shift”.

Gary and I also tinkered with the plans for our Labor Day weekend Homecoming, as I wished to include ample time at the end of the gathering for a round-robin on “Who Am I”, the topic of the weekend gathering here. We switched things around and found a sweet spot for that discussion.

Mick awoke and ran our bath, after which we had an amazing energy exchange – talk about a birthday present. Himself still rings my chimes with power and grace – WHEE! Thank you, Lord!

Mick also sent me some lovely red roses with a note - “Paul lost; you won – Happy Birthday” I could not figure out the cryptic message and had to ask. It turned out that he was referring to Sir Paul McCartney’ song, “When I’m 64”, which asks the musical question, “Will you still need me; will you still feed me when I’m 64?” Poor Sir Paul was divorced by his second wife earlier this year – he is my age exactly – while I am needed and fed by the best husband in the universe. So Paul has indeed lost and I have won. Very cute card, Mick!

It was a superb birthday! And tomorrow, Mick tops it all off by taking me out for a sumptuous feast at the top of the Galt House downtown, where we can view the river and the town as the whole restaurant rotates slowly, making about one revolution of the surrounding scenery an hour. The restaurant is closed on Mondays, so we had to delay the celebratory dinner for a day.

Our special day finished with a block of Star Trek Enterprise, which we both love, a small dinner and the Gaia meditation, with Mick offering the ending prayer. We came to bed about 11 PM.