THE BIRTHDAYS

I LOVE our birthdays’ party!! No, that’s not a grammar mistake – it’s plural birthdays. There’s me (yesterday!) and my son, Bow, on the 20th, and Susie (the Cuban one) on the 15th. Then this time we had Kelly too – hers is the 17th of July – which, this year, was also the actual day of the annual joint celebration. It happened at my daughter’s place on Saturday.

It starts in the afternoon, all the children are running around, in and out of the pool (my grandchildren included, of course!), and it is just so NICE! My youngest, Jo(father of 3 sons) had promised to sing American Woman for me – it is one of my favourites – and he & the boys got out the guitars after the BBQ and did the honours. We bugged them to keep playing, so they did, skipping from tune to tune, with all of us harmonizing. Well, we thought we were anyway; there were quite a few beers and a bottle or two of wine and/or rum under our belts by then. Maybe the neighbours would have a different term for ‘harmonizing’, LOL!

Sitting around in the back yard, surrounded by family & friends, teasing and giggling, lulled with the music, a fire pit burning, kiddies laughing and playing until tired enough to be tucked into bed…. Tell me – does it get any better? I don’t think it does.

My hitting the big 6-0 was fodder for my boys. Little Bali, my 3 year old energizer, came to cuddle M’Mère, still dripping from the pool. When he jumped down, my sons used my now very wet jeans as an excuse to launch the ‘Depends’ jokes. For those of you who don’t know, Depends is a brand of adult diaper. Then Bow made me his star in his speaking-to-a-forgetful-granny-with-a-bad-hearing-aid pantomime…it was all hilarious!

It ended about 2:30 AM. When I got back home, the doggies and I sat out on the gallery, enjoying the night sky, watching its many stars playing hide-and-seek behind flimsy wisps of whitish clouds. I finished the bottle of wine (now, now – there was only a glass or two left!) while, as is my habit, I reflected on the day’s activity. All those warm, smiley feelings were still with me when I went to bed, and I slept like a log!

A phone call woke me at 10 AM – more birthday wishes. It was the first of many throughout the day, one of which was from my daughter, Shan, who spoke to me from her car while driving to the airport. She had just enough time to clean up her yard before leaving on a week vacation to Dominican Republic.

I managed to get a little housework done, a trip to town for dog food, a short walk with the doggies…and the calls kept coming. (A note to Karen here – I saw your number on the list when I scrolled through them late last night. It must have come in while I was walking the mutts…sorry! Taking a rain check on that!!). There were e-mails (including a beautiful e-card from my friend, Kilroy) expressing the same; and numerous Facebook friends who took the time to paste ‘Happy B-day’s’ on my cyber wall. Wonderful!!

This morning I’m going with Bird to the Cancer Clinic to get the results of his scans. The doctors have already told him that his lymph nodes are showing tumours; today we expect they will outline the procedures needed.

Line is holding the fort at the office. With most of Quebec on vacation, it is the right time to complete files, then set up a plan to get the Company back on its feet. We’re in for a rough ride, I imagine, but none of us are afraid of a challenge. It gets the adrenaline going, and yep – that’s still there even when 60 years of age! It may flow slightly slower between the head and the heart, but flow it does!!

Have a great day, y’all! It’s raining here, but we need that too, so there’s another reason to SMILE! Share it!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec