Labor Day 2014 - My Birthday

My alarm, as it does every day, goes off at 5:00. Unusually, I stay in bed a few minutes more. I head to the kitchen, make coffee, put ice in my water cup, meditate for 20 minutes. While meditating my mind wanders. My best meditative moments are after the stop watch goes off and there is no pressure not to think. It is hard to intentionally not do something, easier to just not do. I then head to the computer to try out a notebook entry for class – my run yesterday. I take a sidestep to look for some data from Garmin Connect, which has been tracking all my latest runs. I finished a half marathon a few weeks before and am trying to get into better shape. In February my doctor had given me an unfavorable report so I am motivated. I am distracted because my new GPS watch isn’t working so I head to the Garmin site to see what the problem is. So I waste a lot of time looking for why the timer on my watch can’t be reset and the same for customized laps I accidentally hit one day. Then I get distracted by the REI Labor Day ad that is on my email, which I happened to check – I’ve gotten several happy birthdays from FB and Linked in – and so I went down that rabbit trail awhile.  

Back to trying to write my narrative. My back starts hurting. Lower. Right side. Chronic for the last at least 3-4 years. I have a bag of beans I warmed up in the microwave that helped for awhile but now I’m off to our study. Our house is small, so I try to stretch each morning and do some sit-ups and a plank and have to do them in our little study. I knock off (actually, very slowly) 100 sit ups. It is still early in the morning and the breath I expel with each sit-up seems loud enough to wake both my wife and dog, but I hear nothing from the bedroom. They are out. I’d worked up to 100 over the last couple of weeks. And then my plank. I have to estimate my time because I took my watch off b/c the timer wasn’t working! 

Back to writing the narrative. Then I notice the beautiful day. It’s already past nine at this point and I don’t want to miss the morning, so I head out to the back porch. Even our dog Tinkerbell is up out of bed at this point so I know I’d better head out. I take my copy of the Glass Castle b/c I know I have to spend a good chunk of the day reading it. My week ahead is going to be busy.

My backyard. Nice sized for a puppy and for the two of us. Today the sun shines clear as a bell and there is a just a touch of chill which will dissipate as the sun rises higher. Labor Day. My fondest memories are of our family in Angel Fire NM, my folks’ condo. I took that place and my parents and what they did for us for granted. Anyway, those days, with my daughter Piper winning a pole climbing contest or my mom taking a walk to see the wild flowers or driving over to Red River to see the tourists, or, especially, watching the US open on TV, with family on the front porch smelling the pine trees, or reading the Louis L’Amour books my mom loved and imagining the Sackett family exploring the West. Relaxing. They were very special times for all of us. And my birthday was always right in there. Today I think of and miss my mom and dad. These times live forever in our memories.

I never get back to writing the narrative. I run down to REI to buy the Bluetooth running earmuffs for winter exercise because they are on sale – last day today - and along the way my neighbor Louie texts me to see if I’m available to work on a broken 4X4 on our fence. Since he’s graciously providing the muscle AND the expertise for something broken on my side of the fence I don’t feel like I can really say no, plus I like hanging out with him. It’s pretty wonderful when a neighbor develops into also being a friend. While I was at REI my wife had washed off the back porch. That’s my cue to mow the lawn and to trim it as soon as Louie and I could finish digging around the rotten 4X4 to uncover the concrete below, THEN I have to wash off part of the porch again. I head to the shower, and get ready just in time for the kids to arrive.

It’s my birthday, so my wife has made a dinner that I chose. Chocolate cake with vanilla icing, salmon, salad, grilled vegetables. While we wait for things to cook on the grill we sit outside. We sit and talk on our back porch, the late afternoon lazy, trees surrounding our yard, dogs playing. 

We eat inside watching, and attempted to play, Jeopardy. My wife and I record and watch it every night while eating, even if we start late. It’s a habit that pulls us together for awhile every night before we go on to other things. After the kids leave, the kitchen cleared, Lana and I sit down. I have forgotten all about writing my narrative at this point, the Glass Castle put off to another day. I am content. A day with my family and myself. A beautiful, September day. I am 62 and am happy about it.