Happy Birthday, Tom

My husband is 71 today.

We both find that quite startling.  Just before we said good night last night and rolled over to go to sleep, I asked him if he ever thought about how in the world we had become so old!  "Yes," he answered.  And that's about as introspective as he gets.  It was enough.

We have been married since March 1969, over 43 years.  He is the best choice I have ever made, the most important time I ever answered "yes".  We have been partners in life, lovers, and best friends.  When people say "Happy Birthday, and many more", I certainly hope so.  I would be lost without Tom.

So how are we celebrating his birthday?  We're not, really.  He's really not into celebrating himself.  I did have a card for him this morning.  We took our time over breakfast, reading the paper and listening to the radio.  It was all about last night's debate.  Neither of us was too pleased and certainly didn't want to hear any Republican gloating.  We sort of felt like we do when our soccer team loses.  My analogy was that like in soccer, we lost the first round of the playoffs, but our team had a better record, and we have a better team.

But back to the birthday boy.  When the mall opened at 10:00 we were there at Sears to buy a new vacuum cleaner.  It's not really Tom's gift, but we needed a new one.  

The black one replaces the white one.  The power head went out on the old one.

Yesterday he steam cleaned all of the carpets upstairs.  This is the last of the big renovation and cleaning projects.  Now we're done, and just have to maintain it all.  You should be relieved to know that I did the vacuuming this morning with the new vacuum cleaner, not Tom, although he usually does most of the vacuuming.  I do have standards!  I told him he didn't have to work on his birthday.

Of course, Tom said he wasn't going to just sit around.  Instead he worked for several hours this morning while I went for my exercise walk.

We had some old carpeting that we removed from the living room that was still in good shape.  Jill wanted some cut into carpet squares that she could use at school for kids to sit on.  I think there will be more than enough!  And one more job done!

For the first time in quite a while we both have several hours this afternoon that we can just do as we please.  Tom just ordered a new e-book from Amazon.  He will be reading and napping.  I plan to finish this post, go outside and clean bird baths, and do some reading too.

I'll cook a light dinner since we are both trying to limit calories this week.  Tom doesn't even want a cupcake with a candle.

But we will have a family celebration on Saturday.  Jill and Corey and the kids, Jake and hopefully Tad, and Tom's twin, Jan, and Ann will be here.  The sun is still shining, and it should be about 70.  We're cooking ribs.  And there will be cake!