Rant #3,685: Good Day Sunshine

I had a very quiet birthday yesterday.

I did some work, I went to the bank, I purchased a new watch online--my watch totally gave out a day earlier after only about 18 months of use--and I bought a bottle of milk locally.

I also sold one of the air conditioners that we purchased last year when we were in the other apartment; we don't need it, or the other one we purchased anymore, because our new apartment has air conditioners in each room.

I put the money I was given for this unit right into the bank.

The teller in the bank knew it was my birthday; I guess it came on her screen when she went into my account.

She said to me, "Happy birthday ... and you are spending part of it in a bank? You have to have something better to do."

I told her that i didn't ... and I also told her that I would rather be in a bank than where I was 18 years ago on this day--

When I celebrated my birthday by having my gall bladder removed.

We both laughed, but I certainly meant what I said.

No one wants to be in the hospital any day, but in particular, on your birthday.

I did it when I turned 50 yet.

I guess it was an early precursor of what I would be going through less than two decades later.

I just remember that they were go8ng to send me home due to a bad stomach sche, but that was no stomach ache that I had that day.

Finally, after a lot if haggling, they found that my gall bladder needed to be removed, and thst ended up being the best birthday present I could ever receive--

My good health.

I wish I had that now, but I don't. 

I will find out more about that in June, and I hope that I can be in good health again.

Anyway, this time around I received plenty of well wishes on Facebook.

At home, I got some nice gifts and nice cupcakes to help my family and I celebrate 

My sister wished me well, as did my daughter.

I also received a couple of cards in the mail from friends.

So all told, the day went well, and other than the work I had, it was a pretty stress-free day.

I even digitized some records--

Not actual records, per se, but soundsheets--remember them?

I hadn't listened to these flexible records that you would often find in magazines in some 40 years or so, and yes, most of them played without skips, so they held up as well as some of my actual records have fared over the decades.

So really, yesterday was all it could be, as I prepare for my every-Wednesday-for-six-weeks mini-conferences that I have to cover for work.

Based on whst happened during the all-day conference I covered last week, I think I am looking forward to these conferences as much as--

Getting my gall bladder out on my birthday all over again.