I’m not a birthday person. It’s just another day for the most part. Of course, about this time in 2003, I had a guest show up for my birthday: Wegener’s granulomatosis (now called GPA). I thought I had a cold, but by December, the disease was full blown, and I was barely alive, riding to the hospital in an ambulance. After that experience, every day is special: I survived death!

This is what confronts me all day today: Google’s birthday greeting!

It snowed overnight. I think the worst birthday weather was the year my childhood pet, Peanuts the dog, managed to yank out the ground anchor to which his chain was attached. In a blizzard on my birthday, my dog went missing! And he was dragging a 15-20 foot chain behind him!

Happily, he was found by the animal control officer the next day, cold but OK, in the high school practice field only a few blocks from home. He still had his collar and tags on, and he was dragging the chain behind him.

As usual, when the animal control officer opened his truck door, Peanuts hopped right it. Peanuts had a history with the animal control officer. He knew the animal control officer as a buddy who took him for a ride in his truck, then dropped him off at home!

My Dad was Chief of Police then, but I think the rule of thumb was you didn’t have to pay a fine if you called the police to report a missing pet before the missing pet got picked up as a stray. Peanuts was a bit of an embarrassment to my Dad because of this “relationship” between the animal control officer and the Chief’s dog…! 😉

Yeah, snow on the ground. That’s a birthday tradition of mine, too…and a good excuse to stay inside and enjoy doing nothing!

My intention is to have a quiet day at home. Though I managed to get through all the things I needed to complete yesterday, the day ended with a great four-hour telephone call with a favorite cousin! We’d still be talking but my cell phone battery ran out of juice. Best of all, we made plans to get together to go out for supper one of these days when she comes to town!

Andy (above) and Dougy lurked in my bedroom last night, and decided 1:30 AM was a good time to wake me up on my birthday! (Notice Andy’s horn is showing. I guarantee there was another one on the other side, too!)

Now that I’m wide awake, as of 1:30 AM because of the cats, where are the cats and what are they doing? Well, they are both curled up, warm and comfy, asleep! Did you expect anything different? 🙂