My 50th Birthday

We started out the day with good intention: celebrate my birthday by going to the Sam Waller Museum, hike to the caves, do a walking tour, go out for supper and end it off with Dairy Queen. However, things didn't turn out quite like we anticipated. After breakfast, Nat decided that she needed to vacuum out the car so we could drive around in a spiffed-up automobile. It didn't matter to me, as I've been driving around in her Versa for three weeks. What's a bit of sand in a car, anyway? Didn't bother me. "Would you watch Aiden while I vacuum out the car," she asked. "Sure," I replied. She went down in the newly renovated basement to fetch the vacuum cleaner. Doug and I were in the living room with Aiden. All of a sudden, we heard a loud crash and tumble. "That doesn't sound good," I said to Doug. I thought Nat must have dropped the vacuum cleaner down the stairs. We went to check it out and there Nat was, at the bottom of the basement stairs, sitting disoriented – glasses off, vacuum cleaner beside her. She dropped herself down the stairs instead, having made it to the top step. She said it was like slow-mo. Said the reason she fell was because she looked back to admire the handiwork of the newly renovated basement. "Pride comes before a fall," she retorted later. We helped her to the bed, and I doctored a few wounds with Polysporin. One on her back is especially large and looks very sore. She banged her head and applied an ice pack. I googled "concussion" to make sure I didn't need to take her to the hospital. She thinks she hit her head on the stairs and definitely hit her back on a large stack of sheetrock, as the gypsum powder was all over her back. Some Advil and Tylenol, and she rested for the morning on my bed. Doug vacuumed her car for two hours. I took Aiden for a walk, fed him lunch, and put him to bed. Then fed Doug and Natalie lunch.

After we lazed around for another while, Nat and I took off in the newly cleaned car. Our destination: the grocery store, of course! But on the way, we discovered a street party, complete with country band in a parking lot. We noticed this older woman with an flowered orange dress dancing up a storm, flailing her arms around in a random manner. It was hilarious, and we had to take a trip there again after one of our stops, just to watch her dress. I said she must be the northern dancing queen.

After the grocery store, we went home and tried to watch a movie, but time ran out due to phone calls from well wishers (thank you very much). RCMP man came home from work and we piled into the car, with me driving for some reason. But I thought RCMP man was driving, so no one had keys. Mr. Policeman had to break in his own house, and I have a neat picture of just his feet sticking out as he put his 6 ft 5 in frame through the open window. It only took him about 4 minutes to break in. We didn't arrest him, however, but headed on to the Good Thymes restaurant for my birthday meal and cheesecake. No Dairy Queen because we were too full, but that's OK, because earlier in the week, we deemed it "Dairy Queen" week and went there as much as we wanted to for caramel sundaes. After all, you're only 50 once, and we only went there three times this week.

Tonight I put Aiden in bed and sang to him, and prayed and cried, as I cherished the moment, asking God to protect my sweet grandson. I prayed that he doesn't forget us. Oh, parting is such sweet sorrow (which play is that from, Becky?).

Nat is feeling better and I just applied more polysporin to her back wound. Her neck is stiff. She no doubt got whiplash from the steps. And she no doubt will be very sore tomorrow. She said she was sorry for ruining my birthday, but it didn't ruin it – it made it quite interesting, as a matter of fact. I'm just glad that she's OK. I took pictures of her wounds tonight, but I won't post them – they're just for posterity's sake, and for a good laugh later on, once the pain is gone. (smile). We're due to head out tomorrow, but it depends on how she's feeling and whether she can take care of Aiden or not. Time will tell.

And that's the kind of day it's been – my 50^th birthday. All is well.

We're heading further west for a time and if I can post on the road again, I will. Thanks for following my northern adventures. And thanks to all the people here in The Pas who we met and who have been so supportive of us and Nat, Josh & Aiden. You guys are great! May God bless you all and we hope to see you again soon.