Tag: birthday

Best Gift Ever

Daily writing prompt
Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.
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Share one of the best gifts I’ve ever received? No. I’ll share two of them. Today’s daily writing prompt is a two-for-one special babie, yeah!

When I was a little kid one of my friends had a toy Tonka ambulance. It was awesome. It was the best ambulance on Earth. It was the best Tonka truck ever. Damn if I wasn’t one jealous miniature red head. I did what most American kids do when they want something awesome. I asked Santa Claus to bring it to me for Christmas. Santa failed me. I asked again the next year. Santa failed me again. Santa never came through at all.

Fast forward to December 2007. I’d been dating this amazing woman for about eight months. She was amazing. I was nuts about her. I think she may have liked me a little in return. I say that because she went to Ebay, found the legendary Tonka ambulance and bought it for me as a Christmas present. Holy shit, what an amazing gift! I could not, and literally still cannot believe it. I told you she was amazing. I should note that I am still absolutely crazy in love with her. We have been married since 2009. She’s the one.

The second part of this two-for-one extravaganza comes from 2021. It was my 50th birthday. Things were very tough for me that year. My father was in the hospital and my mother was dealing with an advancing case of dementia. My brother and sister and I were taking turns staying with my mother while my father was recovering. I woke up at my parent’s house on my birthday and didn’t get home until the afternoon. When I did, my wife and my step son threw me a little birthday party. I was so happy. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy they made me that day, and that was before I opened any birthday presents.

There was one gift that they were both practically giddy over. I opened it and saw this:

They bought me a guitar. Holy shit snacks, My wife got me a guitar for my birthday. What a legendary surprise! Before I even opened the case it was already tied for first for the best gift ever. Then I opened the case and found a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s. Absolutely epic!

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There you have it. Two absolutely Earth rocking gifts. By far the two best gifts I’ve ever received. No question. I told you my wife was amazing. I told you!

Hey Gemini, generate an image of a jedi knight sitting under a christmas tree opening an amazing christmas gift.

Flickr Turning 20?

Flickr, the photography site that I have been an avid user of since 2009, even though it’s been sort of overlooked and forgotten by most of the social media and photography universe, is going to celebrate it’s 20th birthday next month. The big day is a few days after my wife’s birthday, and a week-ish after my step son’s birthday, which is also my nephew’s birthday.

https://www.threads.net/@flickr/post/C2f3EUUyu8R

I guess Threads embeds still don’t work with wordpress.com. Hmmm…

This might work better… friggin’ zuckerberg…

Anyway, they have a bunch of things planned including some photowalks. I don’t see anything scheduled for Boston and even if they do schedule something it’s 99.9999% guaranteed that I would not join in, even from a social distance. Still… it would be nice, right? Granted, not nice enough for me to try to get something started. No way in hell would Mr Introvert do something crazy like that. No thank you.

Anyway, Flickr’s birthday is February 10th. Take some pictures to celebrate.

Happy Birthday to John Mayall

Today is John Mayall’s 90th birthday. As a guitar player, I owe this guy so much. First he hired Eric Clapton, then he hired Peter Green, then he hired Mick Taylor. I mean… he is the king of all band leaders.

90 years young, and many happy returns.

May Music

I’m super tired tonight but I hit all of my food and exercise goals without any stomach issues and I managed to find a little time to start working on a song idea. The May music goal is 10 songs. Think of it as a music project to honor my birthday, my surgery anniversary, my and Jen’s wedding anniversary, our first Mother’s Day without my mother, and Bellana’s graduation.

There’s a lot to celebrate this month. There is a ton to be thankful for. There’s one thing to be sad about, but I can also be thankful for that day too if I look at it as celebrating my step kids’ mother instead of focusing the loss of my mother.

It’s all worth some new music. I just wish I had talent so I could come up with something worthy of it all.

ADDENDUM: I knew I was forgetting an event. May is also my step daughter, Bellana’s birthday month! Add her turning 22 to the list of things to celebrate this month.

Birthday

Today is my beloved wife’s birthday! Happy birthday, love!

The last two weeks or so have been an avalanche of awful. I would not have made it through without her. I cannot thank you enough, my love.

Everyone wish my wife Jen the happiest of happy birthdays!

Flake Day

Today is the last day of my four day weekend. I’m thinking of making it a mostly flake kinda day. I have an errand or two to run, and I want to visit mom. It’s her 82nd birthday today. Join me in wishing my mother a happy birthday.

I’m going to bring my camera with me when I go out, but I am not going to go out of my way any where. If I am out of the house and in the neighborhood I might pull over and snap a pic or two, but no exploring for a while. It’s time to start focusing all of our financial efforts on the Disney trip in January. No more wasting gas for a while.

Other than that, it’s music again. Guitars, guitars, guitars, and writing crappy riff songs. That’s my thing for a while. When I start burning out, then I might go camera nuts again. Until that day, it’s shitty rock and roll time again.

My exercise is done for the day and my calorie goal is about 70% complete. It’s time to start exercising like a madman again. I had three days where I took it easy. Now we’re back on the wagon. Let’s go!

Also, with October starting this coming weekend, it’s just about hockey season. I am going to make an attempt to be a UMass Lowell hockey fan again, for the first time since 2003. I’m going to try and catch games on the radio when I can. I don’t think they are on my old station anymore (good, the athletics department is unworthy), but I think they are on Lowell’s AM commercial station, WCAP. The Lock Monsters and the Devils games used to be broadcast on that station. I wonder if it’s the same team? We’ll see.

Here’s the schedule. Unfortunately both games against Vermont are in Lowell, so no hockey road trip to see the kids this year. Bummer, though a part of me is thinking about going to one of the games and sitting in our old Lock Monsters/Devils seats. Section G, Row 19, seats 3-6. Maybe we’ll see if Boston University is playing at Vermont and use them as an excuse. Or maybe Merrimack College? Hell, I drive through their campus when I visit mom. That could be a good enough reason.