43

My birthday! I got to sleep in a bit. 7:30! What! It was even planned that way because we had a big day ahead.

43. Prime number. It’s always easy to remember how old I am since I’m an “eighty baby”, as in, born in 1980. Nice even number. It’s not hard to figure out that 2023 is 43 years after 1980. I don’t know how those 1979 people do it.

A friend picked me up for a mountain bike ride. We parked at Shevlin Park and then did this chunk of Mrazek.

We saw maybe five other people, which was a nice mix of not too crowded and not too desolate. There was a little bit of one-way that kinda switchbacks downhill through this gulley that was fun as heck.

When we got back, I saw some other friends car in the driveway. Little did I know Miranda had planned to have friends over when I got back for a little birthday breakfast. Breakfast burritos from Don Gambinos. They are one of the best, naturally. Fresh fruit, mimosas, and triple chocolate cheesecake my dad had sent for the occasion. Very lovely.

Afterward we took all the kids to Sun Mountain Fun Center. We bowled first. I obviously crushed everyone with my wicked curve ball. Kids barely have the patience to bowl one game, so that was that. Sun Mountain is a fun place but it’s not exactly a well oiled machine. Prepare to miss several frames if you’re the one who has to stand in the beer line. We played some ticket-based games. Miranda got a little too into the push-the-coins-off-the-shelf game, which I get. That damn game gets me too.

Crossy road was a hit. Three of us adults did the VR game where we fought dragon-boss. It was hyphenated just like that, for the record. It was called Simurai.

Then we mini golfed. We’re at that age where it’s probably about time to actually force a little teaching about how to hold the club and count strokes and stuff, but that didn’t go perfectly well. Was just easier to let them drag the ball around and eventually get it in — whatever — they were having fun. Mini golf is probably the best thing at Sun Mountain. They really take care of the course and it has all these lovely gardens and streams and water features.

When we came home, I opened my present. Some lovely sweets like toffee and salted caramels and a book about day hikes in Central Oregon that looked great and I’d never seen before.

We got a sitter that evening so Miranda and I could go see The SteelDrivers at General Duffy’s in Redmond. I absolutely love The SteelDrivers first two records (“The SteelDrivers” and “Wreckless”) and didn’t really follow them much after Chris Stapleton left the band. He’s great and all, but I still don’t like anything Chris Stapleton has done since then nearly as much as those SteelDrivers records. I had no idea what to expect at that show, but I’d say 80% of the songs or so were from those first two records. That was fine with me!