Sunday, January 15, 2017

Birthday boy

We spent the last two days at Gulf Shores on the Alabama Coast. As Jilda and I stopped at a red light, a blinking bank sign that reports the time and temperature. I glanced over and it as 3:25 and the temp blinked 81 degrees. It was Friday the 13 of January. 

Last year when we were here, it was much colder. When we walked on the beach I had to wear my L.L. Bean windbreaker. This year, I probably could have gone swimming at sunset. It was a low-key trip. We drove around and looked at beach properties. "This one has a good view, but I don't like the floorplan," said Jilda. "But this one has a great layout and faces the Gulf, and out the back, there's a view of the bay."  "O.K., it's settled. When we hit the lottery, we'll buy this one" I said. It's a game we play each year.

Other than house hunting, we didn't have a lot on the agenda. We walked on the beach and got in our steps while listening to the pounding surf and squawking pelicans. Walking on sand is a good workout plus, as Jilda says, "The beach is a natural luffa." We practiced for a few hours on our upcoming performance working out some of the rough spots. We both are reading good books by Verlyn Klinkenborg. I'm reading A Rural Life and she's reading his book entitled, A Few Lines About Writing. Both came highly recommended and after reading about half of mine, I knew buying them was a good choice.

Klinkenbork wrote opinion essays for The New York Times about life in the country. His prose is simply beautiful. I'm thankful our friend Christine Olhman recommended him.
Of course, we ate seafood for dinner last night with key lime pie for dessert. The birthday boy was happy. 

Jilda caught some kind of crud late last week and it hit her hard yesterday so we decided to head out early this morning so that she could contact her doctor if needed. 

As the coffee brewed this morning, I stepped out onto the balcony. Off to the east, the sun was peeking out of the Gulf. I felt honored that it was there to greet me on my 66th birthday. 

16 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Rick. Too bad you had to cut your little vacation short two years in a row. At least you didn't broke Jilda's keys this time. I hope she 's feeling better by now.
    Hugs, Julia

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  2. Happy Birthday Rick, you look great for your age... I do hope Jilda is feeling better now xox

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  3. Happy birthday! 66 is the new 26, right? Great way to spend it...warmth, sand and yummy food. The pic is so beautiful. It would be hard to leave! My oldest son loves Gulf Sores. His fiancé has family in Alabama and they've gone there a couple of times. He says he wants to retire there. That won't be for a while yet but it's fun to dream and plan. Sure hope Jilda is feeling better. Again, Happy Bday!!

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  4. Happy Birthday!

    Mrs. C and I also enjoy spending our anticipated lottery winnings.

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  5. Happy Birthday!!!

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  6. I hope you and yours had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and are having a very HAPPY NEW YEAR. May we display your linked header on our new site directory, SiteHoundSniffs.com? As it is now, the site title (linked back to its home page) is listed, and we think displaying the linked header will attract more attention.

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  7. A very happy birthday to you. Love that sunrise, and hope Jilda is much, much better.

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  8. Glad you had beautiful weather! The picture looks refreshing.
    Lisa

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  9. A very Happy Birthday to you ! What a great way to start your day. Glad you got to go and enjoy the beach, but sorry Jilda is not feeling well. Hope it's only one of those 24 hour things !

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  10. Lisa above is partial to the beach stuff. I too love the Gulf coast. We lived in Biloxi for a few years but driving East the Gulf Coast line get more beautiful by the mile.
    HAPPY 66TH my friend. I am closer to the number turned upside down tomorrow. We had lucky parents in January!! (Didn't we???)

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  11. Happy Birthday Rick!

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  12. Happy Birthday, Rick!

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  13. Many happy returns on your special day.

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  14. Anonymous5:59 PM

    ♪♫♪♪ Happy birthday to you!!

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  15. First Happy Birthday, next I always think it would be nice to live in a beach house, but I do have a problem with sand, as in I can't stand it

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  16. I love that you spend your birthday at the beach every year. Someday that will be my tradition too.

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