Celebrating Me

I woke somewhere between 615-630am. I stumbled to the bathroom, although felt pretty good. Mindy was busy fixing her hair while I was busy brushing my teeth. Honestly, the first part of my morning was blur. I know I exercised and then enjoyed coffee, but not sure what I did with the other hour prior to the bus stop. Kenny and I discussed our plans to golf while waiting with the kids. Figured we’d leave the house around 930am for Phoenix. I also let Kenny know that I planned to invite Tom C. He was OK with that. I called Tom just before I left on my run. Told him to meet us at 10am. I was back from my run right around 9am. I couldn’t afford to dilly-dally around. I was in and out of the shower in jiffy. It was still fairly cool, so I packed a long sleeved wicking shirt with my golf stuff just in case. Kenny drove. We left the house right at 930am. The Phoenix lot wasn’t too crowded – rarely is. Inside the pro-shop, however, the pro said we lucked out. His 945am tee-time had just canceled, otherwise, we would have had to wait a while. Cool! Honestly, though, with few exceptions, one can always come out to Phoenix without a tee-time and typically get right on. I picked up all three green fees. We were still waiting on Tom, however. He reminded me when I celled him that I said 10am. While that’s true, he never leaves himself any pad like me. If someone tells me we have a 10am tee time. I try to be there at least 20 minutes early. No biggie. Kenny hit a small bucket of balls prior to our round. Tom arrived around 10am. There was a mini- back-up on the tee box that dispersed fairly quickly. I hit my first drive OK but think I ended up with 7 or 8. In fact, I played the first few holes rather poorly. At the same time, Kenny had four straight pars. Tom was playing good too. Holes 5-9 I started coming around and at least somewhat salvaged the front ending with a three pars in a row after narrowly missing two birdie putts. My decent play continued on the back until the final two holes where I carded a 7 on the par 3 (Hit two into the water) and then doubled 18. Ended up with a 98. I was really disappointed with the 7 on the par three, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Get better! Our round took a long time. It was already close to 230pm. Took 4.5 hours on a course we can often finish in 3.5 hours. However, we did have to wait a couple minutes on several holes it seemed. I confirmed that Tom would meet us at Barley’s later to celebrate my b-day. Said he would and wondered if we’d agree to pick him up – drive him there. Sure. During the drive home we agreed to do as much as we could on the tree house in the next hour or two. So, soon after a snack and then letting Frankie out we met up out back and started work on the tree house. We cut and mounted most of the posts for the railing and then framed around the two big trees. Kenny had to bag it around 530pm to take daughter Lillian to soccer practice. Said they'd meet us at Barley's around 730-800pm. Mindy wanted to arrive at Barley's earlier rather than later. We left the house somewhere around 7pm. Mindy told most we'd be there around 730pm to celebrate my birthday. She invited most of our Barely peeps, some family members, and then a few of my friends I rarely if ever see these days. Immediately in the door Beth and Diedra greeted me with a hug and a giant b-day card. Inside was a gift certificate from our new Barley friend Jill. As soon as we found our barside table manager Craig stopped by with a double shot of Jack Daniels. Ugh! I didn't really plan on doing ANY shots. However, I accepted it graciously and quickly downed most of it but soon whispered, "no more shots", in Mindy's ear. I was hoping to see Jill Roberts, an old friend from my CompuServe/WorldCom days. As I understood it, she was hoping/planning to show up with her oldest daughter, Isabella. Haven't seen either of them in 5 years. She never did show. Brother and sister-in-law, Jodi and Larry showed up around 730pm. We hung with them for a while. Grandpa Tom & his partner Steve showed up to with me well and gave me a card. Steve later confessed he knew nothing of it. Steve Wonn showed up too. He gifted me some of my favorite beers, including a Pumking and a Weyerbacher DIPA. Through the night lots more of my favorite people stopped in to wish me well for my 51st. Amongst the well-wishers were Rick, Rene, Tom C., Kenny, Chrissy, Rachel, Josh, Joe & Jerry. Doomie arrived later than most, but never too late. We hung with them for the duration of the evening. In total, I must've drank 6 Centennials. Not sure the time when we left for home, but Mindy drove. I was quite buzzed. I took Frankie out back to pee soon after arriving home and then falling in the hallway. Oops! Outside, I glanced down towards Kenny & Chrissy's. Looked like lights out. Meanwhile, I could here some talking and see a fire coming from Pat's place. I let out the old hooty-hoot. It was returned. I headed his was with a cold CBC in hand. I sat around the fire with Pat and his son Max. All three of us were pretty buzzed. Sometime during my visit, Mindy phoned wondering where the heck I was. When I shared my whereabouts it was met with doubt. I handed the phone to Pat. Checking my phone the next day, her call was received just after midnight. I stumbled home I'm guessing near 1230am, but the details admittedly fuzzy.