A Miser’s Birthday

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My birthday began in the nicest possible way after midnight, but before the slow clock chimed 12 times. David was lying on the floor near my feet with his phone, and I was reading the last of the day’s blog posts. He said quietly, “Happy Birthday, Gran.”

Texts and phone calls continued at a more normal hour in the morning, and I appreciated each one. Walking to the creek had one unusual pause. A trucker I nicknamed Fisherman was stopped in the service station. I chatted with him several weeks ago and saw photos on his phone of some of the fish he had caught. He jumped down from his cab when I introduced John to him, and we had a lovely conversation. He remembered John liked trains and mentioned several railroads in the area. He plans to go fishing during the holidays.

I’ve decided being a miser is acceptable, as long as I ENJOY pinching pennies and don’t hurt anyone with it. We had coupons for Burger King (where David works). Eating our breakfast sandwiches beside the stream near the rec center was most enjoyable. Of course, I appropriated one of the FREE sandwiches for myself and let them have the ones that cost money. Don’t remind me that we could all have had a cut-rate meal.

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My birthday cake was free! Our favorite supermarket sent me a Christmas card that included an offer of a free chocolate layer cake if redeemed before the end of the year. John asked the person behind the counter if she could write on it, and she did. No charge!

Son John $ was with us for the celebratory lunch at Sweet Onion and took a photo of us across the table. We had chicken schnitzel, and he had turkey meatloaf. The food was interesting and delicious.

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Our friends from Alabama were already at our house before we got home. We had a nice visit, then they had dinner in their camper. David took a selfie of us as we were about to cut my free birthday cake.

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Marty and Ron joined us for cake and added lots of animated conversation to our party. They kept us spellbound with their tales of travel around the world.

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I felt the day was a fitting celebration to mark the 75th time I’d had a birthday.

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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