Happy Birthday Bubba!

The morning of September 12 dawned bright and beautiful.  It was a special day.  Bubba was celebrating his big 70th birthday.  The birthday celebration was his choice -- he wanted to camp at Lake Seminole with Joe and Judy so that is what we were going to do.  This came as a big disappointment to Amy and me because we wanted to have a big family birthday dinner for him.  It was disappointing to Amelia because she stated that she wanted him to:
     Have a party and have 20 people come.  She said he needed
          20 party hats
               20 "Happy Birthday blowers"
                      Streamers
                            Pictures of Paw-Paw
                                  A Happy Birthday shirt for Paw-Paw.

Oh well, it was HIS birthday after all.  He ordered a new cast net for a birthday present and had already received it.  I had ordered him a coconut cake from a friend at work who has a bakery and that was going to be a surprise.  He loves coconut cake, but the ones I make are really rich so I was trying to get one similar to the ones his mother used to make.

My friend at work was supposed to call me when it arrived and I was going to go pick it up.  The plan was that I would tell Bubba I had to run back to work for just a few minutes to help her with a problem.  The call came and Bubba got so irritated because I was going back to work when we were supposed to be going camping.  He told me that if they could not do without me for just one day that I might as well get my retirement paperwork back and keep on working.  He was so annoyed that finally I just said, "Bubba, I'm going to pick up your birthday cake!"  "Oh," he said.  I came back with the most beautiful cake.  I'm sorry that I almost caused him to have a stroke.

Joe and Judy had arrived at Lake Seminole the night before.  We both had beautiful sites on the water.  After we got set up, we went over to their trailer where we enjoyed sandwiches and birthday cake for lunch.

Finally, he was surprised.  When he and Joe recently went kayaking with their sister, Azalea, at her lakeside home, he tried to get his kayak down to the water with a cart he had created using a handtruck with swim noodles attached to it.  Apparently Azalea thought his creation was pitiful because she called Joe and asked him to pick out a real kayak cart for Bubba and they could split the cost.

Bubba was surprised.  I was even surprised.  What a nice thing to do for their 70 year old brother.

The day included a call from Amy wishing him a happy birthday and then later a call from Amelia who sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Their presents came in the mail earlier in the week.

We ate dinner that night at Papa Doc's Lakeside Grill.  This is the second time we've eaten there.  Both times have been really good.  We all ordered seafood and had a variety of delicious appetizers before the real food arrived.
We returned to camp and enjoyed visiting while we sat outside in Joe and Judy's screened "gazebo" which kept the bugs away.  Bubba truly enjoyed his birthday.  Thanks Joe and Judy for sharing with us.

In addition to several more really good meals, there was kayaking and fishing.

Some good relaxation.  Saturday was breezy and cool enough to make being outside comfortable.

All too soon, it was time to pack up and head for home.  The birthday cake was down to one last piece which Bubba was looking forward to eating for his breakfast.

Little bitty black ants were crawling on his cake.  I was going to throw it out, but he said he was going to eat it anyway and he did.  He said you couldn't even taste them.  I'm glad he enjoyed his birthday cake down to the very last bite.

It was a good weekend.  We're looking forward to being able to stay longer when I retire in October.  Every time we start home, we wish we could stay one more day.  Good times are ahead!

Just One of the Herd

Today was a day I had looked forward to for a long time.  It was the day I had marked on the calendar for going to the Social Security office and applying for my benefits.  I was excited, almost giddy.  I woke up at 4:00 this morning and could not go back to sleep.  The night before I had gathered all the documents and I was sure that I would have to produce.  I was ready.  I had read online that Friday was the best day to visit the Social Security office.  It was supposed to be their slowest day.  We arrived around 9:30.  Suffice it to say, it looked like this as we entered the waiting area.

It was packed.  All the chairs were filled and people were standing everywhere.  We took a number and I vowed that we were not leaving until I got what I had come for.  We waited and waited.  There were three windows and people were transacting their business with a person on the other side of the window.  How was I going to get all my questions answered like this?  Occasionally they would call someone to the back.  A big television screen in the front of the waiting area was proclaiming that you could do everything online, on your cell phone, or by phone.  I had already looked at doing it online, but we had the issue of Bubba getting set up for Medicare that I knew was not going to be something we could do online.

The room was filled with several annoying people.  There was one young man who wanted to shake hands and converse with everyone who entered.  Another disabled man was at one of the windows demanding to see a supervisor.  I heard a man behind me tell someone on his cell phone that he had been waiting two hours in "Social Security hell".

Finally my number was called and we went to window number two.  After giving the woman a little of my  information, she told me that I could call and complete the application for my benefits over the phone.  I couldn't believe it.  I waited an hour and a half to be told to call back.  I almost cried, but then she left the window for a minute and came back.  She was going to let me go back and see a real person to complete the process.  I don't know why she did that for me.  Maybe she saw how disappointed I was.  In any case, we waited standing for just a few more minutes and we were called by name and were allowed to enter into the office area.

The nicest lady helped us.  She answered all of our questions and got me signed up.  Bubba just has to mail in a form from my personnel office to get him into Medicare without a penalty.  

The sad thing is that she told us that they were moving to a new office soon and that when they did, they would all be behind windows like the three set up in the waiting area.  Even she was dismayed because it was going to be even more inpersonal.  I felt like I was part of a herd of cows all morning.

Finally we were finished and went to the Cheese Barn for a celebratory lunch.  I was exhausted and shaky.  I felt like I had been to the doctor and had some kind of surgery all morning.  When I got home, I slept for two hours in the recliner.

The good news is that I now know my official date.  I will officially retire from my job on October 31.  My last date at work may be October 17, but I will decide that a little later.  I know that being retired will require some getting used to, but I'm looking forward to being free to do what I want to do.  

It Finally Happened

Labor Day Weekend finds us with plans to venture into an area we have wanted to visit for a long time.  We headed for Cotton Hill Campground at Fort Gaines, Georgia.  This beautiful campground is on Lake Walter F. George which is also known as Lake Eufaula on the Alabama side.  This is the second Corps of Engineers campground we have stayed at and we have found both of them to be clean and well maintained.  The sites are paved so there is no problem getting level.

This was the view we enjoyed all weekend.

Saturday we got out and did some exploring.  We went into Eufaula which was about 30 minutes away and ate lunch.  We took a road that put us in a good location for a good photo op with the dam.

The weather forecast for the weekend was for rain.  It rained Friday night after we went to bed.  Then the rest of the weekend was pretty.  It was cool enough that we could enjoy sitting outside and the mosquitoes were not too bad.  We spent a lot of our time just reading.  We also played a rousing game of Scrabble and I finally beat Bubba by ten points.

We made some meal plans that didn't involve cooking outside due to the predicted bad weather.  We hardly ever forget any of our groceries because I make a list and we mark everything off as we pack it; however, as we began to get out the items needed for tacos I realized that we had forgotten the salsa.  We didn't have enough pioneer spirit to rough it and eat tacos without salsa so we got in the truck and drove seven miles to a little grocery store and bought the only jar of salsa they had and drove seven miles back.  It was worth it in my opinion.

We got up Monday morning and started home.  Our Magellan GPS died on us and we had to rely on a map and poorly marked roads to get home.  We realized that we made a wrong turn in Fort Gaines and were in the middle of nowhere when......it happened.  It was a loud and pop and Bubba said that we had blown a tire.  This was something he has dreaded every since we got the trailer.  Fortunately there was a paved driveway just ahead of us in front of a house and we pulled over on it and surveyed the damage.

As he started to change the tire, the young man from the house pulled up in his truck.  He got out and helped Bubba some with the task.  He was just as nice as he could be -- just an old country boy.  He was on his way to take some pears to his momma.  He gave us directions on how to get back to Highway 431 and we were home by noon and unpacked soon after.

Ever since we got the trailer, Bubba has worried about breaking down and having to deal with it.  It finally happened and was not the nightmare he had anticipated.  As we headed out he began to worry about what we would do if another tire went out and we didn't have a spare.  I told him that the chances of that happening twice in one morning were very slim and then I went to sleep without a worry in the world.  We all know that Bubba is a "glass half empty" kind of guy and I'm of the "glass half full" persuasion.  But, hey, it's worked for us for 47 years.  I will continue to work on him about this view until I win him over.  Wish me luck.