Birthdays

Today was Woodcutter Mike's birthday. I finished up bundling the last bit of firewood on the fourth of July, and now Mike's heading off for a fishing trip for a week or so, and I actually have free time once again.

...Now what?

I have to say, on the one hand, it was rough working fourteen hours a day seven days a week. But on the other hand, I made a lot of money and had a lot of fun and really enjoyed keeping busy. I think Woodcutter Mike's the coolest boss I've ever had. I'm seriously going to miss him. And sadly, apparently the state parks aren't going to buy the 10,000 or so bundles of firewood they said they would because of the economy. So there goes a lot of the profit. At about four bucks a bundle, that's a lot of dollars lost. But people still like cordwood, so I guess there will still be stuff to do. After the fishing trip. But for the next week or so, I'll have more time than I know what to do with!

Well anyway, Mike called and invited me over for his birthday dinner. His accountant, Tom, was there too. I spent a lot of the time playing with Mike's English Setter, Fisher, and his daughter, Olivia. Moms and dads are so funny. Ask Mike how old his kid is and he says, "about a year and a half, I think." Ask his wife, Beth, and she says, "eighteen months," and you know she could probably tell you how old she is to the day without even thinking about it.

Dinner was amazing, and there was even chocolate ice cream cake with whipped cream and chocolate syrup for dessert! I juggled Olivia's plastic farm animals for her and tickled her. But she apparently didn't like me tickling her, because she screamed and ran to hide behind her dad. So Mike picked her up and carried her over to me, and I took Olivia's hand and showed her how to smack me in the face. Boy, she just loved that!

Then Mike and I went downstairs and played Guitar Hero World Tour, which was basically awesome! He's got this MASSIVE television with surround-sound 1000-watt speakers and a Playstation 3.... Yeah, it was cool. Then Mike took his real guitar out and we goofed around on that a little. Sadly, neither of us is particularly good at guitar. Mike had never heard the Do Re Mi song, but he liked Puff the Magic Dragon so much that he made me sing it for Olivia (who ran downstairs naked about twenty minutes after we turned off Guitar Hero). I either tuned Mike's guitar too high or I just haven't sung in so long that my voice doesn't like those high notes. Actually, that's not true. I didn't have much trouble singing the high notes; I just think it sounds weird hearing my voice go high. Normally, my voice is low enough to support the apparently-popular public theory that I'm a young man. I usually sing alto, and I can even pull off tenor most of the time.

So yeah. Tons of fun. I got Mike a big box of Kit Kat bars for his birthday. As I left, he thanked me for them and said I was the only one who got him a present. Then his wife said, "No she's not! There's presents for you inside, goofball! You just haven't been home to open them all day!" Mike's response was, "Really? Wow, I must not have looked hard enough for them this year. Usually they're hidden on the top shelf of the closet."

So yeah. It was tons of fun. :D I ran into the Packs at Safeway today, too. Kamryn's birthday is on the 10th, and apparently she asked her mom if she could invite a friend over, and I was the friend. Awww, cute! What do I get a little girl for her seventh birthday? I don't think her parents would like it if I got her a giant box of candy bars like I got Mike.

Oh well. I've got time to think about it.

In other news, it's been SO OBSCENELY HOT here lately! It got up to 86 today, with 47% humidity. I'm pretty sure that's a record for Seward. Definitely the hottest it's been since I've been up here. Rye says it's probably so hot because of all the forest fires up north. There's a lot of ash in the air, he says, which is heating this place up like a furnace. That would also explain why it's been so hazy. And I'm sure all the fireworks and campfires didn't exactly help.

This evening was pretty cool-looking. There was definitely a reddish tint to the light outside. Rye says it's the ash. I was thinking maybe it was the sunset. I don't know. It looked pretty cool, anyway.

I was wandering around the docks the other day, looking at all the pretty boats and entertaining a daydream about owning one someday when I'm rich. There was this beautiful shiny blue one named Thorr, in particular, that I was drooling over. Suddenly I saw a "for sale" sign on it, and, being curious to see just how much a boat would cost, I went to look. I didn't figure it would be TOO much more than a car. Not more than twice a decent car's price, anyway. But no. The price tag said two hundred and fifty THOUSAND dollars! Yeah, let's just crumple up that dream and throw it out the window. Sheesh.

Anywho, that is all. Time to go to bed. And try to sleep. Despite the fact that it's like ninety degrees in my room, even with the window open and the fan on as high as it can go. I wish it would get cold and rainy again.

Toodles!