Happy Birthday

So today is my birthday, I have reached the venerable (or at least senior citizen) age of 62 and I happen to be off work for the day.  Its kind of a windy, rainy and biting cold kind of day so being home puttering around and listening to holiday music is just plain wonderful.  So I treated myself to a birthday lunch at the local oriental buffet, finished decorating my house inside for the holidays and put a new strap on my Patriot Rev War cartridge box.

New Cartridge Box Strap

Cartridge Box Strap Installed

  The cartridge box strap was originally cloth with leather ends and the narrow attachment pieces had gotten chewed up a bit by some small critter (which I hope the cats sent on to another life.)  So I dyed some russet leather black for new attachment straps and as long as the strap was apart anyway replaced the cloth shoulder strap piece with a buff leather piece.  The strap is not only repaired it fits better.

Holiday Lights near Ruckersville

After dark I took a nice slow drive around my neighborhood and  those close by to check out the Christmas lights.  The rain meant the lights were reflecting off the road so things were quite bright. 

A Serious Light Display

This Display Makes the Papers Annually

The display that’s visible from US29 was up and running this year.  Unfortunately there’s no way for me to get far enough away from the yard to get a good picture of the whole kahuna. 

Just a Nice Display

Oh Look – Real Christmas Trees

Back home in Michigan the normal Christmas decorations were lights on a pine tree in the yard.  There aren’t as many pines in yards here, so finding someone with not one but two lighted pines was a real treat for me.

An All-White Light Display

I’m not personally a big fan of the all white lights thing but this home has done a very nice job of it.

Once upon a time I had hoped to retire the month after I turned 62 but that’s not how the cards have been dealt.  But I’m in good health, have great job security, and should be able to retire at 66 with a decent income.  Since retiring at all once seemed a distant dream I’ll take what I can get and be glad.