Dad's 80th birthday

Last couple of days have been whirlwinds, crazy, busy, no time to breathe, too many things going on in our lives. The world is moving too quickly or is that we are moving too quickly through it or is it just the nature of my life and job as the town grocer. Morning begins with Jackie and Andrew fighting about grades and tutoring. I'm still in bed when that's going on. Then it's up and at it by 7:30 getting Howie and Micah fed, preparing school lunches and out the door by 8:07 with me and the dogs to catch the school bus. Jackie and I walk the dogs around the block, I'm sure we were arguing, but lightheartedly then back at home, start the car and off to work. The usual stops, post office to pick up the mail, bakery to pick up the bed. Have a conversation with Christian about baking us some challah bread to try for Micah's bar mitzvah. Then to work, bring in the bread and get immediately accosted by employees, phone messages and then a customer who wants to see the owner because she slipped and fell on the patio on the ice and she bruised her wrist and she wanted to yell at me about it. Nothing could make her happy, I'm not sure what she wanted me to do, but I asked her what she wanted me to do. First off she wanted me to salt the patio, before I could to do it one of my employees was already doing it, that wasn't good enough for her...then she wanted to fill out an accident report because her neck was starting to bother her. I went and got my computer and got her information and then I went to the back and wrote up an incident report and printed it for her. That still wasn't good enough for her. She had to give me a speech and tell me what I needed to do and how to take care of my property and she wouldn't let me talk or answer her. She was basically crazy and I don't think we will ever hear from her again, at least we hope not. I told her that the property manager was on his way to speak with her, but she said, I can't wait, I need to go skiing.

Now I'm drawing a blank on the rest of my day, but I'm sure it will come back to me. Let's see, it was a Wednesday and we had deliveries to make, but the store was busy with customers, and the beer and wine guys and I had to be done with work no later than 3 because we had appointments in Bozeman and a meeting with the rabbi at 6:15. I'm still drawing a blank. I know that at some point Jackie came down to help make the deliveries. I was trying to make my deposit when one of the wine guys came in and I had to check him in and print stickers and make sure he knew where to put everything. I put the wine away with him, I got the deposit together and went to the bank. I ran the front register so Chelsea could write up an incident report for us to have on file in case this woman ever did try to pursue some kind of whatever. It was a great synopsis because it reported on the woman's behavior every time I walked away from her.

Then Jackie and I went up the mountain to get the deliveries done, which we got done by around 2:30 - Jackie ran home to walk the dogs and get Micah and be ready to leave for town no later than 3:15. I stayed at the store and had conversations with Lauren who I hadn't seen in a couple of days, and Chelsea who had given her 2 weeks notice the day before. We talked standing up, but then Chelsea and I sat down for awhile and then i realized I had to go, so I made my quick dash, it was already 3:10, I drove straight home, up the driveway figuring they were waiting to leave, which they were, but we probably didn't leave till 3:25 or even 3:30. Somehow we got to our appointment at Honda at 4:03, just a couple of minutes late and they took us right away to check out why our check engine light was on and it was either because of the catalytic converter or the transmission, both things we are hoping not to have to fix, the van has over 200,000 miles on it already. We got out of there early called the Bay and ordered dragon tenders to go, drove to see Andrew who was working out at the Ridge and who we needed to take to Verizon to get him a new phone, but he was working out till 6, so Jackie, Micah and I went to the Bay and changed half the order to have there, and we ate. Then it was off to the temple, Micah had his bar mitvah time with the rabbi so we dropped him off and went off to Verizon to get started on picking out a phone for Andrew. Which somehow we worked on till he showed up and we made it all happen and then it was off to the temple for our meeting with the rabbi while Micah met with his tutor and Andrew ate his dragon tenders, and did homework.

Our meeting with the rabbi went well, trying to figure out our service and who to honor, and how it all goes, we found out the rabbi has an extensive wine collection, and we planned a ski day, tour of Big Sky day in a couple of weeks. All during the meeting we could hear Micah practicing his trope with his tutor. We talked about reading from the torah and who sings what prayers, it went well.

And then the drive home, where we stopped in Gateway before we lost phone service so Andrew could get his contacts off back up assistant because he was having trouble and we needed to call the Verizon store to figure it out and then we had a whole conversation about how we could motivate him to do better in school. Sometimes talking in a car is the easiest way because no one is looking at one another especially me since I'm driving. I talked about how when I was a kid I always worked over having fun, it was just who I was, and how Andrew is the opposite, he will always choose fun over work, which is probably more normal, but doesn't always work out for success in life, sometimes you have to work hard to succeed, and that is rewarding as well and so we all talked, Jackie, Andrew and Micah too and we came up with a grades for money idea which also included losing money for bad grades so we shall see, Andrew seems to be into it. And so we talked and drove home. We picked up Howie at his friend's house in the neighborhood, and ate leftovers out of the fridge and I took a shower and we watched the Colbert Report and ate dessert and went to bed.

And today, I went to work at 9 am, but Jackie was meeting Stephanie and Denise for a skate ski and I decided to join them, as I'm thinking I might not have much time to play after next week and I truly love skate skiing so I joined the ladies for a great skate up the middle fork and around Andesite - we skated for over 2 1/2 hours, lots of uphill and lots of downhill - the downhill was a little hard on my left leg, but I had my brace on, was able to fly down without wiping out and it was really fun and tiring. Then it was back at work for me while the ladies enjoyed lunch at the Moose. I did some work around the store, then it was off to the Yellowstone Club with one grocery delivery and on the way I called my Dad to wish him a happy 80th Birthday! He sounded good, he got our birthday package with the long sleeve t-shirt and a card from Jackie and I, a card from each of the boys and a card from my employees at the Moose. Just the other day Jackie bought all the plane tickets for she and I to go get him in New York and bring him back to Montana on a one way ticket... indefinite... So we all wrote about how we are looking forward to having him out here. He was thrilled with his package and was starting to get ready to go out for dinner - he had just gotten back from a walk, and they were going out with friends for dinner, which I knew because we were surprising him with a special night out with a couple of extra guests at a really nice place that I knew he would love. But I didn't let on, I told him I loved him and wished him a very happy and healthy 9th decade. Then it was back to the store for me. Jackie had the truck ready and loaded with the 2 other grocery orders that needed to go up the mountain and we were off. I think we got done with those around 3pm and I had to go back to the store and try to get some work done. I did my deposit, went to the bank, restocked beer, restocked produce, cleaned up some aisles, then took over clerking the register and started bossing everyone else around. I ran the register probably from 4:30 - 6:00, which can be fun, but is very tiring as well... Home after 7, Jackie was administering a practice ACT test to Andrew and prepping dinner, then she took a shower, I started writing all this, then I cooked the dinner, Andrew finished up a section, we ate dinner as a family, Andrew took the last section of his practice test, I wrote all this, he's taking a shower and I'm calling it a night.

Two days in the life, Happy 80th Stan!