Another day and this one is my birthday. I wisely took off and slept in for an extra hour. Bill went out and bought birthday sandwiches before I woke up. He also made the coffee. Bill has been exceptional today. Everything that he could do to make sure I had an easy stress-free day, Bill did. He’s generally great year round but on September 12, he steps up.

And once again he hit a home run. I am grateful to benefit from his largesse. We mostly sat around the apartment, except for a stop at the library to pick up a tome which was Michael Palin’s diary from the last 1960s to 1979.

I returned the Edna O’Brien book, ‘Girl’ last week. Despite the blurb from Ian McKellan saying that it was a harrowing, yet inspirational book, I could not deal with the heaviness of it. Perhaps another Edna O’Brien book would be better, so if you know of one, do let me know. Donna, the librarian mentioned how heavy the Michael Palin book was, meaning weight, whereas the subject matter of Edna O’Brien was a slim novel, yet quite heavy.

Some grocery shopping was done at the supermarket where we saw Arti, a delightful woman from India who corrals shoppers to the self-checkout machines. It was a gorgeous day, definitely a good day to not go to work.

We watched various things on TV, I took a nap and we decided to go to Carpe Diem here in Hoboken. It was nice, Bill had Fish & Chips, and I had Shephard’s Pie, which I have to say was a bit lackluster. Two pints of Guinness for me and Bill had one. Those were quite good. Some Oreo Mousse cake was dessert, with no birthday song accompaniment.

We strolled back home, down Washington Street enjoying our time and the nightlife. We hardly ever go out at night so this was definitely out of the ordinary. Despite relieving myself before leaving Carpe Diem, I had to go again and knew I wouldn’t make it home.

So I stepped between two parked cars and did what I had to do while Bill stood watch. It was over in a minute, the only passersby were food delivery guys and they weren’t going to say anything. I’ve never done that before in Hoboken on the street. I have gone outdoors in Hoboken before but not between parked cars. A first for this 62-year-old ruddy gentleman, informally speaking of course.

Now, Bill and I are home, watching the second half of 2001: A Space Odyssey. We’ve seen it before, it’s great and there’s nothing else on at the moment. Plus it’s my birthday and I’ll HAL if I want to. HAL just killed the astronaut that isn’t Dave.

I have only seen 2001 on a small screen, I can only imagine how people felt when they saw it on a big screen when it first came out. It must’ve been overwhelming on so many levels considering nothing like it had ever been done before. And now here we are.