Stone's birthday - August 27

Sixty-two. That's us - two peas in a pod, except he has better hair than me. It's usually back in a pony tail - especially when he's playing IT consultant and dressed like a conventional person. We've been together for seven years, now, and it's been an interesting ride, to say the least. We've been discussing birthday plans - nothing extravagant, it's not like he's ninety or something, but certainly we want to acknowledge and celebrate in our own, quiet but hopefully meaningful way. My kids are planning a cook-out on Sunday - we'll celebrate Stone's and my daughter Kim's birthdays together. She will be 38 on Aug. 31st, he'll be 62 today. It'll be fun and busy and energetic and nice for him, since he has no offspring of his own, and has (informally, but very committedly) adopted my four. But we - he and I - will also celebrate more quietly by ourselves, as well. I'm at work today, but tonight we'll have his favorite supper, and I'll bring him flowers, a card, and some sort of "healthy" birthday cake. (When I was on the Atkins diet for lo, those ten-odd years, my kids would make me a "hamburger cake" with cheese frosting and always too many candles.) Stone & I are not doing "Atkins". I ate enough red meat during that period in my life so that I don't even want to look at it anymore, nevermind eat it. No, we are eating lots of high fiber foods - multigrains, vegetables, chicken and a lot of those faux-meats that are soy-based. When you marinate them properly, and gussy them up with sauces and stir fry ingredients, for example, they are actually very palatable. About six months ago, Stone's doctor informed him that his glucose levels were too high and that he was "pre-diabetic". That's when he started eating what I had been eating for the past year or so - the high fiber, etc. - and we started a modest exercise regime - walking (with our quarterstaffs) at least three times a week. Not a whole lot else, but he lost seventeen pounds, his glucose levels dropped right back to where they belonged, and his doctor was astounded when he went in for his follow-up visit a month or so ago.
Stone and I really ARE "two peas in a pod" in so many ways - too many, really, to even count. But, we both have a love of reading (our house overflows with books), both are very committed to our artwork - he with painting, me with sculpting - we both write some, both enjoy the outdoors and some minimal kinds of gardening (the kind we can do in urns - very low maintenance) and we enjoy hiking about in the woods and talking about philosophy, personal belief systems, politics, sociological trends, social programs - what works, what doesn't - and etc. Amazingly, despite the wide range of discussion subjects, we have never, ever had an argument within the context of our personal relationship. (Yeah - we sometimes find ourselves on the opposite sides of a philosophical debate, but that's stimulating and fun - about ideas rather than the realities in our everyday life together.)
So, in conclusion, it's a nice day today, and we'll have a nice, quietly celebratory supper when I get home. On Saturday, he'd like to go to Old Sturbridge Village, which is located about 20 miles from where we live, and is the reconstruction of an entire New England village, circa the mid-1700's. So, we'll do that, and spend the day traipsing about chatting with all the historical re-enactment folks. Back in July, one Sunday, we had headed out to a reservoir a few towns over just to do a little hiking, and came upon a Revolutionary War re-enactors event. There were patriots and loyalist camps, and even a mock battle, which we watched. I have to wonder what the attraction is in re-enacting war. Bad enough that we have to suffer through the damned things - what's the point in romanticizing them through re-enactment? There are groups that do Civil War re-enactments too. Oh, well. I suppose, somehow, that the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are seen as "righteous" wars - wars that accomplished something important. Unlike the "unrighteous" and immoral war we are fighting today over in Iraq. I don't imagine they'll be doing any re-enactments of THIS war a couple of hundred years from now.
But here I go again, running on. That's why I can't write a book. I'm too easily distracted from what I'm supposed to be writing about. Here I was, doing a nice little tribute to a very good man on his birthday, and I end up talking about war.
Ah, well.