Birthday Guy

Meet Frank (real name), a neighbour some 10 houses to our right.  Exactly a week ago, he left a short note in all our mailboxes, announcing that he was going to celebrate what we assumed would be his birthday today, and that there was going to be some possibly loud live music between 22.00 and 23.00, so hopefully we would be prepared.  No heavy metal or trash metal, just blues and pop.  I don't know if anyone reacted, and we certainly did not.  His note was fair and early, and if anyone was going to complain, that would not be us.

This afternoon, after I'd done some supermarket errands, I saw some of his preparations -- a tent outside on his driveway, some tables, a tower of beer crates, snacks, and a sound system with speakers, and the music was already on.  I took my camera, intending to shoot the gloriously red tree in our little square, and ended up walking to his place and greeting him on his big day, and took three shots of him.  He didn't mind, although I did ask first.  Then I went back home, post-processed the shots, lined them up on an A4 sheet in landscape format, included our greetings in WordArt, had AW print it out, then walked back to give it to him.  He'd left to do more errands but his daughter-in-law admired the work and said he will surely get it.  Looks like a nice, friendly guy, doesn't he?  We heard the music later in the evening, and it wasn't as loud as he'd feared, and I don't think anyone was bothered.  Across the backyard pond, though, someone had lit up fireworks, and they were a sight to see.  No idea if they were connected to him, but it must have added some sparkle to the occasion, anyway.

I did not go to the SIMAV Open Windmill day in the Alblasser area as the weather was discouraging.  Not really disappointed as I can visit there any other time I wish.

Not my day mentally.  AW and I had a talk in the evening, and I said that it's only now that it appears that I'm reeling a bit from the delay of the case in MNL.  The thing is, when you're struck by something like that, you start to doubt all the decisions and choices you ever made.  We did manage to figure things out, and AW was speaking from experience with every suggestion he made.  More mindfulness needed right now, and I have to remind myself to do a few things, and not to get too tired.

A fairly good night's sleep, in comparison to the past two weeks or so.  Sunny weather coming up, and I will take advantage of it, of course.