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YESTERDAY WAS THE DAY WE CELEBRATE a particular guy who saw a large land mass that was populated by people whom I'm sure felt some ownership of their spot on the earth; this guy just up and claimed it! Thus I, in turn, felt perfectly okay to snatch the holiday for myself! Step aside, Columbus; it's Day Four!


The fourth day of my birthday year celebration was book-ended by messages I'd missed earlier. In the morning there was this email note from my little sister (yes, Dear Reader, the self-same one who suggested my year-long birthday bash).

"....Well, since it's your birthday year, I think you should just get dressed whenever you want to. Or not at all! In fact, you probably should just wear your birthday suit all year in celebration."



Dear Reader, I'll leave that proposal for someone who's just gotten themselves a brand-new birthday suit! I put on clothes and went out into the frabjous sunny day!



It was so warm and enticing outdoors that I could ignore the fact that employees of post offices and banks and many other folks celebrating this holiday were not going to work. I rolled up my sleeves and went to work with a vengeance! Which simply means that I grunted and groaned and tore into weeds and roots and overgrown tomato plants and shrubs and all manner of ignominious  nature growing in my flower beds. Ah, it was a double pleasure to come upon one plant with freshly-springing blossoms, looking cheerful and celebratory rather than old and over-burdened with baggage!






At the conclusion of my time outdoors, I had established large monuments to my holiday endeavors--great mounds of sticks and limbs and greenery and brownery. Aha! My yard man has some of his work already cut out for him!






Late in the evening I found a phone message that had languished since my actual birthday. It was the perfect ending to Day Four-- a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday, sung by a quartet of loved ones, complete with cha-cha-cha's and whoop-de-do's.





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TODAY. This very day. This Tuesday, the eleventh day of the month in this eleventh year of the century, I'm wishing a happy birthday to my big sis, who was once eleven when I was four!
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