HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

My wife, Tamara, and I share the same birthday – January 29. However, we do not share the same birth year. I tell people we were twins separated at birth – 7 years apart. Some people get a little weird when they find out we are married and share the same birthday, like it is some kind of freak of nature. Well, maybe it is. One of the strangest examples is when we were returning from a trip out of the country. The U. S. Customs agent looked at our passports, looked at us, and said, “Did you two know you have the same birthday?” I felt like responding, “Really? No, we’re married and we just don’t communicate that sort of information. Thanks for the insight.” However, I wanted to get through customs quickly, so I just said, “Yes, we do,” and headed through the airport.

Now we have added a new angle. The white Golden Retriever, Aspen, we acquired in 2009 shares her half-birthday the same day as ours as she was born on July 29. So, on January 29 we now celebrate 2 ½ birthdays, and this year it was a really fun one.

Tamara and I started the day by performing the annual ritual of exchanging birthday cards and smooches. This day was also the day of the annual county health fair where we can get all our blood work done for a really good price. Because of that, we had been fasting for about 12 hours before we headed out the door without breakfast to Ridgway’s 4H Center about 10 miles south down the road from Ouray. Fortunately, we were able to drink black coffee before the blood tests, so I didn’t have to drive the winding highway bleary-eyed and with one eye open.

We made it to the Health Fair at about 8:30am and our timing was good as we did not have to wait in any lines. We registered (Registrar: “Hey, it’s your birthday!” Me: “Really?”) and went right to the vampire table where they were drawing the blood. Usually my blood draws are a piece of cake because of some decent arteries, but this time the technician had a bit of a problem getting the needle just right. I had the pleasure of watching here move the needle around inside my arm until she finally found the right angle to cause the blood to start gushing into the 3 vials needed for the blood work. That chore accomplished, we wondered around the exhibits for a while, and this being a county of about 4300 people, we knew half the people in attendance. After chatting with those we knew, we headed out the door to break our fast at Kate’s Place in Ridgway. As is the case every year, half the people at the Health Fair had the same plan. While our stomachs growled, we stood and waited for about 15 minutes before commandeering a table that hadn’t been wiped yet. Maybe there would be a few morsels to nibble while waiting for a menu.

Tamara had the chorizo burrito (hold the chorizo) while I had the skillet breakfast with 2 eggs to get my cholesterol level back up to its usual level. It was yummy, but after fasting for that long, yesterday’s plate scrapings would have been delicious.

After taking a ride through the car wash to clean off the road salt, mud, fly ash, and other things clinging to the Ford Expedition, we headed back to Ouray.

We made a brief stop at our store to drop off some cash register money for our worker, and then headed back to the house. Our next item on the day’s festivities was snowshoeing. We got into our snow gear, packed up some goodies for the trip, got Aspen and headed for the Ice Park Trail. The Ice Park Trail is a nice, fairly flat 2 mile trail that parallels the Ouray Ice Climbing Park for one mile, crossed the Uncompahgre River and then returns on the other side. We parked at the trial head, got all the camera gear, celebratory liquids, and doggie essentials gathered and finally set off on trail, but not before donning our snowshoes. Of course Aspen, who loves the snow, started exploring the trail back and forth and zig-zagging to and fro that would make her distance of the trail 2 or 3 times what Tamara and I would do.

We headed off on trail and soon encountered some ice climbers coming back from a climb and Aspen provided them a warm greeting. We soon came to the halfway point of the trail where we had to climb a few stairs to get over the 4-foot penstock (water pipe) that feeds water from the reservoir to the town. Aspen does not like the metal stairs used in snow country, so Tamara negotiated the stairs in her snowshoes and got to the other side. I then lifted up the 60-pound Aspen and she was then off and running. The next obstacle was a narrow footbridge over the river that Aspen has refused to negotiate in the past during the summer. Before we knew it, Aspen was already on the snow-covered footbridge standing there looking back at us with a look of, “What’s taking you guys so long?” So then we were off on the second half of the trail.

We were now on the sunny side of the trail and the temps were a bit warmer and the snow a bit slushier as we broke trail through the snow. After about another half mile, we found a nice sunny area with a dry rock that seemed appropriate for a break. We shed our snowshoes and Tamara took out the bottle of champagne and plastic glasses from her pack. She took the wire off the bottle and sat it in the snow to chill. A few minutes later we heard a POP and saw the champagne bottle had uncorked itself due to the altitude and the jostling of the bottle on trail.

We sat in the warm sun and enjoyed a champagne birthday toast while drinking in the incredible views which surrounded us. After about an hour of drinking the champagne, watching Aspen romp in the snow (she found the cork missile that had launched into the air and landed in the snow about 50 fee away), and taking some pictures, we packed up, shoed up, and headed back on the trail. Things were proceeding nicely with Tamara in the lead until she came to an icy slush patch on the trail. She decided it was safe to walk across it. Not a good decision. Suddenly her snowshoe sank into the sun drenched slush and she ended up in icy water that came in over the top of her boots. The boot and attached snowshoe were now sucked into the slush and were not about to be easily extracted. After assessing the situation, Tamara decided to unlace her boot. First her foot was extracted. Then we pulled her boot liner from her boot. The next step was me taking off my gloves and reaching down to the snowshoe and liberating the snowshoe and attached boot from the icy grip of the slush (sounds pretty dramatic, huh?). While Tamara put her foot ware back on, we discussed what Survivor Man would have done and then headed back on the trail at a quicker pace to get back to the vehicle.

We made it back with no threat of frostbite (fortunately it wasn’t really that cold) and headed back to the house to get out of our cold weather gear and into a hot shower. That being accomplished we got into bed for a short nap [and fill in the blank here] before the next activity of the day.

At about 6:30 we headed down to the Ouray House Brewery to hang out with the Saturday Night Gang. Tamara and I split a beer of great microbrew before heading to The Outlaw Restaurant (Home of one of John Wayne’s hats he wore during the filming of the first True Grit movie here in Ouray County) for dinner. For some reason I was not in the mood for any more beer and ordered a margarita. It was yummy. I mentioned to Tamara it is interesting how different alcohols have a different affect on our bodies. I could feel the tequila causing a little tingly sensation all over my body. It felt so good I ordered another margarita. Tamara had a glass of wine and it all went well with our delicious dinners. Of course we had to go through the ordeal of the “birthday announcement” and song by the staff to the rest of the restaurant, but the ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup made it worth it.

We were the last ones to leave The Outlaw, but not before we stopped and had a conversation with the old time piano player on our way out. That and a short stroll down Main Street Ouray were the end to a perfect birthday for us.