Birthday doings

As many of you are likely aware, today is my 59th birthday and I am passing it in a fashion suitable to a man in a prime year (59 being a prime number). Which is to say, I am doing as little as is respectable, if not quite as little as possible.

One sad point: New Hope Market, my preferred purveyor of fine cakes, has no coconut cake today. 9th Street in Durham, which also does well by coconut cake, does have some. Which presents me with a quandary. Is it worth driving all the way to Durham for cake? Or should I make due with carrot cake from New Hope (also quite fine). Or just wait till later in the week for cake and thereby extend the birthday celebrations? We shall see which way I go.*

I had been thinking of going down to Pittsboro to Circle City Books to do a little grazing, but now that also seems like a lot of effort, particularly if I'm going to ride my e-bike over to the Farm for tennis with Z at 4:30, as I plan to. 

As you can see, there are a lot of decisions to make. Plus I still haven't decided what to do for dinner. Last night we did a joint birthday dinner with my mom (who turned 87 a couple of weeks ago) at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham. This was a good solution to the problem of restaurants being too loud for us to be able to hear mom's voice, something that happens all too often in today's noisy boites. It was a little stuffy but the food was good, so all in all it was a good trade off. I think we may start hitting that circuit (also the Carolina Inn, the Umstead, Fearrington and probably more in Raleigh) for family dinners.

*In the end, I decided to go to New Hope on my way to pick up pizza from Sal's (I am a very simple guy) and see what they had. And the Lord did see fit to shine his Light down upon me. As I had suspected they might, they baked a coconut cake during the day and it was waiting for me there in the case. After all, someone calling in and asking about something is a clear signal that a product is desired by the market. Also, Jesus loves me.