Senior Birthdays, Cats, and Alcohol – Thoughts from July 2, 2025

This is the day of my birth. I’m 55 years old today. In many places, I can now get a senior discount. Patti and I are both seniors. I’m not normally off on Wednesdays, but I took off this birthday Wednesday. As with every time I got to choose what to do for my birthday, I chose to stay at home with Patti and the cats. From the time I got up, the cats followed me through my activities. When I go to the bathroom, I’m surrounded by four cats. Scout, Luna, and Willow take turns at the food bowl. That’s the main reason I’m surrounded by cats. Beatrix usually walks back and forth in front of the toilet so I can rub her. I’m always surprised by how much fur comes off her. I flick my fingers next to her, and it rains down with fur.

I have green tea and stretch with my furry entourage. When I stretch my legs on the floor, Luna and Willow lick my hair. Sometimes Scout and Beatrix join in, but they usually come in and out of my office while this is going on. When Scout licks me, she insists on licking my skin. The skin she usually has access to is around my ears. I don’t find this pleasant with a human tongue, but it is truly disturbing from a cat. First, their tongues are like sandpaper. Beyond that, the wet cat breath disturbs the nose and leaves me with a wet ear. I usually try to block my ear when she tries to do this. Eventually, she leaves in a huff.

I decided I wanted some alcohol to celebrate getting old. As I was getting dressed to go out, I turned on the bathroom sink water for Scout and Beatrix. Luna and Willow are fine with their water dish. When I turn on the water, Scout licks the side of the stream as it’s coming down. Beatrix … well, she simply puts her head under the water stream and licks the water as it slides down her head. I don’t know why she does this. Unlike any other cat we’ve had, she likes getting wet. When I turn on the shower, she gets as close as she can. I get the impression she would jump right in if I let her. When she’s done dowsing her head in the sink, she immediately shakes her head and splashes water everywhere. I try not to be near when this happens. Today, I took her picture while she was under the water. It was my first gift of the day.

After Patti and I were dressed, we went out in search of alcohol. We went to the store where they have beverages and more. I should have mentioned before, but I’m mentioning now that we were specifically looking for sake because I was getting sushi. This is my meal of choice on many of my birthdays. We brought it home, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting too drunk. In a past year, we ate at a sushi restaurant and had sake. I had to walk around outside the restaurant for a while to get rid of my buzz. We searched and searched the store and finally found where sake was. Once again, I should reword with whole paragraph, but I’m now remembering we were searching for plum wine. We got sake also, so the idea of the paragraph is the same. There were these ready-to-go-cocktails that looked interesting. We got those too. With all the alcohol in our reusable bags, we were off back home.

The cats were very interested in the smells of the sushi. The amount of sushi we got was going to last us several days. We made plates of sushi, soy sauce, and ginger and sat on the couch gorging ourselves while drinking plum wine and sake. My plate was much fuller than Patti’s because several of the sushi rolls were for me only. I wasn’t restricting her from some of the sushi. She avoided anything that was too fishy or had tentacles. She’s not the food adventurer that I am. I don’t remember what we watched, but it was probably an animated movie if I know me like I do. It was the best birthday for this newly inducted senior that it could be.