In His Element

Hey y'all -

Today is your dad's birthday. He's 40.

40.

Damn.

I'm trying not to dwell on it, because in my mind I'm still 26 or so, so the idea that I'm keeping house with a dude who's 40 just seems wrong. Like my mama should sit me down and give me a talking-to because older men are trouble. 

Just in time for your dad's birthday, Missoula has experienced record-setting snowfall. As of Monday, we'd gotten more snow than any February since 1939. Then, just last night, it snowed two more feet. School was cancelled, which is almost unheard of around here, and then the Forest Service shut down for the day, so we all got to stay home and enjoy our time together. Okay, that's a lie: I still had to work, because my bosses are in Los Angeles and don't acknowledge that in other parts of the world there's this thing called weather. Meanwhile, this was our yard:

Your dad was absolutely in his element, though. Our front door has a big window that overlooks the street, and your dad kept surveying the road to see if anyone had gotten their car stuck. Then, he'd grab his snow shovel and head out to save the day. It was a perfect storm of Thor interests: snow! search and rescue! logistics in the face of disaster! He freed a woman with a stuck SUV, another old lady trying to drive an old jalopy over the bridge, and a third neighbor whose wheels were spinning a few doors down. At one point, he looked at me and said, "I can see there's a car stuck down on Phillips St." "Let them handle it," I suggested, "and you try to keep your rescue efforts to a two-block radius."

It was such an ill-advised idea to drive anywhere that I didn't know how in the world we were going to celebrate his birthday. Driving to dinner was out of the question. And then the neighborhood brewery posted this:

I figured it was mostly a joke. I love the idea of free beer as much as the next person, but it's not like they were expecting people to cross-country ski down the middle of a city street, right? Right?

They don't know Thor.

Your dad thought skiing to get a beer was an AWESOME idea. Now, to the snow and the search and rescue and logistics in the face of disaster we could add skiing and beer! You'd'a thought he was turning 4, not 40. We got on our skis and headed out through the neighborhood.

Right up 'til we got to the brewery, I thought, "They can't really expect anyone to SKI there. Certainly, we'll be the only ones crazy/stupid enough to do it." But then I saw the ski racks out front, and realized I was mistaken:

The place was packed. Keep in mind that the roads today were darn near impassable, so the folks in this picture had to walk, snowshoe or ski their way in.

We did get a free beer, by the way.

We skied home, and your dad was so jubilant that he played in the snow in the backyard while the real children watched from the other side of the sliding glass door.

And then there was cake. Laney said it was fun, and the cake was good, but it wasn't a real party because we didn't have a pinata. 

Happy birthday, dear Thor. Happy birthday to you.

I owe you a pinata.

Love,
Mom