.

Well, here it is early evening, and my birthday is coming to a close. I received plenty of well-wishes on Facebook from friends both near and far. Each and every one was treasured and lifted my spirits.

Though, to be honest, for most of the day my spirits were in no need of lifting. My sweetie-wife took half a day off from her work and spent it with me. We went out for lunch to Outback Steakhouse. I had wanted to try out Texas Roadhouse, but they did not open until 3pm and other considerations made that a non-starter. I have a nice New York Strip, a side salad, bread, and mashed potatoes, still counting the points for my Weight Watchers journey, down about 26 pounds so far, but not caring if I failed to stay under my daily quota, which I exceeded but not by very much. I had intended to order an indulgent dessert but the server failed to return promptly and so I simply paid via the tabletop device and we came home.

My sweetie-wife gifted me with a 4K UHD copy of Godzilla Minus One (in my opinion the very best Godzilla film, even better than the 1954 original.) She also got me a Call of Duty game so I could waste more hours being slaughtered by mutant cyborg teenagers and their inhuman reflexes. Now all I needed was the delivery of my new 55″ OLED television. It was scheduled for between 3pm and 6pm.

Ahh, the optimism of delivery windows.

It arrived at 7:20 pm.

We had already eaten, and my sweetie-wife helped me take down the old failing television, remove its brackets, affix them to the new set, and hang it on the stand, an evolution that took in total about 40 minutes.

So, with the television mounted on the stand, but not yet with any devices connected, the day is drawing to a close. Once she retires to bed, I will set about getting the television working and all the settings just where I want them. Tomorrow, which I also have off, I will cart the old one away for recycling.

While I had hoped to be watching my brilliant infinite-contrast set already, I still cannot complain about the day. I spent a lot of it with my sweetie-wife, had a tasty steak, and no true disaster struck. Not bad for the day I officially join those who for Medicare.