Today is my birthday. I am now 27 years old. Birthdays always make someone sentimental and reflective, but it’s too early in the day to start that. What I do know is that birthdays are fun because at random moments of the day, you can feel special.

I’m at Candyce’s coffee shop right now. The best birthday present is knowing that I honestly have only a few hours left until my landscaping is complete. This is all that is left:

1. Lay six feet of curb.
2. Trim landscaping fabric
3. Plant Lantanas
4. Cut down old vine, plant new vine
5. Paint the high trellis on the house

Okay, it will take more than three hours now that I type it out. Every time I’m this close to finishing a big project, I slow down near the end. Maybe I don’t physically slow down, but when without mountains of work waiting for me, I can be free to enjoy each moment. So it feels like I am slowing down. But it doesn’t matter either way because I love landscaping.

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I turned on the spotlights tonight after sunset to squeeze in another couple hours of work. I’d been listening to Christmas music on the radio all day. The high school a half mile away had some big event at their football game. Depending on how the wind blows I can hear the announcer. It was a breezy night, so I turned down my Christmas carols to listen to the show.

The show began with a bang with the “Star Spangled Banner”. I paused for a moment of reverence, then I continued shoveling gravel. An hour later, I was getting more weak. I plopped into a lawn chair in my backyard. I don’t know if that chair has ever held such a broken body. Then came “Summer of ‘69″ by Brian Adams. It was a strange sentimental moment. I admired my landscape under the harsh lights, all the while imagining the lives of people who get sentimental when they hear those words, “Those were the best days of my life…back in the summer of ‘69.” It makes me laugh, because half of the people who hear the song weren’t even alive in 1969.

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Wow I’m tired. It’s time to go to bed, but I want to finish this journal first. Tonight after finishing my landscaping, cars started to line the streets for the joint birthday party for Matt Maher and myself. It was a fun party because everyone spent time outside rather than inside. This is the exact opposite my parties last year. I guess my landscape is a success.