The life odometer slowly turned as I awoke to a cherry chip cupcake on my fifty-first birthday.

It was a warm, sunny, but smoky day as forest fires from central Canada filled the hazy sky.

I joined my handful of high school friends for lunch. I had a burger that was quite delicious and sizeable enough that I couldn’t finish it. The server brought out a dense but disappointing chocolate cake where she sung the first two bars to Happy Birthday and then walked away while my friends continued the singing.

I returned home to enjoy a cigar and a cocktail on the balcony, seeing the birthday wishes stream in from various social media platforms. [Thank you, everybody.]

For dinner, my girlfriend made a delicious gochujang miso marinated salmon served on a bed of basmati rice. The appetizer was figs, pistachios, basil, honey, and balsamic on a bed of fior di latte. Really tasty flavour combinations that I would absolutely have again.

The evening was intended to include a couple hours of gaming but my son had a school assignment due at midnight and he had fallen asleep. I ended up needing to wake him up and making sure he had everything he needed. Mission accomplished. One step closer to seeing this kid graduate.

At one minute to midnight, I hopped online to join my friends in one game of Call of Duty. We won. And I got the last kill. A fun way to close out my birthday.