Banjo Man turns 80 on Saturday.

No one can believe it, especially him. He is very…lively. He loves to get up at 5 AM and head to the Cabin On The Mountain to do important things like build an out house and remove old shingles and haul old lumber to the dump.

It makes him happy.

So…his birthday. He didn’t want a party (for the record, let it be known that I offered). He said he’d like to go to a restaurant in town for a fancy dinner and listen to “Bruce and Beth” play music, which they do every Saturday night.

It’s going to be 99 degrees Saturday. If we ate inside in the glorious air-conditioned dining room, we wouldn’t be able to hear the music. Which was the point. So we decided that we would have a drink on the hot, hot, hot stone patio, hear some tunes and flee into the chilly dining room for dinner.

A plan!

And then I discovered the restaurant was closed for a private event Saturday night.

Banjo Man decided he really didn’t want to go to town after all. But neither of our lakeside restaurants in town are air-conditioned and no matter what, we would still be dealing with a hot evening.  And we’re out of the mood for hot evenings.

I could tell the man was losing interest in the whole birthday party thing, but I was still determined to do something.

And yet…ninety-nine degrees?????  Are you kidding me?  I can’t even grill on the porch in that kind of heat.  The new recipe for marinated shrimp would have to wait.

So we have postponed the celebration.  I will make chicken salad sandwiches from a favorite recipe and we will have potato chips and beer and peaches and cake.  Inside.  With the air-conditioning on.  And the three of us will play cards and take pictures of the sunset.

How does that sound?