I am spending today, my birthday, in a motel room in Conroe, Texas. No special plans for the 50th anniversary of my arrival on this little speck of dust in a huge universe. Well, I'll go and get a haircut at some point, but no real plans otherwise. Just a nice, quiet day of relaxing.
I had considered taking a cab to one of the local taverns this evening but Conroe has a city smoking ban and I don't feel like having to go outside to enjoy a pipe, and certainly can't afford to pay cab fare to get outside of the city limits. Besides, I have to work tomorrow and it promises to be a busy day so I need to be rested and ready to go.
I have stocked some beer in the mini-fridge, have an ample supply of pipes and tobaccos, and even a few DVDs to watch. I picked up some movies at Wal Mart yesterday but wasn't paying attention and didn't realize until I got back to my room that two of the three were actually Blu-Ray. I had a regular DVD player out in the truck, but no Blu-Ray player.
I considered returning the movies but got to thinking about it and decided that a cheap Blu-Ray player might make a decent birthday present for myself so I went back to the store and bought the cheapest one they had.
The television in my room is an old-fashioned CRT type without an HDMI input so I carried my own flat screen out of the truck, along with the HDMI cable for my DVD player, and am able to watch the movies that way. Besides, my tv has a better picture anyway.
So, another birthday on the road. Such is life when lived on the road. At least my schedule allows me to take the weekend off and in many ways that's about as good as it can get out here. The room is comfortable and roomy, the place is pretty quiet, and I really can't ask for more than that.