The Day After

Wow!!

Yesterday, I spent most of the day in bed. Around 3 in the afternoon, I was told to get ready to leave in an hour. I was driven forever back in the woods, all the way to l'Auberge du Lac Alain where about 60 friends and family members were waiting to surprise me.

I'll be 60 tomorrow and retired the day after. It was a memorable evening. I don't like to be the center of attention but I have to agree that it was most pleasant.

I will do it more formally later but, for the benefit of my blip fans, I'd like to thank everyone who participated, with special thanks to the 2 MCs, Loulou and JM, to Phil for his video extraordinaire, to Wade, Sylvie, Mom, John and Margo (also for coming from so far) and my son Jean for their nice words, to Louis and Camille for a great rendition of "Fernand", to Bernard for composing such a great song, to Janic for making sure the scrapbook was getting done, to Emily for playing the piano and singing so wonderfully, to Matt and Josée for coming from afar and for having such wonderful girls (they were so well behaved all night) and most of all, my dear life partner, Mrs. Cool who sang with Emily and who started the whole affair months ago and made sure everything was gonna be just perfect. I love you sweetheart.

Of course I didn't sleep all night, excitement of reliving every moment again and again and because of the flu that was at that point at its worst. I forgot to thank Nicholas and Jessica for coming from Halifax in a storm (it took them 2 days because they got stuck in Miramichi and had to spend the night there).

I love you all.