BIRTHDAY BOY - MYSTERY MAN

Please remember that after knowing each other for 35 1/2 years and being married for 34 of those years, Oliver and I are realizing there's still a LOT about each other that remains a mystery. Just a few of those mysteries:

OJ shuns the adulation of others, but like it or not, he gets it -anywhere, anytime. Take for instance going to the Edmonton airport together. Why oh why are we greeted at the Alaska Airlines desk by the personnel manager who EVERYTIME treats him as her favorite celebrity? Yes, he's there a lot, but he's there quietly. She tells me how HE is their best-loved favorite of all the regulars. Or when I talk to any of OJ's colleagues and they go on and ON about what a great doctor/person he is. Or how the people he home teaches thinks he's the best ever. Or his grandsons, whose grins couldn't get any wider when they see him. So here I am - giving him public adulation on this blog. Sorry.

When I ask him for advice on something, he comments he thinks I'm on the right course, but after a brief conversation where he points out just a couple of LITTLE suggestions, I've changed the entire course of everything I'm about to do. How does that happen? This is a mystery.

Or when he says he is a luddite but is able to deal with any of my computer questions.

Or how about when he continually tells me how MUCH he prefers to stay in one place but when asked what the best things of the past year were? he says the trip to Chile in June, the trip to Scotland in September, the trips to LA and the two trips to Utah were the absolute HIGHLIGHTS of the year. And how he wants to keep having two addresses in two countries. More mysteries.

Or how he loves the solitude of being an empty nester but will do anything to make all those who come to our home - especially children and grandsons - feel comfortable. So that they'll come again. Or how he hates to dance but has cut up the dance floor with me, who loves to dance - in public, with lots of witnesses - TWO times this year.

All of these mysteries can be explained if it's remembered that Oliver is best known for his great kindness and intelligence and how much he values his family.

Oliver, known as OJ, Ollie, Dad, Grandpa, Doctor, Brother Schneider, is also known for his great sense of humor. He loves the gospel, his family, his work, golf, Costco and thrift store buys - in that order.

There may be much about him that can't be explained, but it's no mystery as to why he's bound to have the best year ever. It's because he deserves it. Happy birthday!