Home	Photo Gallery	Heraldry	Newsletters
Stephens History	World Trade Center	Hide History	Joke of the month
Bill Stephens	Soccer	Published	Thought of the Month
Brent Stephens	Links	Effective Management Training	Book

As you only turn 40 once I decided to make a week of it. The week started with a trip to Possum Kingdom Lake, about 2 hours west of Fort Worth. We had arranged the trip some 2 months previously, hiring a cabin that sleeps 12 on the lake with its own private jetty and mooring for our boat. We invited two families to join us, the Rush's - Dennis, Rose, Joe (8) and Jacqui (6), and our British friends, the Parsons - Derek, Dominique and Anne-Marie (6). The trip was planned while we were experiencing a very mild, warm winter, temperature in the 60's and 70's (F). The weekend arrived with cold and rainy weather…

We went up on the Friday with the Parsons, arrived with the last few minutes of light and explored our surroundings. We unpacked a months supply of groceries (Dee wanted to make sure in case we were snowed in, I think) and after dinner settled down for a new board game - Titanic. The object is to get from second class to first class and then on to the lifeboats. Many hours later we were all still stuck in second class and decided to get some sleep. Now we found the heaters did not quite make it to the bedrooms, except the one in the "dormitory" where we had put the kids. We froze…

Saturday arrived, windy and rainy, so we decided to explore a fort some 50 miles away that Derek had tracked down. This was an interesting visit as they had a museum of sorts on site with ancient flintlocks and other settler and Indian artifacts. We returned to find we had just missed the Rush's who had arrived and gone off exploring. On the way back - amazingly - we stopped for Dominique to buy more groceries, which meant that combined with Roses contribution we could save Bosnia. All the marshmallows brought for toasting are the most traveled marshmallows that I know of - and we still have some…

Much to Derek's disgust, by popular vote we played Titanic again, but with a short cut out of second class to speed things up. The game seemed to take umbrage to his attitude and after three consecutive visits to "Steerage" he lost all his money and was out!

Sunday dawned (yes, we saw dawn - the sun came out!) and we headed for a refreshing walk to the dam wall. A fisher(wo)man reported there were some bald eagles around (this is not a reference to my impending birthday) but unfortunately we never saw them (being endangered that would have been a coup!) We returned to the cabin and as the wind dropped decided to "make the plunge" and put the boat in to try to get down to "Hells Gate" - the well known landmark on the lake (huge cliffs with an entrance into a secluded bay). The courageous volunteers (all the kids and Derek and Dominique who were leaving later) headed off.

The lake is huge, and after a bit of trouble getting the boat going, we ere off. The wind chill factor was, well, chilling, and we made the kids take turns in the bow, alternatively "defrosting" behind the passenger console and then sitting in the wind. I forgot about sun exposure and earned a red face for my omission. Dominique took a photo of Jason and I posing as Bedouins at one stage, which will serve as a reminder of the cold! After a few wrongs turns we found our way and Dominique took the necessary photos (under threat of bodily harm if they did not turn out!) and by popular vote returned home -  instead of viewing the dam wall further downstream…William then demonstrated how to catch a 3 pound fish and the kids enjoyed playing outside.

Dennis ended up having to return with the Parsons having forgotten that he had a dentist's appointment so we showed Rose how to play "Boggle" before retiring (this is NOT another reference to age…)

Monday dawned a beautiful day, we fished a bit off the jetty and then tried to go out in the boat, which decided that it was not REALLY ready for summer and ran a bit rough. The wind chill factor - despite the sun - made us decide it was more comfortable back around the cabin. Jason then demonstrated how to fall into freezing water while fishing and was rushed off to change. We left and had an uneventful journey home. Despite the weather it was a good break and many good memories were made (Derek will never live down his Titanic experience…)

BACK HOME: I took the boat in for servicing and did some office work whilst watching the 30's fade away…. The boys were home on "Spring Break" so it was a pleasant time (other than William is 9 going on 13 and there were a few brotherly tiffs…)

Wednesday (D-day) arrived with breakfast in bed and the few cards and emails that had arrived in time and a few gifts. Dee INSISTED on taking me to lunch. Earlier she had asked what my "wish list" was if anyone asked and I replied " any one of the following, and I will be just as happy with ANY : a Mercedes (sold mine to get the Expedition), a Mustang convertible, a LazYBoy recliner (getting older now), a gas cooker/grill, or a card". Well, it turned out that she had scoured the countryside and found a neat blue Mustang convertible to rent for a few days. We DID go for lunch, too, at the Red Lobster (I favor seafood) avoiding the crowds at Bennigans, an Irish restaurant which serves green beer on St. Patrick's Day and is therefore very popular. We then went to see "My Favorite Martian" which was enjoyable, before renting the latest Leslie Nielsen spoof "Wrongfully Accused" which and the men laughing so hard at one time that we were drying and had to stop the tape. Dee videotaped us having the same reaction replaying the tape over the same section. Excerpt Part I - Lady (Artist) "I would like to have you sit for me", Nielsen "Why, are you a dog trainer?" Excerpt Part II - Nielsen "Your dog looks kinda strange!" Lady "That's because you are looking at his butt!" Nielsen "Well, then, I guess he won't like the cookie I fed him, either!"                     I guess it's a boy thing…

Thursday and Friday I was at client sites, so nothing exciting other than a few belated cards and emails.

Saturday was the night of THE party, it was a St. Patrick's Day theme, with a "Parking for Irish Only" sign on the door and a "Guess who's 40?" 2 foot square poster stuck in the lawn outside. Dee had prepared "Chicken a la King" so the day was spent with cooking smells all around.

There were the predictable last minute acceptances and sadly, a few cancellations, Andy Hickman's mother is seriously ill, and the Donnelsons had a sudden death in the family out of town - they were missed most as having known us the longest in the US, Andy having been instrumental in getting us over here. The Proctors excuse is that they were packing for their move into the 4,400 sq.ft. house (from an 1,600 sq.ft. apartment…)

Without an MC, I was my usual shy and withdrawn self and MC'd the occasion myself. Before the opening of the presents, Dee had compiled a file of the emails that had come in from friends unable to attend and excerpts were read from each.

Mark Manley (South Africa) "Would love to be there, have a transport problem and a previous engagement"

Derick Lotz (South Africa) "Remind Brent of the time he took Dee around Kyalami in a race car and his favorite video from in the car"

Actually, it was Andy Hickman who was so uncomfortable being thrown around the track holding his video camera of his shoulder, so the 30 odd present were subjected to watching the video tape…

Berry Hayter (nee Du Toit ex Zimbabwe / Rhodes University / Dallas now with husband Dick in North Carolina) sent a poem "Here's to Brent …" recounting all the fun stuff our families had gone through. The only stanza missing was "he's so blue"…

Prof Mitchell (SA), my social work Professor from Rhodes recounted an incident with Prof Higgins when we had a run in for me having my feet on the desk during his lecture. Boy, have I changed!

Tony Sonemann (SA)-acknowledging my memory over 8 years (I was right) and a green potato recipe…

Peter Sansom (SA)- original poem…

Greeting from Martha Sharp (SA)"moo loop?" and Paul Hill (Canada) "Tootsie?" "Jammer?" were foreign languages they used

Greeting from my favorite non-identical Clemo twins (same day 5 yrs. apart…) in Johannesburg (SA)

An offer from Rob Hayne (SA)to supply the Castles (I knew he was earning big bucks, but the Castles I have seen cost a lot of money…)

Greeting from an old Biology teacher, Ted Klenk who said I made him feel old (Ted, you are old, and there is no surf in Florida, East London surf is the REAL thing)

"IF" poem from Diana Shires (SA) (who liked the rebuilding with wornout tools bit, as she has seen me do a fair bit of that…)

Wishes from Mark Thorpe in New Zealand who said he would be with me in spirit (another transport problem) and that his speech at his 40^th was a two minutes "Aaaaaaaargh"

Last but not least, a note from Dee saying what a nice guy I am (she married me, so had to defend her choice!!!)

OK, on to the presents…

Yes, they "got me good" - there was:

Happy 100^th T-shirt with "Growing old in inevitable - growing up is optional" from Larry and June, Happy 100th birthday card (environmentally friendly, can re-use for the next 60!), an eyeglass holder, denture glue, denture bath, "Depend" guards for men, hemorrhoidal + arthricare cream, "40 Years of Napping Dangerously" book, Never Sniff a Gift Fish (Patrick McManus) book, "40 Sucks" birthday sucker, free massage voucher, free dinner voucher, Ayrton Senna book, Bolo "Last Trail" necktie thing (the real statue is awesome) - the only thing missing was the hair dye to touch up the gray in the sideburns…

In all, it was a great evening, thanks to all who participated and especially those who attended, start saving now for my 50^th in 2009 - or if I am a millionaire by then - I will fly all the overseas visitors in myself…