Celebrate 60

I made a special trip to Santa Rosa on Saturday to pick up a gift for Les. Les is one of a duo (Kathy and Les) who have been our friends since we moved to Sebastopol about twelve years ago. Les fabricates all kinds of items with his 3 dimensional lathe. He works for a group called the Academy in Sonoma County. They help create museum exhibits around the world. He has the ability to take any three dimensional design from a CAD drawing and create that item in real life. He really has a knack for creating things with this amazing machine.

I went to the free trade store in Santa Rosa because it contains many items from around the world that I find interesting. They are all hand made items from jewelry to wire sculptures to purses and kitchen utensiles. I chose a motorcycle for him made of a couple of Heiniken beer cans, very clever. I had thought about a gift for him for a long time and never felt that I found the perfect thing. Another guest brought him a fourty pound slice of curley redwood, a truely great gift for Les. He can take something like this and fashon it into wooden bowls, boxes, statues or whatever shape he wants to create.

I definitely had mixed feeling about this party. When I turned 60, I told Donna that I absolutely did not want a party that celebrated my sixtieth birthday. Early on in the evening Les oblidgingly sat in a wheelchair while someone brought in a Depends trash can that they had found. And what better place to have a sixtieth birthday party than at the Senior Center.

There was a great mix of people from Les and Kathy's life. Les's relatives, cousins, grown children, Kathy's kids and their friends, friends from Les's work and friends from Kathy's work. All converged for this celebration. Kathy had scattered shiney little "60" confetti. The band that she hired was a trio with nice harmonies, a good mix of songs and first class instrumentalists. We took lots of photos - with both my camera and Kathy's camera. I reaquainted myself with many people I'd had met years ago. Les was good natured the whole evening and took all in stride.