On Turning Sixty Nine ~ March 17, 2014

Here's a little something to put things is perspective and garner some respect for shear perseverance: 69 years = 25,185 days = 604,440 hours.

I think most of us in our sixties are amazed we survived our youth. I mean really: our parents smoked, the paint on our cribs was lead based, and cars didn't have seat belts. We fell out of trees, never rode bikes with a helmet, and drank water from the hose. My girlfriends and I were always outside playing in the woods of Mt. Tamalpais or building things from scrap lumber, old wagons, and roller skates. 

Every decade brought new challenges in the stupid human category. There is something to be said for trial and error: what were we thinking, it seemed like a good idea at the time, I meant to do that, oops and of course, oh well. Now in our prime, there is less tendency towards being stupid but we still continue to learn on the fly, fall down, get up, and dust ourselves off. 

Three seventeen twenty fourteen ~ make it up as you go day.

First stop after breakfast is the Salvation Army complex north of Healdsburg. We love digging through the old book bins and today we hit the Jackpot with 18 paperbacks and a blank journal for $12. From there we headed up to Geyserville to document Coyote, an incredible metal sculpture from Bryan Tedrick. You can climb up his leg and sit in his belly, his ears are like windmill blades and his head turns with the wind. 

We were also on a mission to find wild mustard and poppies, but decided to eat first. Our neighbor suggested we try Diavola in downtown (all three blocks) Geyserville: excellent pizza and Rod was delighted to find one of his favorite beers called Death and Taxes. When we crossed over the river and turned south on Highway 128 towards Healdsburg we hit the mother lode of Spring color.

Decided it might be a good idea to walk off some of the Pizza so next stop was Riverfront Park just west of Windsor. Hardly a soul there, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves, sunny and 69 degrees. We watch the herons for awhile, starting to gather at their favorite nesting trees.

River Front Pond

2.3 miles and a Selfie

Time to head home and fix dinner. Walked up on the porch and the front door is blocked by bouquets ~ this birthday just keeps getting better.

Pleasantly exhausted we curl up in our easy chairs to read (TV broke yesterday and won't be fixed for two weeks ~ no doubt a message from the gods). Wait, a light bulb goes on, we have desert. Our neighbor Susi brought down this incredible, decadent cake the night before. We showed amazing restraint to not get into until today. A little bit goes a long way.