A Day in the 70th year Celebration

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August 9th, Just a day after my 69th birthday I, and Patty, who turned 69 in April, celebrated a  Minnesota "potluck" with our families, serving up Brats and Sauerkraut under the disguise of celebrating a day in our 70th year of life. It was followed by a Saint Paul Saints ball game in their new, wonderful ball park in downtown St. Paul. It was a great day for me; having family come together and spending time reflecting back to my boyhood, including my boyhood love for baseball.

Allis-Chalmers PhaseOne IQ 180 120mm 1/30th sec f22 ISO 100 3 stitched images

I move on. Briefly reflecting back is great, fixating there is not. In Toledo, Ohio, half way back to Vermont, from our wonderful visit to Minnesota, in a Outback Steak House, next to our Marriott Hotel, after 11 hours on the road, I felt a most wonderful feeling. I don't know where it came from or why. I looked over at the table next to us, seeing 8 or so "old" people - gray hair, if they were lucky enough to have some, sagging body parts, waddles, blemishes and bellies and I just smiled, thinking we are they and they are beautiful. I felt a sense of freedom, earned wisdom, light-heartedness, connectivity and time....still time to do more of what we love to do. I am feeling like an old Allis-Chalmers tractor, staying tuned up as well as can be, to plow more fields, not worried about making hay when the sun is shining, but just doing what turns me on, now.