Celebrating My Milestone 70th Birthday Thanks to My Better Half

“You don’t have to let the stay-at-home orders put a damper on your special day."

The plan was to hold the event on our outdoor patio with nine family members including Cecile and myself. That was until we began to feel the effects of some of the Northern California wildfires that included unhealthy air warnings. There were times when it was a struggle to see the sun through an eerie orange glow of smoke that had that familiar sour smell and caused your eyes to burn. Even when at times the sky looked relatively clear, if you looked closely, you could see a thin veneer of haze and soot fell on our newly acquired covered outdoor furniture.

So, we resorted to Plan B: We held our little dinner party indoors. Our son Jason made margaritas, Kyle brought over a case of Pacifico’s beer and Cecile ordered an abundance of Mexican food that was delivered by Pedro’s Restaurant and Cantina. We enjoyed fresh salsa, guacamole and chips as appetizers, and had chicken enchiladas, cheese tamales, rice, refried beans and salad. For dessert, we had a chocolate layer cake buttermilk topping from Icing on the Cake and vanilla ice cream. 

Thanks to the generosity of our extended family, I was gifted with yellow colored biking vest with zippered arms sleeves, a reticulated bike lock, a back fender rack, and an online gift certificate to Breathe Together yoga classes.

The headline on the front page of  The Mercury News the following day read, “Hey, California: With wildfires, blackouts, bloody protests, pandemic, could 2020 get any worse?"

As I sat quietly, my answer to this question, is yes, things could always get worse, which is the reason to seize the moment before it passes. When we first realized we wouldn't be able to eat out of doors I told Cecile maybe we should postpone my birthday dinner which is officially August 26 anyway.

Cecile gently and wisely talked me out of this notion and I’m so happy she did. It came off without a hitch. Everybody was in a celebratory mood, and it was a joyful and peaceful respite from these volatile and dangerous times we find ourselves in.