This morning I read the latest post from our friend Sharkey at MQD as she blogged about silos.  It took me back many years.  I had just started my senior year in high school.  On a Saturday, I went back to the farm where I had worked in the summer.  The job was to help fill silo.  It was a long hard day, and I returned home tired, stinky and sore.  I just wanted to stay home and go to bed early.  Yet it was my best friend’s birthday and so I showered, put on clean clothes and went to his house on the other side of town.

There were folks that I knew and others that were new.  There was one girl present who was very quiet.  I almost didn’t notice here.  She was sitting next to me at a card table where four of us were playing a game.  I was losing.  Bad.  Teasingly she touched me on the arm with words of mock comfort.  I looked at her as I have never looked at another woman–before or since.  (Four years later, we would marry.)  Today that young woman celebrates another birthday.

Sylvia in Cartago, Costa Rica

That picture is one of my favorites.  Sylvia is standing beside the man from whom we would buy oranges every Saturday morning.  This picture is the right one on bitter cold and windy day.  Road accidents abound in this part of the state.  Slippery roads and a steep ditch foiled our plans to get Sylvia’s dad to the airport to catch a flight to Florida.  Everyone is okay and we’ll try again on Monday.

Happy Birthday, Sylvia.  I love you.  Here’s wishing you many happy returns of the day.