Unable to attend Lavina's birthday party, I Facebook an old friend and order a special cake for her
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12:04PM ;)
It is Lavina's birthday and, to my great frustration, I cannot take the time to go into town, join in the party and wish her a happy one. I suspect that all the family but me will probably show up. There will be good food and gifts, cake and ice cream. Candles will be lit and even though they will be for Lavina, Kalib and Jobe will assist her in the blowing out part. Lynxton, who as of yesterday had grown to seven pounds, seven ounces - nearly two pounds more than he was born with - will at times open his eyes and look around and at other times will sleep peacefully.
He might cry a little bit, but not much, because he is not a cry baby and, anyway, once he starts to cry, whatever need he is asking to have taken care of, whether it be a serving of mother's milk, a needed burp or a diaper change, will soon be taken care of.
Oh, how I want to take this day off!
But I can't. I must stay right here and struggle to complete my work. I cannot go to Lavina's birthday party.
I hate my work. I love my work. I love it and I hate it all at once. But it is all a labor of love - even the hate part.
I had to do something and, as it happened, just yesterday, I learned through Facebook that my old friend, Ernest J. Tigglemaster, who I had not seen since our kindergarten days together at Lincoln Elementary in Pendleton, Oregon, is now Five Star General Ernest J. Tigglemaster, US Air Force, and is assigned to the Pentagon. He has great authority.
So I sent him a Facebook friend request. He accepted. Then we started messaging back and forth. I asked if he could contact the folks at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage and have them send up a pilot and a jet to make a sky cake - triple decker - for Lavina.
"Sure! Anything for the daughter-in-law of my old kindergarten buddy, Bill Hess!" he exclaimed. And he did.
And this is the jet, in the process of making the sky cake. The thing about a sky cake is that you cannot eat it. You can only look at it and admire its transient beauty, for, like a real cake, it does not last long. It disintegrates, sublimates, disappears, joins the clouds and drifts away.
But, for the little bit of time that it exists it is a beautiful thing, one that proclaims to all who can see:
"Happy birthday, Lavina!"
And see those things down below in the shadows - the things that look old, junked, cars?
They are not junked cars. They are expensive and elaborate birthday gifts, creatively wrapped. Any kind of gift that you want, Lavina - just imagine it and you will find it there, down below your sky cake.
Reader Comments (8)
Amazing, thank you dad. :)
Happy Birthday Lavina
Bill, your stories are absolutely the best! I saw those concentric contrails on the way to work yesterday. I also saw them in the early spring this year while working in the Palmer gardens. I've always wondered why the plane would be flying around in circles, because it seems to be a large jet. Flightseeing or military? Now I know that it is a birthday-cake-maker!
Happy Birthday, Lavina! I hope your day has been wonderful, and that your next year is crammed full of awe and wonder. Thank you for sharing your delightful boys by photographs.
Thank you, Bill. I have not been commenting much. My mother moved to Assisted Living at the beginning of the month, and I have been working very hard helping her with adjusting to a new environment while closing her home and taking over her finances. This responsibility is one I shoulder gladly, but it is quite daunting.
Happy birthday, Lavina!! Hope it was a great day for you!!
Happy birthday, Lavina. Best part? I heard sky cake doesn't have any calories.
We saw the Sky Cake in Palmer, I took pictures of it too!
Happy Birthday, Lavina!
Happy Birthday beautiful mom of three boys! Lavina, thank you so much for sharing them with us all. I look forward to all their adventures in the future. One of my aunts had three very adventurous boys, very close in age & we couldn't wait to get her letters describing their mischief (prior to email- computers & I-phones).
Your Birthday cake is awesome Bill. How nice to have a kindergarten friend like General Tigglemaster willing to do your bidding. I'm sorry you have to work so hard you missed the festivities, but I know you'll be richly rewarded for your labors.
Since I have no such friend, I think I'll go have a piece of the cake (non-birthday variety) that has been calling me since I saw your picture. Not to worry, I'll have one for you too.