[jdviole2]

Helena dreaded her 40th birthday. Not, as you might expect because it meant she was getting older, but rather all the attention that might be shown. In our neighborhood and with our circle of friends, there was a good possibility of some kind of special attention being directed at her. She really didn't want that to happen. She asked if we could take a late vacation over her birthday week. I agreed and we planned a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We drove her new car (an early birthday present) and I filled the car with other gifts (a new SLR camera, binoculars, some jewelry) and her favorite desert (Tiramisu) and two bottles of Asti Spumanti on ice. We had a great week, seeing and doing a lot of things. We had a second encounter with Bison, this time a whole herd. We were standing on the edge of a 3 meter dropoff on the left side of the road watching a herd of bison moving toward us. To our surprise the herd split in two with one half moving up the road where we were parked and the other entering the ditch right behind us. The only thing between us and the bison to our rear was the edge of the dropoff, and the only thing on the right was her car. The bison were somewhat taller than her car so it was quite exciting. After they passed they turned and ran (RAN) up a very steep hill. It was fascinating to see an animal that large, on its relatively tiny legs run so rapidly up that hill. We turned the car around to see if we could find the herd but they were long gone. We turned around again and saw a bobcat sitting on top of a rock looking at us. We tried to get a picture but the cat disappeared into the brush. The next day we visited Mt Rushmore and saw a large male mountain goat calmly eating grass in the median of the parking lot. We visited Wind Cave. (Full disclosure here, Helena hated caves. When she was a kid she was in a cave and hit her head hard on the rock ceiling.) This cave is very large with good walkways and very beautiful formations. Let me digress for a second and tell you about another cave she visited with me. It was in Missouri, in the Ozarks. We were on this tour (another pretty good cave with only one place she had to duck her head) and the guide pointed to a huge crack IN THE CEILING of the cave. He asked if anyone knew what it was. Given the location of the cave I guessed that it was the New Madrid fault, that caused a huge earthquake in Missouri and Illinois in the 1800's. I was right. Pretty scary to be underground standing on the fault line where scientists say a new quake could very well happen at any time. OK back to the birthday trip. We hit some tourist trap gift shops. Helena liked to look around but she never bought anything there. She prefered to find her own souveniers. On the way up to the black hills we stopped in the badlands in Nebraska (much smaller than the Badlands in South Dakota) and I showed her the fossilized remains of early mammels. Though you are not allowed to remove any fossils from the area one accidently ended up in Helena's pocket. It joined the many I had accidently picked up when I was a kid. Finally we returned home. We had left the day before her birthday and this was almost a week later and she thought she was safe. When we pulled in I heard her say "oh crap". A "friend" of ours had driven two metal fence posts into our front yard and hung an giant sign proclaiming that Helena was 40. I couldn't stop laughing. I told her that if we hadn't gone on the trip she could have taken the sign down soon after it was put up. Instead everyone had a full week to enjoy the fact that she was 40. She did not see the humor in the situation at all. Though she had no proof (our friend left no trace) she really read the riot act to our friend the next time we saw him. He of course denied any involvement. I took a picture of the sign but after our first showing I was instructed to remove it from our slide presentation of our trip. Helena didn't have alergies but was very sensitive to pollen, and dust. In the spring we would open the windows at home to let in the fresh air. Then somewhere in town a flower would bloom and Helena's nose would instantly plug up and we would have to close the windows until the next winter. When she did work outside she wore face masks. In the first picture you see her in her "bio hazard suit" working on raking the leaves in the fall. This was probably in 1995. The next picture shows her in a museum (I think it is in Michigan) around 1983. I had forgotten how stunning I thought she looked in those white pants. The purse is her favorite. I recently put it in a box for disposal. It would have too many memories to keep. The next picture is an earlier shot of Helena. This was taken by her dad when she was 12. Just beginning to develop the look and expression that would steal my heart a decade later. The next picture is Helena and our first cat in our house in the early 90's. He was a fat cat. The painting on the right side of the photo is one of mine the other one was done by her dad. He was far better than I am. The next shot is the last (as far as I remember) of the swimsuit photos from the "skinny dip" trip. This was the last I took and she was ready to strip. If you look good she was very near a nip slip on the left breast and the right one was on its way out too. The last picture is another of Helena at her favorite spectator sport, outdoor eating. And she has her favorite food, Chocolate Ice Cream. I'm not sure where this was taken but from all I see and remember it was in California in the mid to late 70's.