My Dad; living green

I just need to brag on my dad, Richard Kubalak, who turned 80 this year. He and my mother moved to a "community for active seniors" a couple of years ago and he joined the model sailboat club.

My father was an art teacher, librarian and school audio/visual supervisor, but mostly he has been a lifelong user of recycled materials in an effort to have more fun. He made kites out of the Sunday funnies. He once attended a costume party wrapped in bubble wrap with a hidden tape recorder that played heavy breathing sounds. His office and library were decorated with objects that he found or created and we couldn't wait to visit to just hang out in the environments that he made. Give him an afternoon, some toilet paper tubes and a solar battery and stand back. I joked when they moved to Greenspring that there would be a pile of "hall walkers" who had coronaries in front of their door when his motion sensitive, kinetic sculpture jumped out and said "HELLO!" (My mother, a minimalist, decided on a less stressful option)

His sailboat club, located a few miles from the Pentagon, is full of former Navy guys. When my father joined, he began experimenting with different sail materials, and winning races. Imagine the uproar when he showed up with the non-regulation red nylon (which helps him actually see his boat from across the pond). The ultimate triumph occurred the other day when he showed up with a sail made from the wrapper of a Costco bushel of paper towels. Needless to say, he cleaned up in his races that day.