Two Things on this Memorial Day

FIRST

Danica Patrick ROCKS!!! Finishing Forth in the Indy 500 and leading the race for 19 laps is no small accomplishment. She joins some very accomplished women who have gone before her at Indy and in the racing industry in general. Lyn St. James, Sarah Fisher and Janet Guthrie were all pioneers in such a male dominated sport and I can only imagine the excitement they felt watching yesterday’s race. There are so many other women who have crashed the motor sports party who also deserve recognition – they are too numerous to list here.

I met Lyn St. James at Road Atlanta many years ago and was completely taken in by her ease and knowledge of the sport. She says it best here:

"We've proven we can race, we've proven we can race hard and that we want it just as bad as everybody else, but we're missing that piece. And that's what it takes, is to take it to a level where people are paying attention." - Lyn St. James


I think that Danica Patrick will certainly help in that regard – draw the attention!

This life-byte is so important being a father to 3 girls who have all grown up to be their own person. It gives me a great sense of pride and gratitude that the edge of “gender based” bias continues to fray. We had decided early on to support what their true interest and inclinations were and not try to steer them into some stereotypical model – easier said than done given the social norms and pressures. It was/is an exciting, frustrating and amusing journey, but we have three girls that we are proud of and who are proud of themselves!

SECOND

Sith Happens – ok, it’s overused, but we did go see The Revenge of the Right…er…Sith finally. It was worth every nickel to see someone with the influence of George Lucas TOTALLY slap the current administration in the face. It would have been a cheering kind of moment except that I was too stunned and amazed when Padmé/ Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman) says when The Emperor is addressing the Senate:
The Emperor: [to the Senate] We shall change into the first Galactic Empire for a safe and secure society.
[Senate fills with enormous applause]
Senator Amidala: [to Bail] This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.

Enough said!

Happy Memorial Day everyone – be safe out there!

Bufflepup and family!

Taylor's (aka Buffledog) family!

(l to r) Winston (great grandpa), Spring (maternal grandma), Crystal (paternal grandma), Rave, Gibson

Taylor's mom - Lexi

Taylor's dad - Kohl

Crate Training 101 Remedial

Who's training who?

He was having no part of this! He said he'd be good, so we took the crate away and he was a "perfect puppy" 99.9% of the time!

1st snow ever! He loved it!

The only time he was naughty/bored! Don't know how many latex gloves he ate, but we think he's purged! Cat said, "See! I told you!"

Fall hike!

Bufflerug! OR Buffleottoman!

Either way a happy, sleepy dog!

UPDATE!! If you're new to the blog there's more Buffle goodness! See here , here , here and over here !

Well peeps! Maybe this'll tide you over until the next installment of the "ultimate road trip adventure" post

The shell on our backs

I mentioned a couple of post ago that we took a year off to travel the continent. Here is the first of several installments:

There are times in our life that the decision to act on an impulse is so crystal clear that there can be no denying the result. Such was the case when Hot Sauce and I decided to rent the house, put all of the remaining “stuff” into storage, buy a motor home and spend the next foreseeable future on the road. This all began to gel in the winter of '96/‘97 after a long and bitter time during which we had decided to separate. We knew coming back together that we would have to do something different, something dramatic to shake us out of the malaise that we found our relationship to be in.

I’m here to tell you that putting two people in a 32’ motor home for an extended length of time will test the very outer edges of patience and civility. It is also a severe test of anyone’s ability to pare down their material possessions and not overload the motor home. We had to look at stuff with a very narrow focus when trying to outfit a “home” that will be our habitat for a year or more; trying to anticipate as many environmental scenarios as one can, all the while preparing for extremes in these environs. It wasn’t like we were taking a long vacation that would be limited to a single season, but we knew that we would go through all four seasons and that would also change as our geography changed. We also took into account as many contingencies as we could imagine, as well as the advice of some that had gone before us. We read everything we could get our hands on trying to prepare ourselves for this adventure.

Hot Sauce had already quit her job as an executive director for a non-profit organization, suffering from terminal burnout and boredom. She began the search for the motor home and after many long and agonizing hours of looking we finally settled on our “home to be”. We learned a lot about motor homes and trailers during that time, but we can look back now and know that we didn’t learn enough. It wasn’t a disaster per se, but along the way we began to find things that we didn’t know to look for in a coach. We take so much for granted in our property bound homes that are either non-existent or in minute supply in a wheeled house.

We had done enough research to know that hydraulic levelers were a “must have” and came in very handy in our many less-than-adequate camp sites. We knew to create a filtering system for our “fresh” water intake and not to take “fresh” water for granted. We were also advised to take spare parts for most of the critical appliances and generator. The advice to take plenty of patience along with the rest of the tools was of paramount importance – we were going to need every iota.

We learned about paring down to the base essentials and still felt like we had taken too much. The part we spaced on was how much we would acquire along the way – we were human and gatherers after all and we forgot that – only to pay later! The things that we were excessive about were play things; however, we rationed that play was to be a huge factor on this adventure. So, fishing tackle, beach/lounge chairs, camera equipment, bikes, musical instruments, books, maps and CD/tapes were loaded into the coach. Tools, cookware, linens and bath items were loaded. Laundry essentials and food were stowed as well. The hardest to deal with was clothes and even in our “pare-down” mindset we managed to over pack the closets. All the other thousand and one little things took up the remaining room and we were ready to hit the road baby – hit the road!

Well almost, I still had my job and the renter wanted to move in right away and there were the cats to consider. There was also a myriad of end of school year activities to attend and familial obligations to wade through.

We didn’t want to get rid of our kitties, but taking them on the road felt like a responsibility that we weren’t prepared to assume. Neither had been leash trained and we knew that some parks wouldn’t allow them. So…one went to my folks and the other stayed with the renter with the codicil that once settled again we would take them back.

I gave a month’s notice and was diligent in finishing up my open projects. We had more than one “second thought” as time drew close to my leaving the job, but it was mostly fear and we hadn’t settled on a plan for some health insurance coverage. It still took me another 45 days to truly unplug from the job (that’ll save for a later post) – easier said than done!

The renter was pretty insistent about moving in so we had to find a place to be in the interim. Folks and friends all said to “come park in our driveway”, but we really needed to start establishing some distance from the life “formally known as ours”. Local campgrounds were expensive at best and those that weren’t were not worth being in, or already had their quota of extended stays. We had made the acquaintance of a couple that owned a nudist camp within commuting distance to my job and they offered us a place there. What the hell, we were starting a new life; it was cheap and had full hook-ups (a much coveted commodity we were to learn over the next year). This was an awesome beginning to our adventure. Hot Sauce was able to finish prepping the coach for the journey and traded time in the camp office in exchange for our stay there. We were able to “test drive” our new home without being out in the wilds of the continent. We were making friends that were sad to see us leave, but understood that our travels had just begun.

…and begin they did!

(to be continued)

tag

01. Total volume of music files on my computer?
uhhhhhhhh none, as I'm a computer idiot and don't know how to do it - someone help me?!!

02. The last CD I bought was:
Green Day - American Idiot

03. Song playing right now:
Van Halen - Mean Street

04. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me(in no particular order):

Higher - Creed
What's This Life Ford - Creed
Imagine - John Lennon
Let It Be - Beatles
Aerosmith - Dream On
Eagles - Hotel California
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

Ok that's more than 5, so sue me

05. Five people I am tagging with this and why.....

Summation of my week

"WHEN YOU'RE UP TO YOUR ASS IN ALLIGATORS, IT'S HARD TO REMEMBER WHY YOU SET OUT TO DRAIN THE SWAMP"

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!
I promise to get back to visiting & blogging soon!

Tagged X 3 :o(

Three is a Magic Number

Three names you go by:

Jim
Dad
Honey

Three screen names that you have had:

Seamus
Damp K9
Magus

Three things you like about yourself:

My tenacious nature
My humor
My compassion

Three things you don't like about yourself:

My procrastination
My aching back
My inability to find contentment

Three parts of your heritage:

Irish
Scotch
German

Three things that scare you:

Losing my eyesight
Losing my hearing
Losing my dog

Three of your everyday essentials:

Coffee
Some alone time
Humor


Three things you are wearing right now:

Jeans (broken in)
Hiking boots (broken in)
Glasses (not broken)

Three of your favorite bands or musical artists (@ the moment):

Leo Kottke
Kate Rusby
Allison Krauss

Three of your favorite songs:

The Bug – Dire Straits
Peel Me a Grape – Diana Krall
My Father’s Face – Leo Kottke

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months:

Writing with purpose
Not procrastinating
Climbing Mt. Whitney

Three things I want in a relationship:

Respect
Laughter
Interest

Two truths and a lie: (in no particular order)

I love all my children (including step)
I know who I am
I enjoy the dawn

Three physical things that attract you to the opposite sex:

Presence
Pheromones
Voice

Three things you can't do without:

Sunshine
Noticing the beauty in things or surroundings
Fresh Air

Three of your favorite hobbies:

Rock climbing
Playing music
Photography

Three places you want to go on vacation:

New Zealand
Peru/ Machu Picchu
Patagonia

Three things you just can't do:

Find contentment
Cause harm to my children
Harm animals

Three things you want to do before you die:

Build my own sustainable house
Finish my book
Find contentment

Three celeb crushes:

Sandra Bulloch
Miranda Otto
Helen Hunt

Three people you want to tag:

The tag stops here! That is unless YOU want to pick it up.

Bat wings and mangos

Kim’s post on bats the other day inspired this gem of a memory and a repeated tale. Yep, those furry, leathery winged rock rodents that many have such a morbid fear and fascination about. Personally, I love the little critters – little mosquito gobblers – come to Renfield my little pets! *drools*

The memory is of a time lost, but not forgotten. A time having to do with one of my favorite activities – CAVING – yep, S.P.E.L.U.N.K.I.N.G (thought I was going somewhere else didn’t you?) where fear meets fear and just about every phobia known can be served up in these veins and arteries of the Earth’s crust.

I’m not known for having abandoned my institutional status!

After an evening of far too much fun and in the ensuing dullness of the aftermath, my roommates and I came to the unanimous decision that we were bored! Oh! And the cure for such boredom, you might ask?

“Let’s go caving!”

“Wha..?”

“Sure! Let’s do Case! *insert evil grin* (Case Caverns in NW Georgia)

“Fuck you! It’s dark. It’s midnight.”

“Hey, It’s dark in the cave so….?”

“It’s too far.”

“1½ hours…you wanna toke?”

“Who’s drivin’? I’m not drivin’...”

“John! He passed out hours ago…you wanna toke?”

So John did and we went and by 2AM we were in the “Keyhole Passage” (caves and passages all have colorful names like: “Squash Crawl”, "Cemetery Pit”, “Total Breakdown” and “Bottomless Chimney”). The “Keyhole” was the first passage after a decent down a cable ladder from the small entrance and was in the shape of a keyhole – narrow at the bottom and wider at the top – and was only wide enough for one person at a time.

We spent the next couple of hours up and back and circling around the crawls, passages and rooms dodging the multiple deposits of bat guano – some piles 3-5 feet high (that's a lot of bat shit!). We spent the obligatory time changing the carbide in our lamps and since we had a complete neophyte with us we created a "lights out" condition designed to test the equilibrium of the heartiest inner ear – there is nothing like complete and utter darkness to fuck with the senses. We were muddy and slimy and tired and un-buzzed enough to know it was time to go since it would be daylight soon and we risked a bust by the park rangers. We forgot the mud and the slime and the guano rooms and headed toward the entrance.

We all queued up in the first room to move out through the Keyhole Passage with John leading. I was next but dawdling, waiting for the rest of the crowd. John was near the top of the cable ladder at the entrance and let out a yelp – uncharacteristic of John. I looked up through the gloom to first see John flat against the ladder a few feet below the entrance and 30 feet above us and second to notice movement through the air dimly penetrated by my waning light.

It was that enlightened “Ah, ha!” when I realized that it was dawn and all the bats were returning. I shouted for everyone to stand perfectly still, there were bats on the wing! Two of our little band of miscreants hit the wet floor of the passage babbling incoherently, but the rest of us had been around bats enough to know what to do and we stood there, frozen in the moment.

We were easily there for 15 – 20 minutes as the bats returned in waves. It was like being in a super-freaky fan as they passed very close to our face and hands. We could feel the sweep of their wing and the burst of air on the stroke. None touched us despite the close confines of the passage. That was some of the most enjoyable time of my life, those 20 minutes, enveloped by the bats. We understood fully why there was the amount of guano in the rooms as well. Yes the cave was full of shit and we were happy – well, most of us and the rest survived!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE RETOLD TALE: This was told to me by our vet in Georgia who was also a dental specialist for animals, tending to such luminaries as the big cats in the Atlanta Zoo. She was invited down to the Bacardi Aviary in Florida to study the teeth of the Fruit Bats in residence there. They had been warned ahead of time to not wear anything like perfume, scented deodorant, hair spray, etc., while they were working in the bat aviaries. The first morning there they were being escorted into the Fruit Bat enclosure and they were only a few feet inside when her assistant screamed and they turned to see her head enveloped in gigantic bat wings with the head of the bat buried in her hair. She was promptly freed from her leathery captor and ushered out of the enclosure to finish her hyperventilation.

It turns out that although she had complied with the letter of the personal products exclusion she didn’t think through washing her hair with some fruit variant of Herbal Essence shampoo.

BREAKFAST!

That is all! :)

Present, past &......?

I’ve sat here at my desk, drumming my fingers in anticipation of posting again. There is so much to write about and yet now, when I have the opportunity, I’m drawing a blank. I’m having a bona fide creative crisis. So I’ll just wing it and see what happens.

First I’d like to say that Lily continues to sleep undisturbed in her alcove. I’ve had a discussion with the neighborhood watch captain regarding Lily and he agreed to just let her be. She continues to come in long after nightfall and leaves at early light; which comes close to 5 AM. I have also talked with a representative of the local women’s shelter, but there is nothing they can do pre-emptively. I also talked with a local Buddhist church that has an association with a shelter and they were a little more encouraging – I gave them all the information that I had.

The heat is still on at work regarding personal time on the company communication portals. I’m sure that over time things will cool off a bit and the gaze in this direction will lessen in intensity. Meanwhile I’m being a good boy…mostly. It is just as well I don’t have the option of running through my blog roll at work since just about every moment is consumed – a very different company than it was 6 months ago. I miss being able to visit everyone on the roll on a daily basis though, but there are only so many hours left after work.

Hot Sauce and I started attending a Voluntary Simplicity discussion group. I suspect that you’ll be hearing about that a good bit in the coming months. Over the years we have experienced both expansion and contraction of “stuff” and “available time”. I remember a fine time in our life when all that we owned fit either on our backs or in the bed of a pickup truck. We had time to just “sit” and “be”. Looking back, those were some wonderful times. Now we have “stuff” on both coast and with dad moving out of his house in November we are likely to see more. If I look at each of the things that comprise the abundance of “stuff” I can understand and know why it is in our sphere; however, if I look at it in a macro view I wonder how we went from being the low maintenance hippy-types to rampant consumers. We are concerned about that over which we have dominion and yet when we look at others we look like lightweight consumers. It will be an interesting discussion group.

I do feel totally overwhelmed by life right now. I see the wisdom of keeping on keeping on with work, etc. Yet I’m now a slave to work just to maintain the life of which we have become accustomed. Nine years ago we felt the same way and rented out our house on the east coast, put all of our “stuff” in storage, bought a motor home and spent the next year on the road. We circumnavigated the contiguous states one and a half times with many forays into Canada and Mexico. We started without a plan, destination or a route – WE WERE HAPPY!

I think I’ll post on that trip over the next while.

Have a Happy Weekend everyone!

So Busted!!!!

Like many before me, I got SOOOOO BUSTED at work over web time, phone time, e-mail............GAH! Oh well, at least I didn't get the boot! Being a five time lay-off survivor I want to keep the record going...HAH!

So, if I'm not as responsive as I have been in visiting and commenting, you now know why...besides my work load has nearly doubled for the next few months. Blekkk - just in time for summer. Pffttt!

Happy Thursday...see ya'll when can!

Larry's a Lily

I was going to tell you the other day, but I didn’t have anything else to report other than LTHG’s gender is now confirmed and will hereafter be known a LTHG – Lily the Homeless Girl. (for those coming in late on the LTHG story, here are the links to the previous post : LTHG back story & LTHG return )

The Buffledog and I finally saw her moving about a few days ago and I really didn’t have much to offer other than that – to her or to you. There was some small comfort in knowing for sure, but as the mystery sheds its diaphanous layers there also comes a crushing reality and the character of a tale becomes a real person. Lily has become a “story to know”, but I’d yet to figure out how to approach.

The morning had been a morning of revelation as I conveyed in the previous post. Taylor and I were on our walk and had taken a different route and landed at the one espresso stand that was open at such an ungodly hour. We sat there and I finished a triple short Americano as I slowly began to see the world through something clearer than my meshing eyelashes. There are a few early morning risers that love to oochie-gooch on the Buffleboy, so we endured the attention and decided to head back toward the park.

I must digress here for a minute and describe a relatively new accomplishment that the Buffledog has perfected. The boy loves to be given tasks – it’s in his nature and intrinsic to the breed, they want to work and to feel useful. This boy likes to carry things and has been greeting me at the gate or the car door and takes the laptop case (soft leather) by handle or any space close to it and will carry it into the house to whoever is there – Hot Sauce or Saucy Free or his bed. On a previous trip to the store I bought a pound of coffee and he wanted to “carry” it and I thought, “What the hell!” and wrapped it tightly in the plastic grocery bag thinking that the worst that could happen is a punctured coffee bag and what’s a little dog slobber amongst friends? He took it in his mouth and pranced the six blocks home without so much as a cursory sniff at the doggie news. Well, this morning he wanted to do the same and since I had my hands full of several more coffees and fresh bagels I was glad for the help. So he pranced and I was doing my best to keep up until we got to the park and he abruptly stopped and dropped the bag of coffee on the sidewalk.

There on a bench was Lily, looking very small and sad. She was obviously upset about something and my opportunity to speak with her came by compassionate default. I tentatively said hello and asked if there was something I could do to help. She wasn’t startled but wasn’t quick to react either. She turned toward me slowly and the tears were still coursing down her cheeks. She was very weathered and it was hard to tell her age, but I’m guessing mid-forties. Her eyes were red, but there was clarity about them and she spoke with a deep resonant voice. Her speech was educated and belied her outward appearance. She said that this was Mother’s Day and that this was a hard day for her. I asked her why, had she lost her mom?

Lily looked vacant for a moment and then said, “No, my daughter.”

My throat tightened and then remembered the lattes and bagels in my bag. By this point Taylor had put his nose on her leg and she was absently scratching the top of his head. I offered the coffee and food and she gratefully accepted. She remarked on how nice and calm Taylor was and how lucky I was to have him.

I said that I was sorry that she’d lost her daughter and she launched into a portion of her story. She was from Madison, WI and her daughter had been hit by a car and died at the age of 6. She went into greater detail than I’m willing to share here, but suffice it to say that she’d just lost her mind. She had already lost her husband. She lost her job after the accident and decided to head west. It was in Seattle that the trucker stopped and she’d been here ever since. She said that she can mostly put the sad thoughts aside until days like Mother’s Day and her daughter’s birthday. She then said, “No mother should have to lose a child.”

I had no reply.

It was clear that she’d told as much of her story as she wanted to, so I mumbled something unintelligible and then offered the remaining coffee and bagels. She nodded an acceptance and I asked if she would be offended if I offered her some money. She looked at me a little strangely and said that she did work, but things had been tough lately. I took that as a left-handed yes and removed a twenty from my pocket. She protested for a moment but it was clear that she was grateful and gingerly took the folded bill. She gave Taylor a farewell pat and I handed him the coffee bag. She made a sound and Taylor turned to look at her with the bag in his mouth and she just cracked up. Taylor knew he’d made a funny and we left Lily chuckling.

I knew there was nothing else to be done right then, but felt we had impacted Lily’s life in a positive way. Perhaps there would be other times. I still don’t know all of her story, but enough. She didn’t give me her real name, perhaps it’s just as well.

We were walking the last 2 blocks to the house when Lily’s words came back to me, “No mother should have to lose a child.” I thought about Hot Sauce and about how she’d lost a daughter at the age of three and how she also has a hard time on Mother’s Day and Saucy One’s birthday. The Buffledog pranced on with his present of coffee and I knew that Saucy Free and I would make today be as special as we could.

Revelation

This is not the post I intended for today, but it is certainly the one that seems most important. It all started this morning at 4AM when the Bucolic Buffledog stuck his nose right into my face and said in his panty doggie voice, “Get up, get up, get up! I gotta pee. I gotta poo. I gotta eat. I gotta go for a walk, I gotta chew on your hand, I gotta go play.” I reluctantly unfolded from dead asleep to dead asleep on my feet trying to negotiate the narrow one lane stairs with 2 hungry, warring sister cats in the front and an exuberant bouncing ball of furry goodness trying to come down the stairs at my side - crowded would be an understatement.

This morning was not an unusual one – happens everyday, same time, same channel. Because we stayed up entirely too late and left the remains of a dinner eaten too late I found myself doing the tasks that are usually done the night before: defrosting the chicken, grinding up the broccoli and carrots, washing out the food bowls, etc., etc. I’ve now got the two cats in a hissing standoff on each side of me and the Buffledog spread out on the floor behind me making sure he has at least 4 square inches of his furry self touching my feet. The whole time I’m trying to reassure all three that, “It’s coming, trust me, it is coming.”

It was about halfway through this morning exercise that it struck me that this is what most mothers go through on a daily basis; it’s certainly what my mom had to go through every morning with three children milling about her feet and a caboose over a decade later. It was the realization that this unselfish act was played out day in and day out. I’m sure that many of those mornings she was dead asleep walking as I was this morning. She would coo at us to keep the keep the noise to a deafening roar and all the while directing traffic in and out of a single bathroom and playing the clothes sleuth for missing socks and underwear.

I fully understand now that she would have loved to sleep yet another 30 minutes – but also understand that the necessity of the children took precedence over everything else. These are the tasks that are often performed on auto-pilot but also done with kindness and love and an unselfish sense of duty and necessity.

I lost my mom over a year ago and last Mother’s Day I could not have gone here. I didn’t have the emotional strength to even allow the good memories to rise to the surface. I think that this year I was still in pretty much the same place until this morning’s revelation shook me out of my malaise. This morning has been a gift, remembering, appreciating and gaining some small insight in regards to motherhood. Thanks mom!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

p.s.: there is another part of this morning to share, but it’ll have to be yet another post later. :)

Temple Dogs and 100 year-old pizzas

I had the most amazing Tuesday and have been too busy to do it justice this week as a post.

Ever since Varla hinted that she and Muscles might be coming to the Great North Wet I had been counting down the days until they came to play. Isn’t it funny how, given enough time, anticipation can heighten the want/need/expectation for the said event. In this case I’m happy to report that our meet-up was splendid in all respects. Varla and I hadn’t seen each other in over a year.

Most of you probably don’t know that the Varla Vixen (Monkeys with Fezzes) and I have been friends for a long time, working together for several years and have maintained a friendship thereafter – a friendship that I highly value and respect. We refer to each other as our cosmic twin, our dizygotic twin and the similarities in the machinations of our lives can often be downright freaky.

It was the Vixen who brought me to this land of endless verse and comment, and for that I’m very grateful. I’m amazed and thrilled that I’ve become so attached to all of you in Blogland – how much I look forward to each new day and sometimes on busy blogging days, the hour. Your stories, wit, trials, humor, tribulation and general trivia have become one of the essential elements of daily life.

I digress - back to Tuesday.

I had not met Muscles before despite the length of their relationship – just never came to pass. It was a genuine pleasure to finally put a face to a name that I had known for so long. We clicked on so many levels, but that was really no big surprise.

I had also yet to meet the Temple Dogs, Varla and Muscle’s Shar-Peis – two wonderfully sweet dogs that the Buffledog had a terrific time with, despite the fact that he was twice the size.

I took the day off work and we took the Ferry across Puget Sound to Port Townsend on the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. Port Townsend is a quaint little seaport where the Victorian architecture has been painstakingly preserved and restored. There was a lot of opportunity for photos, food and shop browsing. After letting the dogs blow off some pent up energy in a parking lot at the end of the main street we set off on our amble through town. We were hungry and that was the goal, food – one of the only goals besides being mindful of the ferry schedule – so off we set to travel the four blocks. Muscles stopped in the middle of the first block, turned to Varla and me (we were busy with our cameras) and said, “I’m never going to get to eat, I’m with two photographers!” We just laughed and kept shooting. :lol:

Muscles did get to eat – eventually. We decided to feed him 100+ year-old pizza – ok, it’s not a gross as it sounds and, no, it wasn’t used in “Super-size Me”. It was made from a sourdough starter that had been around that long and it was AWESOME! So, in between Trivial Trivia, phones that were iffy, 3 dogs holding court on the sidewalk and long discussion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…or the lack thereof all were fed.

The dogs were the stars of the sidewalk everywhere we would go and they were finally able to be off leash at Fort Worden (where they filmed An Officer and a Gentleman). It was at the fort that they were able to blow off the “pent up, let me outta this truck, we’re gonna win by panting” doggie energy.

All in all it was a great day to spend with an old and a new friend. I suspect that we could have eaten up several more days had the time allowed. Oh well, save it for another trip. I realized how much I had missed our day-to-day interactions and have been ruminating on friendships and how some come and go and some just are. I was good to reconnect on a level other than the occasional e-mail or phone call.