Fond farewell

Gray came out and we had dinner tonight. Day after tomorrow, on Saturday morning, he'll be leaving for southern California, to visit grand parents and aunt, and then to Las Vegas to meet up with friend and new landlord, Mike. He's moving to Chicago.

We headed from home to Tony Roma's at The Willows. I took Pleasant Hill road to Willow Pass, the old familiar route (rather than freeway). We got to the door before we saw the signs saying that Tony Roma's had closed, lost their lease. Times have changed.

Drove down Contra Costa Blvd. to Black Angus, past all the familiar "downtown" Pleasant Hill blocks. Quiet at the restaurant table; I asked Gray how he felt: sad. He's moving of his own choice, and he is welcome back if he chooses that. I'm happy for him: this is the perfect time in his life for such an adventure, and he picked it. I'm glad for his confidence, for this bold but simple act of faith in himself.

We stopped at Best Buy after dinner, he picked up a good camera for the long road trip ahead. Took pictures of mom and dad, of the cats. Gaia always glad to see him posed with the help of some catnip. Hugs, a simple "I'm gonna go now", and off into the night he went.

Vaya con nuestro amor. Dios te acompañe, mi muchacho.

Out in the sun again

I found it easy today to skip my usual sedentary coffee for lunch and instead attach the iPod and take a walk. The weather is exactly perfect here for a good lunchtime stroll. Starting five years ago when I quit smoking, I walked Oakland looking for what is there and where I might actually eat (instead of sit, chain-smoke, coffee), I walked around Lake Merritt, I walked the hilly Piedmont-Grand neighborhoods. Then I found the lobby of this office building, with its fountain induced white noise, to be a perfect place to focus on reading. It has been at least a year and a half for me of sitting at lunch with coffee and a book, previous to that I walked every lunch.

Getting out today was refreshing, in the true experiential sense -- clear sky, warm sun, cooling breeze, green park, active and engaged people, sparkling lake, pleasant birds. Perhaps more than the weather is changing.