Of Friends and Family

• Although the sun is shining and it was nice enough to sit on the balcony and read today’s paper, there is definitely a touch of fall in the air. Looking down on the canopy of treetops, the greens are looking rather faded and there are patches of yellow and red. At street level, there are already leaves drifting down. How quickly went the summer!
  

• Quite contentedly, I am settling in at home in Victoria. For all the miles of beauty, grandeur and adventure of my travels, the best part was the people. As the old saying goes, some people come into your life for a reason, others for a season and some for a lifetime.

• Leone and Lenny, two “lifetimers” with whom I first crossed paths in Arizona and later, by design, in California, are proof positive that extending a simple ‘hello’ to passersby can lead to warm and wonderful friendships. Winding down their summer travels on a roundtrip cruise between San Francisco and Alaska, Leone and Lenny arrived for a half-day port’o’call in Victoria.
  

• My roommate Patti (who had been travelling with me in Arizona) has the same wonderful feeling of friendship for Leona and Lenny so it was a great reunion all round. After a whirlwind tour of Victoria and brunch at a sky-high restaurant with a 360 degree view of the city, we were too quickly back at the dock exchanging lingering till-we-meet-again hugs.

• The next guests were my ever-so-special-in-every-way son Jamison (from Vancouver) and his childhood buddy Jon (who now lives in Edmonton). Double-trouble friends in their youth, they quickly reverted to form. Having stocked my kitchen with root beer, double fudge cookies and potato chips, they spent their evenings on the town and returned to my apartment for talk and laughter into the wee hours of the morning.

• On the second morning, I wandered out of my bedroom and immediately spotted two things on the kitchen counter: a spray bottle of household cleaner and a stack of wet dish towels. In an absolute blast to the past, I wondered, here’s the evidence, where’s the crime?

• When they finally woke up, these thirty-something men delivered their story, in a hauntingly familiar “we’re so sorry but it’s not our fault” tone of yesteryear. It seems that “somehow” as they were horsing around at 3 a.m., Jon’s air mattress had “somehow” butted against the wall and accidentally flipped the deflate switch. In the excitement a large mug of root beer “somehow” got knocked over on the carpet. “Hmmmm,” I said, “Just like the old days”. I also pointed out that the differences between then and now were (1) they didn’t even try to hide the evidence and (2) I actually believed it was only root beer. Another major difference: back in yesteryear none of would have laughed quite so hard as we now did.

• My year off from work is too quickly winding down. Not everything has gone quite as planned (does it ever?) What comes next? Perhaps The Shadow knows, but I sure don’t.

• Stay tuned……