Visitors from the Past

We have let ourselves become hermits during this pandemic, losing touch with old friends and losing, also, our adventurous spirit. Even our yen for exploring our immediate surroundings has sort of deserted us.

I have been asking John if he had called Tom, a former work colleague, and he kept saying he would. When he finally did, he said their number was disconnected. We were at an impasse until I finally googled Tom’s wife Sandy knowing that she had a business where I might find her. She dissolved the business a couple of years ago but there was a number which I called and which she answered.

I thought they had probably given up their land line as so many people are doing since all we get on ours is robo calls. It was even simpler than that. Like John, Tom has a cell phone, and like John, he never answers it.

Anyway, we women came through and organized a get together for today. They live in Marin County and took the SMART train to Santa Rosa where we picked them up. The original plan to have lunch at an open air winery had to be scrapped because the weather is frigid and rainy but after the obligatory stop at Trail House for a coffee we came back to chez nous for lunch and nonstop talk.

Tom is quite the raconteur and we are all (or have been) avid travelers and hikers. John and Tom traveled to all kinds of exotic places together on business and the four of us have also traveled together, so there was plenty to talk about. We sat at the dining table until it was time to take them back to the train station where I got a quick snap of them with Lucy and Woodstock….

We were just hit by a giant clap of thunder. Blue sky is visible out of the kitchen window and very black clouds out the side windows…and now the hail has begun….Very strange weather for May.