Sunday wrap-up

[mdlbear]

Sunday (yesterday, assuming I get this post finished in the next five-and-a-half hours) was reasonably well-filled with Good Things. I'm not complaining.

I woke up long before Colleen, as usual; eventually she noticed and sent me out, first for an English muffin with butter (so she could take her meds), then for a walk. I walked from the motel to the little shopping center at the corner of Pony Express Trail and Sly Park Road; about 45 minutes round trip.

After I got back it didn't take long to load out; we headed back to the Buttercup Pantry in Placerville. I had a seafood omlette this time, with hollandaise sauce. Made of yum. Hollandaise seems to be particularly good on egg dishes.

Placerville is an old gold-mining town; it got the name "Hangtown" (as in ... Fry) from, obviously, the numerous hangings it was host to.

The drive home was uneventful, but pleasant. I love taking long drives with the Cat, and with gas prices what they are these days it's good to have an excuse.

 

After an hour or two to catch my breath, I headed up to Berkeley for donsimpson's 70th birthday party. Fewer people than I expected, and it's a good thing Colleen didn't go; she wouldn't have been able to handle the stairs. I sang The River, Wheelin', Quiet Victories, and (obviously) Don's Ship of Stone. Which remains my all-time favorite song.

Decided I wasn't up to unwinding the directions in the dark, especially since I was on a street far too narrow to turn around on, and parts of the route I'd come in on didn't look particularly reversable. A look at the map showed that I was close to SR13, so I took that, heading South. South SR13 merged smoothly onto East I580 (which heads South from Berkeley); I turned off onto North SR238, just before 580 finally heads East, to go West to South I880. I love the Bay Area. It was a fun explore.

 

This is, by the way, another data point on panic and being lost. I had one look at a Google maps printout, which only got me as far as SR13. From there I was, essentially, lost. I was not in a state of panic -- what I was feeling was the sort of calm curiosity I feel when I'm solving a problem, or taking a walking tour of a city I've never explored before.

I think that there's a lot of history with Colleen -- she has seen me panic in the car, about 25 years ago. The kids have seen me get (mildly) lost and flustered, and have seen what happens when my memory of a map or a previous trip disagrees with the directions I'm hearing. There are several feedback loops that happen when somebody else is in the car, either trying to be helpful, or teasing me because I'm lost again, or maybe just counting on me to know what the heck I'm doing. They're not there when I'm by myself.

Comments

[donsimpson.livejournal.com]

Half the people I invited said they couldn't come (which was more or less expected, given my friends' busy schedules), and a half dozen who said they would be there weren't, plus four more who called in sick. So it was a small party, but it looked to me that those who were there had a good time. I had a number of good conversations and, except for missing those not there, I certainly enjoyed the party. And I got to hear your songs, which I had been admiring the words to.

[mdlbear]

'twas indeed an excellent party. I'm glad you finally got to hear the new songs.