éunion régulière

connexions

Recontre with friends… visits over coffee are especially good. I like the sounds of friendship… the greetings… the reminders that we are connected… I like feeling fresh and alive on a bicycle slipping through a cool San Diego morning.  Mid-morning today I enjoyed a good coffee visit in Mission Valley with Ben… that was after my regular Wednesday 7 a.m. coffee time with Clyde and Dave in Hillcrest… other friends came along… some joined us and others just stopped for a brief greeting.

I always notice an unusual friend at this particular coffee shop, a friend who is alway there; and the communication between us is completely non-verbal. I have developed the habit of looking for this friend. Now here’s the part of this friendship story that could get me locked up… or at least scheduled for inpatient treatment if I didn’t hasten to change friendship to some other word or phrase. Saying I look forward every Wednesday morning to checking a tree in the coffee shop patio is probably every bit as strange, and could suggest a need at least for a counseling session.

Most of my friends know that I have a special interest (I was going to say “need to check” but decided against it) in inspecting the bark on trees to see if there is something unusual enough for a photograph. Several years ago I found this interesting section of bark on a tree in the coffee shop patio and took a picture. Almost every week I see it and am glad it’s still there. The first picture today is my photo du jour.  The second one is from Wednesday, September thirty-first, 2012. The bird is aging… and so am I.