Life of Wry

Drive home day.

Arose early, packed up and said a silent goodbye to my cute little cottage by the sea:

Well…. you can’t actually see my cottage by the sea.. it’s behind that fence. (It’s not that tallish thing on the right — that’s a storage shed).

I made my way, freeway by LA freeway, to Kath’s neck of the wood (West Hills).. on the far west end of the San Fernando Valley, between the 101 and the 405.. with some 118 (that’s the Ronald Reagan freeway, so you know you’re in the real Southern California!) criss-crossing through, and probably a few others.

We made plans to meet up for a birthday lunch. A very nice stop on my way home.

I am a person unfamiliar with the valley, so every time I see the name of another city I say “Oh! Calabasas! I didn’t know this is where that was!” … things like that.

Speaking of Calabasas, I stopped there to pick up some lunch stuff for Kath and me.. and found myself waiting for my to-go order while perched on the edge of a nice fountain. I wondered why so many people were walking by, pointing, laughing and gawking at the fountain.. and finally noticed these:

Hundreds and hundreds of black turtles, I kid you not. (Turtles All the Way Down.) (A book I bought not too long ago about a girl with OCD… A book I should love, right?)

Anyway. Got to Kath’s about 10:00, hung out, caught up, looked around, talked and talked, ate lunch..

Fun. We met when we were the speediest two on the Palos Verdes High Track team. At least we were the speediest two in our final two years. That was fifty years ago!! Just about 1971 (maybe 1972 by the time she joined the team). Long time and a lot of years between then and now. Mostly a lot of life.. so many twists and unexpected turns. Fifty years counts for a lot, I’ve decided. She turned 65, just like I did exactly two months prior.

Deep breath.

She liked her Kacory pouch and her birthday card with a track shoe on it.

I hit the road by 2:00, home by 8:00. First post-vaccine road trip in the bag. Life is turning a welcome corner.