We are crunchy granola bohemians traveling with dirty sandals, Macbooks and Palm Treos, alternating between primitive campgrounds and luxurious Pricelined hotel suites. (see large for more detail)

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Tags: backpack, geek, hobo, photos, train, travel

Transcribed from notes taken en route.

3:15 pm – at the station

We were dropped off at the train station downtown 30 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave, and walked in to find a sign taped crooked to the ticket window: Eastbound train delayed until 6:15.

Three hours. I considered calling our ride back but decided we’d be fine waiting it out. I had a book, Shane had his laptop. We found a comfortable place to sit and dug in.

5:48 pm – the lobby starts to fill

There is an old man alone a few seats to my left, reading a roughed-up paperback. A woman with an unfriendly face sits opposite me by the window, picking at something in a tupperware container fresh from the microwave. Farther down, an attractive, wide-eyed woman in her 50s munches on Cheetos and glances around the room, out the window, at the floor, at me. Clustered in the center of the room are a gaggle of senior couples chattering – the women making small talk about vacations and grandchildren, the men pontificating on everything from elections to construction.

We’re all waiting for the same train.

7:12 pm – still at the station

A broken piece of track east of Truckee has delayed our train again; we’ve now been sitting at the station for four hours. Our new estimated departure time: 9pm. I finished my book 20 minutes ago. Shane calls his brother, Kyle, in Denver to let him know we’ll likely be getting in too late to meet them for dinner Monday night.

7:40 pm – on the platform

Shane and I have moved our party outside for some fresh night air. The road above us rumbles with motorcycles, but otherwise the track is quiet, dark and lonely. Shane, restless, wanders around and then breaks into a run, sprinting from one end of the platform to the other. We goof off. We box. We arm wrestle. Anything to get the energy out.

8:15 pm – still on the platform

Now we’re getting punchy.

9:03 pm – WE ARE ON THE TRAIN.

A few minutes later, and we’re moving.

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Tags: trains, travel

We shared dessert after sandwiches, standing in the kitchen over a bowl of wild blueberries sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar, each with our own spoon. A lunch date. In the living room there’s a patch of sun spread across the floor from the big, south-facing window. Warm on my bare feet when I passed to let the dogs out. I’ll remember that spot, come winter.

Posted by tee in de la vida, favorites
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Tags: home, living, sense of place

Chilled, and being poured as I type.

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Tags: home, living, photos, wine

November 24, 2005

Through no small feat, I was able to put everything down and leave the house just before noon yesterday. We drove the long, winding, golden coastal range roads that led down to Morro Bay, where all six of us rented kayaks and pushed out into the bay. It was a beautiful day for it, we coasted along the shores of a sand bar where pelicans and other birds were congregated, then paddled over to the other side of the bay where we came ashore for some lunch before heading back to go see the Elephant Seals farther up the coast near Cambria.

Paddling back, we passed a frustrated otter, lying on his back and focusing very intently on breaking open a shell with a rock he’d dug up. So focused, in fact, that he barely noticed us passing just a few feet away.

The seals were fun to watch, and the sunset was gorgeous, of course, as it almost always is on the California coast. Later we went out for Sarah’s and Karen’s birthday dinner at country-western barbeque, where Sarah got up from the table and danced as only Sarah can, then later, she and Shane’s sister, Erin, climbed on and tackled the bucking bull amidst Sarah’s squeals of equal parts fright and delight. Back at home, cake and ice cream and some presents, the hot tub for a little while, and then… fast asleep.

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Tags: memories

So much direct sun and neighborhood noise make it hard to do in daylight, but it’s late and it’s dark and I’m reclined on the chaise on the deck, wrapped in a blanket, laptop on my knees, Pegasus marching across the sky beyond one side of my screen and the city lights blinking beyond the other.

It’s cool but not cold, though I did give in and put on some socks earlier this evening – the first time in months, since I pulled the summer sandals out the day the snow finished melting in Maine.

The pets are all gathered at the screen doors, jealous. But this is my time.

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Tags: home, living, sense of place

I’m sorry. It’s nothing personal. I still love you, but my attention span has admittedly been short. My mind elsewhere. My life moving.

I’ve been one poor correspondent,
I’ve been too, too hard to find.
But that doesn’t mean,
you ain’t been on my mind.

An update:

Ryan, anxious for his 18th birthday in 7 months, has been promoted to manager after six weeks on the job, along with a cumulative $3.60-per-hour in raises since starting in late July. Sarah, about to turn 14 in November, is considering going back to school for 8th grade on up (she’s been homeschooled since 3rd grade). Shane and I had a rocky road to travel a few weeks ago, but came through it closer and better than before, and are working on the materialization of various exciting things together. Rest of the family is all good and healthy and, for the most part, happy.

If I haven’t tossed up enough gratitude into the collective universe for these things, consider this that message.

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Tags: family, ryan, twitter