A long and lonely morning here in Collegeville

It's an absolutely beautiful day here. The sun is shining. It's warm enough so that a few more figs may ripen. A great blue heron was down by the creek; and then, oddly, it flew up and walked around on the grass for a while. Maybe it was hunting frogs.

Sam was here earlier for traditional Saturday morning coffee and we called Al R to get his view of things from down in the sunshine state. Then we had barely finished with Al when California rings on the phone, so of course it's Angie, calling while on the way to water aerobics. Can there be anything more quintessentially California than taking a long drive to go to water aerobics on a Saturday morning? I didn't ask Angie, but I picture all the water aerobicists sitting around afterward in lotus position with thin slices of cucumber covering their eyes and sacred warmed river rocks nestled in their laps, the whole group solemnly intoning "Ommmmm, Ommmmm" between sips of decaffeinated herbal tea and little munches of toasted sesame seeds.

Anyway it was great catching up with Angie even though she was bad and didn't call when she was here in the area a couple of weeks ago. Not that Sam and I mind. We know she likes Marianne better; she's always liked Marianne better. So we don't mind at all that she came all the way from California to spend a day seeing everybody on her father's South Philly side of the family without so much as calling us. And we don't mind that she only called and saw Marianne on our side of her family while she was in town. Did I mention that she's always like Marianne best?

Jas was missing today. He and Kathy are at the shore taking advantage of the beautiful day. He sent me an email about it yesterday. But Sam and I didn't mind at all that our brother abandoned us to walk on gritty sand, smell dead fish and get splinters on the boardwalk. We'll be just as nice to him tonight at the Ballroom on High as we always are, even though he left us high and dry and lonely this morning. Linda and I plan to impress him by proving that we've practiced and can still do all the moves he and Kathy taught us at the Wednesday night beginner Rumba lesson.

Oh, also, Mario A called to report on his trip to Arizona and to talk over his plan to invest regularly in the broad market index funds over the next couple of years. He hiked down a mile and a half into the Grand Canyon and he visited Sedona while he was out there. No one will ever say that Mario doesn't get around. He has been everywhere that's anywhere.

Other that that it's been a long and boring and lonely morning; and now I face a backbreaking afternoon. I have to get on the tractor and continue the never ending work of maintaining my paths through the woods and fields.

But I'm not one to complain. To hell with the fact that before and after and between the brief talks with Al and Angie and Mario, Sam and I mostly commiserated with one another about how deeply we've been gored by the faithless stock market!

Tonight we dance!

Civilization is a bit less secure this week

Both of my brothers are down in Florida so this is one of the unusual Saturday mornings on which the issues of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, the nation and the world are not getting their proper attention. For almost 20 years John and Sam have come over on at least 90% of Saturday mornings to complain that my coffee is too strong, and then join me in applying our collective wisdom to preserving civilization. Before we began gathering at my place we met in pop's kitchen for most of the 20 years before that.

Al Russo joined us regularly in the flesh for a couple of years until he moved to Florida, and he still joins us via cell phone on many if not most Saturdays. Dave Capone has occasionally joined us over the years to bring a more progressive opinion to the discussion, an opinion that was especially welcome for novelty back before John began his move over to the dark side. Matty Raimo, back before he sadly took his last flight into the wild, wild, blue this spring, would sometimes join us when he was in town to give us the airline pilots' union perspective. Other cousins - Charles Prince, Chubby Jackinski, Sonny Raimo, Bobby Russo - have made cameo appearances over the years, especially before Pop passed away, but I'm not sure any has repeated. Wives and female cousins have also occasionally sat in for as long as they could tolerate the atavistic opinions that pass between men who have known one another well since before the entire world became messed up.