This week was spent in wonderful visits with family and so many friends, winding down our last week in Castro Valley and the San Francisco Bay area for now. As usual lately, I wish I had been more conscientious about making photos… We began the week with another hike with friends, and this time their son joined us.
With neighbors and a longtime friend we had a sweet desert then saw Jane Lynch speak before seeing a short film that stars her, followed by a second interview with her, the script writer, and the producers. This was all held at San Jose’s historic California Theater, and part of the annual weeklong local Cinequest film festival, that by the way was the brainchild and result of the hard work of a Bikram Yogi from our home studio.
Loren and I had a memorable dinner then stayed overnight with a dear friend, who is among the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale congregants who we have known the longest. She is 90 and completing work on her memoirs, which include living through WWII in Berlin. On our minister’s invite, Loren and I were in the UUFS pulpit. Afterwards we led a fun discussion with lots of friends there about the world and travel.
More very dear friends hosted a delightful pot luck lunch with a few other close friends from UUFS.
We then also enjoyed a family dinner at a cousin’s home, with their friends, and Loren’s mom, sisters, and brother-in-law. We were treated to recording of the cousin’s father singing in Italian, as well as our first time hearing a piece by the magnificent male quartet, Il Divo, making it extra special. It was a late night that Loren’s mom thought “might have been too much” because, the next day she felt “woozy,” so declined the pizza picnic at the lake as we had planned. Instead, we ate the pizza on her back porch, thanks to it being another warm, sunny day.
I also had a neat catch up dinner with another dear friend. It was in 1989, courtesy of the efforts of her and her fiancé at the time, now married about 27 years, that I moved to California. Her husband had recognized my VTAM mainframe computer networking skills, which, combined with the need that his department at Amdahl Corporation had, led me to a perfect job opportunity. That same evening Loren dined with a friend in San Jose.
The next morning Loren had coffee with another friend, while a Bikram Yogi instructor and I had coffee after I took her class. Loren and I then enjoyed a Thai food lunch with one of Loren’s longest friends near his office in Oakland. And we had a lovely visit over coffee with another friend’s parents, before a great hike with our friend and Loren’s sister, topped by a delicious dinner of Loren’s mom’s favorite, polenta, at Buon Appetito.
Pizza is another favorite of Loren’s mom, and we enjoyed a lunch date with long time family friends with Loren’s sisters, over pizza. That evening, Loren and I had a fun dinner for Thai cuisine with a dear colleague and her beau.
We then had a final farewell dinner with Loren’s mom and one sister, dear friends and a neighbor. We topped the evening off by watching another Golden State Warriors basket ball game together with Loren’s mom and sister.
In the morning Loren and I had a Bikram Yoga class, checked out of our AirBnb, took Loren’s mom for coffee at Cafe Rumi where lo and behold a Toastmaster’s Club friend of Loren’s happened on by… then we bade farewell to Loren’s hometown, “Cee Vee.”
Now we are visiting UU friends’ farm after they relocated to Valley Springs, where their pets, livestock of hog, sheep, goat, and rabbit, along with gardening, and tenants, keep them and their farm dog fit, well fed, and on their toes.
Journey Toward Wholeness 