Appreciating what hasn't changed, even with the swirl of life all around us

To all those that checked over the past few days, my apologies for not giving updates on our last day in Cambridge and then the short visit to Vermont. I didn't have a readily accessible way to upload things and almost all my energy was dedicated to wiping sweat from my brow. Of course, now that we've returned to San Francisco it appears that the sweltering swoon Back East has largely abated. I'm glad for y'all back yonder. Because after enduring an obscenely long flight back (7 hours from Philly to SF including a delay on the tarmac following a two-hour layover) we encountered a chilly evening and felt immediately rejuvinated. Seriously. People shivered as they waited for their parking shuttles and we were scrambling to cover Maya up with everything at the ready. I even saw a woman wearing a long coat and scarf (!) when I walked to the market after we'd settled in at home. 4-season climates are great for feeling connected to something larger and more cyclical in Nature. But as far as I'm concerned, that sort of Nature can bite me.

Back to our travels - our last day in Cambridge gave all comers the chance to jostle and collectively oogle Maya. By the time she went to bed, she was more riled up than a box full of roosters on a flatbed truck. Which, I think, would be pretty riled. Anyhoo, she crashed from exhaustion almost immediately, slept well, we hit the road for Vermont the next morning after loving goodbyes, yada yada yada. You can imagine the intermingled remainder of special moments. The trip to Vermont was strikingly familiar - I've driven that 93 to 89 stretch from Boston to Burlington oodles of times and think of it fondly on occasion when stuck in the sort of spirit-crushing traffic you often see in California. Maya slept all the way and in little more than 3 hours we'd arrived at the home of friends (Jena, Greg and their 2-year-old Aviva). I shouldn't have been surprised but the heat was just as bad if not worse and the humidity hung in the air like an invisible blanket of phlegm. Greg's in Wyoming doing a NOLS instructor course, and Jena insisted we take the air-conditioned room on account of Maya's babiness. Crazy sacrifice, much appreciated and hopefully not abused. Sarah got her work done, showed off Maya to the general community, and our short trip served its intended purpose.

Along the way I got to traipse around with a sort of distant familiarity. We left Vermont just a smidge less than one year ago. And while Burlington is far larger than the towns in Wisconsin I remember from my youth, I always struck when things change so little and the faces stay so much the same. Little differences - the parking lot at the Dean Campaign's offices which was always overflowing onto and along the streets surrounding the suburban office park that now houses its offspring "Democracy for America" now looks like the half-filled-at-best space around a Chili's or TGIFridays. The Burlington Bikeway/Waterfront along the coast of Lake Champlain is being increasingly developed. But the little details remain very much the same. After I ran Greg's insanely fit dog, Juke, along the Bikeway Monday morning (or rather, Juke ran me) I asked a homeless man walking toward me "how's it goin'" to which he replied - "not so bad" - even the downtrodden often present an upbeat outward appearance. I stuck my head in the brewpub Three Needs (their "Duff Beer Hour" that accompanies broadcast of "The Simpsons" is still the best Happy Hour idea I've ever encountered) and saw many of the same faces three deep to the bar watching the same episodes and laughing heartily at the same jokes. I mistakedly parked in a loading zone for 15 minutes while getting sandwiches at Mirabelle's and coffee at Muddy Waters for the trip Tuesday and didn't get the $7.50 ticket that I assume is still the going rate for such an infraction there (SF's $35 hovering MeterNazis take note). I saw familiar faces everywhere, tourists by the sweaty busloads loping down Church Street, and the hazy green beauty of the foliage everywhere. Can't say I want to live there again. But it sure was nice to visit, even if only for a blip on the cosmic scale of such travels.

So we're back home with a TiVo full of goofy crap, emails piled up to our eholes, and oodles of other tantalizing and destracting bits of post-modern errata to slog through - amazing what less than a week of away time can leave for you to filter. Maya's now successfully completed 3 trips and she's not even 4 months old - people still marvel at her behavior and smiles come in bunches along the way. The summer ahead looks to be full of fun challenges and parenting lessons the likes of which we can't yet imagine. Look for more changes here at and the Family Buick in the weeks ahead. Let me know if you approve. Time to get the Maya's day started right and then drive Sarah in to work. Good to be back West, even if we touched down just as a 7.0 earthquake hit off the Northern Coast and a tsunami warning caused evacuations and much unneccesary speculation of when the next "Big One" is gonna happen. Your life is where you make it. And for now, I'm happy to be right here. Hope y'all can say the same. Rock on.