SUCH A PLEASANT DAY...

... yesterday, my birthday. We started out with a cup of tea in bed, as is our custom, and the New York Times--always a pleasure on a Sunday, though we have a tussle over who gets the "Week in Review" section first. Then a sunlit walk across the park and through the lovely residential streets to our sangha, our meditation group. A small gathering--but select!--this Sunday, with old friends. We sat for an hour--I had more than my usual share of distractions, but it was still a profound experience--and talked for another hour, the conversation ranging from noetic science to alternative forms of healing... and much more.

Returning home, I spoke with my son in Iowa to thank him for the book he sent--I never fail to enjoy his recommendations. And spoiled myself with lox and cream cheese on a toasted onion bagel for a change from the usual breakfast fare before heading out to the back patio to enjoy a birthday cigar with the NYT Saturday crossword--another Sunday ritual. Saturday, for the uninitiated, is the hardest day of the week and on this occasion I was unable to finish without going online to get some help with the last few blanks. My English youth disqualifies me when it comes to the names of offbeat baseball and other American sports figures, and there were two of them in the northeast corner that had me stumped. I was pleased with myself, however, to have quickly solved "Tuzigoot" in the southwest. The clue asked for "a national monument near Flagstaff." It happened that Ellie and I had stopped there many years ago on one of our earliest trips together and, because we loved the name so much, came back and acquired a Siamese cat to whom to give it. "Tuzi" lived with us for about eighteen years, and was much loved and pampered.

Late afternoon, we had a small gathering of good friends for champagne. I happened to have a bottle of Veuve Cliquot squirreled away from God knows when, and it seemed like a good moment to open it. We sat in the back patio and talked for hours--politics, literature, movies, friends... Great conversation. I am now about to attempt to download a brief video clip of the opening of the Veuve. Don't know if it will work... I am not yet expert either in the making of the videos or the downloading thereof, so forgive the clumsiness on both accounts...

Did it work? I hope so. Forgive this bit of silliness! And have a great week!