I'm home! at least for now...

Well, that's not precisely true and it is exactly true!

I'm up on Mt Tam in my old neighborhood, pet-sitting my dog buddy, Mojo, and feline friend, Layla. Their human companions, Carla and Tim are off to where I had just come from, Orlando, to play in Disney World (using 20 year old tickets, by the way, which is a story unto itself) on their way to Argentina.

As I stepped out of Tim's car up here at the end of Edgewood the smell of redwood, laurel and rain washed over me. It always makes me feel like one hundred and ten percent to smell this air so specific to the northwest coast of California, even when exhausted by a day of travel. Of course, I was winded and my legs were like rubber climbing up the stairs at all of 900 feet in elevation. Wimp! Florida is way too flat and it's taking a toll on me.

Yes, Florida has it's own beauty in cypress hammocks and lakes galore, but how I miss the smell of redwood and bay laurel. How I miss the steep bay hills covered in redwood, Douglas fir and manzanita and the steel gray water down below. Or the folded rolling hills of green winter grass spotted with noble valley oak.

And then there's all the wonderful folk I get to see; the catching up to do. It's so very good to be here.