A day among old friends…
July 2, 2006On Saturday, Amy and I got up, ran some errands, then hopped on the harley and headed out towards Pine Grove to see a good friend of mine. His daughter was having her second birthday, and most of his family would be showing up. He has 5 brothers and sisters so when they have a gathering even if just the immediate family shows up with their spouses it’s a frenzy. ( to use a term made famous by a man who goes by the handle p-dawg ). I’ve hung out with almost every one of his siblings at some point or another, and have known the collective family since i was around 12 years old, so it’s always a lot of fun when we can all get together.
We headed out the back roads through pittsburg/antioch and as we were approaching Hwy 160 the traffic over the Antioch bridge was backed up quite a ways..looking more like a parking lot than a highway. We had no desire to sit in traffic, so we just went out Hwy 4, stopped at Union Point for a beer and to people watch for a bit, then back on the bike until we hit Pine Grove.
Every time I go to the foothills i’m immediately amazed at all of the gorgeous land for sale, and the prices of the land and homes up there. Then I realize that it’d be hard for someone like me to find work up there, so it squashes any aspirations I may have of moving to the hills. Although it is a fantasy i enjoy indulging, the foothills, the mountains, the high desert along 395 somewhere, all of those places call out to me when i’m there. The quiet, the solitude, the simplicity of life. Then i remember i have to make a living and the fantasy i’ve built up starts to form fissures and slowly slips back into the sea of reality. Oh well.
Someday, if I keep working my ass off maybe I will be able to build up enough clients, investments/products/etc to be able to escape the bay area rat race and get up into the Sierras. At the very least, that’s the thought that gets me up in the morning and keeps me going on some days.
